Good Growing Weather

It’s not the warm spring days we enjoyed this time last year, sometimes it feels like the middle of winter for moments – but a mixture of warmth, bits of sun, bits of rain, along with the protection of the fenced garden at home means plants are growing fast suddenly. It always takes a while (and is normally a couple of weeks before now) when the ideal mix of light and warmth come together and plants grow. I saw this last year where I planted out french beans at the beginning of May and they sat there for a month doing not much, and then took off when the weather caught up. This year, I’ve only just sowed french beans, I’m thinking it doesn’t matter.

Looking at photos just a week ago shows things have really moved on. Last week I was thinking I could start pulling some radish, this week we are trying to eat them as quick as we can before they bolt. Carrots sowed last week are now showing a neat straight line of small carrots seedlings.

Potatoes in the garden have come up and tonight I mulched them with grass clippings. They garden is wet and the grass was long, but I thought it was about time to tackle the jungle and see the garden once again. Peas that have been sitting doing not much all month have started climbing and I think this time next week they might be nearly at the top of the netting.

I sowed two sows of beetroot and parsnips (mixed with radish) the other week and these two are showing straight lines of seedlings. It’s hard to say how many of the parsnips have germinated but I think they haven’t done too bad. I can tell the spot where I tipped a load of parsnip seeds out of my hand by mistake…

Lots going on in the little plastic greenhouse and the shelves undercover:

  • purple sprouting sowed today
  • chard seedlings germinating
  • french and runner beans in loo rolls starting to show
  • marigolds popping up
  • celeriac getting their growing leafs
  • leeks wanting to be planted out
  • strawberry flowers

The garden is still a bit of a mess, composite decking and old rotten wooden decking are in piles. Maybe these coming weekends we will finish it off.

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