More seed sowing - and growing on

The evening's are lighter and the days are longer, which means just one thing - there's time in the evening to do some gardening after getting home from work. So, with one hand carefully nurturing a bottle of Perroni, I've put the other to good use this week sowing more veg in pots and putting them in the propagator.

Joining the assortment of tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and courgettes already sown, we've now got aubergine 'Fairy Tale' and that good stalwart 'Black Beauty', tomato 'Burpee's Jubilee' and 'Falcorosso', chilli pepper 'Tropical Heat', 'Hot Portugal' and 'Georgia Flame' and cucumber 'White Wonder' plus a tray of celeriac 'Giant Prague'. The cucumbers have already germinated!

From the first sowing in March, all the tomatoes have grown well and these have now been potted up into 9cm pots and are lined out in the lean-to frame.

Outside the veg garden, I've taken the plunge and cut back all the artemisias, penstemons and hardy fuchsias - Clare has been getting impatient over the last few weeks as they were all looking decidedly floppy and untidy. Let's hope we don't get any severe frosts - fingers crossed.

And, as usual I've been on my regular pest watch patrols - looking for any nasties that are lurking and taking advantage of new, fresh growth. So far, nothing to report. Any I mean nothing. The slugs and snails are being taken care of by the army or frogs and toads in the garden and a liberal scattering of slug pellets. And I know that lots of people are talking about early attacks of lily beetle but so far nothing. About this time last year our Lilium formosanum var. pricei had been totally ravaged and gave up the ghost soon afterwards, but this year not a sign of damage. So let's hope it stays that way. I have given all the lilies a thorough spray with Provado Ultimate Bug Killer to offer some protection, but if the lily beetles were active, there would be some signs of nibbling - but so far nothing.

And now it's the Easter weekend, so in between entertaining friends and eating fatty choccy treats I'm hoping there'll be some time to get outside and get on with things.