Too hot ?

   Just as one thinks that the weather is against one either too hot, too cold or too wet it changes. The last week has been warm to hot and dry. I was about to get my concerned hat on and the weather has gone cooler and it has rained. Excellent. Most things are growing well and now with the bit of rain the transplanted plants and newly sown seeds ought to get moving!
   Spotted the first colorado beetle on the 17th and have now started to patrol the potato patches to try to catch any. So far I have caught and squished a good number.  First volunteer (that is potatoes that have grown from spuds not harvested last year) potatoes dug up. These were purple ones, variety Violet. I have also dug up some Volunteer Desiree potatoes too. All in all several free kilos of spuds! The squash bed is now fully poputated with varieties American Tonda and Kuri added to the Sibley and Waltham butternut. The second sowing of broad beans has now been picked and cleared. Over two kilos of shelled beans harvested and froze!  I have created a small seed bed at the back of my poly tunnel where is it shaded most of the day. It is getting too hot in the poly tunnel for seeds. I have sown Great Lakes lettuce and some 18Jour radish in this bed. In the place of the broad beans (once forked and weeded!) I have put my first lot of cucumbers, variety Tamra. New one to me. Hopefully they will do ok outside. Last years cucumbers in the poly tunnel were a disappointment. Winter vegetables have been now been transplanted into my winter vegetable bed. This bed has been prepared with manure over winter and then lime added when planting out. Found this worked well last year with my Early purple sprouting. So, two varieties of Brussels sprouts and Early Purple Sprouting have populted this bed. One variety of Brussel Sprout is a dutch variety. My early sowing of haricot vert and buerre has been very disappointing. I have resown with a hope they do better in the warmer soil. The borlotti beans have not done much better and I will resow in the gaps.
  On the chicken front Mrs Brahma sits tight although she has been seen off the nest (quite normal). I had to put one chicken down who was suffering from some respiratory ailment and she had lost a lot of condition. We have also swapped our plastic coop and the old duck coop and moved the flock that has been using it. This is to allow us to move Mrs Brahma and her chicks (and maybe before) to a more safe environment. 
   So onwards I go! Lots to do and not enough time to do it all in. Oh well one can only do what one can do and I try hard not to over do things.

Shelled broad beans

Pumpkins on top of the Hugelkultur bed

Desiree potatoes 

First lot of Brussels sprouts planted out. That white stuff is lime.