Armchair gardening...

This week I have been busy planning out our ideas for widening the borders and generally making a few changes to reduce the amount of lawn and increase the areas for planting.

This summer I shall be looking forward to strolling through the garden full of colour and scent from my beautiful planting.

I see myself gathering great bunches of blooms to take into the house and arrange in jugs in each room.

Having battled against the slugs and snails in our moist garden for some years, I have slimmed down the variety of seeds I plant, but still manage a good range of colour, shape and form.

Hardy and half-hardy annuals will include, Scabious, Calendula, Helianthus, Cornflower, Aster, Sunflower, Nasturtium, Nigella, Godetia, Clarkia, Candytuft, Woodruff, Mesembryanthemum, Nicotiana and Cosmos. I shall also be sowing Salvias, Sweet Rocket, Sweet Williams Physalis, Verbena, Monarda, Aquilegia, Lupin, Foxgloves, Wallflowers and Hollyhock.

I was particularly pleased with some Penstomon and Salvias sown last year, which will be put into the borders this spring, provided they have survived the cold in the greenhouse. The mice and I are having a battle with the tulips and sweetpeas - I have a feeling they will win at least by half.

I have enjoyed getting wrapped up and taking a cuppa into the greenhouse on Sunday morning with the Archers to pot up a few more bulbs to bring into the house, decorated with small twigs of contorted willow and raffia, they just hit the spot. I also have some nice long thin candles I bought, I think the box of twenty were only a couple of pounds, I wish I had bought more. They look super pushed into a pot of bulbs before the flowers appear. The candles only burn for a couple of hours, but long enough for you to eat a meal with friends.

I've seen onion sets and packets of seeds in a pile and potatoes set in their egg boxes to 'sprit' so plans are definitely afoot for the allotment this year. At this moment in time we have potatoes, onions, shallots and garlic in store, sprouts, red and green cabbage, leeks and parsnips in the ground, so as this is the leanest time of the year, I reckon that is a good crop. I think a clump of rhubarb are going to be covered to provide a little taste of early forced stems - yum, yum, can't wait for that....

What flowers are you planting, do you have a cutting garden? Do tell, I love to hear what others are growing, especially if, like me, you never seem to have as much time as you hoped. How about your veg plot too, what's growing now, what are you planning to grow and the varieties, recipes always welcome ?