One more time..."Singing in the rain, just singing in the rain..."

   After a few days of nice weather, in fact, two were quite hot, the rain has returned with a vengeance. In the space of an hour wind, rain, thunder, lightening and hail! And it continues to rain. Hey ho!
   My little feathered friends (not!) have now pretty much given up on the potatoes. I guess they are not tasty anymore. The tomato's I have thrown netting around. Ha!
   On the nice days over the last week I have managed to achieve a fair bit. Lots of forking and weeding and also getting the melon bed cleared.  I have sowed another row of carrots with the first two having germinated. I thinned out the earliest sown row. More tomato's transplanted to the outside bed making a total of some ninety seven plus sixteen in the poly tunnel, 113 to date! Probably about another fifty plants in pots not yet big enough to transplant and yet still more to transplant to pots. Yet more haricots sown. This time a yellow haricot called Minidor. The seed is a couple of years old so it may not do anything but hey if you do not try... The lettuce I had transplanted to an outside bed with plastic bottles over have now been uncovered. The last frost day has now gone.
   In the poly tunnel I have set up some netting and transplanted Chrystal Apple cucumber and of course more tomatoes to pots along with All the Year Round cauliflowers. The tomatoes in the poly tunnel are doing well with flowers already blooming. The cabbage patch looks good as does the lettuce and beetroot. Everyone has stopped eating radishes. Cannot think why! So I have stopped sowing them for now.
  The french transport strike has hit home! I cannot get any petrol in a container. What with the wet weather this means the dreaded grass is not being cut. It is going to be fun (not) when I can cut it. 

Poly tunnel cabbage patch

Cucumber Radish Lettuce (front to back)

Poly tunnel tomatoes

Those little ********

    It was a good start to the week. Another of our ewes had twins, both ewe lambs. That is two of our ewes that have had twins this year.  Only two ram lambs has been born which hopefully means we can more easily sell on the ewe lambs in the autumn. 

   As for the "little ********?" That is the chickens. They have been creating havoc among my potatoes and transplanted tomatoes. If it is one thing a chicken seems to like and that is a mound of loose earth to scratch over or young green leaves. They are very  good at reducing a heap of dirt to a very level piece of ground. It is quite impressive really.

   In the poly tunnel I have tomato's in flower and there two varieties of lettuce, beetroot and three varieties of tomato growing away. I am pulling little gem lettuce along with radish. There are many seeds in modules and pots that have germinated. There are several varieties of cucumber that have now reached the two or three leaf stage. Cauliflower, more lettuce, peppers, squash and all sorts either sown or germinated. I have now transplanted to pots one of the more unusual tomato plants, Noire Crimee (Black Crimea).

   In the outside garden the sugar snap peas are going well and to my delight the chickens have stayed away! With the first row now up and established I have sown another along side. I have also put up some wire fencing to act as a support for the growing peas. Most of the transplanted beetroot has survived a warm spell and has also survived the attentions of my feathered friends. The haricot vert I sowed has mostly germinated but some seedlings have been munched probably by slugs so I have resown in the gaps. I have sown sweet corn, a variety called "Zea May Maize". I just happened to pick it up from my local agricultural dealer when I was getting some wheat for the animals. When I looked it up I was surprised to find that it is the most grown variety in the world! More tomato plants have been transplanted to the outside bed this time Millefleur and Galina. I have sown Gigante runner beans this time directly into the ground rather than starting them off in pots in the poly tunnel. It will be interesting to see the results as long as I can keep the chickens off! Of course there has been the usual grass cutting, weeding and forking which never ends. The asparagus continues to go from strength to strength with more spurs being cut.
  So it is all go and will be for the next couple of weeks no doubt.

You know that headless chicken from last week?

   Yes it continues! Headless chicken mode! As I type this it is the latest frost date and guess what! The sky is clear and the forecast is for an overnight temperature of zero degrees. If I had a hat I would be holding onto it.
   Sowing continues apace outside and inside the poly tunnel. Outside a row of Nantes 4 carrot sowed along side the already germinated Touchon carrots. I have sowed borlotti beans and continue to cover up the potatoes as best I can. Inside Green Top swede, Great Lakes lettuce, Little Gem lettuce, Precoce de Louvier cabbage, Eight Ball courgette (round ones!) and Cheltenham Green Top beetroot all sown in pots or modules. Other work done in the poly tunnel has been to transplant moss curled parsley to pots and aubergine to pots, Milfleur and Galina tomatoes have been transplanted from pots to the long poly tunnel bed. Phew! 
   Oh yes, cut the grass and its needs doing again! I continue to pull radish and cut lettuce and asparagus. I also have been forking and weeding beds. There are fifty Ethel Watkins Best tomato plants that need to be transplanted outdoors and that is a priority job! 

Volunteer tomato about to flower

Tree Onions

It is headless chicken mode time!

   May is always a busy month in the garden, especially here in central France. In my part of the world the last frost is in the middle of May so if you are cunning you sow your more tender plant seeds towards the end of April, beginning of May, protect them in the poly tunnel fleece cloche and all being well they will be ready a little earlier. About a week ago I sowed cucumber seed and helped by warmer weather they are already germinating. Nature is amazing except when it comes to grass!
   What has been sowed over the last week? Lots. In the poly tunnel, mostly in pots, Clementine (millefleur type) and black tomato seed, persil (flat leaf parsley), All the Year Round cauliflower, Mammoth and resowed Lemon basil, Blacktail water melon, Troubadour melon, dwarf bush courgette, Waltham butternut and Burgess buttercup squash, Blue Banana squash and Justynka pumpkin. I have also transplanted beetroot and sowed Oregon sugar snap peas in an outside bed.  Weeding and grass cutting continues without saying really!
   The threat of frost is now less but I did cover up the potatoes one day and yes there was a frost the next morning. The potatoes are now growing at a pace and soon I will not be able to cover them up except with fleece. Only a week to go to the last frost date!
   It is proving to be a good year for the asparagus. Cutting began about a week ago and already I have cut a dozen spurs with plenty more to come. At last I am able to pull lettuce from the poly tunnel and hopefully I will manage to get a succession for at least a few weeks. Of course, you know who's law will be enforced and when one really wants lettuce one will not have any! I have also transplanted lettuce to an outside bed and used my bottom cut off plastic bottles to protect them from any frost. May work, may not.
   My four "volunteer" tomato plants in the poly tunnel have been joined by eight others, four Gardeners Delight and four Ethel Watkins best. Two of the volunteers have flowers forming. Never had a tomato looking this good so early. More tomato's to plant in the poly tunnel later.
   The apple trees are a picture. They are full of blossom and fingers crossed it could be a good year for apples. Well, the grass waits for no man. It is growing as I type so I must get back to it.

Apple blossom

Apple blossom