April Update

April is almost over already. Much progress in the garden and a regular and unwelcome visitor to be at the very least deterred.


Further progress in the fruit patch has seen blackcurrants planted, four bushes, and a Victoria plum tree. Blackcurrants are Liz' favourite, the plum tree is mine. I've a sneaky suspicion the currants will fruit somewhat sooner than the plum tree which is a bare root stock. Its beginning to leaf up but its got a very long way to go before you would imagine any sort of fruit. The blackcurrants, on the other hand, are more established plants and will certainly crop next year, even if we get nothing off them this.


The cloches are still protecting the lettuces and pak choi which are loving the warmer weather of growing well. Unfortunately the basil plant succumbed to the overnight frost last week and will need replacing. might be safer to plant something in the greenhouse next time.


There's been great progress outside now. I've planted rows of:

• Parsnip
• Swede
• Celeriac
• Leeks
• Mangetout
• Peas
• Cauliflower
• Carrots
• Beetroot
• Second sowing of broad beans

In the greenhouse I've got 3 types of bean (runner, borlotti and climbing french beans) all up and looking good. I'll have to take more care of them this year. last year, just the night before I planning on planting out my french beans, the snails had the lot, stripped all the leaves off the whole tray of plants. I was not at all happy. Had to put the seed straight in the ground and in fairness it did just as well anyway. I failed miserably with my first sowing of sweetcorn. Put a dozen seeds in the propagator and to be honest I'm, wondering if I remembered to put the seeds in the pots .... not a single one came up. So i tried again and they're sprouting up just fine now. What a difference it makes buying new seed instead of using the remains of last years!

The cabbage plants I brought on from seed in the greenhouse went out last weekend, under cloches, both to keep them warm but also to protect them from the voracious pigeons that seem to frequent our neighbourhood. Half a dozen Greyhound and half a dozen Drumhead. Also planted out some early purple sprouting plants under cloches. All has to have little bits of netting to the end of the run of cloches to keep the birds off.

Early last week i noticed the new potatoes were poking through so they've now been buried again for another week of so. The onions up that end are growing well, as is the garlic. We've nearly finished last years leeks but have our first spring cabbages to cut now. I fear there's going to be a gap of a week or two with very little to pick at all.

The peas I planted for salad cutting are almost ready now. Its quite a novelty. We've never tried pea shoot salad but I'd hazard a guess they'll be tasty. they certainly look young and succulent.

So now the bad news. Someones cat has developed a very unsociable habit of visiting our garden and taking a dump in the soft soil. That in itself is bad enough. I have sprayed copious quantities of pepper dust which acts as a bit of a deterrent but not for very long and it needs re-doing every couple of days. The cardinal sin was last Saturday when it decided that our newly emerging row of peas would make a good cat toilet. Well that's it. War has been declared on all moggies in the area. Anyone who fails to keep their cat under control can expect trouble. I have an infra-red water cannon, courtesy of my mate Saxondale, which I hope will drench the little sods and make them realise they are not welcome in our garden.

Easter Weekend

To be honest its not been much of a weekend for the garden. Really heavy rain leading up to Easter weekend and continuing until Sunday meant the garden was a bog until today, Easter Monday. Finally today we had a nice drying wind and I managed to get out and do some of the jobs I had planned.

We bought a couple of climbing roses so they got planted against the trellis. (David Austin Falstaff) I'm hoping we can keep them pruned sufficiently to stop them catching the worst of the winter winds and bringing the trellis down next year!!

I've planted out further additions to the soft fruit area .... four gooseberry bushes (Hinnomaki Green) which I'm hoping will provide enough fruit for regular gooseberry crumble next year. They say they wont fruit until then but secretly I'm hoping we'll get a small taster of future bounty .... enough for one pie!!

I've planted out the broad bean plants that I brought on in the propagator and then the greenhouse. They were starting to get a bit too tall so they've gone straight outside, after a few days of hardening off. I'm hoping that neither the wind so, frost will get them otherwise I'll have to plant more seed and run the risk of being second to Mr Welch in the annual broad bean race.

I bought a tray of spring cabbages a week or so ago that were also getting a bit pot bound so they have also been planted out under some netting to keep the pesky pigeons off.

I planted some lettuces in the greenhouse. a few weeks ago. I have now put a few of these out in the new raised bed under some old cloches that I really thought were ready for the dustbin but which I managed to rescue for yet another year with some good old duct tape. I've had them for 20 years I reckon!! There's also room for a dozen Pak Choi seedlings that were also in the greenhouse. I'm hoping the cloches will keep the frost off these tender little plants for the next few weeks!! I've also planted half a dozen in the bed in the greenhouse - Nick likes it so it would be good to have some early!


So that's the deal for the weekend. Not a great deal done but but some progress made. i had wanted to plant half a row of beetroot and carrots but unfortunately when I checked in the box I found I hadn't bought anyseed and there was none left from last year. in fairness, i also found that someone had stolen most of my wine gums, again!!

Easter is approaching and the clocks have changed so now we have some lighter evenings, more opportunity to get on with some of the little things in the patch. Also I've just had 3 days off work, the wind has dried the soggy areas a bit so the prospect of doing some productive work was too tempting.

After many months of thinking about it, we have finally staked the raspberry canes and tayberries. This was not such a big job as I had imagined and it certainly tidied it all up nicely. The new growth is coming on nicely and we can look forward to a bigger crop of Liz' favourite fruit this summer. We have also decided to extend the soft fruit growing so I have planted 2 more rhubarb crowns (Timperley Early), and we have gooseberries, a dozen strawberries and a plum tree to add just as soon as the threat of frost has passed.

We've taken on a new raised bed which is hard to miss! It was a free gift from a neighbour who was going to throw it out so, not one to miss out on anything free, we decided it would fit nicely. We'll use it for summer salad crops, (lettuces, pak choi, radishes, rocket, maybe even some tomatoes) easily accessible without that irritating bending .... one for the bad back brigade! The plan is to plant the plum tree alongside, just to the right, between the raised bed and the greenhouse.

First early new potatoes have gone into the ground today. Following the advice of Grantham Jim, they have gone down the far end where, in June, they will be followed by next winter's leeks! Last year I grew Arran Pilot news but they got scab badly so this year I've gone for Homeguard. They look fine so I'm hoping for a bumper harvest. Winky Welch over the other side of the Common planted his news a couple of weeks ago so I have sneaked 4 intop a black bag which I have hidden in the greenhouse in the hope that I can overtake him and be first to harvest the perfect new potato .... maybe even before the end of May!!!

I've planted another row of onion sets alongside the red onions I put in last October and planted out a dozen garlic cloves from last year which had sprouted in the shed over the winter. Shame to let them go to waste.That's about as far as its got outside.

In the green house, everything is growing a pace. Broad beans are flourishing, spring cabbages are coming on, lettuce, pak choi and purple sprouting have all done well in the heated propagator before being transferred to the greenhouse. I've not seen the electric bill yet but I'm hoping the propagator doesn't consume too much power. I have it on the wrokbench in the garage, right in front of the window and everything seems to do well there. I have just planted some sweetcorn (Sundance) in trays which has also gone out there.

And finally for the weekend, I've planted Grantham Jim's dahlia seeds in a seed tray which has also been consigned to the heated propagator for a week or so, just to make sure the seeds all germinate. Once they're up they can move to the greenhouse to be brought on for planting after the frost risk has passed.

Well Easter is approaching so we're hoping for some decent weather to get some more planting done. Hopefully there'll be time to update the blog to keep anyone who's interested right up to speed.

Spring has arrived .... almost

At last the rain has eased off, the sun has been out for a few days and I managed to put the rotavator through the patch for the first time. All the winter veg has been pulled out, the final parsnips and beetroot lifted and stored safely in the shed. One surprise was that my secret wine gum supply tucked away in seed tin, seems to have been raided and finished ... just when I was fancying one!! No doubt who that was!! The soil is drying nicely now and I'm looking forward to a bit of planting

Cabbages and early purple sprouting are just up in the heated propagator in the garage and broad beans are in trays in the greenhouse. New and maincrop potatoes are chitting in the spare bedroom. I'm thinking of secretly planting a few in black bags in the greenhouse to get the drop in the first to pick stakes with Ronald!!