Kitchen Garden Forum

And what a gorgeous day it is out there today..... you can nearly hear the weeds growing, not on my plot of course.

Rain here
Bit of a bummer
What a way
To welcome the summer

But I did dig first potatoes and tomatoes are setting nicely

Almost everything is now planted on the allotment, having put in the last winter brassicas, parsnips, peas, chard, beetroot, runner beans, climbing French beans and dwarf beans and sown the last carrots. Only Florence fennel is still to go in and the spring cabbage to sow in July. Now it's just weeding, weeding, weeding and watering, watering, watering ......

The early potatoes (in pots, started in the greenhouse and now outside) are just showing the first buds, so I will start proddling in the soil for possible tubers.

Cleared the leek bed, weeding as I went and weeded the onions, thats about 75 square metres of weeding and I'm now cooked. Well done on the back & right, medium rare on the front & left.
Made a start on making a second terrace in the back garden.

Very hot here today, old dog sunbathed, young dog wanted to chase his ball, but gave up after five hurtles and hid in the shade.

I always think of June 1st as being the first real day of summer. I have taken all the permanent protection off my outdoor tomatoes,cucumbers, courgettes and gherkins so if we have a frost now my crops will be ruined and it will be too late to resow.
And the first blue tit in our garden nesting box left home today. Remainder are still cheeping inside with no sign of wanting to leave the endless supply of caterpillars being ferried in by mum and dad. Little brave one fluttered almost drunkenly into the middle of the rhubarb bush nearby and just settled there looking utterly confused as if he had no idea what to do next so decided to keep my distance for fear of terrifying it even further.

Lovely day here today, we had a wetting the babies head party at the allotment last night not many people down there today what few turned up all had bad hangovers me included

Gorgeous afternoon here..the calm before the storm, if what I read is right
Hoeing and tying things up with green string kept me busy....
..why don't beans climb their poles without some help lol

Dear Donedigging, i know exactly what you mean about the beans, they don't want to go up their own pole, but they are quite happy to go up the one next to them.

Just finished cutting someones lawn, so all caught up again, very pleased as hate being behind.

Did you have a good weekend, Richard?

Busy day at Rugby Club yesterday, working party repainting, fixing odds and ends, plus digging post holes for a fence to hide our herd of wheelie bins.

Today has been mostly "Scorchio!" and I've planted out; peas, climbing french beans, the lastfof my onion sets , and two 30' rows of leeks. Between periods of hiding in the shade.

What great growing weather - rain over night, sun in the day! Including the weeds, of course. There is a bit of a lull now on the allotment, except for weeding, whilst everything finds their feet and starts growing away (we are slightly behind up here!). The peas and broad beans at home where it is more sheltered are setting nicely and the tomatoes are flowering in the greenhouse.

All the brassicas have taken well other than some of the cauliflowers 'All the Year Round' which look a bit unhappy, so I will sow some more and keep an eye on them.

Just sown the last lot of seeds: Florence fennel and corn salad.

I thought I would have an early stroll round the garden before breakfast and caught a gang of baby sparrows eating my peas. I thought the other day that they weren't growing very fast. So they are now netted which will probably cause problems when it comes time to picking them.

Sparrows used to be a terrible problem when my father had the garden. They would hide in the hedge until he went in then they would come out by the dozen and have dust baths and eat the shoots off everything. Since the drop in numbers they haven't been a problem, but have had two good breeding years and are now out in force again. Good for sparrows, bad for gardeners.

Dear Plumpudding, we have large numbers of Sparrows here, and they eat everything in sight, if not covered.

Judging from the forecast it rather looks as if summer is arriving. A lot of grass to cut.