Earnest potterings

Busy day today. The temperature has been around 20 degrees again and the spring flowers are out in all their glory from the deliciously scented hyacinths in front of the kitchen window....to the delicately scented narcissi in pots on the front terrasseThis afternoon, I repotted the camellia plants that I brought over from the house in Sheffield and placed them on the new terrasse - they will be stunning when they flower next month!The two clematis that mum gave me for my birthday last year are now throwing up new shoots which is an enormous relief. I had fully expected them to have been killed by the freezing conditions that we have had this winter, but they are turning out to be amazingly hardy!

But the potager has been the focus of our attentions this afternoon. Whilst Andy was creating a neater path through the middle and moving the 'gate' so that it is now inline with the path, I was digging over the top patch (the bottom of the photo) in preparation for the imminent sowing of French beans, spinach, rocket and miscellaneous other veggies. The result of both our efforts is an increase in the area of useable soil for planting and a much neater potager.

I still have some leeks, some lambs lettuce and some shallots/garlic in the bottom half but I'll hopefully get the 2nd half of the top section dug over tomorrow and then I am ready for sowing/planting. I just need to finalise what will be sown/planted where - that's a whole job in itself and I intend to do much more companion planting this year. I have sown nasturtium seeds around the perimeter this year as those flowers will apparently attract the dreaded cabbage flea and keep them away from my precious rocket and turnips this year!