The task of wheeling everything out each morning and back in each evening is a tiresome one
But if the weather forecast is correct it could be coming to an end: We are due to get a touch of frost tonight (Tonight's the Night) and then the night time temperature should be good for the next couple of weeks.
Vegetable garden blogging is a contradictory activity: Either you have nothing to report and all the time in the world to blog, or you are so active that you don't have the time or the energy to blog. Recently I have moved from one phase to the other. Aside from the improvement in the weather dictating a change of gear I have also been helping out in a school vegetable garden lately so demands on my vegetable growing time have doubled. Having made my excuses here is an update. Pride of place goes to the migration of the sensitive plants to the greenhouse where they are resident 24 hours.
Tomatoes
Courgettes and Butternut Squash
Chilli Peppers
Outside the greenhouse the former occupants are disporting themselves across the "patio" area.
Spot the bench to relax on.
Indoors the sowing programme continues with the second round of brassica sowings. Nowadays I am much more disciplined about labelling everything at the time of sowing:
This year, after sowing, I log everything on a spreadsheet. I realised today that I have now made my 100th sowing of the year. (That is home sowing: school sowings have their own log.)
After lolling about in the doldrums at 6C or below for a week the temperature today has followed the following pattern
7am 7C
8am 8C
9am 9C
10am 10C
11am 11C
12noon 12C
1pm 13C
Unbelievable! And on the subject of bees. the bumble bees have woken up and are prospecting for nest sites. So far they have evaded my camera lens. Above is the best shot to date.
Here's the most uplifting song I can think of to reflect the mood:
At long last the purple sprouting broccoli has started cropping. This one plant is in advance of the other three, probably because it is the tallest plant and the only one the pigeons were able to attacked through the net. The next in line has just the one central crown (which I removed today)
Together with the rhubarb and the last of the carrots (not pictured) it felt good to be heading home with a significant harvest today.
The rhubarb has come on tremendously in three weeks:
Too early to sow tomatoes? Well these were sown in January:
I figured: If you have a propagator and lights, why not use them? Of course I hadn't reckoned on one of the coldest springs on record. So I have been watching the outdoor temperatures and biting my nails since then. This week I have potted them up and today I potted up the chillies that were sown at the same time. They get to spend days out - in the greenhouse - but still get pampered at night for now. This hardening off lark is no joke
On the plus side I have refrained from sowing beans sweetcorn or courgettes up until now!
These pictures are a week or two old - my trusty pocket camera has jammed and is off at the repair shop.
I am so glad the weather improved for an hour or two on Easter Sunday. The delayed Good Friday planting finally went ahead and the first two rows of tatties went in.
The potato patch gets underway
Just as well, as the weather turned at midday and after another frosty night today went from bad to worse with "wintery showers" developing.
