This week I'm taking you on a mini tour of my garden and showing you the progress on the seedlings planted over the past two months as we head into May.
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00:00 [Music]
00:08 So this part of my garden is all clay soil. The fence needs fixed up as well.
00:16 But this is a hydrangea planted about 10 years ago. It grows fine. I don't need to do anything to it.
00:23 Get a massive blooms there. This is a cherry blossom tree I think. Not really sure what this is.
00:32 But it's been growing away. It's never got very big. This is a cutting of a weeping willow which isn't weeping.
00:40 So I think it's just maybe a hybrid. The weeping willow and this one seems to be a favourite of different insects.
00:51 This time of year with the wee buds coming out. But it's great for soaking up the clay soil.
01:01 This is really bad ground actually. It's a lot of clay. But some of the plants and some of the fruit plants actually seem to love it.
01:10 This is a red currant bush and you can see there the little berries starting to come.
01:17 These are in the ground a very long time and I never had to do anything with them.
01:27 They just come and I leave these berries for the birds. They ripen quite early in the spring and the birds seem to absolutely love them.
01:36 I see some kind of fungus there growing on the leaf there. But it shouldn't harm them. They're very hardy.
01:44 And over here I have a pear tree that the ground is too shallow for really. It's fallen over there as you can see.
01:56 But not much crop off it like ever. Probably to do with the soil type again.
02:01 And here we have gooseberries which are amazing crappers. You get loads of fruit out of this.
02:07 This was a tiny cutting of a gooseberry that has just taken off and you get masses of fruit from that.
02:16 It's kind of an underrated fruit the gooseberry.
02:21 Here I've potted up some sweet pea. There's some old netting here. So I'm hoping that'll grow up along the sides.
02:31 You can see it there. It's quite young but sweet pea tend to be a bit hardy.
02:38 And here we have some wild blackcurrant bushes coming in through the fence. I'm just going to leave some of them.
02:46 I'll cut back others. But you're already getting that beautiful scent when the sun hits it.
02:52 And this is just part of the garden that I previously dug up several years ago.
03:01 And put down compost and topsoil so it's quite rich. But I've just been throwing heaps of old pots of compost on it over the years.
03:10 I haven't done anything with it for a few years. So I'm planning to dig that up with a rotavator this year.
03:15 Level it a wee bit and plant a load of stuff on the ground. It's still very damp the ground after months of rain in Ireland.
03:23 And here there's some broccoli seedlings which have been outside basically from about a week after they were emerged.
03:34 There's one calendula and a green bean.
03:40 And here we have some sweet William.
03:45 Some new marigold seeds that have come up. A red variety of French marigold.
03:52 These were mustary seeds which I think are beetroot. I had a bag of seeds with nothing from years ago.
03:59 So it's good to see at least something coming up. And these will go on the ground as well.
04:04 Over here we have petunias which didn't do that well. I have an all hour tray of petunias which did a lot better.
04:12 But they're about two months old now and if you look they're tiny.
04:15 So if you're thinking of growing petunias you might be best buying them in the wee trays in the garden centre.
04:22 And at least then you can see the colours that they're going to be as well.
04:26 And this is some of the lobelia that's been transplanted.
04:30 I had hundreds of lobelia come up out of half a packet of seeds.
04:34 And they're lovely. They can be used in all sorts of different pots.
04:38 Like just they trail down the sides.
04:42 These are watercress which are fantastic.
04:46 Very good vitamin source and throw them in salads or sandwiches or anything.
04:51 All edible.
04:53 Over here we have some baby's breath which haven't been doing great.
05:00 But hopefully we have a bit of sun will come on.
05:03 Some scythianthus.
05:06 Known as angel wings as well.
05:09 One hollyhock and then into the greenhouse now.
05:14 And before we get there this is a blackcurrant bush.
05:18 The others are blackberries.
05:21 This is coming on very well. This was tiny when I bought it.
05:25 And everything in here is from seed.
05:28 This is more scythianthus.
05:31 It's give like butterfly type flowers. Really really nice.
05:35 Colours. Some lupins.
05:38 From seed which are coming on grand.
05:41 Another lupin and larkspur.
05:44 A couple of silver penny plants.
05:46 Some straw flowers.
05:48 And over here this is one packet of pansy seeds.
05:52 Swiss pansies so that's the big...
05:56 big faced pansies.
05:59 And there we go.
06:01 There's about a hundred of them.
06:04 Some new calendula. A neon orange variety.
06:07 Popping up there.
06:09 And here's some older calendula at the back.
06:11 And some more larkspur.
06:13 Delphiniums.
06:15 Over here more labelia.
06:17 These are alesum.
06:19 Those small white flowers that smell like honey.
06:21 These two are night scented flocks.
06:25 Which smell like candy.
06:28 When they open at night.
06:31 We have one Californian poppy.
06:34 I have hundreds of these in pots out the front.
06:36 They were also really easy to grow.
06:39 More baby's breath. More night scented flocks.
06:42 One nasturtium here. I have loads of nasturtiums.
06:45 Also very easy to grow.
06:47 Underneath here I have some more calendula.
06:53 And some hollyhock.
06:57 Over there I've just shoved some green beans in.
07:01 And then finally here we have chamomile on the left.
07:06 And oxeye daisies. The big white daisies you see growing wild in Ireland on the right.
07:14 Here there are California poppies.
07:18 Which you may remember I showed you the seeding process of them a few weeks ago indoors.
07:24 And they have come up brilliant.
07:27 You can see they are very healthy looking.
07:30 There are quite a few of them in here.
07:32 You could thun them out or plait them in the ground.
07:35 This is calendula in a pot.
07:38 And here we have two arrangements of sweet pea.
07:49 Which I'm planning to go up this trellis here.
07:55 They've been out for a few days now.
08:01 Through some frosty nights and they seem quite hardy.
08:04 And they are working grand.
08:06 Right here we have the 30 pieces of silver seedlings.
08:13 Quite healthy looking.
08:16 Still only the two leaves but you can see now the true leaves are starting to come up.
08:20 Some nasturtiums which got a bit battered in the wind.
08:24 More California poppies.
08:27 These are the yellow variety.
08:29 And yet more off the same packet of seeds.
08:34 This is seeds that were planted.
08:40 These are California poppies too.
08:43 They are a frilled rose variety.
08:47 And they are only starting really to come on now.
08:51 And here are Iceland poppies.
08:54 Which they have been in for about almost two and a half months now.
09:01 And did nothing for ages.
09:04 But now they have suddenly started to put on leaves.
09:10 And they are coming along nicely.
09:14 I didn't know if they were going to make it.
09:17 Here are some other pots that we did earlier.
09:21 And more palangula.
09:24 And more stray California poppies.
09:28 And here these three pots are all strawberries from last year that have come back up.
09:34 And they probably could do with a good feed now.
09:38 And then finally out the front we have these little Godisha seedlings.
09:44 A couple of little arch spurs as well.
09:47 But they are really starting to take off just with the temperature going up a few degrees.
09:54 Here are some other sunflower seeds.
09:58 Some new calendula.
10:01 More zinnias.
10:04 More calendula and cornflowers.
10:10 So that is everything there.
10:12 Up here just chilling in the windowsill are some hollyhock seeds.
10:16 These were the weakest and the youngest of the seedlings that I transplanted.
10:20 And I just want to keep them indoors for now.
10:23 See if they do survive.
10:26 And just for comparison these are two month old petunias.
10:32 And these ones are about three weeks.
10:35 Look how tiny they are.
10:37 They are really really small and they are really slow growers.
10:41 But I bought a son and these have taken off in the last two weeks.
10:45 There was virtually no growth for about a month on them.
10:49 So you have to be patient if you are growing petunias.
10:52 These are zinnias.
10:54 And at last after years of trying I have managed to grow a few sunflowers.
10:59 These are a miniature version.
11:01 So these have all germinated in the last week or so.
11:06 And they have been kept in a warm sunny spot.
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