Spring equinox gardening

Earlier this week, the spring equinox flew past us all. With the ridiculousness surrounding Brexit, and the dread that comes with knowing that we are a week away with no decisions made and little that we as members of the public can do about it, I feel as though I need to keep my mind busy. I'd done much of my spring cleaning last week prior to my parents coming to visit. I made some honey cakes from a recipe I found online, but have decided that I am not a tremendous fan of this recipe (though my partner likes them). I think it could be improved on by removing some of the baking powder, and instead whisking the honey/sugar/butter mixture to make it lighter, and whisking the egg whites before folding that in. However, I figured I wasn't up for fighting with an unreliable gas oven to try to test my theory out at the moment. So I put that thought on the back-burner and decided it was time to do a little relaxing gardening instead. Before even getting as far as the garden, I noticed the plum tomato seedlings I'd planted a couple of weeks ago have come up out of the soil in the seedling tray in the porch

Unfortunately, the aphids had already completely infested the young shoots of my parsley plant already, and had some small cabbage butterfly caterpillars wandering around, and it is barely even spring yet. Parsley is probably my least used of all my herbs, so in a vain effort to try and prevent compete infestation of all my plants for a second year in a row, the parsley has been dug up and removed. I see no aphids on my other plants for now, and have given them a little spray with soapy water, but I may need to look into buying some ladybirds to keep them under control. I doubt there is much I can do about the caterpillars other than keep a close eye and remove as I go - they were probably the least of the issues last year anyway.

I ended up planting up two pots with bamboo stakes with some early-crop peas. I also planted a longer rectangle planter with some spinach seeds, as spinach is probably my single most often used leafy vegetable in both my hot cooking and cold salads, and put some copper anti-slug tape around the top portion of the outside of the pot in an attempt to deter them. I re-potted my rosemary into a larger pot, as it is one of my favourite herbs, and planted some seeds from some wild strawberries I collected in Poland last year, just to see if they will grow here, since my old wild strawberries died over winter.

Unfortunately, I did not get all the gardening done that I hoped I would, as I both ran out of compost, and need some more pots and trays to re-pot some things like my lavender or the aforementioned tomato seedlings into larger pots. My partner also wants to plant some radishes again, but in order to plant them in the other long pot I have, I need to re-pot some cherry seedlings that sprouted from some cherry seeds my partner put out last spring and subsequently thought were dead, which I need more compost/soil for. My partner hopes to make a bonsai out of one of them, and I think hopes to be able to plant some of the others in the ground should we be able to afford our own home in the future. Eventually, the butternut squash will also need a new pot presuming that the seeds ever germinate, as there is currently very little sign, along with the sweet pepper seeds I planted, though it has only been a couple of weeks, so there is time yet. I have been debating planting some chilli seeds, but I do not regularly cook with chilli, and there is not a lot of space in the porch that will already hopefully have plum tomatoes and sweet peppers in it.

On the upside, presuming my plants do all grow and do not get devoured by aphids, caterpillars, or slugs,  I will hopefully have quite a nice crop of vegetables this year. I am especially looking forward to snacking on fresh podded peas.