At last, this past weekend we had rain. Not just a shower but proper, overnight, steady rain, enough to top up the water butt and give all the plants a real boost. There is more forecast at the end of this week and I hope it arrives not passing us by the other side of the hill!
The garden at home is moving into productive mode with lettuce ready and the first potatoes beginning to flower. The last of the broccoli has been harvested but the crop was poor due to the unseasonally hot weather early in the year. But every cloud has a silver lining and I now have an empty bed available for more crops, that is, empty if you discount the onions around the edge. Mmmm, can you move onions?
The allotment is beginning to look like a proper plot. 6 beds dug and planted and fruit bushes growing well. I have picked the first of the Oskar peas, well, two pods just to taste. Another week and I should have enough for a meal. The broad beans are being nibble by a small brown beetle but it only seems to affect the leaves and the first beans have set so I shall leave them alone. All the other plots have the same cut leaves so it is obviously common. The Telephone peas are beginning to climb and the seed sown as I planted out the pot grown plants are coming up too so I am looking forward to lots of peas this year.
All the bean sticks are up and half the runner beans are in and the Moonlight beans will go in tomorrow. There was a ground frost a week ago and I was caught out and didn’t fleece the beans planted out but luckily only a couple of plants were scorched and they seem to have survived. Some of my neighbours lost all their beans and some potatoes were affected too, mine hadn’t broken ground, thank heavens.