summer

So now it is officially summer. Things are growing slowly, that is, everything except the weeds are growing slowly!!  I have a flower on the 'mange-tout', the raspberries are just starting to ripen and I have had strawberries. The gooseberries are virtually non existent and I am still waiting for lettuce seeds to germinate!

I have one great achievement! I have picked my garlic and they are the best ever. Usually I am ashamed of the size, but this year they have really grown well.

June

I wonder how many years of gardening it takes before you can really recognize when to sow and plant!! It doesn't help that the instructions on the back of the seed packets seem to be really wrong. Looking at last year I seem to be having the same problem with the lettuce that I have each year, I sow according to the instructions but they never germinate until the weather gets warm.
This year Spring has been particularly cold and wet and germination seems particularly slow, but maybe not. My leeks germinated well, the beans are just starting and I have 4 mange-tout. It is the lettuce that are being a pain, I have sown seeds 3 times, one packet promised me that I would have salad to eat in 26 days!! Not a thing, I have bought 12 lettuce plants at various times over the last few weeks and 9 have been eaten by something, as have 2 peppers and a courgette, I now have 3 lettuce and 2 courgettes sitting under plastic bottles, hopefully they will survive.
We have been lucky with the fruit this year, the trees all managed to blossom whilst we had a few days of good weather, the only fruit that is not performing well is my gooseberries, they seem to be on strike. The snow in winter broke some branches off my neighbours plum tree, these happened to be the branches that grew over my plot and they are really nice plums so I won't have any of those this year but mine seem to be doing well. Now I just have to be patient and maybe also sow some more lettuce :)