16 May 2009 - There'll be some pictures with this one

So now for the picture show. A productive day yesterday with photographic evidence now to show you for each bed. Stay put and enjoy the ride. We begin with a picture of potatoes coming up on the bank. Both first and second earlies are now showing well. Rhubarb looking a bit eaten still. One asparagus. We plan to put squash up here as there's more room. And the comfrey are flowering and attracting bees!

Weather note: changeable, sun, rain, usual spring stuff but no frost recently
Bed 1
Shallots, overwintering onions, giant onions, normal onions, chard, spinach. This bed has been a stalwart over the winter. The normal onions need sorting.




Bed 2
The magnificent garlic and patchy onions. Hard to weed. Some sorting of onions needed (cf. above).








Bed 3
Brassica bed divided into quadrants. On the left are a few spring cabbages and 2 cauliflower. On the right red cabbage, winter cabbage and summer sprouting broccoli - sown direct into the bed. All protected by N's ingenious new contraptions.

Bed 4
This is the maincrop potato bed, still with a few purple sprouting broccoli plants sharing the space for a wee while longer.




Bed 5
This bed is still betwixt and between. You can see where we sowed french beans and sweetcorn, marked by bottle cloches. In the foreground is the pea/mangetout frame. This has had to be adapted slightly as though they are coming up (finally - rejoice) it is in an irregular fashion, probably due to the design strategy adopted by Luc (aged 2 years). The green patch is the opportunistic rocket sown a while ago now. The purple flowery things are the wonderful kale, which look too pretty to uproot at the moment - see how big they are. Though they will have to be soon, to make room for courgettes and squash.
Bed 6
You can see that one side of peas has come up strongly. We planted the kindly donated seedlings by neighbours last week on the other side. Another example of N's innovative approach to construction.






Bed 7
Welcome to the famous carrot bed. Thriving for the most part. The thinnings indicate that the carrots are not forking (missus) which is great. N very pleased. I got permission to sow another row of parsnips at the end, as the first row are doing really well.






Fruitcage
At the bottom is the seedbed. The broccoli seedlings are doing particularly well and the first lot should be moved soon. Leeks, red cabbage, various broccoli and of course kale. The green bushes are raspberries and behind them are the strawberries which are flowering profusely - more I think than last year. Apple trees at the end, with the loganberry inbetween. Blueberries on the left and summer raspberries on the right. I took the opportunity to plant some runner beans all around the edge as the spares we planted last year did really well. The household does not appreciate runner beans as much as french beans, hence they don't have the usual pean/bean arrangements. The fruitcage, aka Pagoda, is a bugger to weed.

And so ends our visual entertainment. I don't know how to switch off the underline function so here's looking at you - and you looking at our blog.