Wet and then dry as life springs forth

Sunday Glummery

We've had a good couple of days of days activity on the plot, first in the rain on Sunday, followed by a quick  dash down in the evening sun after work yesterday. The amount of green, relative to unplanted brown, is increasing all the time, which is making things start to look a bit more productive and full of life.

Planting things out in a persistant drizzle isn't, as much I'm up for the whole gardening thing, my idea of a banging time, but we had pea (boogie) and climbing bean (blue lake) plants that were threatening to get root bound, so out they went.

Peas

Climbing beans

These had both been hardening off in our back yard at home for about a week, hopefully that'll be sufficient. Last year, impatient amateurs that we are, we didn't bother to harden off our bean plants and they all died. The peas fared little better and were savaged by some combination of slugs and pigeons. Let's hope for a better result this time around. 

As I mentioned in the last plot-based post, we were promised 12 tomato plants by Jimmy, whose tomato-growing capabilities are the stuff of legend. They're now happily ensconced in our shed, and will end up in the polytunnel whenever I get round to putting up the replacement cover we got after the initial one blew off. They're "Alicante", which I do believe is an heirloom variety. Jimmy reckons they're a reliable early cropping type, so I'm looking forward to seeing how they do. It's really nice of him to donate us all these premium plants; just hope we do them justice.

Tomato "Alicante"

We also got rid of a heap of scrap metal off our plot on Saturday, and thus made a start at tidying up a patch near our shed that has remained an unkempt wilderness during our tenure, which all felt good. We also took a bunch of stuff down from our flat (5 mins walk from the plot); we're moving house this weekend (we've gone and bought a house! And it has a garden! More on that in due course I feel...) and so we need to get rid of all gardening detritus, seedlings etc from the back yard. In future the plot is going to be a short drive away, so we might have to get used to using it, rather than our living room, to get plants started.

Bathed in evening sun

Yesterday was a lovely evening. We headed down to give things a bit of a water and enjoy the evening sun. It's amazing how much things can come on, even overnight, at this time of year. These radishes we're barely showing the day before, now they were out in force.

The second batch of our first early spuds (Pentland Javelin) have started showing, as have the second earlies (International Kidney). This is all good stuff. There are few more welcome signs that the plot is kicking into gear than that of the humble spud reaching for fresh air. Some Purple Top Milan turnips I sowed direct last week have already germinated which is great. As the sun set, we noticed that our blueberry bushes are beginning to put out some quite attractive flowers. On a warm spring evening, with new life pushing through all around, even a cynical misanthrope like myself can hardly but feel quite good about the world.

Blueberry Flowers