Update

4th June 2018

I seem to be having very mixed success this year. The tomato plants I bought have grown well and now have flowers on. However, the onions I planted around them a few weeks ago have not done much at all (although the Autumn planted ones are looking pretty good). I bought a small pot of basil over the weekend, so have popped that in a gap.

Tomatoes, onions and basil

Carrots and garlic chives

The carrots I sowed straight into the ground now have 3 healthy looking shoots (out of a whole row of seeds!). The second sowing I started in cardboard toilet roll tubes have germinated well, so I've planted them out next to the garlic chives (hoping that'll keep the carrot fly away). I know that carrots don't normally like being transplanted, so I've left them in the tubes. I wonder if this will encourage straighter roots too?

Mangetout

I have put in some netting for the mangetout to grow up and it seems to be doing pretty well.

Purple sprouting and mangetout

The purple sprouting broccoli that I bought on a whim is growing really well, however alot of the French beans got eaten over night last week. I have resorted to slug pellets and netting as they could have been attacked by slugs, birds and/or mice.

Poor French bean seedlings

Courgettes and Nasturtiums

The 2 courgette plants and nasturtiums are doing really well, with several courgettes already at finger size.

Sweetcorn, butternut squash and lettuce

The sweetcorn is growing well, but only 1 of the butternut squash seedlings survived. I bought another butternut squash plant because even that 1 was looking pretty delicate, but so far it's hanging in there. The cos (?) lettuces are growing quite nicely, and I've added some more. These were another impulse buy at the garden I visited recently under the NGS scheme. I think they're Romaine.

Spring 2016

Hmmm, I didn't post much last year did I? We did alot of DIY in the house last Spring so the garden was a bit neglected. Having said that, the potatoes and parsnips did well. In fact I'm still digging up the parsnips - here's today's crop:

Don't think I'll win any prizes, except maybe for rude unusual shapes

I'm not sure parsnips are worth growing again? We all love eating them, but they take up so much space and for such a long time. They also don't seem to taste that different to shop bought ones (unlike home-grown carrots). Maybe I just need to be better at inter-planting?

Last Spring, in the end of season sale, I bought 4 tomato plants and a yellow courgette plant from a local nursery. The tomatoes grew really well, but then succumbed to blight before they had a chance ripen - it was a cold, wet summer. However, the courgettes were great and I'd grow them again.

I planted onions, shallots and garlic last Autumn which are doing well. I had too many sets to fit in the raised beds, so put the spares in individual cells. My plan is to use these to fill the gaps in the next couple of weeks.

Today I have dug over 3 of the beds, and sown lots of seeds which are now sitting on the kitchen windowsill:

I made a batch of newspaper pots for the sweetcorn (they have long roots) and the rest have gone in cells in my (new) windowsill propagator. I've not grown tomatoes from seed before, so fingers crossed for them. The 2 types of squash came free with Kitchen Garden magazine, so they're new too. The chillies I have tried before, with mixed success due to weather conditions (I think).

Here's hoping for a more productive year than 2015!

Sunday 15th July

Well, today is St Swithun's Day, so according to the legend, whatever the weather does today will continue for the next 40. If that's the case, things are finally looking up - we've not had a drop of rain today (the first in far too long!). As a result, I managed to get out in the garden again. Our back garden is completely sodden and incredibly muddy - and that's just the lawn!

The tomatoes are growing nicely, although without a bit of sun they're not going to ripen very well.

I cleared the foliage from the Kestral potatoes in bed 6 today, and dug up most of the spuds. The foliage was beginning to go yellow and I was worried about blight setting in. I need to go through the bed a bit more thoroughly tomorrow in case I left any behind. I did find a couple of rotten ones today, along with alot of red ants - they were soon scurrying around to protect their eggs, and the sparrows had a feast! We had quite a few roasted for lunch (potatoes, not ants!) and the rest are in the salad drawer of the fridge for another day. I've never tried roasting new potatoes before, but I was following a recipe in "River Cottage Veg Everyday" - they were yummy, definitely one to do again.

I also harvested/thinned the spring onions today - we had this lot sliced on pizzas -another success!