Up the woad!

Today's inspection of progress showed stirrings in the sweet pea department, with 9 varieties showing their heads above the compost. That's only a week since they were sown and laid out in the middle tunnel. There are about 1300 of them sown this year - in Rootrainers as usual.

Sweet peas in our Rootrainer rack.

Erewhon reaches for the light

There has been a fantastic germination from our broad beans.  The second sowing, that was Crimson Flowered, now almost as full a germination as The Sutton and Monica.

Next to the broad beans on the bench are Mullein from Conques and Lunaria "Corfu Blue".  I was somewhat dismayed today to see that the seedlings coming up in both trays look identical and what's more, like thistles!  What do you think?

Lunaria "Corfu Blue" perhaps

Mullein from Conques perhaps

Down at the back of the small tunnel, the Honesty is already blooming.  This flower never fails to gladden the heart.

Oh, Honesty!

 I watered what was necessary while inspecting the sweet peas, including the potted-up Jalapas. Nothing to see there yet, but the obstacle of a split bag of calcified seaweed, just where you'd want to place a foot, finally got to me.  My mum's old flour tin made a suitable storage box for it and I'm happy to see it being used again.

Down at the back of this tunnel, the fig has little fruits, but no leaves and nearby, the Philadelphus cuttings that were potted up before last spring's thatching took place are springing into growth.  They could be taken outdoors.  Amongst their stems, there are some withered stalks of something...maybe agastache, I'm not sure.  Sitting on one of these withered leaves was a glossy ladybird.  I'd put one in there when I found one last autumn while tidying up after the thatcher had finished the back of the roof.  It's probably the same one.

The crummy title of today's episode was suggested by the fact that the first of the woad sown last week have come up.  There were so many seeds in the packet from Irish Seed Savers, I sowed only 30 seeds at the end of the day.  I'd been sowing sweet peas and arranging the previous day's sowings onto our bespoke rack - pic above - but as it had been a flower day, I'd wanted to get some of these sown.  I'll sow more another flower day.

Of the chillies we sowed, 10 varieties have not germinated.  These need whisked out of the propagator. No joy there.

Tomorrow is a flower day, so the Angelica "Ebony" I've had in the fridge for three weeks can come out into the tunnel, even onto the soil-warming cables.  I hope this treatment has worked.