Blossoming

It's bluebell season

The daffs are fading, the bluebells are out in force and so are most of the tree leaves. Everything's greening up nicely, though temperatures are stubbornly sticking around the 12C mark. So I haven't planted anything out from the greenhouse yet, but I did have a major sowing session outside (golden beetroot, carrots, runner beans, kale, turnips, swedes and kohlrabi). Hopefully, by the time they stick out their heads, the weather will have improved. Friends from Germany who are visiting next week have promised to bring some good weather.

The new hedge is coming to life

Full complement of beech leaves

Old roof slates as anti-cat poo heather protectors

The blossom is amazing, both inside and out:

Cucumber

Tomatillo

Tomato

Geranium

Apple 

Broad bean

Everything is tantalisingly close to producing, but there is no new produce just yet, apart from fresh rocket and the three winter stalwarts of kale, chard and spring cabbage. I'm so looking forward to the following:

Gooseberries

Strawberries

Little gems

Onions

Beetroot

We've already had one bad attack of gooseberry sawfly on one of the jostaberries and one of the gooseberries. This time, I threw everything that Bayer could offer at it - not organic for once, but I hope the attack can still be halted.

The good news this week was that the parsnip seedlings decided to show their little heads. I'd been worried about not having any parsnips this year since the seeds were just over a year old, but emptying out the entire packet has produced results.

I also planted out a few French beans to see how they cope.

Buffeted beans

The grass is growing like crazy and Jim seems to be on a continual round of scything these days.

Freshly mown and mulched middle paddock

The potatoes have come back to life

Some things that we planted last year are really coming into their own in year two. Here's the hops appearing:

Hops - male or female?

The conservatory has acquired a new rug so it looks more of a sitting room than a potting shed and I guess I'll have to be a bit tidier when messing around with the plants.

Conservatory rug 

The squashes are growing apace, but when will it be warm enough for them to go out?

Sweetcorn seedlings - they'll also need a warm summer

The visitor holiday season is just about to begin here. Hope there will be enough produce for all the guests soon!

Plant shuffle

Everything is late this year, about two weeks later than last year. Our trees still don't all have leaves, though they are getting there.

One of the beech trees is going for it.

Temperatures have not risen much but enough at night for the big plant reshuffle. The tomatoes have mostly gone into the greenhouse.

The tomatoes: Tigerella, Ailsa Craig, Black Sea Man and Moneymaker

And the squashes and cucumbers have migrated into their places in the conservatory. The conservatory is a very pleasant place to hang out now, for flora and fauna alike.

Poppy surrounded by squashes

A lot more potting up to do

Outside has not been so good this week. A mole has done his dirty work just two metres from the gate to the veg garden. Jim promptly ordered a new type of trap from France, but this requires setting in a fresh mole hill and the mole (thankfully) has not advanced any further. At the end of April we had one night of frost, which really damaged all the potato plants bar one. First they turned black, then they turned brown, but after a good mulching the first new green leaves are appearing again - phew.

Jim came across this interesting-looking seedling in one of the vegetable beds and we decided to pot it up:

Mystery seedling

It turned out to be a beech seedling! I've now found 17 of them and have potted them all up for use in our hedge.

It's a beech!

Things are coming along in the greenhouse, especially the tomatillos.

Green tomatillos

 I've also got a bunch of herbs growing there:

Summer savoury

Sage

Camomile

Hopefully it will get warm enough to plant them out soon. We just bought a barbecue last week and since then the weather's gone all to hell. Though we did have one great sunset:

Sunset over Northern Ireland

First leaves

The beech leaves have started unfurling

It's been a week of firsts. The first of the beech leaves are out and everything is greening up nicely. We had the first of our rhubarb since it has obviously taken to its new site. And then I saw the first of these in veg garden:

Dunluce early potatoes: a welcome sight

First Jerusalem artichokes

And globe artichokes

Jim is in the process of mowing the bottom paddock for the first time this year. It's pretty hard-going, with all the tough winter growth, and we're having to get up early to mow and gather while the dew is still on the grass. We haven't had rain for about 10 days and everything is bone dry. I've had to water the heathers and the outdoor seedlings every day, but that's all going to change this afternoon. The clippings make excellent mulch and I've mulched everywhere I can think of: the heathers, all the hedges, rose beds, fruit trees...

Heathers mulched with the lush grass from the bottom paddock

Tidied-up pond with mulch around the astilbes

And it looks like there's going to more mulch from the top paddock shortly! That will probably be for the potatoes.

The conservatory is getting fuller by the day. These cucumbers and squashes really grow fast once they've germinated. I'm now waiting for the brassicas to get large enough to plant out. Then all the tomatoes are going to migrate to the greenhouse from the conservatory and give up their window seats to the cucumbers, peppers and aubergines. It's a vegetable merry-go-round.

Full conservatory

In another bout of back-breaking labour, we've dismantled the useless fence around the hazelnut grove. Jim's seafaring knowledge came to the rescue once more as he came up with a clever system of rolling hitches to make a pole extractor. (Unfortunately it still involved a lot of heaving of poles.)

Fence be gone

I even had time to do major TLC on the front garden, which had been neglected so far. An afternoon's weeding and my first weeding blister of the year later, it looked like this:

Weeded front garden

And I even got rewarded for my efforts as Jim spotted this in the freshly turned soil:

1917 penny - worth £2 on eBay these days

Makes a nice change from finding asbestos roof fragments.