31 May 2021

Catching up

Shall I be terribly English and talk about the weather? At times it’s felt as though nothing would grow.

As ever with the British spring, the weather veered wildly between glorious blue skies and dismal grey, often teeth chattering cold, wet and very windy - what the weather stations call ‘a moderate breeze’ and I term as a strong pegs needed laundry drying day. Not the best conditions to encourage seeds to germinate, even indoors. So they didn’t. It’s been a stop:start:stop saga for several of my seeds.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, the garden itself has reliably offered up bucketloads of purple sprouting broccoli and kales from the start of January right through until April; by mid-March wild garlic and rhubarb had shown up, and the last of the beetroot and kales were picked as they started to run to seed. 


By the end of March, I was feeling a bit gung-ho and judged it time enough to sow salad leaves and carrots into two of the Veg Trugs - under fleece of course - and tiny broad bean plants went into the soil having been grown in modules on my balcony. Potatoes were also planted; I usually grow these in bags to keep any future harvests clean and slug/bug free but fancied growing a few in the ground this year. I may regret this when I need the space in a few weeks!

As April began, buds opened on the honeyberry and gooseberry bushes, pink kale resprouted prettily from the stump (second helpings, what good value!) and the annual tsunami of blossom from the fruit trees started - pears first, swiftly followed by plum, apple and cherry. Cue gale force winds. Every year I hope for calm weather to keep the blossom on the trees for a while longer; it’s a rare year when the winds don’t blow. But ... tiny fruitlets have duly appeared so all is well, thank you bees.

As April headed towards May, the garden looked very pretty but the weather was still against growing anything. Pots of kale seedlings stayed tucked in the lee of my balcony, tomatoes, chillies, aubergines stayed indoors and grew tall. Outside, violets were overtaken by swathes of self-seeded forget-me-nots and PSB plants drew visitors in (human as well as bees) with the sight of clouds of sunshine yellow blossom - a beautiful sight on a spring day. 


Peony shoots appeared, as did the flowers on mini bay trees, blueberries, sweet cicely, woodland strawberries and wild garlic. And the quince tree prepared to flower, always a special moment to see those pink candy striped buds.


And so here we are at the end of May and it’s beautiful.  My garden spaces have burst into life, every time I go to look, there’s something new to see.  Lots of rain and slightly warmer temperatures have had a dramatic effect on the slow starters; asparagus spears appear daily, broad beans are flowering, as are the large Marshmellow strawberries, raspberry canes have tiny buds and even the elderflower umbels are open! Time to make elderflower cordial! 


In the Veg Trugs, I’ve moved on from peering at just germinated seeds to pulling radishes, and cutting 8” tall plump lettuces and spinach. The fleece has been replaced with enviromesh netting to keep bugs away but, needless to say, a snail found it’s way up to the banquet ... for a short time.  

I’ve emptied the Hotbin composter of its bounty and started again, popping a few of the many worms back into the remaining compost for good measure. I promise to write about the composter in a future post.

Jobs for the week ahead ...

Get those tomatoes and cucumbers planted! It looks like we’re in for some warm weather so it surely must be safe to plant out my tomatoes. The bed has been topped up in readiness, and I’m hoping that whatever is digging up the soil in the beds (birds? Squirrels?) will stay away as I’ll plant through the fleece that I laid over the soil.

I’m terribly behind with sowing seeds, sweet corn and courgettes were done last week, squash, purple broccoli and beans are next. They’ll be sown into small pots to start them off. And, once I’ve figured out where everything will go in the veg patch, I’ll be sowing chard, more carrots, and a few nasturtiums and poppy seeds ... oh yes, and weeding, again. Little and often is my motto when it comes to weeds! 


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