L–R: Heucheras Creme Brulée and Chocolate Ruffles and ferns; Seedlings in the sweaty cubicle; First cut of mesclun mix lettuce; The garden; Countess of Lovelace clematis; 1st early spuds; Summer Purple Sprouting Broccoli; Strawberry flowers; The plot
1st May
Noticed that 1st early spuds (planted 12th April) are showing foliage! No sign of parsnips or chives. Nantes carrots have germinated. During the night, some snails got into the sweaty cubicle and nibbled the rudbeckia cappuccino seeds.
2nd May
Sowed chitted sweetcorn nuggets in root trainers and started off on a windowsill. No sign of the dahlias in the pots. 13 days since planting. Sweetcorn sowing - harvest should take 18 weeks, this takes us up to 5th September.
3rd May
Sowed hardy annual flowers up plot. Cornflower polka dot mixed, cornflower black ball, nigella midnight blue, nigella african queen, black peony poppy, escholzia, calendular, larkspur gentian blue (never germinated). Sowed half row of beetroot boltardy, sowed 1 row of rainbow carrots. Made a seedbed area next to the summer broccoli and sowed 12 'stations' of early purple sprouting brocolli (3/4 seeds in each). Marked out with string. Finished off pea climbing frame.
4th May
Sowed half row of sugar-snap peas. Fed strawberries with Tomorite. Made brassica cage with blue piping and netting.
5th May
Sowed 4 pots of cucumber 'burpless tasty green' (3 seeds to a pot – keep strongest seedling, dump rest). Sowed 4 pots of courgette 'black forrest' ( 1 seed to a pot - need 3 plants, so allowing for 75% germination). Sowed another line of rocket mixed and lettuce mesclun mixed in the wooden troughs.
6th May
Sowed 3 x Romanesco cauliflower, 4 x crown prince pumpkin, 8 x metro butternut squash, 10 x 'white lady' runner beans.
7th May
Sowed 10 x 'wisley magic' runner beans, 15 x 'safari' dwarf french beans, 15 x 'purple queen' dwarf french beans.
8th May
Transferred the corn seedlings in the rootrainers into the sweaty cubicle.
9th May
Noticed the first dahlia sprouting this evening - 'pretty lady'.
10th May
Weather very hot now! More of the dahlia are sprouting. The first earlies are growing away nicely now. 2 peas have germinated! There are some flowers on the strawberries. Finished off the broccoli cage – one of the 'summer purple' sprouting broccoli has little 'edible' bits growing on it.
11th May
Extremely hot day again. Did the Marlow 5 run!
12th May
All the peas got eaten this week. This is because we hadn't netted them against birds. Planted out 5 x rudbeckia cappuccino, 4 x achillea cassis, 5 x cerinthe in the garden. Remaining rudbeckia and achillea went to Mum and Sally.
17th - 24th May
Holiday in Les Houches, France. While we were away there were frosts on 18th and 19th.
24th May
Return from holiday in evening. All the dahlias have sprouted now except the 3 x 'Karma Naomi' (these never grew - chucked away in the end, they must have been duff tubers). Pumpkin and Butternut Squash have germinated. Most of the beans have germinated although still a few 'no shows'. Courgettes have developed first 'true' leaves. Cukes are starting to develop their 'true' leaves - still very tiny though. Sweetcorn about 5–6 inches high. Toms are all starting to develop tiny flower buds. Some Nantes Carrots are well up, very patchy though. Very few parsnips have germinated, a few beetroot have but they're very tiny.
25th May
Up plot to weed and strim. Weather is rotten, high winds and heavy rain. Summer Purple broccoli doing well – earthed up a bit to stabalise. 1st earlies been hit by frost, some leaves are a bit brown, they should be OK (they were). Early Purple Sprouting seedlings emerged in seedbed - they are looking a bit lame though - sow in pots next year. Picked 3 radish! 'Countess of Lovelace' clematis in the garden is in full flower now and looking stunning.
26th May
Bank Holiday. Weather crap again with high winds and heavy rain. Planted out 7 x ipomea 'Grandpa Otts' in the garden. Pricked out the Tithonia into individual pots - they were a bit too big at this stage really, should have done it earlier. Had some cuts of the lettuce mesclun mix (6 weeks old). It was very good! Had some rocket too but it was still quite small and weedy.
27th May
Planted runner beans, 9 of each variety onto a traditional criss-crossed row of bamboo canes. Netted with wire to keep off pigeons at this early stage. Planted dwarf french beans, 12 of each variety. Netted with fruit cage netting to keep off pigeons. Put manure in the trenches/holes before planting.
29th May
Planted out the sweetcorn in a 5 x 5 block (25 plants) and covered with squash bottle cloches.
30th May
Lunch at Barnsley House! Fantastic gardens and potager. The tithonia are fine after being potted on, snail attacked though. Ipomea are looking a bit sad in the garden, 1 has disappeared completely. Countess of Lovelace clematis is still looking great. The white clematis (name?) is coming out too now with lots of buds. Started getting little insects in the sweaty cubicle (whitefly?). Sprayed with bug killer a couple of times – this seemed to work.
Scarecrow in the potager at Barnsley House
The potager at Barnsley House
Lee in the potager at Barnsley House
Lovers in the garden at Barnsley House
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