Is it spring?

I posed the question 'Spring??' last time, as (despite the date) it had been cold and wet. Well, today I went up to the plot and it snowed! However, I have planted out some pea seedlings, which I have covered with a green mesh cloche (after putting down slug pellets of course!) then with a fine mesh, so they should be OK. Whether they will actually grow is another matter! The broad beans in the background have been in a while, and have made no growth so far.Perhaps next week will be warmer .... I have also sown some beetroot, lettuce and carrot seeds, as a follow-on to those I planted in my hot bed. Those, by the way, are doing quite well. the potatoes have not yet shown above ground - maybe they know something about the weather that I don't!

At home, I have just sown some French bean and runner bean seeds, and in the next couple of weeks will sow sweetcorn and butternut squash. Hopefully it will be very considerably warmer when they are ready to go out.

Spring??

Today is the first time I have been to the plot since my last post! It's been cold and wet (mainly) and I've also been very busy. It started hailing as I left ...

These are a few calabrese (broccoli) seedlings that I was given, and that I planted out today. I put some lime and Blood, fish and bone fertiliser onto the soil, and dug it in, then put in the seedlings very firmly, watered them well, and put some slug pellets round them before covering with a green mesh to keep the birds off.

I also planted some potatoes. These are a slug resistant variety - last year there was a lot of slug damage on my potatoes - called Sarpo Mira. These also apparently have good resistance to blight, and are very tasty. We shall see!

I said last time (19 March) that I had made up my hot bed. Well, I planted some lettuce, beetroot and carrot seed, and these have now come up, hooray! Hopefully, I will be picking some early crops at the end of May or in June. Everything of course depends on the weather ....