My Tiny Plot

If your peas are flowering, like mine are, then now is the time time to cover the plants with Enviromesh. Pea moths lay their eggs on the flowers of peas at this time of year and the resulting tiny, cream-coloured grub will burrow into your pea-pods ready for you to find later on in the season when you harvest your peas. Protecting the crop now will mean grub-free pea soup later. Unless you need the protein of course?

After a very short blossom period and a few quick hand-pollination attempts from me I think we have some Queen Cox apples growing! I’m very excited. After I found that ants were munching through the flower buds I really didn’t expect any of the flowers to be in good enough shape to be pollinated. But it seems I was wrong. The little applets (if indeed that is a word) are very cute don’t you think - all furry with a hint of blush. Can’t wait to see how they develop although I might have to think about (sigh!) thinning them because some of them are very close to one another.

Quite a few of you have been asking me how the garden is looking now after the redesign so I thought I would post a photo of how the garden is shaping up.
The squares on the left hand side of the garden get the most sun and so that’s where most of the vegetables are.

In the square on the left hand side to the top is the following:
Lettuce, Peas, Spinach, Spring Onions, Radish, Salad Leaves, Carrots, Leeks, Onions, Asters, Cosmos, Pears, Blackberry and Red Currant with Sweetcorn to come.

In the square below that is:
Onions, Shallots, Garlic, Potatoes, Raspberries, Strawberries, Blackcurrant, Basil, Lettuce and Spinach Beet.

In the square on the right hand side to the top is the following:
Runner Beans, French Beans, Potatoes, Cauliflower, Pak Choi, Mange Tout and Cornflowers with Courgette, Cucumbers and and Pumpkins to come.

Below that in the bottom hand square is:
Herbs (including, Chives, Basil, Sage, Thyme, Coriander, Parsley, Taragon), Rhubarb and Artichoke

Along the left hand wall is the following:
Peach, Grape Vine, Tomatoes, Cape Gooseberry, Gladioli, Iris and Apple

I also have Chili Peppers in the cold frame, two Blueberry bushes in pots and Sunflower seedlings in the Victorian mini-greenhouse.

Phew!

Okay so not all of this meal came from my garden. The tomatoes are shop bought and the mange tout, and obviously the tuna but everything else is mine, mine, mine! The salad consists of Little Gem lettuce, Red Spinach leaves, Mizuna and Chives. And guess what - it was yummy! Here’s looking forward to plenty more salad lunches in the sun.

Spring is definitely here. Most seeds sown now will germinate fairly quickly and frost tender plants can go out at the end of the month.

1. Sow Runner Beans either in cold frame or direct in your prepared bean trench
2. Sow Sweetcorn in modules or toilet roll tubes in coldframe
3. Sow French Beans directly into the soil
4. Harden off Tomatoes and plant out at the end of the month in good rich soil
5. Sow cucumber and gherkins in the cold frame or greenhouse
6. Plant out Brussels Sprouts but use the ground in between them for a catch crop of cauliflower or cabbage
7. Carry on sowing successional crops such as lettuce, radish, rocket, spring onions, peas etc, every two weeks
8. Thin Carrot and Beetroot sowings
9. Net Strawberries against bird attack and pack straw around them to discourage slugs and protect fruit from mud splashes
10. Keep Onions and Shallots free from weeds

If you have any more suggestions for May jobs, add them to the list.

When I first started vegetable gardening I was very confused about what constituted a successional vegetable. Gardeners on TV shows and in books were always harping on about ‘carrying on with your successional sowings’ like everyone knew what to do. I didn’t.

So, now that I get it I thought it would be helpful to do a short post on what is successional sowing and which vegetables will benefit from being sown in this way.

Sowing successionally means that you sow a small amount of fast maturing crops at around 2 week intervals to give you a harvest the summer long instead of a glut at one particular time. These are normally vegetables that don’t store well in the ground or go to seed easily. For example, it’s a good idea to sow veg like lettuce in this way unless you really need 79 lettuce to be ready all at the same time.

It’s a good idea to separate your seed packets into those you need to sow once and those you need to sow successionally. I keep my successional veg packets on the potting shed bench throughout the growing season to remind me to sow a little of each every couple of weeks.

Vegetables that you might consider sowing successionally will include:

• Lettuce
• Radish
• Spinach
• Peas
• Spring Onions
• Carrots (especially early Carrots)
• All Salad Leaves
• Rocket (in early Spring and late Summer)

Some people make two sowings of these vegetables throughout the year to ensure that the crop spans the growing season:

• Tomatoes
• French Beans
• Runner Beans
• Beetroot

If anyone else has any successional veg to add to the crop then add them to the comments.

My pea seedlings are romping away and some of them are even flopping over they are so big. So when I was out walking yesterday and spotted some twiggy branches lying on the ground after a windy night, I took the opportunity to gather my first harvest of pea sticks.

Pea sticks are a must for every avid pea-grower. You push them into the ground around your peas and the tiny seedlings cling to them for support thus keeping your precious harvest off the muddy ground and away from slugs. It’s ingenious really.

Of course you can use netting to support your peas, or even bamboo sticks with string tied around them but pea sticks, au naturel, are my favourite.
If you don’t live near the countryside, or just don’t want to walk around carrying an armful of sticks like a crazy woman then you can always contact the Forestry Commission as they do pea stick gathering days at this time of year.