Brassicas in the cage at last!

With Stu's help on Sunday we finally got the netting on the cage, clearing the way to transplant the purple sprouting broccoli and kohl rabi. I'll put the sprouts in soon as well but fear the worst as they do seem to have struggled a lot from having been held back in pots for so long. Oh well, I'll try it and we'll just have to see.

Elsewhere everything seems to be doing well - courgettes, squashes, French beans, broad beans, runner beans, sweet corn, potatoes (doing really well, from the looks of things), raspberries, strawberries, currant bushes, rhubarb, radishes (our first crops to actually eat!), beetroot, carrots.

The trick now is to keep sowing in succession.

The greenhouse looks good too - tomatoes and hot peppers in growing bags, salad leaf in three trays, and a number of flower seedlings almost ready for outdoors.

More things from the greenhouse to the allotment

After hardening off at the bottom of the garden more and more plants grown in the greenhouse - including beans, sweet corn, courgettes, leeks and various flower seedlings, over the past couple of days I have planted out the courgettes and runner beans at the allotment. Last night there was a slight frost scare so I covered everything in fleece but this morning everything looked fine and I don't think there was a frost anyway!

I also took a couple of rosemary bushes and some lemon balm and they also looked fine today.

The asparagus continues to look impressive though we shall not be able to harvest any until next April. At least we've proved we can do it though, and the deep beds look good.

Finally we may get the netting draped over the fruit cage very soon now as Kryssy has managed to find some at SCARF which sounds ideal - large enough, but of a type of netting which will drape easily over the fruit cage structure. Once that's in place all the brassicas can go in and no pigeons or butterflies will be able to get close!

Almost mid-May but still frost alerts

It's a strange kind of weather at the moment - often fine in the day but with a cold wind. We've also had some frost warnings for the coming week so I've earthed up the potatoes and placed fleece on the earlies which have grown so much that they're impossible to earth up totally now. I don't think they should come to any harm though.

Seedlings which had been hardening off at the bottom of the garden ready to plant out either in the garden or in the allotment will now have to be held back a bit. I'll put most of them back in the greenhouse at night for the next 3 nights and will have to consider a bit of heating too for the more tender ones such as peppers, tomatoes, squash and courgettes.

With any luck, from next weekend it will be possible to get more things planted out and we can start enjoying a more spring-like Spring!