We're off!

A sunny day at last after a long, cold winter. My parsley has overwintered really well and the broad beans, sown in a plastic storage box in January have been in the ground for over a week.

I have peas in the garden too. Growing under fleece, I took a first cut for salad as I planted them out. I'm hoping for several cuts from them and there are more to sow for later in the year.

Autumn sowing

On November 17th I prepared my centre vegetable bed. It's 30 x 27 inches. I dug it over, incorporating weeds, dosed it with some blood, fish and bone, added a layer of 2015 leaf mould and topped it with garden compost.

Then I sowed 30 broad bean seeds, The Sutton. I finished the job by covering it with netting to keep out the squirrels, voles and mice who tend to visit this area. Now to see when they germinate. (First three up on Dec 18th.)

I must remember to give the plants plenty of support early this time.

More potting

Yesterday, I put out the rest of my squash/courgette varieties into pots. One of each variety is still waiting to go into the haybale bed. (They went in on 29th) I also potted a "left over" red kitchen potato that had sprouted in the cupboard. This is an experiment to see if that gives decent results, but I don't know the variety. (Maybe Désirée)

The day before, I potted on the eleven tomato plants (right) that are waiting to go into the broad bean bed. We ate broad beans in their pods last night. (They were lovely!) So the tomatoes may not have to wait too long.

The foxgloves (left) sown last June are flowering now, along with the hesperis and putting on a good show. The vipers bugloss are getting enormous and nearly ready to flower. The James Grieve apple tree appears to have set about 200 fruits!

Beans are started

Last week of April. Sow beans my calendar said. So I did. 10 Hestia, dwarf runners; 10 Boby Bianco, dwarf French beans and 6 Meraviglia di Venezia, climbing French beans. They all went into the conservatory and the Hestia are up today. (The others followed in the next couple of days.)

I planted one tomato Principe Borghese out in the plot three days ago and a couple of purple basils went out next to it today. Six garlic chives were potted up, one gardeners' delight tomato went out in a pot next to the conservatory today and one Verde d'Italia courgette went into the squash bed. Broad beans are just beginning to appear and the apples have an enormous amount of flower just opening.

I bought two cucumber plants this week and potted them up into small pots in the greenhouse. Pak choy and salad greens have gone out into the shady plot and chard seedlings are just showing.

Beans and peas

I sowed 3 rows of 7 broad beans today in the large bed, between the leeks and garlic. I've got about 7 beans left to sow in "holes" in the spring. I watered them in with peppermint flavoured water to deter mouse predation.  Then I sowed some sweet peas in loo rolls set in pots, 1 in roll, 1 in pot for most of the ten pots. Some of the seed were this year's saved seeds, some were last year's from Higgledy. These have all gone into the cold frame.

Note: 2nd November. The first broad beans are showing. Some of the sweet peas have been up for a few days now.

Bean harvesting

On Wednesday I cleared the broad bean patch, collecting the main crop of beans. I was very pleased and consider that this was a good harvest! I did a rough clean-up, lightly raked an area and sowed a drill of salad greens. I'm not sure if there's anything I can use the rest of this plot for at the moment. I could have had some squashes, courgettes or cucumbers to go in.

Salad days

On Monday I planted out my third sowing of rocket and my first of mizuna. I sowed another set of each in the conservatory along with a tray of purslane. I added my outdoor San Marzano and Gardener's Delight tomatoes to the beds too. Black Russian is already in the broad bean bed.

The salad bed is beginning to look productive now but growth is still limited due to the persistent cold weather.

Some of my weakest larkspur have been planted out by the greenhouse along with a border of trailing nasturtiums. Other nasturtiums have been planted out the front on the garage bed and some in pots to trail down the "pillars" in the back garden. One of these pots has some of my white cosmos in as well.

Broad beans, both whole pods and shelled beans, along with carrots and leaf beet in tonight's dinner.

Little harvests

In the last week I have harvested and eaten my first two crops! First went the broad bean tops. Pinched out, sautéed gently and served on a slice of bread. Second was the turn of the elephant garlic scapes. Given roughly the same treatment as the bean tops. Both were lovely and are the first taste of spring - gone for another year!

Oh! - and I managed to get together enough rocket to garnish a cheese sandwich last week as well.

Hoping for bigger things to come. The weather is still so cold - hardly any growth on anything.

Spring update

The sun is now in Taurus and the beds are beginning to fill.

The plastic bed has elephant garlic, leeks and chives growing.
The spaces are filled with pots to stop the squirrels digging!

The big bed is nearly full of broad bean plants with a few pots covering the spare patch at the end. 

I am expecting French beans to go in there.