Parsnips!

We found the parsnips! There were only three, but what with the weeds that's all I was expecting. Not bad specimens if I do say so myself, except the one that hit a pebble and looks more like an octopus....


We pulled the leeks too, as you can see; another small harvest but a harvest nonetheless.

That's two out of eleven beds dug now, and the strawberries weeded. Last year we let the runners go wild, and ended up with starwberry plants all over the paths, so I've carefully transplanted them back into the bed where they belong. I'm planning to let them grow through holes in black plastic this year, as the weeds swamped them so badly last year - hopefully I'll have time to do this next time I go to the plot.

My fruit trees have finally arrived from J Parkers (tiny they are!) along with onion sets, shallots, garlic and some spectacular orange lily bulbs, and some echinacea plants and gladioli bulbs that came as a free gift. Hardly makes up for the appallingly late delivery though; it's practically too late to plant shallots and garlic now! I'll give them a go anyway, but I'm not happy, and my potatoes haven't arrived yet either! Stuff this mail-order lark - next time I'm going in person to a real old-fashioned shop for my garlic, onions and spuds.

Anyway, here they are:

I haven't quite decided yet whether I'm going to plant them out or put them in pots, but I'll have to think of something soon; they're covered in little green buds and raring to go!