Thursday

 Good morning, everyone.  Yesterday was a really beautiful summer's day, warm with a bit of a breeze and so sunny.  Couldn't have been better if I'd ordered it from Amazon!  

Yesterday, I set off to Greenbrook garden centre which is always nice to visit.  Their plants are in such good condition and are so beautifully displayed.  They have a wonderful selection of metal/ceramic/extremely heavy pots of all shapes, sizes and colours but, while I love the heavier pots, it's just unrealistic for me to go that way.  They are far too heavy to move around the garden without danger of causing a hernia!!

However, inside, there's a good selection of plastic pots, again all shapes, sizes and colours.  I headed for that part and found three, one for the fig and two for the columnar fruits that will be arriving at some point in the autumn.  

I went to look at the bags of soil, compost, etc, and was delighted to see that rather than have expensive John Innes number 3 (recommended for trees and bushes), they had a more generic tree and bush compost.  I got two large bags of that which should, if I did the maths correctly, be enough for all three pots.
Three bedding plans and some slow release granules later and I was at the checkout feeling rather pleased with what I'd bought.

Then it was personal training time.  I'm terribly unfit after more or less two months away from it but we pushed on through and did some of what I used to be able to do.  We've decided to share the time between exercise and massage with the former gradually taking more and more time as the weeks go by.  While my calves and ankles are very, very much better, they are still not 100% so we talked about specific calf strengthening exercises I can do at home.

After lunch it was allotment time.  I spent most of the time giving everything a jolly good watering and mowing the grass but also got one double row of the autumn cropping broad beans in.  The courgettes seem to be OK although, sadly, one of the babies seems to have blossom end rot so I do hope that is just a one-off.  The runners are coming on a treat although not ready to pick yet and I came home with six baby corn cobs, a few raspberries and a nice bunch of sweet peas.

I had intended to spend some time in the garden, getting the new plants, including the fig, into their homes, but I was shattered and went to sleep instead!

Today, there's just three things.  I'm going round to Chris' for our usual Thursday chat, then down the allotment to weed, water, sow another rob of broad beans and a row of mangetout for Beth.  I'm not sure about them but she was sure that they have time to grow.  I'm using the supports where the tomatoes were so I can easily fix protection round while they are babies.

In the afternoon, I intend to blitz the garden.  While the tomatoes and other fruit and veg is coming on a real treat, the leaf and herb bed and the flower bed are both, frankly, in a terrible state and need a good sorting out.  I have a tree to pot and three plants to deal with, a sage to replace the one that died last year, a pretty little dianthus and an alstroemeria which I've never grown before but was a great favourite with Mum and Dad.

Have a lovely day, everyone, and stay safe.  xx