Suddenly realised i hadn't checked my seeds for a few days and was thrown into panic incase i'd killed them all. Thankfully they were still damp and a few seedlings were poking out of the compost - very exciting! I showed Millie but she was less than impressed.

Sowed a few more seeds this afternoon including peas (Alderman) and Calabrese. Also prepared bed number 2 - again ( Millie and our resident fox have been trampling all over it).

Checked my veg garden planner (which i had mislaid) and discovered that a few of the things i planted last week should have been planted in different beds, so bang goes my planned crop rotation.

Yesterday planted my tomato (Red Alert), basil and courgette seeds (Defender, Gold Rush and Tando Da Nizza). Plus, some delphinium and cineraria seeds which will eventually go in the front garden. I didn't mean to plant the courgettes yet but i got carried away!! Millie and i were having such a lovely time filling the pots, (me making holes and her putting the seeds in). Lets just hope this warm weather stays with us. Pond is FULL of tadpoles :o)

This weekend was extremely busy in our garden. My parents were down for the weekend so they got roped in too - tee hee!

Saturday - Daddy and Grandad spent the day fence building, fence staining and making the pond safe for Millie, or should that be protecting the frogspawn from Millie??? While this was going on the rest of us got busy in the vegetable garden. I have been waiting for the beds to dry out as they were quite wet and after last weeks fine weather we were given the green light for planting - yay! We planted radishes (Saxa 2), wild rocket, lettuce (Remus RZ), spring onions (White Lisbon), garlic, shallots and onion sets. I had prepared the ground for the onions last week by digging in some organic fertiliser and once planted they were covered with netting to stop the birds pulling them up, which can apparently happen. Funny because you wouldn't imagine birds to be partial to onions and garlic!

Sunday - Today was a flower gardening day. We started the day off with a trip to the garden centre. Our front garden has been practically empty since we moved in almost a year ago so i was determined to make it ours. I am sticking to (at least attempting ) a blues/pinks/purples colour scheme with white accents. We dug out a boring old shrub and planted a lovely Spirea in it's place, next to that a blue Hydrangea. There was some Agapanthus, a few little alpines and a couple of other shrubs that i can't remember the names of also. To fill in the gaps i sowed seeds of cornflower, larkspur (a favourite of mine) and French Lavender. Finally, as DP is so impatient and insisted on some instant colour we have a few violas and pansies. It looks pretty good i think, but then anything is an improvement. I hope they all survive!!! In places the soil is very heavy and clay like. My Mum dug in loads of sand to improved drainage so hope that does the trick.

Monday - Well now we have a fence to close the back garden off from the front and the pond is covered i feel a lot more relaxed about spending time in the garden alone with Millie. Today she helped me plant up some herbs. We did parsley from seed (which i've not tried before) It said in my book to sow the seed thickly. A good job as Millie was throwing down handfuls of the stuff! Then we planted a coriander plant, will definitely need more of these, and a purple sage plant. The sage was to replace the one i pruned to death last week. Still i don't feel too guilty about that as it was really woody and needed replacing.

Last week I started preparing the beds ready for sowing. If I had been organized I could have planted some green manure to enrich the soil and control the weeds over the winter, but sadly I am not organized. There were so many weeds. I have now dug over the first three beds and covered them with black plastic to prevent further weed growth before I begin my planting.

We have started to dig over the right hand side bed. This is proving a mammoth task as it is covered with comfrey, lemon balm, harebells and loads and loads of Jerusalem artichokes which have been left to their own devices over the past few years and so have just multiplied. Not a problem if you like them but I’m not a big fan so they will have to go.

I have also been preparing the tiny bed next to compost bins so that Millie (2yrs) can have it as a flower garden. The quality of the soil is very poor at the moment so have dug in plenty of manure and garden compost. Picked up my selection of seeds etc from BIL (allotment keeper extraordinaire!) yesterday so feeling very excited. Also came back after aweekend away to find our pond FULL of frogspawn. Just wait till dd sees it!!

Bit of background info for you....

We moved last year from a house with a postage stamp sized piece of garden, to a house with front, back, herb and vegetable gardens. The garden was a big factor on us buying the house as I had wanted to grow my own veg for a while - despite having no knowledge of what was involved! So began a steep learning curve.

It was May by the time we moved in but I still managed to plant crops of courgette, runner beans, Cos lettuce, radish, rocket and sweet peppers. To add to the strawberries, raspberries, Jerusalem artichokes and asparagus planted by the previous owner. Apart from the peppers, of which we managed only one pathetic slug eaten specimen, they were a terrific success and so this year I plan to do more.

Our vegetable garden is made up of four raised beds running horizontally down the centre of the plot with a large bed to the right (which I didn’t use last year so is very overgrown) and a bed to the left of them housing the strawberries and raspberries. Finally, a tiny bed next to the compost bins where I have my comfrey (for activating the compost and using in my lotions and potions!). We also have a plot for a small greenhouse/shed but sadly not the funds at the moment!