So many pictures on one day!

I popped up to the much neglected plot no 2 this lunchtime to do a bit of watering and the apple blossom was looking stunning. Of course I didn’t have the camera with me at the time though… A visit of a few minutes stretch to about an hour when I discovered quite how well my ‘crop’ of dandelions and ground elder was doing. Much hacking with a hoe later… Hopefully they’ll die off in the sun.

Anyhow, it was too good a chance to miss the blossom so I returned tonight with the camera:

I continued with my ‘summer’s here’ theme and planted out a couple of courgettes (Defender and Goldie). Not sure they’ll survive, but I’ve got plenty of backups.

I also put up another net for more climbing beans and peas. Now the more observant of you may notice that the poles aren’t straight and it looks a little ‘home made’ but I’m quite proud of that fact. I love making it out of the old sticks from the privet from plot no 1 (partly because it reminds me of just how big that hedge was!) and tying it altogether, then crossing my fingers that it stays up in the wind and when the bean and peas grow up it.

Here comes summer!

After the frosts of last week, looking at the forecast I’ve decided summer has arrived. I was feeling rather pleased with myself that my late planting of my spuds meant I’d avoided any frost damage since they weren’t through yet. I spotted the potatoes were through tonight, but on closer inspection my smugness soon disappeared. The tops must have been just under the surface and were burned by the frost – unfortunately the battery on the camera went before I had chance to take a picture.

The strawberries are looking very good too, far more flowers than they’ve ever had on, but they too got caught by the frost.

Hopefully they’ll survive though. The whole plot is very dry again so I gave them a good soaking and feed with the remains of the comfrey feed from last year. I went to make some more and discovered my bucket has sprung a leak. If the weather keeps up though I’ll have to put the ‘defences’ up soon before they start getting eaten.

The red currant and gooseberry bushes are loaded with fruit, but like everything else they needed some water. A good drink later I used some of the leaves to put down a good, deep mulch around both bushes. As with the strawberries I’ll need to net the red currant to make sure I get some of them on the next visit.

The rest of the visit to the plot was putting up the pea and bean netting, a task that always seems to take forever. It would have helped if I’d tidied up the netting when I took it down last year and put it away somewhere instead of dumping it at the bottom of the plot. Once untangled it only took an hour or so to get the up… It would have been easier if I didn’t use the old privet canes and stuck to the nice smooth bamboo canes, but where’s the fun in that!

Finally the rhubarb is in full swing. There are a lot of flowers this year, which I assume is largely due to a lack of water. The old crown I discovered on the plot when I took it on is by far the best crown of the four I now have on this plot.

Getting a steady supply, and given some away already. Soon be on to the jam.