Rain, glorious rain...

    Ok, you can have too much of a good thing. Too much sun, too much rain! Man! No a lot achieved. It has been a damp to wet week. Lifted some Agata first earlies. So far not impressed with this variety and if I were planting next year I would not bother with these. Good ole Touchon carrots are producing again. I love this old varity and have had success over multiple years. Cut off the broad been stalks. Left the roots to so as to fix nitrogen in the soil from them. Violet garlic lifted. Poor crop but at least some! Elephant garlic has been a disappointment with most going to seed and the rest not producing any sort of Elephant garlic at all! Did some tidying up of the chicken run area. The forsythia as usual was trying its take over bit along with the lemon balm. Looks like it is going to be a damp week so very likely not a lot will get done.

    Chickens are not laying well and the suspect of all things is Wilba the cat!! Empty egg found on the drive way of my daughter house. The egg split neatly in halve and the contents devoured! Never would have thought a cat would eat an egg. Well an average of 2.9 eggs a day this last week up on last but still not as good as it should be.

No, it is not in the garden HONEST!

Yes more sun

    Vegetable gardening can be a fickle thing. You can go from success to failure in such a short time. Over my time here in la Creuse I have had successes and failures and I have had tremendous fun trying to grow unusual veg and trying out things like Hugelkultur and no dig beds. This year is one of failure I fear. Grass mowing, vine pruning and new potato lifting done this last week. The grass is brown and I was really just mowing off the weeds. A good start to the year with warmth and rain and an early planting out of lettuce was sucessful. Summer cabbage plants also planted out and fingers crossed I may get something from them. Now the sun is beating down at very high temperatures. I have lost my squash, pumpkins, tomatoes and cucumber plants despite watering.  Water melon plants are small and as I will have more than likely have moved by the time they produce I doubt if I will bother to plant them out.  A very poor germination rate of beetroot and other seeds.  Parsnips have gone to seed more so than usual and the shallots have already died back and are very small. Onions are small but are hanging in there but I am not expecting great things. Even the garlic has been poor. Success was had with over winter broad beans but the early sowing of peas was not a great success. On the upside strawberries have been good and it looks like I will get a decent potato crop. Not as large as last year but still decent. The sweet corn is going well and maize is a little more drought tolerant I think.  Early sowing of carrots are at least giving a crop that can be pulled. 

  The hens do not enjoy hot weather. Egg production over the last week has been poor with an average of 2.1 eggs per day. 

   So as the days go by I have to start to wind down my veg garden as the day draws closer to calling it a day on my time at Watermeadows.

Wilba cat on the poly tunnel roof!

SUN, more SUN, yet more SUN

     When it rains one wants sun, when its sunny one wants rain! Such is the desires of a gardener! Lol!  Lots of sun in la Creuse at the moment. There was a thunder and lightening storm with hail stones this last week but it missed us and there was just a few patters of rain. Not enough to make any difference or fill up the water butts!

    

Alouette 1st early potatoes

Italian herb Stridolo Sculpit Silene Inflata

First pick of Aquadulce broad beans

   It has been a busy week! Dug up some BF-15 and Desiree "volunteer" potatoes which means that I have not bought potatoes for over a year! First time ever! Finally got round to weeding the poly tunnel and transplanted some beetroot that had self seeded. Lots of weeding done this week in an effort to overtake the rapid growth of stuff! Hopefully weeds and grass will now slow down with the onset of the sunnier weather. Gone to seed lettuce pulled and given to the chickens. The first broad beans picked. Some Hopi cabbage grown from seed transplanted to the brassica bed. Butternut squash seedlings translanted but I fear that the sun will kill them off. We will see. Picked around three quarters of a kilo of Mari de Bois strawberries and transplanted some Suyo Long cucumbers to an outside the poly tunnel bed.

   Two hens have gone broody which means my daily egg production has dropped by fifty per cent! No point in them trying to hatch eggs as I no longer have a cockeral! Daily average of 2.85 eggs a day.

FORK AND WEEK FORK AND WEED

     Lots of forking and weeding this last week. Trying to get ground ready for transplanting butternut squash and cucumbers. Maybe wishing for sunshine was not a good idea as daily temperatures have been on the high side. Of course the usual mowing of grass! Produce has started to be picked and pulled. Lettuce, first lot of broad beans and some "volunteer" potatoes (Desiree and BF-15). These are potatoes grown from ones I failed to dig up last year. Not unusual to get a few but I must have missed quite a few from what I can see coming up in the previous years potato plots!

    Chickens are being chickens. Unfortunately I have lost my cockerel and a hen to probably a fox. The remaining hens are being kept shut up for now. They are not impressed. Average daily lay of 5.4, slightly down on last week.

Flowering onions with bees

First pick of broad beans

Somtimes one wishes come true

     Yep, my blog title last week was "Give me sunshine" and sure enough the sun has shone all week and the temperature has crepted up as the week as progressed.

    

Broad beans coming along

Weeded and remulched strawberry bed

   So it has been a busy week getting the outside garden looking at least tidy. With my house now on the market I need to try to make it look attractive! So, clearing weeds etc at the front of the house and around my well, mowing grass (never ends this time of year!) and clearing brambles and mowing a path to get access to the river done. One major job done which was to weed and remulch the strawberry bed. Lots of flowers so I am hopeful for some strawberries at some point. I did pull a couple of lettuces from the poly tunnel!  The radish sown in the poly tunnel look very poor unfortunately. I am not starting to get concerned over the lack of rain and the forecast does not look good. Still, plenty of work to do particularly getting the plot ready for the butternut squash plants.

   Chickens are doing well and I guess they are enjoying the sun and of course the longer day light hours. An average of six eggs a day this last week, up on last week. I have 10 laying hens so most days I am getting 7 eggs.

Give me sunshine

       The sun has been out a lot this last week. Very pleasent temperatures and quite nice riding around mowing grass!!

   Despite spending a lot ot time mowing grass a number of other jobs have been completed. Golden Bantam sweet corn sown in an outside the poly tunnel plot but they could do with some rain. Tomato plants transplanted and to be honest they are not up to much at the moment but hey given time, given time. Given the rise in temperature and that shinning thing in the sky making a daily appearance I have sowed Blacktail Mountain water melon and 5 Dessert melon seeds in pots and placed in the poly tunnel fleece cloche. Hopefully the temperature will remain high enough in the poly tunnel to germinate them. Also sown in pots two new varities of cucumber, Suyo Long and Tamra (a rare heritage variety so I am going to take good care of these and try to make sure I get some seed) and the good old stand by Marketmore. First lettuce of the season pulled and asparagus spurs cut. Early and second early spuds are up but no sign of beans on the broad bean plants yet. Plenty of work to do!!

   Chickens are being chickens being throughly spoilt with handfuls of black sunflower seeds. Average daily egg production is up, 4.6 per day and a couple of days of seven per day (I have ten laying hens). 

   

First asparagus spurs with toast and boiled egg.

    

Yes you know

     Yes more grass mowing. Seems to never end. Hey ho! More seeds sown in pots and put into the poly tunnel - Giant Pacific Pumpkin and Champ Waltham butternut squash. Some 2021 carrots pulled and they are still quite edible. Large Hugelkultur bed weeded and restored after the chickens decided they wanted to try to flatten it! Outside the poly tunnel lettuce plants look established and there are lots of flowers on the strawberries. Bought some Chou Cabus Pointu Poet (a pointy headed cabbage) to try to get some early summer cabbage and planted those out in the brassica bed. I have removed the cloches from my early sown carrots and have been surprised and please with the results.

Touchon carrots 

    The chickens have been gathered together in the main coop more for their own safety than anything and kept in for a few days to reset their little brains! Got to the point where the cockeral and a couple hens decided the garden looked a better bet and started to escape so I had to let them all out. Fortunately it was a few days after they had been shut in. Dailyu average of 3.9 eggs this week down on last.

    1st May Sunday breakfast consisted of freshly cut asparagus, first of the season, brown buttered toast cut into fingers and a cup of tea! Was rather good.