And now the rewards start

   The first lettuce have been pulled from the poly tunnel. That's lettuce and radish now being harvested. Potatoes are showing and I am running around covering them up as fast as they push themselves above the soil. Frost is still a retreating threat up until the middle of May! More weeding done. It never ends to be honest!  Bit like the grass mowing at this time of year. I have joined up three of my small beds and sowed cosmos, woad and marigolds with a thought to encouraging pollinating insects. Part of the bed has an established population of comfrey used for making liquid fertilizer. It will be nice to have some flowers. While preparing the bed for the squash plants I came across "volunteer" Violet potatoes planted some two years ago. I have now moved them to their own bed in hope of getting a boiling or two. More tomatoes transplanted to pots and from thinking I will not have enough tomato plants this year I will have at least fifty with more to come so I am content! More lettuce sown although experience tells me that growing lettuce after May is not very successful. It tends to be too hot! I have sown sweet corn in modules with a thought to planting up a bed with the plants and also seed to hopefully get a bit of a succession. First row of Sanquine beet sown and I noticed that my transplanted parsnip seedlings have taken. All in all a busy week and still plenty to do! Oh yes, there was grass mowing too!
   On the animal front nothing happening with the sheep. Mrs Buffy (Buff Orpington hen) has decided to go broody again and I will need to keep an eye on her chick. The chick is six weeks old and should be ok. We have some eggs given to us by a friend in an incubator and one has hatched with another not making it and it would seem one more about to hatch. Hopefully we will get a few chicks.

Eagerly awaited broad beans

Mowing, forking, weeding.....

   Plenty of weeding, forking and grass mowing done and to do! I have joined up three of my herb beds to make one continuous bed. I will sow some flower seed, comos and marigold, along with woad. Should make a pretty picture! A friend has provided me a rhubarb root that will add to my now two year old crowns grown from seed. I have transplanted Great Lake lettuce to an outside bed under cloches. I have grand hopes for these! Ha! In the poly tunnel I have transplanted some tomato seedlings to pots and I notice today that I have a few more that I can do. Tomato seed germination has been very poor this year.
   Today (14th April) we had the Champeau Easter egg hunt! Not all the eggs were found so that is a surprise waiting for me when I am out forking and weeding! Next week will see me sowing more seed probably in the outside beds. It is about four weeks to the end of the risk of frosts so it is worth a gamble for the first sowing of french beans.

For the Easter egg hunt 140219

Great Lakes before transplanting

April showers

  Well the weather stayed fine for a few days. The cherry trees have finally blossomed and I reckon they are late this year. The warm weather did not help my transplanted parsnips though. It has taken three attempts to get a reasonable row. Once the weather became cooler I had more success. Here is hoping that my resowed row of parsnip seed do something. I fear it will depend on whether or not the chickens leave them alone or not! With the continued good weather lots of forking and weeding done. The Egyptian onion bed now looks a lot better! In the onion beds the sets are growing well and I can now see defined rows of  growing onions. Finally got around to lighting my bonfire, probably the last one and of course more grass mowing! Lots of work done in the poly tunnel. The poly tunnel fleece cloche is now set up and populated with a variety of sown seeds and transplanted tomatoes. This year I am growing a variety of squash seeds given to me in exchange for some Egyptian onion sets. Varieties sown are American Tonda, Kuri, Long Island cheese and my own Waltham butternut. Just for fun I have also sown some Sankt Martin pumpkins which hopefully will do for Halloween. Cucumbers, Wautoma (always a favourite) and Marketmore also sown. Tomatoes Noire Crimee and Poitron transplanted to pots. Despite all I am getting an increased number of tomato seedlings but I still sowed another couple of seed trays as a backup. With to such a long season here sowing tomato seed late should not matter too much. 
   On the animal front all is ok. Mrs. Buffy and chick are fine, hens are laying well. Sheep are enjoying the spring and the new grass. We have a set of hens eggs in our incubator and await to see what appears in a couple of weeks. 
   So its hope for good weather, a little rain and there will be plenty to do!

Great Lakes lettuce seedlings