Planting out!

We've had a week and a half now of glorious sunshine and stupidly high temperatures (I'm not complaining - yet!) and watering the young plants in the garden seems to be a neverending task.

I have managed to plant some out this week at least; the herb garden is now home to rosemary, thyme, mint, lemon balm, lovage, sorrel, chamomile, feverfew, yarrow, echinacea, marjoram, and some creeping thyme and wild pansies. (I've put low-growers like chamomile and creeping thyme between the paving stones, so we can still walk across it even when everything's grown.)
Still to come are sage, oregano, chives and tarragon, plus tansy, hyssop, and some calendula, poppies and poached egg plants to fill in the gaps (and hopefully one day some saffron crocuses, bluebells, and a few other bits and pieces...) Dry weather like this is obviously not a good time to do so much planting out of young plants, but with a lot of careful watering they seem to be settling in ok. I can't wait until everything has grown and filled up all that bare soil!


I've mulched part of the courgette/cucmber bed with compost from the heap and planted out the first lot of courgette plants too, with a little moat round each one to retain water.


A couple of weeks ago I was worrying over the big decision about when it's safe to plant tender crops out. The last frost date for this area is supposed to be around the 5th May, although all the magazines seem to suggest you wait 'til late May to be sure, but this mini-heatwave we're experiencing has convinced me!

The tomato bed is very nearly ready to plant, so hopefully I'll get that done this week, and some more flowers planted among the herbs. And everything needs weeding, so I'd better start on that too.