After a largely dry April, we're back into some rain. The rain barrels are finally full again, and the soil is damp. Only last week I could let the daughter loose at the allotment and only have to worry about dusting her off at the end; but two days ago she found herself a big puddle to sit in (and try drinking from! eek) and there was no dusting that off. She's walking independently at last and we now have to keep an eye on her there--while she still enjoys sitting and digging, she also wants to explore.
I think it's also finally turned warm enough to start getting the French and runner beans in. We also had a lot of frost in April, and though we had a mid-May frost last year (unheard of!) I'm pretty confident that was just a freak and won't be a regular thing. I've been gardening here for 16 years now and that's been the first May frost I've seen; I'm happy to start transplanting.
However, some of the French beans I put on to sprout just look like they're going moldy. I hope they do something--a little bit of mold shouldn't hurt, but obviously not if they aren't germinating. I've got two trays of them now sprouting in paper tubes though, so all is not lost. I didn't get any French beans last year: I think the slugs ate all the seedlings after I transplanted them at the allotment.
The runner bean seeds aren't yet germinating either, but don't look very moldy either, thankfully. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. The slugs also ate the first batch of runner beans I'd transplanted, but I started a late second batch, and also had a small batch at home--not quite so many slugs here, thanks to the ducks.
Incidently, some of the hazel seeds I'd stratified over winter did start to sprout; I potted them up in March but they're still not doing much. One finally sent up a shoot, only for something to nip off its newly emerging leaves. A slug? I don't know. I can see some roots growing out of the bottom of a couple pots, but no other shoots.
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