Well friends, it is definitely sad times we are going through.

It is times like this that I am grateful of my love of gardening as it helps to keep my mind and hands occupied.

As I wrote in my last column, I cannot attend my allotment due to my health and restrictions placed on me. However I am growing my vegetables in my small back garden and what vegetables that I have no room for I will grow in pots and tubs.

These will be placed on the path leading up to the garage.

Most of the garden is taken up by the two greenhouses.

In the larger one, I will grow tomatoes and peppers. In the smaller one I have planted leeks on one side and on the other side onions. As you will see in the photograph there are pots of leeks sitting on the floor. Once they have grown a bit larger they will be hardened off and placed in front of the garage where they will continue to grow to maturity.

At the present time I have 12 bags of potatoes planted and these will also be grown on the path as well as cabbage (Kilaxy) and cauliflower (concept F1).

In part of the garden I have planted two rows of potatoes.

It will be interesting to compare the results of gardening on the allotment to how I am growing at home.

For the vegetables that will be grown in pots, tubs, and bags I am filling these with Levington M3.

This is a compost high in nutrients and hopefully will give me some good results.

The space that I have left in the garden will be planted up with forty five Kelsae onion plants once they have also been hardened off.

In the big greenhouse the tomatoes and peppers have been moved into larger pots before I place them in their final position.

With everything this year growing in pots, tubs, and bags one thing that must be attended to every day is watering and feeding.

This is extremely important as these containers will dry out very quickly in the sun so beware.

The way I grow my tomatoes is as follows.

I upend the grow bag and break up the compost contained in it. This leaves the top half with no compost.

This is then folded underneath and placed on the floor.

I then get a bottomless pot, sit it on one end of the bag and draw a circle round it and cut it out.

I then sink the bottomless pot into the grow bag and fill it with compost then plant the tomato into it.

This procedure is repeated at the other end of the bag then between the two pots I sink a small pot.

This is so the compost in the grow bag can be kept moist.

One thing is for sure , it should be an interesting year in the garden.

In the front garden I am growing begonia nonstop and dwarf bedding Dahlias just to bring a bit of colour to the front of the house.

Well friends make the most of the good weather and enjoy your garden.

Stay safe.

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