Its been around 6 weeks now since I planted the tomato, runner bean & chilli seeds and 7 for the pepper and carrots. Although the pepper seeds took the longest to germinate, they are looking incredibly healthy. I have taken them out of the trough this week and potted them up into their own bigger containers until end of may when i will pot them into their final pots for outdoors this summer.

I am now down to my final 4 runner bean plants (I decided to only pot on 4) - they are huge! Ok not as huge as Jack and the giant beanstalk, I don't think I will be climbing them any time soon, but they are big! Larger than I expected them to grow in such a short space of time. I have them in the kitchen climbing up bamboo canes, waiting patiently for the end of april to arrive, so I can pot them into their final positions outdoors. Next year I will not sow these seeds as early, I will wait until end of march/early april. I have noticed what i think are there first truss of flowers, exciting! So I may need to start feeding these 4 with some tomorite soon. Im hoping they will not grow much more in the next 3 weeks as I would like to be able to walk into my kitchen.

The carrots are a different story. They were in a trough which was not deep enough for them, so I tried to transplant them. However I have read that they do not transplant well as there roots often get damaged and this results in the lack of carrots growing. Today I saw them wilted and they looked fairly unhappy, I hope it wasn't one of the cats laying on them to catch the sun! Andy thinks this is the case :( I may have to cut my losses with these and sow some fresh seeds.

The mixed salad leaves got off to a good start, however I think I placed them into my tiny plastic greenhouse to early and so they died off. I sowed another batch of seeds straight into the container i'm using and placed them into the greenhouse. They germinated quickly and are growing well. With the bonus of already being use to the outdoor conditions, hopefully they will harden off quicker.

The chilli plants are a bit slower growing, however since I have swapped them around with the beans they appear to be growing well. They are on a south facing window in the kitchen. I think out of the two south facing windows the bathroom is actually better. So I do tend to keep swapping them around. Are these plants going to get as large as the peppers? They are nearly identical to the peppers and I don't know why this surprises me as they are from the same family. I think I was expecting some difference in appearance - nothing yet!

I keep thinking of trying to grow some butternut squash, however I'm unsure to how they would cope in a large container. I probably do not have the room to grow them this time around, so I will most likely just wait for next year and see how I get on with these easier plants.

In other gardening updates my Lillies have started to appear, some are more advanced than others. They have been placed onto my etagere, as they are poisonous to the cats and I do not want them munching on them, I'm looking forward to a beautiful display in the summer.

I also have my Peony making an appearance. It is my first time growing Peonies and I suspect it was a young bulb so I am not expecting any flowers from it this year. However I am willing to wait as it will be worth it.

My three Roses are growing well, the small shrub Rose which Andy bought me for valentines day has new growth and so I am hoping to get some more flowers from it this summer. Both my climbing roses had flowers last year - the smaller rescue Rose only had one large bright pink flower so I am hoping it may have a few more this year. The large Rose had a very large bloom last summer from may - september, I am looking forward to seeing how well it will do here in its new location. It looks promising as I have already spotted some small buds.

I planted a few other summer bulbs including 2 dahlias which I am looking forward to and also I purchased a Carnation plant for one of my empty containers. Some of the Bulbs were dug up over night - Im guessing from the pesky city foxes. However I planted them again and it hasn't been disturbed since. I think I will need to get some fox repellent this summer otherwise I think they may ruin my vegetable crops, any recommendations?