CLICK ON PIX TO MAGNIFYApril is one of the busiest times in the garden (especially the veg garden) and it´s also the time that Duttons go away every year. This year the ash cloud turned our two weeks into three. Just before we left for the airport on the 3rd April I seeded a few rows of salads assuming that there might be a bit of rain in early April (which you´d expect right?). Well, as you know there wasn´t, so they didn´t germinate. Apart from that though, everything did pretty well considering the lack of water. The garlic (which don´t like much water) have thrived, although some look like they´ve been chewed by a giant garlic chewing thing. The elephant garlic is already much beefier looking than its ordinary cousins.
The broad beans have done extremely well. I planted them in Oct/Nov with a view to getting an early spring crop. They´re in flower now so we should see the beginnings of beans in a couple of weeks. The spinach and swiss chard are going great guns. Netting them has kept the pigeons off effectively.
The onions are doing quite well in an Alistair Darling sort of a way.
[below]Swiss chard always adds a splash of colour!
My ongoing failure to grow fennel properly may have ended, as these plants look great. Maybe the secret is not to water for three weeks when you´d think it would need it most.
At home I have a lot of tomato seedlings (and quite a few more trays have been looked after by some very kind volunteers). They were watered by our builders and are looking very healthy. They´ll be available in the playground shortly, so don´t buy any weedy things from B&Q and the like!
Hopefully see you in the playground soon for a produce sale, or maybe at one of the gardening Sundays that I´ve been threatening to hold for some time!
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