Weather dominates

    By this time of year I expect the temperatures to be in the 20c range, however, that has not been the case this May. The temperature has been in the teens and it has been damp, windy and on occassion very wet! This has meant slow germination of many seeds and in fact quite a few not germinating at all. Even so some plants have thrived in the cooler wetter condtions and I have broad beans, summer cabbage, beetroot, sweet corn, potatoes, onions, shallots all thriving. Those requiring warmer condtions, tomatoes, sweet peppers, courgettes, squash, cucumbers and chili have been slow to grow and will require a little longer to get to the point where they can be planted out. Weather forecast for this week (23-29th May) looks promising with the temperature being the mid twenties centigrade by the end of the week.

   In my frustration of not being able to get stuff planted out I have planted out some tomato plants that I sowed early in the year and for reasons known only to the tomato seed actually germinated and thrived in the cooler condtions. Also a few sweet pepper plants given to me that really were asking to go out. Hopefully they will produce whereas I think the ones I have sown I will be fortunate to  get anything. One can tell the season is moving on as I have sown winter cabbage in modules (variety Milan - a savoy type) and the swede has germinated in the poly tunnel. More weeding, more grass cutting it seems to never end at this time of year. I have decided to join two of my smaller beds together by digging up the path between them. I have pulled rhubarb (making a delicious rhubarb crumble) and dug up beetroot which I have cooked and pickled in malt vinegar. My new no dig strawberry bed is doing well with the plants having lots of flowers and there are some strawberries ready to ripen. Who is going to get to them first? Me, chickens or slugs! 

   The chickens are being chickens and there have not been anymore losses to the fox thank goodness. Average daily lay this week is 5.86 eggs a slight increase on last week but for us good enough!

Golden Bantam sweet corn

Starting to joing two beds