The cold and dry April changed into a cold but very wet May with the prevailing winds staying stubbornly north and easterlies with the temperatures staying mostly in single figures. This made for challenging gardening and growing conditions, at the time of writing some leaf buds on the trees have barely opened only then to be battered by strong winds.
But despite the weather progress has been made for the growing season ahead, outside saw the onions,shallots and garlic growing away strongly and the potatoes,parsnips and carrots now showing with hopefully no more frosts! The brassica bed has had a strong hoop structure made so we can protect the crops from pigeons and butterflies with a covering of Enviromesh. The brassicas are all set to be planted and June is promising to be much warmer so growing conditions will be ideal. Many thanks to Jim Kinnear for donating his home-made tunnel hoops which were no longer in use but are now being reused.
We’ve been making progress in the Polytunnel too, the last of the over wintered crops are being harvested and the tomatoes, sweet corn, beans and cucumbers have been planted in the beds, whilst the chillis, peppers and aubergines are being potted on. Will has been installing the new irrigation system which is on a timer so that the water is delivered straight to the plants overnight to minimise water loss through daytime evaporation.
It’s hoped to have crop ready for sometime later next month, watch this space!
