Win some, loose some.

   This blog will be cover the last two weeks. I just do not know where time goes! My IT went belly up and I had to rebuild etc etc but hey ho nothing lost. So, week ending  19th May.
  Well nature got one on me. Around the middle of May in Champeau de Bas you get a couple of days of frost, sometimes quiet hard. Guess what? Yep, there was a hard one overnight on the 16-17th May. Poof! Sweet corn lost, some tomatoes lost, potatoes scorched. You take a gamble and sometimes you win and sometimes you loose. This time I lost. Hey ho! Least it is not too late to resow the sweet corn and go hot foot to the market and get some tomato plants! Succession sowings of cabbage made.
     I managed to kill the old petrol lawn mower so I had to get a new one. Black and yellow...bruuuuummmm!

The Beast

Week ending 26th May
   Since I wrote the above a lot of the tomato's have recovered! Amazing plants these tomatoes. The potatoes also are almost back to what they were before the frost. Guess I have just lost time. Lot of weeding done this week. After the rain comes the warmth, comes the weeds! I finally decided to dig another small bed so that I have somewhere to plant rows of seeds like cabbage outside. Beetroot (1st and 2nd sowings going well. My second sowing was done using a 12 cell plastic module, three seeds in each module. Well, it worked! All the seeds germinated and now transplanted without have to "thin" out. Result! Bolotti beans and Haricot vert are thriving. Carrots also moving along (three sowings for succession). Yolo sweet peppers transplanted (51). Soon be eating broad beans! Sweet Heart melons are still establishing themselves but I have high hopes!

Phew!

   It has been a hectic week. May is a very busy time in the garden. Lots to sow, lots to plant out. So, what I have been up to besides breaking my IT!
   Outside the poly tunnel lots of planting out. Tomatoes, gourds, butternut squash, courgettes, pumpkins, kohl rabi and a few cabbage. Succession sowing of radish and carrots. I have had a failure with my early sowing of Borlotti beans and Haricot Vert and have resown. Oh, guess what? I replanted and within two days some of the oringinal sowing popped up! Not all, but one or two! I have continued to recover an old flower border and I have planted it up with borage and cosmos with a scattering of wild flower seed. Who knows what will happen but the borage needed to be planted out. I have a wonderful display of comfrey and the bees are loving it. The grass I think has running boots on as it is growing almost as fast as I cut it!

Comfrey patch

Main crop potatoes - Desiree

   Inside the poly tunnel lots going on. I have a perfect cauliflower! Three (might be four yet) out of six is not bad for cauliflowers! Lol! The F1 Celtic cabbage have finally got to a point where they could be picked. Red cabbage and Lion King (white cabbage) germinated. Succession cabbage, kohl rabi,and lettuce sowed. The calabrese and the red cabbage have germinated. I had to buy a new packet of red cabbage seed as the seed in the old packet did not germinate at all. The Cape Gooseberries continue to thrive. A pair of cucumbers planted out but one looks a little sick so I fear the worse. This year I am trying to grow celery and have just transplanted some. I have planted up two hanging baskets of Tumbler tomatoes. All in all its busy busy busy!

My poly tunnel cauliflower

Tumbler Tomato's 

Its all grow! grow! grow!

   It has been a busy week. Why do I say that? It is always a busy week! The garden has really taken off. The grass grows while you watch it and really could do with being cut twice a week. The weather has been wet and warm but the ground has been drying fast. It is now ideal for growth and ideal for planting out. There is still a possibility of a frost but every day that goes by makes it less likely. I have dug a second herb bed. This bed will have tall herbs in it, for example, sage, borage and lemon balm. The strawberries have flowers on them.
   So what has been going on this week. In the poly tunnel the pace carries on being hectic. Seed sowing and plant transplanting goes on at a pace. In the the years I have grown broad beans I never realised what a nice perfume the blossoms have. Being the in the poly tunnel the scent is concentrated and it is very nice. I almost ran out of pots to transplant into but I decided to plant out my sweet corn and that gave me back around 90 pots. I have planted out some tomato's (Roma and Moneymaker) with the idea that they will produce earlier than the outdoors ones. We will see. My bush tomato's, variety Vilma, have flowers on them and I really need to put them out. Pak Choi has been transplanted and some Italian parsley sowed. I have four varieties of lettuce on the go - red salad bowl, Little Gem, Batavia Rene Glace, rosa de trento and a chickory! How much lettuce can one eat I wonder? Cape Gooseberry seed has germinated along with celery and chrystal lemon cucumber. That is a round cucumber with which I had great success with last year.

Transplanted sweet corn Kelvedon Wonder

Roma and Moneymaker tomatos in the poly tunnel

   Outside potatoes continue to pop up all over the place. I have transplanted Bedfordshire champion and Spanish onions grown from seed. Onion sets and shallots look good. The peas are now uncovered and pea sticks put in and I noticed that the broad beans have beans on them!

First broad bean

   I now thinking about poly tunnel sowing for the winter!! I have sown a few winter cabbage (Lion King - a white variety) already. Outside the next sowing of beetroot and carrots will need to be done. I have sorted out my first row of  beetroot (Cheltenham Green Top) which are now established and they have recovered from a chicken strike! I fear my parsnip sowing has been drowned and I may have to resow. Least here in La Creuse the growing season is long.  Has my gamble with the borlotti beans and haricot vert paid off? No sign of germination yet. So onward to this week and yet more sowing, transplanting and mowing the grass!