The Beautiful Month of May

Its a truly beautiful late May afternoon and I've finally planted out the last of the greenhouse crops (apart from my cucumbers).
The spinach is doing so well and is looking lush and deep green in colour. The cabbages and cauliflowers have now also been transplanted outdoors and we must now finish putting the protective netting over the brasicas to keep away the invasive bugs!...Talking of which, today I found this ugly looking character! I think it must be moth Chrysalis.
I am so proud of may garden peas too. They were always the strong seedlings when I started this project and they have continued to delight me with the way they are growing so vigorously.

The green plants have burst into flower and we even have a small handful of pea pods. Still need the peas inside to fatten up and hopefully not get eaten by any birds!

The highlight of today was our first tasting! Yes we eat our first strawberry. It was fat and warm from the sunshine but delicious with a sweet and tangy flavour. It hardly made a grand meal for a family of four! (we cut 2 strawberry's into quarters and shared them but it was still a lot of fun!)


Most of the tomatoes are insitu in the greenhouse beds. We still have a load more compost to collect from Donarbon on the A10 so we can fill the rest of the beds and get the last few tomatoes and pepper plants in. It was looking so likely that my poor little tomato plants were not going to survive after a neighbour failed to water the tender little seedlings last month so I gratefully accepted some plants raised by our good friends and neighbours over the road. These are growing away nicely and instead of our small crop of one type of tomato, we now have a huge mixed selection of varieties growing: Beef tomato, Gardeners Delight, Cherry Tomatoes and juicy Italian Plum tomatoes. I cannot wait for the first signs of fruit.

Oh! I almost forgot... my basil seeds have also survived and are still growing nicely. Lets not forget the chilli peppers which were also damaged but the warm sun and light and good soil have proven to be the best medicine.

Sunshine and water are always a pleasure and not only for the plants... The kids loved the paddling pool which had its first outing of 2009!

3rd April 2009

Have now thinned out the leek seedlings and tomato seedlings and they are looking great. We have 9 healthy looking tomato plants which should give us a monster crop late summer!

Evie's flowers are doing well with only one set of seedlings yet to show. She is really excited about growing her own pretty flowers.

Off to the Isle of Wight today for almost a week and have asked a neighbour to keep an eye on the greenhouse and water the seedlings for us. Fingers crossed they will be OK. It's strange to feel like a first time parent once again, entrusting our beloved babies to the care of someone else.