13 April 2009 - A week is a long time in gardening

Dear Readers, we are struggling with technology on many different fronts, so although there are photos on my (replacement) phone they may take a while to appear on this blog. But appear they will because there is a lot to see so don't tut and give up on us.

Highlights are the shallots which now look like 60s flower children - crazy, man. Their green tentacles/spikes/shoots are well and truly doing their thing, even the slow ones. Other highlights are the fantastic garlic which is going for glory and the onions - god bless them - are showing their tiny heads at long last. And a few peas have risen up.

In terms of the winter crops, the chard is throwing out large leaves and looking very confident. Some was harvested, as was the trusty kale and purple sprouting broccoli. The kale looks as though it will flower shortly so we will let them do that and then consign them to the Great Compost Heap in the sky.

Today we sowed winter cabbage, red cabbage and autumn broccoli straight into the brassica bed (bed 3) instead of in the seed bed. An experiment.

The strawberries got a spring clean (remove dead and decaying leaves) and there is the beginnings of blossom on the two apple trees. The raspberries are going hip hip hoorah and the seedlings in the bed are doing well.

There has been a lot of rain in the last week and that has clearly made the difference. Although the soil now feels warm to the touch and many of our old enemies, the weeds, are making an appearance, there is still the danger of ground frost. But we felt confident enough to remove the covering from the first early potatoes.

And there are many carrot seedlings and more have been sown. And - I think - the first parsnip seedlings are showing. They are notoriously slow to germinate so I hope they are not weeds. The growing season has well and truly got under way and we are ready (ish). Readier than we were last year, anyway.

5 April 2009 - Spring!?

As a well-earned break from dismantling and reassembling our garden shed (to make room for the coming greenhouse), N and K planted our fifth bankside crop: more potatoes, which have moved from the comfort of the spare room (where they've been chitting) to the sunny bank. You should have seen their eyes!

Beautiful weather.