Paula's Pointers

Juliette left a comment on my "And the Best Laid Eggs" post asking if we going to have Paula's Gardening tips now, well in a way, but because I enjoy alliteration so much I prefer Paula's Pointers.   I actually spend much more of my time gardening and thinking about gardening than I do dressing, of course that is largely because that is the main source of income for the household so that does tend to concentrate the mind a bit.   I will also admit that I have long cherished the ambition to write a regular gardening column for a (local) paper or magazine, so this may just be a way of expressing that ambition, only without the pay!

At the moment the weather here in the UK is making it very difficult to know what to do for the best in the garden there are so many jobs that have been put off or delayed because it's been too cold or too wet that when we do get a bit of sunshine it is hard to know which are the highest priorities.   We have a good forecast for the weekend so I expect a lot of people will be heading out into their gardens to make a start.   My main Job on Saturday will be to try a make sure my van is suitably presented for it's MOT on Monday, but other than that I think I will be trying to sort out my vegetable beds and get my onion sets in, and sowing my lettuce, leeks beans and tomatoes.   This year I will be growing both white and red onions, as well as salad onions and chives.   I hope to be making Caramelised Red Onion Chutney come September.

So, Paula's Pointer for this weekend is to sow or plant anything that is waiting to in, this cannot wait any longer.   If you haven't started cutting your grass this weekend should be dry and a good tie to start, it will then need too be cut at a minimum once a fortnight, but I prefer to do mine at least once a week. Top tip is the more often your grass is cut the thicker it grows and the better it looks.   If you missed pruning earlier that can always be left till next year if needs be but sowing has to be done on time!