Yet another glorious hot day here in Suffolk. I went to the garden center earlier to purchase some more compost and some grow-bags and another bag of seed compost. Whilst there I started to wonder that perhaps it is the compost that I had been using that was the cause of my poor germination results.
In January I was using John Innes No1 seed compost which contains peat and for my second lot of sowing's I was using a peat free seed compost. The seeds sown in January done much better than my later sowing, which you can read the results in earlier postings. There is much debate over the use of peat and how gardeners should seek to use peat free alternatives. From my results the peat free alternatives do not appear to be much good if germination results are so poor. Not only were the results poor but the soil also grew mold on it unlike the John Innes. I have now purchased a bag of the compost that contains peat and I have sown some more courgette, pumpkin and squash seeds. I will keep you posted on my results.
I had a few hours in the garden and I planted out the leeks, and some cauliflowers. I have sown some more broccoli and brussel sprouts. I also bought two large planters today which I have potted the rest of the sweet peas in to, which I have put outside the front door.
The girls spent an enjoyable couple of hours out in the garden today, they squabbled over the three snails that they found. Matilda has dug a nice big hole next to the fence, her head was down and her bottom was up in the air, stones and dirt flying out from beneath her. Octavia went over to investigate and got a peck for being so nosey! Clyde does not care for the hot weather so he has been mooching around huffing and puffing looking for somewhere cool to lay and snooze where as Max on the other hand loves to lay in the full sun.
The wasps and bees have been out in force today so I have spent several minutes flapping and screaming running up and down the garden! They have the whole world to fly around in yet they always want to be in the same spot as I do!
And finally.....It has started to cool down a little so I am going to take the dogs for a walk. I hope you all have a pleasant day/evening where ever you maybe x
This warm weather doesn't suit Archie at all. He keeps wandering round looking for somewhere cool to lie down, then flops down on the tiles in the kitchen. I've been using Erin multipurpose compost this year, but I don't think it's up to scratch. It hasn't done much for my plants this year, but I've used it in previous years and it's been fine.
ReplyDeleteHi Jo, well we have waited a long time for it, but I do feel sorry for the animals. I think maybe it is a combination of the weather and the compost that I was using that may have been the problem. Nothing so far has germinated with the new compost as yet either!
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