Sunshine

 My strawberries are looking good this year, with plenty of flowers. Of course, the harvest will depend on the weather. I have fertilised and watered them, and surrounded them with wood chippings to keep the fruit off the ground, and put some slug pellets round them as well, so maybe I will be picking in 2 or 3 weeks. I shall have to keep them watered of course, as there is no sign of any significant rain in the near future. So far in May we have had about 1% of our normal rainfall, and the temperatures have on the whole been well above average :- 26°C forecast for today, against an  expected 17 or 18°C.

I planted out my kalettes yesterday. These are flower sprouts, ie open sprouts, and they should crop in the winter. They will get to about 4' tall, so I've put some strong stakes in to tie them to later. Like all brassicas, they are sought out by cabbage white butterflies, so I must keep an eye out for them!
Since (I hope!) there will be no more frost until autumn, I have also planted out French beans, runner beans and courgettes. We had frost last week though, and my potato tops have suffered as a result, being turned brown. This will put the crop back by a couple of weeks, but hopefully do no permanent damage. Others were not as lucky - some had planted out beans, but these were all killed. Still to plant out are leeks - I have 3 different varieties growing in pots at home, to give a succession of harvesting - and sweetcorn. Running out of room!