Coming on nicely

 I have just planted out my runner beans (pictured), French beans and courgettes. Hopefully the risk of frost has passed, and the plants - now they have their feet in open ground - should romp away. I have of course taken the precaution of putting slug pellets down, since all of the seedlings are protected by netting cages and the birds cannot get in at them. In the background are my pea seedlings - now coming on strongly - which I have further protected from pea moth (they cause the caterpillars which can destroy an entire pea crop) with a very fine mesh, as the moths are small enough to get through the bird mesh.

This is my strawberry plot. There are lots of flowers, so if it doesn't rain (and we haven't had a lot recently, nor is much forecast) I will have to water them. Again, I have put slug pellets down, plus some blood, fish and bone fertiliser, and I have put chippings under each plant to hold the strawberries clear of the ground. I put straw round them a couple of years ago, and it was effective, but I had a lawn of barley as well, from the odd seeds caught up in the straw.
My broad beans are also in full flower. I have also protected these with a fine mesh, which will hopefully deter the blackfly.
So things are coming on as hoped. I should be picking lettuce next week, and beetroot, spring onions and carrots shortly afterwards. Later on there are broccoli, onions, shallots, garlic and potatoes to look forward to.

OK so far!

So far, things are not going too badly this year on the plot. The photo shows broad beans (which will soon be starting to flower) and - in front - kalettes, which will not be ready until the autumn. I also have garlic, onions and shallots coming up, and my beetroot, lettuce, carrots, leeks, peas and parsnips are doing quite well. My potatoes have now shown above the soil - no more frost please - and the strawberries are in flower. At home, I have runner beans, French beans and courgettes starting, to plant out later. The one thing that I am not happy about is a mole! You can see some of its hillocks in the foreground, and it is digging up much of the plot! I would really rather not kill it, so how do I get rid of it? Mothballs down the hole are said to make them leave - they don't like the smell of naphthalene - but I need it to go far away, and anyway, where can you now get mothballs? All ideas welcome!
On another note, we now have some more bees on the plots. The last hive did not survive winter, so let's hope these do better, and pollinate all our crops!