Potting shed

After years of wanting a place specially to sow seeds, pot on, and keep all my gardening stuff in order, it's finally happening. A few weeks ago my husband set up an old table for me at the far end of the garage, but it was too dark, even with the light on. Over the weekend I was saying that I was sure I had loads of pots, but they had been 'buried' under all the stuff put in front of them, so we began the big clear out. I have to say, with my neck playing up again big time at the moment, my physical input was minimal, but 3 trips to the tip later, we now have a corner by the garden door end set up with my table, and shelf units for me to arrange all my stuff on and I've even got a set of 4 electric sockets. It's great, I found the water retaining crystals I was sure I hadn't finished last year, a pair of secateurs which I knew I haven't thrown out with the prunings, as well as many other valued treasures. Unfortunately I replaced the secateurs last autumn, and bought more granules this spring, but spares are always useful.

About 10 days ago I received a surprise package from the postman, I had won a Coronet Family Apple Tree in an online competition. Unhappily it hadn't travelled well, the trunk was completely broken through, an ugly splintered break, leaving only the 2 lowest branches intact. These were Elstar, the James Grieve part, and a good proportion of Elstar were lost. Anyway I contacted the producer, and they have very kindly said they will send me out a new one of their next batch. In the meantime I have pruned the trunk to as neat a cut as possible, with the branches opposite each other it might make a reasonable looking plant. I went looking for pots today, and ended up with 3 for 2 from Wilkinsons. They are only 50cm square, but should be OK for this year. I'm going to use them for my peach tree, my broken tree, and my new one when it comes. I was told I should pot trees into John Innes No3, so I looked at B&Q, but they only had 25l bags. We ended up at Homebase looking for something else, and theirs was 50p cheaper per bag, but although there was no sign up, they went through at 3 for £10, so a good deal today.

A quick update on the chillies, I now have about 3 numex twilight set, and at least one purple jalapeno. They have got a few greenfly, which I am trying to control with washing and hand picking. Interestingly the hot lemon are worst affected, with few on the others. I wonder if they are not to the greenfly's taste?

I have been having problems with someone running through the bit of garden by the drive, and despite advice from Daniel, I haven't resorted to prickly bushes. However I did see the culprits, a couple of young boys playing with their water pistols. I politely asked them not to run over my garden as they were trampling on the plants. They did apologise, so hopefully they will remember next time they are playing there, although I don't think they are from the houses nearby.