Kitchen Garden Forum

Watching the forum from the sidelines these days largely due to everyday commitments...however the sighting of the first Swallow yesterday afternoon at Gunby, E. Lincs and again this morning felt worthy of a mention

At home gardening is very limited these days whilst at work a check this morning found the row of Early Onward Peas popping through and also, at last, the Bunyards Broad Beans too.

Stewed Rhubarb is included on the lunch menu today


Clive.

I use a a combination of Reddle and Google Calendars which synch on my iPad and phone which allows me to enter sowing dates in perpetuity, e.g. on April 4th every year it reminds me to “sow tomatoes” or whatever. ( It,s also a good reminder for recording birthdays, insurance premium renewal dates, etc). I have a similar Outlook diary on my laptop which alas won,t sync with the other two so I have to try and remember to enter information twice.

When the following year’ s reminders crops up, I amend my sowing date according to the weather at the time. It,s a rather rough and ready method but it works for me. I add brief comments in the calendar I,e “sowed too early” for any given year, so can swipe back to the previous year on the calendar to double check what happened the previous year.

I

Funny how things go Clive, i was thinking about you while i was cutting the grass at the Big House a minute ago. It is nice to see a post from you and i have to say, i have really missed them.

Hello Old H',
Thank you for your thoughts. If your grass is anything like ours at work then it is growing at an amazing pace now. We couldn't get the big cylinder mower with trailed seat over it due to the going being very soft.! So there's been some walking with the pedestrian roller rotary mowers until a week ago when it was go-able for the big mower to have a run...then it came nearly and inch of rain again...

I have caught up a few jobs at home this weekend...ground conditions having hugely improved. Couldn't decide where to start so opted for putting the half moon edging iron along the drive sides at our roadside entrance to give me a quick win in sharpening up the appearance of the grass to concrete edge.
Then hand weeded the narrow borders that flank the drive a little further in. Pink Hyacinths in lovely full flower on the left and on the right, facing North, bright red species tulip...both have been there years.

I quickly sowed some Bunyards Exhibition before lunch time today and then decided I ought to put in a row of E. Onward Peas....last years collected seed was still as collected pods in a paper take away type carrier behind the settee in the front room. so sorted that and as we usually do made a sowing mix of some of these and some seed collected 2015 and 2016. The winter dug ground worked down very easily with the old Wolf 3 tine drag.

Cheered to have made some progress....but there's so much more to sort...

Cup of tea time now having come in from hoeing around the Raspberries to catch a few weeds and work in the growmore that I applied earlier.

Rain threatening again....

Clive.

It was all plant, sow & hoe today. The little grown chaps had to go in as running out of room & getting too big. It looks pretty promising for the next couple of weeks so went for the sow as well & weeded the strawberries & hoed all under the fruit trees. It started cloudy & ended in 2 hours of rain. I was drenched but happy!

But I'm assured the timing is perfect - the season has officially started - I have asparagus up! OK only 3 tiny spears but it's my sign!

Wonderful Westi. There's no sign of anything in my asparagus bed and I've abandoned lawn mowing and everything else because of the rain. Can't wait for the warm weather they keep talking about. I did see six swallows over the reservoir when I went a walk this morning which means the summer migrants are risking it. The cuckoos usually arrive from the 23rd April here so I'm listening out for them too.

My son assures me that swallows and willow warblers have arrived in our area but I haven't seen or heard either, so I am keeping my ears pinned back every day. My 'target' cuckoo arrival date is 24 April - fingers crossed.

A blackbird is nesting in the ivy right by our back door. It's high enough to be safe from passing cats, at least.

Mowed the lawn today.

Show off

I've cut the privet hedge before the birds start nesting

Going mad up here, sowing carrots like I know what I'm doing, well they're under fleece just in case.

Not very spring like here , very cold easterly wind all day and
a lot of cloud

A strong breeze blowing this morning, so that will help to dry things up a little more, a very busy weekend ahead...

Having lost our Winston seed potatoes to rot because of variations in temperature where they were stored we visited a Wyevale GC yesterday and purchased 2kg of Sharpes Express as they were offering first earlies at half price. 2kg for £2.50 = 30 tubers.

Plan is to try and get them in the ground this week

Glorious morning up here