Time flies!

   If anyone is out there reading my blog apologies for being a couple of days late. No excuse, just forgot!
   Transplanting outside the poly tunnel continues at pace. Aubergines, Waltham butternut squash, 8 ball courgette, Green top Swede, Noire de Crimee and Cocktail Clementine tomatoes, Great Lakes and Little Gem lettuce, Troubadour and Blacktail water melons. Other jobs done: tied up the Gigante runner beans as they were reluctant to wrap themselves around the poles; first garlic dug up -not quite ready but very close; resowed sweet corn only to discover that I had bought animal maize! Darn. 
   In the poly tunnel the tomatoes and both varieties of cucumbers are growing really well.  More lettuce transplanted also although lettuce is now being transplanted outside the poly tunnel so I will use the space for something else as they are eaten. I have now transplanted some basil in between the plants. Basil and tomatoes go well together. My crop of cabbage is looking good and will start to be cut.
   There is much to do, far too much. It will  not be long before I can dig up the early potatoes. They are in flower and I noticed that the sugar snap peas are starting to show flowers. The good old grass needs cutting again but the weather has turned hot and humid. 
   On the animal front all is well. The Sussex hen continues to sit on her eggs and the lambs are growing. I managed to break my sheep shears just as we started to do the ewes. I have managed to borrow another set so hopefully we can crack on. The time has come to process the meat chickens. We have three cockerels out of the eight birds we have, annoyingly the two Maran's are cockerels. 

Transplant time!

   Looking back over my garden log for the week I have done a lot of transplanting! Wautoma cucumbers, cocktail clementine tomatoes and jalapeno peppers to a bed in the poly tunnel, sweet peppers to larger pots, butternut squash and courgettes to an outside bed!

  Of course there was the compulsory grass cutting, edge of bed cutting and weeding! Gaps in the bolotti beans and coupion french dwarf beans were sown with more seed. There has been a fair number of bean type seed that have not germinated this year probably I think due to the cold wet earth more than anything but some have been taken by slugs.  I think I need to replace my bean seeds with fresh ones. Another section of garden bed sow with haricot vert. My daughter said grown more beans this year. Ha! If only she realised what she is going to get!

  My feathered friends (not!) the chickens have discovered my beetroot and have eaten every single leaf. You just would not believe it! I am going to have to keep any more I sow covered up. 

  On the animal front my daughters adopted chicken, Henri-etta, was killed by a neighbours dog. She had wandered into their garden and the dog was an ex-hunting dog and was only following its instincts. Still, upsetting. Sheep shearing season has started with six rams done to date. Only eleven ewes to do! I cannot remember if I mentioned it before but one of our chickens has gone broody and has now been sitting on what may be fertile eggs for some ten days. Time will tell.

Sheared Rams

Estimated twelve inches of rain!

   The weather has just be terrible. Lots of rain. We estimated we have had at least twelve inches. As you can imagine the ground became saturated to the point that water was just running away on the surface and the beds were turning into liquid mud! To add to that we have had thunder, lightening, heavy rain and hail stones!

Rain storm and hail stones

   Despite the bad weather I have managed to get on. In the poly tunnel Great Lakes and Little Gem lettuce has been transplanted and Mammoth basil transplanted to pots and also amongst the Galina tomatoes. Wautoma cucumbers have been transplanted to one of the small beds. Kyoto Green Leaf onions has been transplanted to the end of a path as an experiment. These are Japanese bunching onions and I want to establish a colony so that I can transplant them to an outside bed. The tomatoes are now requiring to be tied onto their guide strings and it is a daily job to look for side shoots. 
   In the outside garden I have transplanted more tomatoes along with butternut squash and courgettes. There is plenty of weeding to be done! The grass what with all the rain had grown so long that I have had to mow it with the bush whacker. Least I managed to get down by the river as well. 
   The asparagus is now all but finished. I continue to pull lettuce in the poly tunnel but the radish is now also finished, least in the poly tunnel. The early new potatoes are in flower so it will not be long before I will be digging them up. Only seems five minutes since I planted them.
   On the animal front the sheep and lambs are fine. We have lost another chicken this time to a neighbours dog. Our chicken wandered into their garden and was attacked. She was used to dogs and did not expect to be attacked. Another chicken, our Sussex, has gone broody and is currently sitting on nine eggs. I do not know if there will be any chicks as our cockerel's are only little blighters and I am not sure if they are capable of completing the act!

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