This month has been spent mostly battling with the weeds. A mix of sun and rain and they seem to be sprouting everywhere!! Having not been able to get down to the plot for nearly a fortnight in the middle of May, I really felt the struggle to get back on top of the weeds. I managed to lay one wood chip path to try help stay on top of the worst patches and this seems to be lessening the load. Just need to do the rest now.
The plot had an established asparagus bed which has been bountiful this month. The girls have popped down regularly to collect the spears. It is incredible how fast they grow!! Family and friends have benefitted too as there is only so much asparagus you can get through in a season yourself. If anyone has any interesting recipes for asparagus, I’d be interested in these in anticipation of next year.
I’m pleased to have planted in the greenhouse this month. It’s packed with tomatoes of various kinds, including a few unknowns thanks to some dodgy labelling on my behalf and a couple of mysteries collected at the plant swap (which was a lovely evening meeting new faces - thank you for organising Rich). Having plants under cover is forcing us down more regularly for watering purposes. We’ve been putting in short mid-week visits as well as the weekend sessions and I’m trying to adopt a little and often approach to the weeding whilst down watering too.
As well as weeding, I’ve been busy planting out plants that have been waiting in the back garden. I can almost see the patio once more! The bean poles are now planted with a selection of runner beans, climbing French beans (purple at the girl’s request) and borlotti beans. A selection of summer and winter squash are also now in and hopefully the scrambling varieties will make their way up the trellis frame we’ve constructed.
The girls have been very excited by the prospect of ripening strawberries. We laid straw underneath the plants earlier in the month. Thank you for the advice about making sure the berries see the sunshine. That would have been an upsetting discovery to have made on our own. We added the netting to the frame and have had our first couple ripen - I’m sure they taste sweeter when you’ve grown them yourself!
I’m definitely looking forward to the next couple of months and hopefully reaping the benefits of all the work!
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