So little time...

There's so much to do on the plot and in the garden at the moment I just can't keep up. Today I finished getting the tomato bed ready, put in some supports and planted out the garlic from the trough in the garden. I don't know how it will cope with this treatment, but I've got another row in with the strawberries and another with the salads, so all is not lost if it doesn't bulb up. Hopefully I'll get the tomatoes planted out on Sunday - they're really beginning to suffer from their lack of rootspace, I think.

My 'Hundreds and Thousands' tomato plants from Suttons arrived yesterday, and I potted them up right away and put them in the greenhouse. These will stay in the garden at home, trailing from my shed roofs! I may have to give a couple away too; I'm not sure there's room for six. At least they seem to have travelled better than my Million Bells that came in the same kind of plastic packaging; two of them died straight away, but the toms seem healthy and strong:


I was pleased this week to see the comfrey finally flowering. I shall have to start putting it to good use by making some liquid feed. And so a question: how do you cut it? Just pick the leaves? Or cut the whole plant at the base and let it start again? Just cut the top off maybe?

I've finally planted the two leftover maincrop potatoes I've had hanging around at home for ages, in the garden in this bin they were chucking out at work (I've drilled holes for drainage of course!).

And I weeded the peas, which are still making a surprisingly valiant effort despite the slug damage. Snails in the home garden got my second sowing too (grrrr) so I'm now preparing to make a third, and I won't be beaten this time dammit!

Lastly, today I began the task of thinning the salad plants, which meant bringing a huge bag of thinnings home... So tonight for dinner we had a huge bowl of salad (mostly little gem, iceberg 'Balmoral', red cos 'Marshall' and a few mustard leaves that the flea beetles hadn't found yet) with a pile of buttery new potatoes (sadly not Nomegrown, but it won't be long now...) and some chicken marinated in tomato puree, garlic, oil and lemon juice and then chargrilled. Lovely!

Planting out!

We've had a week and a half now of glorious sunshine and stupidly high temperatures (I'm not complaining - yet!) and watering the young plants in the garden seems to be a neverending task.

I have managed to plant some out this week at least; the herb garden is now home to rosemary, thyme, mint, lemon balm, lovage, sorrel, chamomile, feverfew, yarrow, echinacea, marjoram, and some creeping thyme and wild pansies. (I've put low-growers like chamomile and creeping thyme between the paving stones, so we can still walk across it even when everything's grown.)
Still to come are sage, oregano, chives and tarragon, plus tansy, hyssop, and some calendula, poppies and poached egg plants to fill in the gaps (and hopefully one day some saffron crocuses, bluebells, and a few other bits and pieces...) Dry weather like this is obviously not a good time to do so much planting out of young plants, but with a lot of careful watering they seem to be settling in ok. I can't wait until everything has grown and filled up all that bare soil!


I've mulched part of the courgette/cucmber bed with compost from the heap and planted out the first lot of courgette plants too, with a little moat round each one to retain water.


A couple of weeks ago I was worrying over the big decision about when it's safe to plant tender crops out. The last frost date for this area is supposed to be around the 5th May, although all the magazines seem to suggest you wait 'til late May to be sure, but this mini-heatwave we're experiencing has convinced me!

The tomato bed is very nearly ready to plant, so hopefully I'll get that done this week, and some more flowers planted among the herbs. And everything needs weeding, so I'd better start on that too.

Asparagus

We ate our first Nome-grown asparagus on the 2nd of this month and another delicious helping yesterday - it's absolutely delightful and well worth the wait! I know it's not very purist of me but my favourite asparagus dish is this tagliatelle with a creamy mustardy sauce - the flavour of mustard complements the asparagus so well.

Saute chopped spring onions in butter, sprinkle over a little white wine (or lemon juice yesterday since we had no wine!) and stir in some double cream. Let it thicken a little, then add a spoonful of wholegrain mustard, season to taste, and stir in the steamed asparagus spears and some chopped chives. Serve with tagliatelle and, if you fancy, some grilled chicken. Mmmmmmmm.

On the plot, I can't believe we're a week into May and there's still so much to do. There are still two beds to dig, but I think the compost bin is pretty much full to capacity...

We're going to have to work harder to empty this one!

This week I must get the herb garden planted and the tomato and courgette beds fully prepared.

And if you read about my peas getting mown down by slugs last week, you'll be glad to know I've got two seed trays full of replacements popping up happily at home : )

A Beautiful Bank Holiday

What a beautiful bank holiday!
We had a great day on the plot in the sun and got loads done. The herb garden is now clear and ready to plant. Already growing you can see three tiny minarette fruit trees (two apples, one pear), a horseradish plant and two lavender plants.


And we've planted the first of our yarrow paths. It's hard to believe these tiny spidery plants will spread enough to fill the path, but I'll watch and wait...


While digging round the horseradish I cut a few pieces of root to plant among the potatoes - it's supposed to repel eelworms and improve their health generally. I've noticed a gap where one potato hasn't come up yet (bottom middle of the picture, although you probably can't see the gap for the weeds) - I hope it's doing all right down there!

Tiny weeds like this are coming up everywhere now. I seem to spend ages picking them out of the salad rows but it's an endless task.
The salad bed is starting to look pretty good though:

Although the mustard is being attacked flea-beetles, and they're starting on the mizuna and rocket too.

I've never had to deal with flea-beetles before - what do you do? I hear they're making derris unavailable as of this year so I won't have to make that is-it-harmless-enough? decision. My first reaction when I go out later will be to put my mint pots next to the rows - apparently flea-beetles don't like the smell. I might plant a couple of the sage seedlings I grew for the brassica beds there too.

The broad beans are suffering from something as well:

Is this vine weevil? I think so. There are a few blackfly too. The broad beans have had so many problems now I almost feel like giving up on them!

It's not all bad news though. Look at the carrots!

It may not like like much, but they've never got this far for me before. I'm so proud!

And the swedes are coming up too:

And to top the day off, we watched this damselfly emerging from its larval skin. Magic!

Poor peas

The asparagus is looking much healthier now - no slug damage, no frost damage, and no sign yet of the dreaded asparagus beetle; just fat tasty-looking spears growing at a rate of knots.
Great, I said when I saw it at the weekend. That slug-banish stuff must really work.
I checked the lettuces, spinaches, carrots and parsnips - no nibbles there either.
Great!
Then I checked the peas...

Dammit! What more can I do?? Copper strips round every bed perhaps? That would cost a fortune... Next year I'm sowing the peas indoors, that's for sure, though I don't know where I'll find the space. Perhaps I'll have to buy a second greenhouse...

This week I've been digging what will be the herb bed, around the pond and the fruit trees. Not the number one most pressing job, I admit, but I've got a zillion herbs and companion flowers in pots at home longing to spread their roots, and the patio is getting somewhat clogged...


Digging this area is tricky because there are a few plants already here which I want to keep - the fruit trees of course and some lavender - and I'm trying my hardest not to drop dirt in the pond! I've also been slowed down by the sudden rain showers all week, and I've had to take refuge several times in next-plot's greenhouse!

I was kept company today by this robin - a brave little fellow who kept pinching hapless worms literally from under my fork!

When I sat down for a drink and he came to sit on my fork-handle, I almost felt like a proper gardener!


The weeds are really getting going now; the couch grass is even making a bid to take over the pond (though it'd have to do better than this to outgrow that watermint - I've had to chop that back again too!).


The potatoes are all up - maincrop and all - and I had to dig a couple of strays out of last year's potato patch too!


And the strawberries are flowering! How exciting!


Lastly, here is this post's picture of Hastings, because he's such a softie and I can't resist. He spent a large portion of Sunday curled up asleep on our table (and another large portion curled up asleep on Eddie while I did all the hard work, which didn't please me quite so much!).