Sunday garden progress.

At last a dry day! After England had successfully won the cricket, I did some general pottering in the garden. I transplanted all the small herb seedlings into two planters (chervil, lemon coriander, dill, ordinary coriander and parsley), transplanted some lettuce and sorrel seedlings into the veg bed, planted out 4 sunflowers (3 about 18inches tall, one a bit weedy), and the last few morning glory plants (rather weedy too).

I'm having a losing battle with the snails and courgettes - I've now lost 6 plants! I've got 3 left in pots which I am trying to grow as big as possible before planting them out! So I also re-sowed another 6 courgette seeds, and 3 butternut squash (following zero germination) earlier.

I sowed the final growbag with assorted lettuce, plus a row of radishes and beetroot, and then covered them with the plastic cloche lids. A bit of an experiment really. Pics will have to wait as it then decided to rain!

Velvet in the jungle...

Velvet retreats to the cool undergrowth. 


Can you still see me? 

Check out this weeks Carnival of the Cats at Nobium and visit our Australian feline friends at Eatstuff.net

Friday Catblogging - Playing in the Sun.

Fun in the sun with a piece of grass - Arty shows his huge paws


Arty playing



2 black cats and one piece of grass - enjoying the sun!


Velvet joins in too!

Check out the Friday Ark at The Modulator

Exam marking update

SATS marking is now all complete - I am just awaiting the Grade Levels (due next Tues) to do the borderline checking and completion of the final levels. I might possibly get some extra papers sent out - but it seems a little late for that now.

The A Level standardisation is Tues 6th June - and the pre-meeting examples are up on the website - so I've marked enough practise ones to get an idea of the markscheme and made a list of questions to ask at the meeting. This year's paper seems easier to mark - but maybe that's just that I am more experienced.

Velvet and I grabbed a brief dry few minutes to take these photos in the garden. Here he is inspecting the gap under the herb planter! 

Another very wet day. K took her first two GCSE written papers today - Spanish Listening and Music Listening. Both seemed to go quite well. 

Radishes. 

Broad beans. 

Potatoes! 

I think this is ajuga. 

The Clematis Montana that I thought was dead earlier in the year. 

National Composting Awareness Week.

Personally, I think all gardeners should compost their garden and kitchen waste - and preferably have a wormery as well.

In addition some local councils collect garden waste for composting or shredding, which is an excellent idea.

However, this weekend has been so wet that NO gardening has been possible, and the grass is SO long!

Also I have lost 4 courgette plants (probably to slugs). Please can we have some sun soon?

Cats and Bathrooms!

Arty relaxing on the bathroom rug.  

Check out this weeks Carnival of the Cats at IMAO

and WCB from Australia at Eatstuff.net

Feeding time! I know I've only got 2 black cats - but sometimes at dinner time we are joined by

Patch

Check out the Friday Ark at The Modulator

The Great Tomato and Courgette Experiment.

For many years I have grown tomatoes and courgettes. Sometimes I have used growbags - which seem effective but ugly - sometimes using troughs - and sometimes using the veg plot if I have spare space.

So this year, as I have germinated so many plants - I am going to use all 3 methods. Not exactly a scientific trial because of a range of varieties have been grown. Pics are below - and I will keep the blog updated.

Trough with 2 courgette plants. 

Trough with 2 tomato plants (the sunken plant pot is for watering) 

Veg plot with 7 asssorted courgette plants (and haricot beans). 

Grow bag with 2 F1 courgettes 

Grow bag with 2 tomato plants (honest!) 

Climbers, beans and sunflowers - not to mention the tomatoes and courgettes (out of shot). 

Oh dear what a lot of plants - all needing my attention this week! 

Sunday is for sleeping cats.

Arty says 'it's Sunday morning, please let me sleep'.

Check out this weeks Carnival of the Cats at Watermark

Arty likes to help...

This week has been a bit light on blogging and gardening as I am busy marking exam papers. Luckily Arty is happy to help. Here he is guarding the papers!

Check out the Friday Ark at The Modulator