Soft Fruit

I put in some Autumn fruiting raspberries (Joan J) and strawberries (Royal Sovereign) a couple of years ago (see here), but haven't really had much fruit of them. All change this year! Although the raspberries are Autumn fruiting, if you don't cut all the canes back in the Autumn, you get a bonus crop in early summer. What's even better is that there's still loads just ripening.

Companion planting

I managed to find a few minutes yesterday to plant out my sweetcorn and courgette plants. I lost a few of the sweetcorn seedlings to the gastropods, but I still had 11 to plant out. I've interspersed these with 6 courgette plants. In order to make space for these, I harvested a good few Spring onions.

Spring onions that were planted around last year's runner bean wigwam

Sweetcorn interspersed with courgettes

Peas and beans

While I was waiting for my peas to germinate I spotted a pack of 6 plant cells on offer in The Range, with each cell containing several good looking plants. Needless to say I bought them! So yesterday I planted them out, next to my little sprouting peas. I added some sticks pruned from the Forsythia and threaded some twine around for support.

My peas just sprouting, with the bought plants to the right

I also put out the dwarf French beans. I had too many plants for the square bed, so I've put the rest in the gaps in the onion bed.

Dwarf French beans

Peas

Having dug over and added compost to the small, square bed a few weeks ago, I covered it in fleece until I was ready to plant into it. This has had 2 benefits - warmer soil and more importantly, no cat poo! So today, I have sown mangetout peas "Delikta" directly into one corner of the bed. I plan to sow some more in a couple of weeks time, and fill the rest of the bed with French beans that are doing nicely in my patio growhouse for the moment. I have replaced the fleece for protection until I plant out the beans.

Maintenance jobs

Boring but essential, I spent quite some time this afternoon weeding my onions - they were looking a bit neglected. I was joined by the female blackbird who is nesting in our front hedge. She seemed quite happy, just inches away from me while I worked. After removing all the weeds, I watered and mulched them with homemade compost, so now they look much better.

I planted these as sets last Autumn as that gave me a fantastic harvest last year. However, this year they don't seem to be doing quite so well and I'm not quite sure why. I think some may have been dug up by cats and some may have rotted as the winter was so wet. When I planted them I had quite a few left over. I couldn't quite bring myself to throw them away, so I very generously free-cycled them. On reflection, I should have planted them in pots to grow on and fill the holes. Maybe next year...

The other job was earthing up the potatoes. I used more of my homemade compost, combined with some of the top soil which I'm still using up.

More sowing

Today I have planted some courgettes (All Green Bush). They did really well last year after a complete wash-out in 2012, so I'm trying again this year. I wasn't sure where I'd plant them out, but have now decided that under the sweetcorn should work. I tried the "Three Sisters" approach a couple of years ago, but it wasn't very successful - the pumpkin plant grew massive, but the fruit rotted before it ripened and the beans pulled the sweetcorn over. Hopefully I'll have better luck this year.

I have also sown some salad leaves, directly into the raised bed - spinach "Toscane", Rocket, lettuce "Little Gem" and a "spicy oriental mix"  from Suttons seeds.

Meanwhile, some of the chillies have germinated along with one of the pea shoots. The French beans and sweetcorn are doing well in the greenhouse, so I've started opening it up a bit more to harden them off.

The beetroot has germinated well, but not much sign of the parsnips or carrots yet. Time will tell.

Sweetcorn and pea shoots

The sweetcorn I sowed the other day (see here) has germinated well - only 1 out of 17 seeds hasn't developed. They've grown so quickly they've reached the lid of the windowsill propagator, so time to move them on. As I did last year (see here), I have added toilet roll tubes to enlarge some of the pots.

I tried to buy pea shoots the other day (Amy and I have been watching Masterchef!) but couldn't find any. So instead, I decided to grown my own (Variety: Twinkle). I've sown them and put them on the windowsill, so they should be ready in about 3 weeks.

Potting on

The French beans I sowed last week popped their heads up over the last couple of days - from bumps in the soil surface, to leaves within hours it seemed. So, time to pot them on, and these are the results:

I've put them into my greenhouse for the time being, then hopefully out into the garden in a couple of weeks time. Having emptied the two of the little trays in my windowsill propagator, I've refilled one of them with chillies. We were a bit over-run with chillies last year, and they were very hot, so I've sown fewer this year of a different variety - Hungarian Hot Wax.

Sweetcorn

Having spent a bit of time researching which variety to plant this year, I opted for Swift. I've sown them in my window-sill propagator, one seed per cell. Last year I tried sprouting some in the airing cupboard and sowed the rest in newspaper pots. Both worked equally well, but pre-sprouting them was a bit of a hassle and had no real advantage as they all germinated anyway. This year I've placed them on top of the compost and covered them in vermiculite. Fingers crossed...

Sowing

Had a free hour today, so took the opportunity to empty out and tidy my little greenhouses - and "re-home" the snails I found in there. I can never bring myself to destroy them, but throwing them in the border makes me feel as if I'm giving them a fair chance at least. So, once I'd sorted the contents (somewhat muddled after a couple of falls during the Winter storms) I set about sowing some seeds - Dwarf French beans. I'd intended to plant sweetcorn as well, but it turns out I'd run out of seeds. Now there's an excuse for a trip to the nursery if ever I there was one!

Getting the year started

So, finally the weather has improved and I can get out in the garden again. A combination of almost continuous rain and work has prevented me getting on with things this year. However, a few weeks ago we attacked the very overgrown holly bush and ramblings rose that was attempting to overtake the path. Having cleared the space, I added compost and dug over the beds ready for potatoes and other root veg. It was noticeable that all the Winter rain had compacted the soil.

The potatoes (first early - Maris Bard) went in a couple of weekends ago and are just beginning to show their shoots. Today, I have planted short rows of carrots (Purple Haze F1, Paris Market 5 Atlas and Early Nantes), parsnips (Lisbonnais on a tape) and beetroot (Boltardy). I didn't have much success with carrots last year, and didn't plant any parsnips or beetroot, so fingers crossed these will germinate.

The other job I did today was add compost and dig over the square bed. I've covered this in fleece for the time being, partly to warm up the soil, but mostly to deter the local cat population.

Mystery plant

I've just found this mystery plant in one of my raised beds. I thought it was going to be a runner or French bean that had self-seeded from last year, but when I dug it up it looks more like a parsnip root. I've potted it up and will keep an eye on it to see what it turns into!

PS It's looking more and more like a bean of some sort

PPS Turned out to be a runner bean and produced loads of beans

Salad leaves

I've grown a couple of types of salad leaves this year - Suttons "Speedy Veg Spicy Oriental Mix" and Mr Fothergill's "Mixed Lettuce Leaves". Rather than sowing them straight into the raised beds this year, I started them off in a modular seed tray. Having planted them out about 3 weeks ago I found the birds were helping themselves (we seem to have a whole flock of sparrows nesting around our house!). Having covered them with netting, supported by forsythia canes (see here) they are now doing well and taste lovely!

Seedlings

Just planted out

Growing well (with protection!)

Fingers crossed no more frosts

19th May. According to local weather records, we should be past the last frost by now so I've been leaving the front open on my growhouse for a week or so. Over the weekend, I planted out my sweetcorn, courgettes and runner beans.

10th June. Well, it's now 3 weeks later and we didn't have any frosts! Of the 18 sweetcorn plants, 2 got a bit eaten (slugs maybe, sparrows more likely) and 1 has completely disappeared. However, I'm pleased to say the others are all doing well. The courgettes are all doing well and have lots of flowers forming. The runner beans are more variable - 1 seems to be a non-starter, while another 2 are romping ahead.

Sweetcorn, just planted out

Sweetcorn, 3 weeks later

Courgettes, just planted out

Courgettes, 3 weeks later

Runner beans, just planted out

Runner beans, 3 weeks later

Apples

My dwarf apple tree has 3 different varieties grafted onto the root stock. The Discovery are ready first, followed by James Grieve and finally Fiesta, giving a lovely long picking season. This year it was really obvious that the blossom was developing at different rates. I wonder if that's anything to do with the cold/late Spring? It certainly felt like nature was waiting to pounce and then everything burst into life at once.  These photos were all taken within minutes of each other... 

Discovery - blossoms over

James Grieve - blossoms fading

Fiesta - blossoms still opening