It's been so long! (May highlights)

May Highlights.......

Firstly the early (overwintered) broad beans were great. They were sweet and yummy and were not affected by blackfly at all until the very end. In the pic below they are the ones on the left. The right-hand rows are the spring sown ones. These grew well (eventually, after being severely munched by the Pea & Bean Weevil!) and have grown monster pods. However, the blackflies have since smothered them! We have now (July) stripped all the pods and chopped off the tops, leaving a bit of stem and roots in to get the goodness back into the soil, but get rid of the blackfly - yuk!


In the greenhouse I potted up the toms and had a go at a hanging basket of tumbling toms. A nice idea, but as I don't get to the plot everyday (more like every 3 days) these dry out far too quickly. I'll need a rethink for next year. The rings on top of the growbags do seem to help keep the pots moist for longer than with just the growbags though.

I had really sporadic carrot germination again (might have been due to me hoeing them off - durrrr!), anyway, I had a go at them in cells that I then transplanted in clumps. It's worked really well and so far no forking either! A definate for next year.

Next is a panoramic of my plot in May. They have finished the communal area which is next to my plot looks great and it has really made my plot look fab as well! Like I've a manicured front lawn :o). They gave the other half of the communal plot back to the town council and it's now been let out as a half plot.

A mad 5 minutes with the hose! We were nowhere near finished so they had a good hour in these wet clothes :o) Muppets!

Strawbs were on their way.

And we got the pumpkins and squashes in. We have now got the sweetcorn around the squashes too - a kind of 2 sisters!

This is the first of the Tayberries.

Our Onion army.

And finally the baby apples. We were supposed to take all the flowers off in the first year, but I just couldn't do it! So we took all but about 8 off each tree so we would feel like we'd get a good crop - and we have - hoorah!