Early May and the last real tranche of sowing. Firstly I've sown the runner and French beans into deep root trainers (3rd May). Runner beans are the self-pollinating Firestorm and the French climbing beans are Cobra. It's always a bit tricky sowing the beans as the plants grow very quickly after germination and they have limited time in the root trainers before the compost becomes depleted and they begin to go past their best. Unfortunately they also suffer if it's too cold when planted out so, it's a matter of hoping things will be warm enough when the beans have hardened off. (Pic Runner bean Firestorm to the left and French bean Cobra to the right).
The squashes I sowed in April are coming up well now. I have around seven butternut Hunter F1 and maybe one or two more Crown Prince poking their seed leaves through the compost. I've reduced the number of butternuts as I had a lot of wastage last season as they really don't keep as well as other squash. The Crown Prince were excellent and kept in storage well into the new year so I'm doing more of them this season. The Pumpkins and the courgettes have also made an appearance, it won't be long before I'm potting them on as they grow rapidly. (Pic -butternut seedlings).
On the plot the early Rocket potatoes are showing through their mounds and the lettuce I planted out last month are now putting on leaves. I have another batch to be planted out too. The Sturon onions and the garlic are well underway and I've planted out the broad beans, Bunyards Exhibition.
The Sweet Candle carrots in the barrel have been thinned to one per position, I'll probably end up thinning them again when the thinnings are worth eating, leaving a bit more room to see if I can grow a whopper of a carrot. I've also sown some Nantes carrots in a 'V' shaped trench created by wiggling a spade in the ground - the narrow trench is filled with rough compost from the bins. In previous years this has produced decent carrots in my stony, clay soil., fingers crossed I get a decent line this season too. I've also planted out a few beetroot, not loads but enough for a jar or two of pickled beets which are really tasty.
I've sown a batch of Sweetcorn, Incredible F1 in root trainers this week, they won't be planted out until next month. I've removed the black covers from what will be the brassica bed and after removing any rogue spuds left from last season, I just raked in a bit of lime and fertiliser. There didn't seem to be any point in digging it as it was dug in the Autumn and was in excellent condition, protected by the plastic. In fact, I might have to tread it down a bit as the brassicas prefer a firm bed. The cabbages, kale and Brussels Sprouts have been outside hardening off for ages now so I need to get them planted sometime this week.
That's it for this update. Bye for now.
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