The first week of summer!

The weather is very variable but I think it normally is. Apparently we have had the second coldest spring this century but as we are only 13 years into this century that isn't really saying much.
Certainly fruit is ripening more slowly this year. I have had my first two strawberries and I am hoping to have enough for a small helping on Sunday, that's providing something else doesn't eat them first. I have tried to set up protective covering as something is still eating the flowers and leaves. I have had a few gooseberries, not enough to make gooseberry pie or anything like that but I don't like gooseberry pie anyway. They go well with yoghurt and honey and are the first fruits available so very welcome. I have net covering over my cherries, it is still a very small tree and there are only 7 cherries but I would like to have the opportunity to eat them before the birds. When the tree is bigger I will be willing to share!
My tomatoes are showing the first signs of flowers, the peppers look healthy as does the courgette and two or three beans have sprouted. I sowed 5 French beans, I only wanted three really as I just wanted to see how it would work.  There is absolutely no sign of my leeks and I sowed twice, it is a shame as they have been good the last two years.
Only my lettuce are abundant, I am back to working on the 101 things to do with a lettuce leaf! Though I have also dug up the first of my new potatoes, so at least, for lunch today, the lettuce the chives and the potatoes will be from my garden.
My calendar tells me that, for the feast of Saint Peter, which, if my memory is correct is the 29th, one should dig up the garlic and transplant the leeks. The garlic are still very green so I think that may need to be postponed and there are no leeks to transplant :(

27th June
Having started summer with a cool, wet day the weather has improved, it hasn't rained for a week and things are sprouting, though there is still no sign of any leeks so I have sowed seeds for the 3rd time, maybe this time I'll be lucky. I dug up my garlic, I found that the neighbours were, even though they were still green. They were not brilliant but better than previous years, they are now drying out.
I will have my first raspberries today, only 5 but the glut will come soon, hopefully they ripen bit by bit for a while.
My top plot is looking healthy as well. I have dug up some of my potatoes and will dig the others next week as they are a nice salad size now.

 The green cover at the bottom is to protect my strawberries. Everyone else has nice big strawberry plants, mine just get eaten by something.



I am left with just stalks, so I am protecting from above and below and hope that whatever is causing the problem will be beaten :)

may

Well, having had 2 beautiful weeks in April, the weather turned chill again, to the point of having hail and snow. My 2 biggest tomatoes were getting too big for their pots so I planted them out anyway.
They seem to be doing alright, I will put the rest, another 4, out next week. I also planted out a courgette I bought, that seems to be surviving too.  Potatoes are starting to sprout so if there were another frost it would be very sad.
I had an operation on my hand at the beginning of this month so I had to do as much as I could before hand and now I can only do light work. Mostly the work that needs doing now is clearing and maintenance, like weeding.
I have had my first lettuce from the garden and the spring onions have germinated. I am watching the fruit carefully, I am going to be overwhelmed with raspberries again and I think this will be a good year for cherries

April

We have had 2 days without rain! A sunny weekend. Today everyone is out doing the clearing and digging that they did mid March last year. I have dug my bottom plot and sown lettuce and Spring Onions.  Next to attack the top.
I have one tomato plant that looks as if it will be ok. Hopefully it is a Gardeners delight, I forgot to label them properly so I will have to wait and see.  It is lovely having warm sunny weather, even if it doesn't last long this time.

April 27th
The warm weather lasted nearly 2 weeks with no rain in that time. Everyone is catching up on their work. The trees are all in blossom, a whole month later than last year. On the other hand my tomato plants are growing and looking healthy, I have 6 that I have potted on and should be able to plant out in May. My peppers did nothing but I will buy some.
Something nibbled all the flowers off my strawberries, either a rabbit or a deer. A few are flowering again. This week I will plant some potatoes, I was going to do it this weekend but it keeps snowing and hailing today, winter has come back!

nearly the end of winter!

I don't think I was early cutting my branches, not compared with last year, it is just that things are later. we had a warm weekend and everyone was out working, now the weather has turned very wet again.

I have planted more strawberries, which seem to have taken alright even though they were snowed on the next day.

I have pulled up my last leeks, they were quite a good size this year.

This one is lieing on a very weedy plot. I have dug over the plot now but I expect it will be covered in weeds again when I return. These last 2 years we seem to have many more weeds than before. Everything is now waiting for April, when I return and can start preparing for summer.

time to start again!

Time to start again, or maybe not, but I will be away in March so I need to start early. The first thing has been cutting back my pear trees, last year I had loads of pears and most were too high to reach. I even cut off a couple of branches in the snow yesterday, but my fingers felt like they were dropping off too, so I stopped.

Today has been much kinder weather so I have finished. Now all that is left is tidying up the branches I have cut off!

I have also bought a mini germinator and have sown my tomato and pepper seeds, hopefully they will do better this year than last year.

January

This winter has been very wet and now it has snowed, the heaviest snow we have had for four years. My garlic got washed out, but fortunately I saw them so have re-planted. I made a lovely leek soup and I am doing well for carrots, they seem to be doing OK in the soil, hopefully this snow will not affect them.

The end of the year!

I thought there was not much to do at the moment but my neighbours have been talking about digging up their carrots! I'm not sure why, I was sure that they would be alright over the winter and that I can dig them as I require them. I have left mine in so I will see, they are getting to a good size now. Whilst digging up some carrots the other day I noticed that some garlic were sprouting, these are garlic that I planted last spring and which did nothing over the summer! It reminded me that I promised myself to plant my garlic earlier this year. I checked the book and it said autumn sowing!! It is only a week into winter so I have sowed today and hope that I am in time this year. When I went to the iron-monger I noticed that they are selling bags of garlic for sowing, so I think I have got the time right.
Some of the onions that did nothing over the summer are sprouting as well, I'm sure it is still too early to sow onion sets but I will watch and see what happens. My leeks are really big now I need to start eating them seriously!!