May 2006

Remember the full story (often with pics) behind the diary entries below will appear on the relevant Veg Garden, Flower Garden, Fruit Garden etc page.

1 More entertaining - an old friend and her new(ish) dog.  Vegetarian lunch menu:  Corn & tomato soup with ciabatta, followed by vegetable quiche and oven roasted vegetables, followed by rhubarb crumble and cream.  The dog did enjoy running an running in the paddock, but it gave the chickens quite a scare, even though we kept them locked in the chicken run.
The pesky rabbits have already become immune to my "scarecrow" and have resumed digging up and nibbling the shallots.
2 More trouble ahead - my onions are growing well but their stems are bending and snapping under the fleece, so I've had to cut through the fleece to release them - more pickings for the rabbits, no doubt.
I've moved my turnip & carrot pots out of the greenhouse and covered the pots with fleece to combat carrot fly.  Planted 3 rows of sprouts and 3 rows of leeks and planted out my first 6 mini cauliflowers, protected by cabbage collars.
3 Rabbits got 3 more onions, so more protection is required, somehow.
The day began with clearing of our study/office for new electrics, decorating, carpet & furniture (eventually).
Other jobs included edging the lawn and turning the compost heap, which is developing nicely, from one bin to another.
4 Hung some shading on 3 of the potting shed windows to keep intense sun off my very tender seedlings. Planted Celeriac, Asparagus Pea, Gherkin and Aubergine.
Then into London for dinner with the daughters.  Restaurant served fresh mint tea which was marvellous.  I must grow lots more mint so I can have this at home!
5 Crow has erected a wire mesh fence around the onion plot.  The rabbits could still dig under it, but it might prove enough of a deterrent as there is plenty of other food around.
Potatoes in bed 1 are pushing up the black plastic, so I've cut holes to release them.  Some potatoes in bed 2 have also germinated.
Cramphorn Theatre in Chelmsford tonight to see a friend performing in Coward Times Three.  Very impressed with her bravery and performance in her first major speaking role.
6 Crow put mesh fence around my shallot plot, whilst I installed 3 rhubarb plants in paddock bed 7.  Apparently, like potatoes, rabbits won't eat poisonous rhubarb leaves.
Wow, heavy and persistent rain is putting my other outdoor seed planting on hold.
7 Still raining......  Potted on more seedlings from the heated propagator: 2 bolivian chilli, 1 golden berry, 2 brandywine tomato, 4 white tomato, 2 aubergine.
Sadly, mini cauliflower and brussel sprout seedlings have been destroyed by heavy rain.
Big panic (which I missed) in our front garden; whilst the chickens were roaming, Mr Fox paid us a visit in broad daylight.  Fortunately Crow was on hand to chase him away and get the hens into their safe enclosure.
8 More rain...... so no gardening except for harvesting basil, chard and rhubarb for tonight's meal.
Finished Foxy waistcoat.  It's very, very luxurious and furry.
9 Out and about today - just time when I got back to pot on my 5 largest tumbling tomato plants, each now about 8 inches tall and all crammed into one 4 inch pot!  Put three in hanging baskets and two in long tom pots, safely cosseted in the greenhouse for the time being.
Bought some Buzz Off tape, supposed to vibrate and scare birds when tied across posts/canes.  Worth a try I think at £3.99, for added crop protection.
Next indoor project is a short sleeved crocheted evening top in a fairly fine black cotton.
10

Spot the squirrel Planted up a cauliflower trough, a large pot of mint and another of dill.
Theatre treat this evening as we went into London to see Mamma Mia.  Excellent and recommended for Abba fans, a fun show with the songs built around a sweet story, aaaaah.
11 Released my two strawberry troughs from their net enclosure as they are flowering and need pollination.  Will go back under cover eventually, to stop the birds getting the fruit.
Outdoor planting of raab cima di rapa, parsnip (interspersed with radish), carrot and onion seeds.  I've also released my broad beans from under their fleece and erected some windmills as bird scarers.
12 Phew! Hot day, about 24C!  Outdoor planting of kale, turnip and mini cauliflower seeds.  Some portuguese calabrese has germinated but second row topped up with more seeds alongside some purple summer sprouting broccoli.  Transplanted my two indoor peas into the pea bed.
Risked moving 4 sweetcorn minipop plants outside, but giving cloche protection until they get their roots down.
Also put one of my courgettes into an outdoor pot.
14 Last of my potatoes planted in paddock bed 6 and played Father Christmas (ho, ho, hoed) in the other potato and onion beds.  Almost all of my other potatoes have germinated, despite the heavy clay, but we'll have to wait and see how well the tubers can develop in their clay stranglehold.
I'm sad that my beautiful new japanese acer had been destroyed by rabbit or squirrel (not sure which).  Have fully enclosed it behind chicken wire now, but probably too late for it to recover.
But I am very happy that I have spotted the dreaded gooseberry sawfly on my gooseberry bush, before it has done too much damage.  I have read that they succumb easily to treatment so I've sprayed them with Bug Off.  Still need to keep a look-out through until September though. Fingers crossed !!
15 Life @ Longfield is more or less on hold this week as Crow is having an operation and my mum is here for a visit.  More from Saturday.......
20 Back in the garden, but not for long since my god-daughter and her parents came to visit.  Just had time to earth up my two potato pots, top up the blueberry and gooseberry pots with some fresh ericaceous compost and dig over/weed the soil outside the bedroom window as extra planting ground for a couple of courgettes.
21 Drought? What drought?  Third day of rain, strong winds and colder temperatures is holding up my planting out of courgettes, beans and sweetcorn.  In particular, the beans and courgettes are starting to flower, so really need to be settled in their final growing positions.
Thunder and very heavy rain threatening, so I've put my strawberry troughs and cauliflower trough in the greenhouse for protection.  The tiny outdoor turnip and cauliflower seedlings will have to be left at risk.
22 Yet more rain, wind and colder than ever.  Confined indoors......  nothing very useful I can do outside.  Except, erect a cloche tunnel over my new raab seedlings so they don't get drowned this week and finish a second circular wire enclosure. When I can plant out my courgettes, I can try one in the paddock and one outside the bedroom window with these enclosures to deter rabbit and chicken nibblings.
23 Weather still awful - just weeded and tended in the potting shed.
24 Slight improvement in the weather and tomorrow looking better so I've dug over and weeded the remaining veg plot beds where my beans and sweetcorn will go.  Planted out two courgettes (one flowering) and two dwarf bean plants (both flowering), constructed by runner bean wigwam, thinned the cauliflower container down to 4 plants and transplanted two extras into individual pots.
All hens acting broody now!!!
I'm sitting here at 10pm listening to very heavy rain and fearing that my flowering dwarf beans will surely be battered to death by the morning.  V sad   :-(((( 
When will I learn never to rely on the bbc weather site!
25 Potted up another bush tomato in a long tom pot (in potting shed) and another courgette (outside, pot C5).  The mint pot left by the previous owner struggled into life last month, but then got eaten by some kind of wildlife.  I temporarily protected it with polythene and it is now healthy again, so I've given it a new fleece cover which looks a little less messy.  Mmmm, marvellous mint tea.  Meanwhile my new mint pots are finally struggling into life.  Not sure why it has taken them so long to germinate.  Usually there's no stopping mint.
26 Between visiting a friend laid up with back trouble, walking and picking up my step-daughter for an overnight stay, just had time to fix a support wire for my raspberry canes, support a fallen broad bean and weed half of the paddock onion bed.  Then I took stock of my seedlings which need greenhouse planting.  Reckon I've got enough room for 42 plants if I pack them in at 1 per square foot, but I've got 88 plants.  Why?  How?  Well, I planted expecting about 50% germination, but almost everything germinated!  Plus, I'm still not sure if the courgette and red pepper seedlings from my own seeds will bear any produce, so I did those as extras.  Ho hum, I see my potting shed and veg garden will be overflowing with extra pots and troughs.  It certainly won't do any harm to have some bush tomato plants outside in pots as it means they will crop later, either extending my tomato season or providing green tomatoes for chutney.
27 Drought?!?!?  Our garden is positively swamp-like, our pond has risen considerably and I'm sitting here watching yet more rain pour from the sky!  And it's done so for several hours with no sign of brightening up.  Still, confined indoors I decided to launch Chicken Diary !
28 At last, a day without rain.  Been out all day (10-7) with two hours break and have weeded all the paddock veg beds, weeded flower border 1, planted out two more dwarf beans, four haricot beans and final two courgettes, all raised in the potting shed.  Doesn't sound like much for seven hours work.  Time passed quickly, just me and my ipod.  Can't wait to get the sweetcorn out, but with forecast overnight temperatures hitting lows of 5C, looks like they will have to wait for a few more days.
29 A big potting on day, 8 red egg aubergine seedlings. 8 asparagus pea and 42 celeriac!!  Just what am I going to do with 42 celeriac plants?  Also potted up my last dwarf bean and haricot bean into large pots to compare growth with those in the garden, although very heavy rain later meant I had to put them under cover in the greenhouse, along with as many other pots as I could.
I also planted another two gherkin and 6 asparagus pea seeds and put in some stakes to support my broad beans.
Forgot to mention that I've been burning the midnight oil doing the second table-top rally of the season.  Found this one just as tough as ever, but finally finished and submitted my answers tonight.  Can rest until September now.
30 Wow - I got up, walked into my little hobby room and saw a clear desk without a map on it.  Just made me realise how relieved I am to have finished the table-top rally.  Feel like a teenager whose just finished her exams.  Silly......
Took Crow to hospital today to get his stitches out, then on to visit his mum.
Cold, windy & showery day.  We walked when we got home then I photographed the fruit tree progress and tried to make two pot stands for the veg garden out of some leftover wood.
This evening's activity was making a 50th wedding anniversary card for Crow's aunt.
31 Not much in the garden on yet another unseasonably cold May day.  I've put my remaining two minipop sweetcorn plants in large pots.  My pot stands seem to work well, so must make some more.  Also weeded veg garden and put cabbage collars around my mini cauliflowers.
My trough of snowball turnips has gone wrong - the vegetation which was standing up like soldiers had gone all floppy.  I dug one up but they are not ready.  Don't know if they've just drowned in all the rain.
Crow is not a happy boy as he planted some mole repellant bulbs yesterday and installed a sonic mole repeller, but there are new mole trails in both locations.  To add insult to injury, a rabbit has got the carrot out of the trap without getting caught!