Pathetic peas

All this rain and weeds are growing like mad. most of the week end has been spent having a good tidy up. The lavender in bloom around the plot post looks good, the bind weed growing through the lavender isn't so welcome.

The french beans are reaching the tops of the canes now and are in flower. The Violet has appropriately purple flowers! The yellow beans have creamy coloured flowers and the normal green beans have white flowers.

The pathetic peas. Only one plant has really got going enough to produce pods, a disappointment after last year.

I ate them directly from the pod, so sweet and tasty. I wish I had a few more.

I was worried about blight, my neighbour thought my potatoes might have it. I think they're just going over. I dug up a plant to check, fifteen smallish new potatoes, all in good condition.

There's quite a few raspberries coming, they prefer the cooler wet conditions. In Scotland we saw them growing wild in the way Blackberries do here.

This one was ready to eat which I did without even washing my hands!

Some weeds are more attractive than others but they all had to go, at least they come up roots and all from the damp soil. I now have mud ingrained into my finger nails.

The view from the compost heap. Under the green nets and with plenty of slug pellets for defence I put out my savoy cabbages. In front of that there are some more tomato plants and in the very front patch I've tried putting out some leeks although they were rather tiny.

Muggy May

Surprisingly humid May weather, we had a good deal of rain last night and the sun has been peeping out from between the clouds this afternoon while I attended to the plot. My very first strawberry has gone red, I didn't pick it yet as it's still a bit unripe on the other side.

Things are growing on well #68, not too many bare patches left and I still have broccoli, cabbages and tomatoes to plant out.

The peas are coming on well so I put out some canes with string pulled across them to give the plants something to hold on to.

The potatoes are looking good. In the bottom right there was a plant that didn't come up so I planted another potato there which is just beginning to come through.

The tomatoes are coming along nicely, still a bit small yet but I hope to plant them out by the end of the month. I went through the greenhouse to see how things were fairing. I've planted out a few more french beans, they're much bigger than the ones which I planted out earlier. I also put three germinated sunflowers in the soil beside my shed, let's see how tall they get.

I had taken this tray out of the greenhouse the other week because I thought nothing was happening with it. Then today I could see little shoots which are unmistakably asparagus plants. I've got no idea where I shall plant them out and it'll be at least another two years before I have any spears to eat.

I collected some herbs before I went home, the thyme is in flower and the lavender has a lot of buds on it.

Rhubarb!

I picked my first crop of rhubarb today! Not the longest of stalks but they're okay. The main clump was forming a flower head which I pulled up and then thought I'd better pick some stalks seeing as they looked so nice, I also picked a few from the second clump, which were thinner but pinker.

The new rhubarb grew quickly but I don't think I'll pick any of it this year, it needs to build up some strength before it's ready to be harvested.

Above we can see the two rows of beans and the garlic, which are all doing well. The weather has been warm with a bit of sunshine, bees were buzzing about and I saw a few butterflies. I planted some tomato seeds and also some french beans in tray and put them in the cold frame. Some of the broccoli plants I planted last weekend had already sprouted, no sign of the cabbages though. They'll both have a long growing season before they're ready to eat.

I now have dozens of strawberry flowers, they weren't nearly so early last year but they might have been held back because I had only just moved them in February when I first got the plot. The beans have likewise produced a few more flowers although they need to grow a bit taller yet.

There was a lot of new growth on the herbs so I picked some sage (above), parsley, oregano and thyme. The rosemary seems to the only one that didn't survive the winter, I'll have to get a new plant.

Also some growth on the lavender, the new shoots are really minty green against the bluer old leaves.

A close up of that rhubarb - yum yum.