Moving day

9 June 2009

Sunday was another gardening day, the soil beautifully dampened and crumbly from the previous night’s rain. It was time to transplant the last indoor-dwelling seedlings to their allotted spaces. A couple of cucumbers, which had been planted in pots as backups needed to go outside. Although meanwhile all but one of the outside seeds had germinated, meaning that one of the indoor plants went to a space previously allotted to a couple of runner beans, who hadn’t been bothered to turn up.

The beans who’d had the courtesy to show themselves needed some support for when they decide to get on growing. I’ve now strung a web of bean string from the back of Juniper Lodge and there are some bamboo canes in there as well for extra support. We had a lot of rain last night and when I went out to the patch this morning, I noticed that several of the beans have started to get going. There are long tendrils beginning to twist around now, as if they know that there’s a string just over there that they could start to climb.

As for the few bean plants that kept being bitten off by slugs before they could get anywhere, they’re now protected – like the cucumbers and tomatoes – by plastic cuffs cut from drinks bottles. They have nice sharp edges that I think the slugs might “enjoy”, if they aren’t too full from the yummy slug bait all around.

Also moving to a life in the wilderness were both the cherry tomatoes and a final pot of ordinary tomatoes. There are 4 cherry tomato plants in the space I’d allotted them and the final plant went into a gap on the other side of the patch. Where I hope to avoid kicking it every time I go to inspect the cucumbers. The last pot of standard tomato seedlings have now been planted into a fleet of pots, which stand in a flower bed just in front of the patch.

There was also an unexpected newcomer to the vegetable plot, one that has indeed grown from seed like everything else, but not a seed I planted myself. A sunflower seed from the bird feeder made its way to my patch and germinated, so I’ve moved it to the fence among the cucumbers, where it can take its chance.