This weather is very challenging for gardeners. The warmer spell, and the overfull green house, tempted me to plant out Ipomoea common name morning glory .

Sunday cold wet and windy making it feel very chilly.   I was forced to emergency measures and wrapped the plant in fleece. I have planted several in a container at the foot of a Wisteria so it can climb now the Wisteria has finished flowering. Hopefully it will scramble it's way up the wisteria for the summer, if summer ever gets going. So don't pack your fleece way who knows what's coming next. The photo on the left was taken a few years ago and the garden is covered with hail just after planting bedding plants. It's comforting to know that the weather, although in some ways unreliable, follows difficult patterns on a regular basis.

On a completely different note a tip in relation to plant ties. There are loads on the market. Sold everyhere is the green wire tape which  I find always gets tangled, string is OK but really good, and surprisingly strong, is raffia which you can buy from craft places and often these are in garden centres. It makes great ties, doesn't look unsightly and will not cut into the plant. It's also cheap and degrades well which many garden ties don't so you are endlessly picking them up and out of the compost. For advice on how not to tie in a plant check out garden tips

We love to talk about the weather, Gardeners more than most folk. This last spell  of weather has been traumatic presenting some difficult gardening conditions; cold chilling winds, cold rain and hail, endless grey gloom, buckets of rain cancelling out the drought in some places and then suddenly, without warning a heat wave. Just a few blogs ago I was debating if it was warm enough to plant out some of the more tender veggies, such as courgettes, french beans and now it's so hot I have decided leaving them in the green house is no longer an alternative and quickly I am trying to get everything planted out. The temperature in the greenhouse is soaring, even with all vents and windows open. If you are thinking of buy a green house the automatic vents are very well worth the investment. On hot days when you cannot be in the greenhouse the vents will open and help to moderate the tempreture as the photo shows.

During this mini heat wave the greenhouse, plants and veggies in pots, and fragile new seedings will need watering daily. If the long-range forecast for your area is showing no signs of frost I would plant out as much as you can as plants in the ground are much less stressed by the heat than those in pots in the greenhouse. Water early in the morning, and water the greenhouse floor to damp  down and cool the air.

And of course enjoy the sunshine, its been a long time since the lovely warm spell in March......and this photo of some tiny wild violets I spotted today growing in the wild area of the garden.

Many plants benefit from being potted on as they are growing and none more so than tomatoes. Usually they need to be potted on about 2/3 times before planting intheir final pots. Potting on just means repotting into a slightly larger pot. The photo advise shows the various stages. First is the plant ready to pot on; this one in the photo is well overdue the plant is much too large for the pot. What size pot, don't be tempted to take into too larger pot the plant will grow best if its just upgraded so of the pots shown, the middle sized on is better. Lift gently out of the pot, easy into the new pot and firm down. Make sure there are no air pockets and the plant is firmed in. Plants can only grow in soil, if its not firmed down and there are air pockets the roots will struggle. As always water after transplanting .