Sow squash

And that means summer squash (courgettes) and winter squash (pumpkins and the hard-skinned squashes). I have a ridiculously large and varied collection of seed but I have learned from last year that the very very big squash, although unbelievably beautiful, are quite intimidating to use and so I leave them too long before cutting into them. Unless I am sharing it with the village, which may well happen by the time autumn comes round, I am going to prioritise the onion squash, potimarrons and the like. Also, the drier the better for me. I personally think there is nothing worse than a slimy squash. Yes, I do put supermarket BNS in that category. Ugh.

Use multipurpose not seed compost. Use 9cm pots (or recyclable equivalent) and put the seed on its side. Heat will make all the difference, so a kitchen windowsill or above a radiator would be great and they will appear in days. Just a note, I never ever direct sow these because of slugs. I think you need pretty beefy plants to be able to get them out into the ground safely, all the more so if you use any sort of mypex/ground cover or have raised beds where slugs like to congregate.

Oh, and beans this weekend too.

Pricking out

Once your seedlings have two true leaves, it is time to get them out of the seed trays and into pots. Firstly, they are likely to be running out of room and their roots are going sideways and getting entangled with one another, which means that you will damage them if they stay there much long. Secondly, there really isn’t a lot of nutrition in seed compost, and the plant will have got as far as it has with what was stored inside the seed when you sowed it. It is going to need more now.

Prepare your pots first. Lay them out, almost full with a multipurpose, peat-free compost. Dib a hole in the middle but don’t press the soil down or compact it. Use a label, a pencil or a butterknife to get right underneath the seedling and lift it out. What I mean is, if you can possibly resist, lift out, don’t tug the plant. The advice is also to touch the leaves not the stem; they only have one stem and if it is damaged the plant won’t recover. It can probably afford to have a leave damaged and still grow on absolutely fine.

Drop the seedling into the hole you have made and give it a bit of a shuffle so the compost falls back in and fills the hole. Water from underneath. You may need to top up the compost after you have watered, it can often sink a bit.

Many plants can be dropped in so it is only their leaves above the compost and the whole stem is buried. That is, the line of where it was in the seed tray is much lower than in the pot. Lots of plants are able to grow roots from their stems if they are underground and so you get stronger and healthier plants this way. Definitely do this with cosmos and tomatoes.

Watering

If you have had rain, you may think that you can relax on the watering front. And you can (although I don’t water anything that is in open ground anyway so this is a bit academic) but do not forget containers and anything in the greenhouse. My big pots in the courtyard are full of tulips in full flower and their need for water outstrips what rain would fall on that surface area. Keeping them well hydrated will make for a longer lasting tulip and I know that I added grit to the compost and lots of rocks to the pot so I am not worried about them getting waterlogged.

To cut or not to cut

Every so often, someone says to me ‘your house must be full of flowers every day!’. It really isn’t. I have been absolutely itching to cut the Belle Epoque tulips. Partly to have them in the house, partly because they make the best Instagram fodder. However, these are the best flowers I have seen for a while, properly double, and the colour that we all fell in love with all those years ago. Bulbs can be so variable and I really want to keep these. And so instead of cutting them, I am going to enjoy them in the pot, and then nurture the foliage so that I can keep the bulbs for next year. Many tulip bulbs simply do not come back year after year, but I do find more do than you would expect. You absolutely must snap the seedheads off once the flowers are over though.

Similarly, there are deep, inky purple stems rising in one of the beds. My absolute joy and delight, Anthriscus sylvestris 'Ravenswing'. It is not often that I veer towards naming something as my favourite, but these do make me very happy indeed. And my appetite for them is considerable, which means leaving them to set seed by not cutting them, which I will harvest and distribute around and about. This is going to take some restraint, I can tell you.

Staking & supporting

There is a moment between the plant getting into its growth stride when it has size and weight, but hasn’t yet managed to hold itself up, or entwine with an external support, or get its tendrils onto something vertical. Yes, mostly sweet peas, but also my furry brown clematis, and actually, my Mme Alfred Carriere is looking quite uncontained at the moment. Half an hour with a roll of twine and some scissors will pay dividends at this time of year. I find climbers that don’t feel anchored just don’t grow; once they feel that the support is there, they suddenly rush up.

Although, if we are talking sweet peas and you have only just planted yours out, don’t worry of they are sitting there languishing a bit. I do find mine always take a week or so to get used to the change of scenery and they look like they are doing absolutely no growing at all. Give it time. They’ll be fine.

For non-climbers, I am also putting frames of hazel around peonies and driving long tall stakes in next to the sunflowers. Although less than a hand span high now, these Hopi sunflowers are predicted to get to 8 or 9 feet tall. I have also decided to go for the coralling method with the dahlias on the advice of Floret. A great blog post on growing dahlias generally here, and the picture below is hers. On that topic:

Plant dahlia tubers and cuttings

Where I am (the mildest bit of a mild county) I can usually take middle of April as the last frost. This year has obviously been different, but I cannot leave it any longer. The dahlias are being planted out tomorrow. All of them, and I have far too many.