The first lot of radish were sown at the beginning of March, then instead of being taken up to the plot when they were ready to plant out, they were put into pots. We then had our new plot in the garden and so we transplanted them once again to their final position. Apart from the potatoes and onions (they don’t count do they?), these were the first things planted.

They have taken a while, normally I would cover with fleece to start with but they had none of that. The weekend was hot and sunny and so eating radish seemed like a good idea. We would have had a salad leaf or two but these have been slow (no fleece).

This year is a mixture of multi-sowing in modules and planting out, multi-sowing straight in the ground, and straight in the ground with no multi-sowing. Beetroot has not gone that well in modules this year, possibly trying out too quickly in the small amount of compost. Likewise, multi-sown things last year were small, which is expected and not a problem, but sometimes larger is a lot easier. Beetroot multi-sown direct in the ground have all come up and all looking rather good in their little clumps. I have them next to transplanted ones and I have various other small seedlings still in modules to put out. This is alongside carrots, two rows of which I can now see many small carrot seedlings.

Back to radish, we have lots all sown at different times. The ones today looked like they would soon be too large and so we pulled up three clumps. Some were indeed starting to split, but this didn’t get in the way of the taste. All were a good size. This is all rather symbolic, the first harvest from the garden of plants which are “pre lockdown”. When I was sowing these seeds, the world was a different place – and all that.

The hot weather meant lots going on:

• grass cut and the cuttings used as mulch
• old bush cuttings run over with the lawn mower and put on the compost (thanks http://theveggrowerpodcast.co.uk/ for the tip)
• more peas planted out
• beetroot seedlings planted out
• more beetroot sown (direct)
• more radish sown
• cucumbers transplanted into bigger pots
• a couple of tomato plants transplanted into bigger pots
• fennel seeds sown

We went for a walk up to the allotment, just to give the parsnips that were sown last week some water. We also covered the currants with netting in an attempt to keep birds off (it seemed to mostly work last year). Did a general (quick) tidy up, marveling at how quickly the grass and bushes have grown. The bloke in the plot next to us must normally strim the paths but has not been doing that and so I made a small start with my hands, it’s not as quick.

We came home with some broad beans.

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