Garden Log - February 2013

And so it starts. The first proper session outside for the year, and the beginning of the photographic deluge. The Other Half decided to take That Baby off for some minor galavanting (a trip to the shops and then a visit to the great grandparents) so I took the opportunity to start getting to grips with this years planting.
The main job I wanted to do was to pot on some of the seedlings from the agapanthus seeds I sowed back in November that were pinched from Alfabia, the garden we visited on holiday. That done I also potted up some of the swag I acquired from the mighty Poundland yesterday. I got a load of Oriental poppy roots, some Lupin roots, a bare root rose, and a blueberry bush/root/whatever. These have all been potted up today. I also got some crocosmia 'Lucifer' corns and some gypsophilia roots, but these have yet to be planted. Poundland seem to have an astounding assortment of plants in at the moment. I know that these are not going to be of the greatest provenance, but I'm trying to garden on the ultra-cheap, so they'll do me fine. The main problem I have is that they don't give you the full name of what you're buying. For example, the climbing rose I've just potted up (yeah, I know it could be planted, but the bed where it's going doesn't exist yet) is labelled simply as a "purple climbing rose".
On top of potting this lot up, I've sown seeds for nicotiana 'lime green' (last years seeds, not stored very well, may not germinate. Fingers crossed.), some verbena bonariensis (REALLY want this one, hope it germinates.), tomato 'marmande', and some F1 sweet pepper whose name escapes me. Not a bad couple of hours work. I could have probably stayed out for longer, but it's not a very nice day and I was getting seriously chilly. Escape to a warm shower seemed sensible following the taking of some pictures of rather dubious quality to share with you lucky people. Enjoy.

So blurry I nearly didn't bother posting, but I wanted a record of my only flowering hellebore this year.  The plants were very young when they went in, so hopefully better next time.

Stuff sprouting

Pots of spring bulbs, and my newly acquired rose and blueberry.

The coldframe is stuffed. New one arriving soon though.

Sorry about the crappy pictures. I really must start using my proper camera rather than my phone, but the convenience of the camera in my pocket won out today.

Bring on the warmer weather!