Kitchen Garden Forum

24 degrees on lottie today and although we had rain a couple of days ago had to water everything. Some things are really getting a move on - salad looking good, strawberries galore, courgettes waking up, carrots & spring onions bulking up, will be trimming the bottom leaves off the celeriac soon as they are starting to bulb, fruitlets on trees getting to a good thinning size & raspberries & blackberries are gong to be abundant. My oriental bed has bolted but can live with that as you can eat them anyway, my roses out the front are the best they've ever been & loads of bees but most of them bumbles. Took up my garlic & looks great!

The but...very few runners or French beans - had to re-sow again! The pesky pigeon was even so bold as to have a little walk around only a few feet from me, although 2 magpies were nipping off next doors peas so jury might be out on who is the real culprit!

But hey...sunshine in abundance - feeling pretty good!

Westi PS even found some parsnips!!!

But ..... not if you're in NW Wales. Dull, cold and now windy.

Same here, Alan. Max temperature 15C, , overcast, strong westerly wind and occasional drizzle. I wish we could just have a good downpour and be done with!

Ate the first cabbage today (Primo, and very nice it was, too, almost like spring cabbage) and next weekend should see the first potatoes which were started in bags in the greenhouse. The peas and broad beans in the garden at home are slowly filling, but, like last year, I don't think the yield will be great because of the lack of insects. The peas and broad beans on the allotment are not as far as that yet and are being badly blown about at the moment!

Very hot here today, infact my face is tingling.....

Had potatoes, broadbeans and peas today, and very nice they were too.
Just waiting for the young carrots, now!

Sounds great Westi It's all come on in leaps and bounds since the beginning of this month, and a little warmth & proper sunshine is SO welcome. I put sun cream most everywhere this morning but of course when I was working on the 'lottment the back of my t-shirt rode up and I've got a big red streak across my back!

Strawbs are producing well now, French beans flowering, squashes starting to get away and leeks starting to look like leeks and not pathetic bits of grass. Can't wait to get at my garlic and onions.

Wicky wrote: I put sun cream most everywhere this morning but of course when I was working on the 'lottment the back of my t-shirt rode up and I've got a big red streak across my back!

Ah, the old "gardener's gap"

Nowadays, that is usually the first place I put the sun cream if I'm going to be gardening, but it's taken me so long to learn that I now have a permanently tanned area of skin there - it doesn't even disappear in winter!

I have had no luck with dwarf beans this year. Have sown three lots and only got five plants out of 15 seeds sown. My courgettes have loads of very small courgettes that dont seem to be getting bigger. We have had a our first cabbage (Micro F1) new potatoes, curly kale rhubarb chard, and a tiny handful of broad beans today. Delish

We are also having problems with tomatoes in the polytunnel the leaves are going very curly and tight. Not sure why.

Usually means they've hit a nice pocket of rich soil, unless you've accidently caught them with a hormone weedkiller. They grow up and away with the former but not the latter.

It's been a grotty day but I'm hoping for better things tomorrow.

MW

Dear Catherime, i try and be brave and cut the first courgettes off to let the plant get going, as they often just sit there at the same size, without the cougettes or the plant growing.

Catherine, do you sow your dwarf beans direct? If so, try bringing them on in pots or roottrainers (in the house, greenhouse or polytunnel). I have never been successful with direct sown French or runner beans, but the pot-sown ones are off and away once planted out!

Well today was 3 magpies & 2 pigeons when I surprised them early this morning! Extra protection all round but they are clever so will see if successful! There is none so determined as a gardener I say! (Or a bird that is hungry)

Westi

Last night was an absolute pleasure to be out in the garden. It was warm, didn't go really dark until after 10.30 and I could hear the sheep bleating across the hillside, owls hooting in the nearby wood, frogs plopping about in the pond and lots of moths and bats flying about. All this plus the beautiful perfumes of honeysuckle and roses, valerian and sweet rocket. I didn't want to go indoors.

An extra treat this morning is all the families of birds coming to the feeders and careering about the garden. They all seem to be rearing lots of young despite the cats. The wren family is especially cute with about six tiny fledglings following the adults.

I've just returned from holiday so am appreciating the beauty and trying to ignore the height of the weeds, length of lawn and hedges doubling in height and width.

I will do that this afternoon OH. I did not sow the dwarf beans straight into the ground I do them in root trainers. The tomatoes in the pt are getting worse. Tall tightly curled leaves and not looking very well at all. The ones in the green house seem to be ok though one has got a curly leaf near the door.