Spring rain and shearing sheep...

   It is that time of year again. Time to grab a sheep and go at it with the shearers! I have bought some electric ones to speed up the process. We managed to get four done before the weather turned against us. Electric shearers are the way to go!

   The rats in the chicken coop were just becoming too much so something needed to be done. Over a week or two I have managed to eliminate them but it took three boxes of poison blocks, two types of poison. Makes one wonder if there is some resistant in the local rodent population.

   Anyway to more happier things! The asparagus season is coming to an end and I have to admit the crop has not been as large as I would have hoped. Still, just having some is nice. Sun flowers, sweet corn, popping corn and a second row of Champion of England peas have been sown in the garden. The corn was up within a week. Most of the tomatoes are now well 

Latvian soup pea

established and I have started to remove side shoots. I had to buy another hundred and eleven metal tomato poles! Could be a glut of tomatoes. The cabbage and sprouts are looking good and fingers crossed, maybe, hopefully I will get some decent sprouts this year! The beetroot grown in modules is now well established as is a good row of carrots. There are lots of pea pods on the Oskar peas so hopefully soon I will be picking outside peas. The potatoes just look grand. I do enjoy the foliage of the potatoes each variety a different shade of green.

   In the poly tunnel cucumber, melon (musk, water and troubadour) and pumpkin have been sown and have germinated! First lot of purple spouting have been sown and I am having a go a growing calabrese but from what I read they are not an easy plant to grown by any means. 

   Out of a packet of white sage seeds I managed to get one to grow and establish itself. I have been waiting for the plant to produce enough shoots for me to take cuttings. I have now taken six cutting and fingers crossed I may get a couple more plants.

   Of course, the grass is growing and I managed once more to break the handle of my petrol mower. As it happens we have acquired a low cutting bush whacker so the grass will still be cut.

   After a period of really nice weather, sun and very warm, it has turned cool and it has been raining. If I am honest as a gardener the rain came just at the right time. The ground was getting dry and newly transplanted crops and seeds need some moisture to help get them established and growing. Must not grumble!

Haricot and sweet corn

Runner bean poles

   My rustic, mostly hazel, runner bean poles! I have sown a Greek variety of runner bean from the Real Seed Company called Greek Gigante. You eat the beans rather than the pods and beans. The beans can also be dried for storage. The first strawberries have been picked - three! One each for the grand kids! Behind the poles is a bed of Rosebelle potatoes with Franceline potatoes in the distance.

Now the threat of frost is fast rescinding I have sown haricot  - Cupion (yellow), and Borlotti. Cupion is one of those haricots that you can eat young. You steam the beans when small but also you can eat them as they develop and even leave them to store the seeds. The last of my tomato plants, Stupice, Champeau Giant yellow, Latah , Galina and Ethel Watkins Best have been transplanted to outside beds and I have removed the fleece from those already out. There is a lot of tomato's in my garden this year! Sweet corn and pop corn (yes pop corn!) have been sown with fleece over the soil to stop the chickens from scratching them up! Last year I grew most of my sweet corn in modules and some directly in the ground. In the end there was not a lot of difference between the methods. Least growing them inside the poly tunnel I know I will  get a good germination. Heck, I am running out of room to sown stuff! Of course, I am mowing the grass, oh too frequently. It will not be long and it will slow down (fingers crossed!). My summer cabbage, Louvier, and Golden Primo are looking good. The potatoes are a picture.

Bed of Belle Fontenay Potatoes

  In the poly tunnel and tomb lettuce predominates along with some nicely establish tomato plants. Wautoma cucumbers have germinated and I am expecting the courgettes and melons to follow. The weather is helping by being in the 20's (centigrade) for a few days.

Good grief! Two weeks has gone by.

   Well, I do not know! The time has flown away again and two weeks has passed since I posted anything. Apologies about that!

Rhode Island red, Cuckoo Renne and a Limousin

    Lots and lots has been going on. In the chicken world three new birds have joined the egg laying flock. Thirteen (should have been twelve (it would seem the french cannot count!) hens have arrived which will be grown on for our consumption. There has been a bout of chicken conjunctivitis with one hen having a bad time. Treatment with human eye drops has sorted them out and all are recovering. 
   In the garden I have taken a gamble and I have planted out under fleece a large number of Roma and Ethel Watkins Best tomatoes. Two reasons. Firstly the spring has been unusually mild with very few hard frosts and a calculated risk (oh boy that brings back memories of work!) was called for. Secondly again due to the mild spring the plants have grown well and needed to be transplanted! Two rows of Sangine beetroot grown in modules and more Evesham Special Brussels sprouts have been transplanted. A row of Lisbon spring onions has been sown. We are going to look like onions this year! The field beans are now over six feet high! Crazy! The scent from the flowers is really nice. Of course, grass mowing is now a regular chore. The asparagus has been good although not as heavy cropping as I would have liked, however, we are only about one third of the way into the season so hopefully it will improve. The last of the winter leeks been dug up with some going to seed. Time to prepare the runner bean trench and set up the poles. I have a Greek variety this year to grow. Instead of eating the pods you leave the pods to dry on the plant and you store the beans. 
    In the poly tunnel lettuce is being harvested (Little Gem and Salad Bowl) along with radishes (French Breakfast and Pernot Clair). Another row of radish, this time, Candela di fuoco, a long rooted variety. Tomatoes have been transplanted, Gardeners Delight, Dr. Wytches tomiltillo, Millefleur and Galina and are now well settled in. This year I have concentrated on growing grape varieties in the poly tunnel. 
   Round two has now been entered with squash, pumpkin, melon, cucumber and courgette being sowed in pots. 

Excavation in progress!

  I decided that I was fed up of walking on a slope when looking at my strawberries, which by the way, are doing just fine. So I embarked on a task to level out the paths. The two photograph's are of the top path. The lower path had to be cut through yellow/orange clay! 
  Phew! Well the above is most of the things I have been up to in the last couple of weeks but I am sure I have missed out something. I will try to be a little less tardy with my posting!
  

A more level path!

   

Round 1 ends?

   Over the last week the weather had turned from warm and sunny to wet and windy. The  ground once again is saturated so guess what? Yes, the  grass is growing fast! The difference is the ambient temperature. Night time temperatures are well above freezing and there has not been a frost for a while now. I fear I am going to get to eat those words. Frost can be expected in my area up to the middle of May. With the mild winter and early spring this year I have taken a chance and I have a lot of produce outside of the poly tunnel in the ground growing well. The long range weather forecast is for the mild weather to continue. Two weeks to go!
   I have transplanted Evesham Special Brussels Sprouts to a well prepared outside bed. I am determined this year to grow some decent sprouts and I have made an effort to use the best brassica growing patch in the garden. These two beds have produced very good cabbage in the past. So, forked, weeded, limed, compacted, planted and covered over to protect them from the chickens the first lot of sprouts and summer cabbage has been planted out and are well established. The next lot of sprouts are about ready to go out. Also I am again trying to grow Asturian tree cabbage and I have planted out  a number of plants. The Champion of England peas mostly gathered from last years sowing have germinated and are under way. Oskar "so called dwarf" peas are well established but no flowers yet. Sanquire beetroot,  grown in modules, have been transplanted and the wet weather has helped to establish them. Nantes 4 carrot have germinated and I am counting the days down to sowing the next row. Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes. I have a lot of potatoes in this year and they too area showing their heads. So far I have kept them covered up but they are beginning to get too big so will soon have to take their chances. Early sown lettuce has been a great success in the poly tunnel and the tomb (French glass house type cover for graves) and a succession sowing has been made. My Tender and True and Guernsey parsnips are well established and I have thinned the rows. Again the recent rain is helping. The field beans are now over five feet tall and full of flowers and buzzy bees. I am hopeful for a large crop. The rain has also helped my onion seedlings to establish themselves just as I was getting concerned about them needing to be watered. I am cutting asparagus regularly although not in large quantities. I have transplanted some 147 tomato plants to outside the poly tunnel beds (Roma and Ethel Watkins Best) and my fingers are crossed. End of round 1?
 In the poly tunnel more space is coming free as the spring cabbage is eaten and lettuce is consumed. I  have tomatoes to plant out in the poly tunnel and they will be cherry types. Several varieties of basil have germinated and I have foiled a slug attack!
   Round 2 will be the sowing of the more tender plants (melons, cucumber, squash, courgettes and pumpkins).
   I could not resist it and I have dug another bed. This time a round one at the top of two rectangle beds. This new bed will be planted with vegetables. Well, at least this year.

   In the chicken world we have purchased some more hens - a Cuckoo de Renne, Rhode Island Red and a replacement Limousin. This brings are laying hen total to thirteen which is as many as we can really have in our chicken shed. Also purchased some hens for eating.The sheep have now finished lambing and we have five healthy lambs, three ewes and two rams. Next job with them will be to use the new electric shears!

Over winter veg, lambs and goose!

   We are now into the second half of April. I have been very pleased with the vegetables that I have been able to grow over the winter, particularly in the poly tunnel. The mild weather helps, mind you! My "Christmas" potatoes turned into Easter potatoes but still an early crop. 

Easter Sunday dinner.

I managed to grow peas, leeks and spring cabbage along with the spuds in the poly tunnel to have with our home raised goose for Easter Sunday dinner. 
  The potatoes that were planted just over a week ago are putting their heads up. I am going around covering them up as fast as they are showing.
  I have been taking cuttings of marjoram, parsley and blue sage to hang up in the poly tunnel to dry with the idea of making mixed herbs. A sowing of Champion of England peas (they grow to over six feet tall!) has been made and they are now showing. The Oskar dwarf and Latvian soup peas are standing well and should soon show flowers. The asparagus is growing well and I have cut a number of spurs with more to come. General maintenance continues with edge tidying and getting ready to sow runner beans. This year I am going for a Greek variety that are good for drying. 
   In the poly tunnel tomato plants are in abundance and I fear I am going to have to plant some out under fleece before too long. Mid May is the last frost day here in La Creuse but I think I will have to take the chance. I have been putting off sowing cucumbers, pumpkins, melons and the like until the end of April. I may chance my arm on a cucumber though! Ha!
   The fifth and final lamb has been born. The ewe needed a bit of help with the birth. My daughter and I were sheep mid-wives! We have lost one of our new Limousin chickens. She disappeared one day so we have bought three more chickens. Two will lay chocolate brown eggs and the third is a Sussex. They are young birds and are not laying yet so our egg count is low at the moment.    

Number five lamb, a ram

Trouble afoot in the chicken shed

   Our luck with our chickens is not good at the moment. After the loosing five chickens to the dog attack another two have gone missing. One of them a Limousin which had been bought as a replacement. They may yet turn up. In the mean time three more hens have be purchased, a Sussex and two others that lay chocolate brown eggs. We look forward to them starting to lay in a couple of weeks. Happier news. Another lamb has been born, a ewe lamb. We are expecting there to be two more to come.
   In the poly tunnel the first of the Louvier cabbage has been cut and eaten. Very nice too! Two more spurs of asparagus have been cut and I have now spotted a lot more growing in the outside asparagus bed. I have resisted so far in digging up the potatoes but I am going to have to  have a look soon! I have sown coriander, basil (lemon, mammoth, Genovese), Chou Rouge and another row of french breakfast radish. Evesham special sprouts have been transplanted to pots along with Stupice, Galina, Millfleur, Latah, Cour de Boeuf tomatoes and Parsley. The parsley will be used to put in between the tomatoes when they have been put outside. A slug ate a lot of my first sowing of lettuce leaf basil. As it happens the seedlings were not that big and some survived. There has been a small slug problem in the poly tunnel this spring. Not surprising given the amount of rain, I guess.
  I have populated the Tomb (is a construct that the french often use to cover graves) beds with lettuce - Little Gem, Salad Bowl and Jack Ice.
 

Shallots and Red onion sets

In the outside garden its all go. Over winter leeks are still being pulled but they are rapidly coming to the end. Four varities of potatoes have been planted (Belle de Fontenay, Franceline, Desiree and Rosebelle). A row of Nante 4 carrot, an early variety has also been sown. More onion seedlings transplanted this time a variety call Sturon.  I prepared a bed for cabbages and transplanted Louvier and Golden Acre primo. These will form the core of the summer cabbage. 

Getting on with it!

Cherry Blossom

First asparagus spur

     Spring has now arrived with gusto! It is warm and sunny, the ground is damp and that means....growth! Yep, once more the time has arrived where everything just grows madly which unfortunately includes the grass! I am mowing in earnest now and if I admit it I should be mowing weekly if not every four or five days. The upside is that all my seeds and vegetables are also growing well. Touch wood there has been little or no frost and with every passing day it get more unlikely that there will be any of serious note. Still, last frost day here is the middle of May!
   In the poly tunnel the first asparagus spur has appeared and is ready to cut. I have not seen anymore but they must be there somewhere! My "Christmas" potatoes have so far survived and I have spied small potatoes. Fingers crossed there will be a boiling of new potatoes shortly. Ethel Watkins best, Gardeners Delight (Irish variety!) tomato plants have been transplanted to pots along with Aubergines and Golden Primo cabbage. Other seeds have germinated (Basil, French Marigolds, Nictoiana, Moss parsley to mention a few). The Roma tomatoes in the fleece cloche are now well established and starting to put on growth. There are peas on the pea plants and the Louvier cabbage is heartening up. Salad bowl lettuce seedlings are now established.
   Lots going on in the outside garden as well. Jerusalem artichokes, Orca, Belle De Fontenay potatoes and Franceline potatoes have been planted. Latvian soup peas and Oskar peas have been transplanted to an outside bed and are looking good currently under a cloche to keep the chickens off. Starting peas off in seed trays looks to be a sure way of making sure that they germinate successfully and foils the mice and chickens! I have bought more Maris De Bois strawberry plants and have prepared and populated the third strawberry bed. Weeding between the garlic and field beans continues with an increasing amount of flowers appearing on the beans. I am continuing to prepare more beds to meet the increasing demand of plants needing to be transplanted.  
   Phew! I need to take a breath and suck on a stubby of Kings Brau!