Empty, refill, repeat

 Although it's stayed fairly warm and dry, we got a big rainfall last week that filled up my barrels.  I try to water my pots and planters at home with rainwater when possible;  on this rainy island it's usually no problem.  We have somewhat variable weather so I'm never sure if it'll be a hot dry summer or a cool wet summer--I try to plant for both scenarios, and since I grow almost exclusively from seed it's thankfully not too expensive an experiment.  I still don't know what kind of summer we're looking at but it's been a warm dry spring so far--unlike last year.

Due to my ongoing lack of pots (I have 250+) I only just started my squash seeds at the weekend, which looks to be an unlucky miss;  had I gambled on starting them earlier I probably could get away with planting them out early too.  Never mind, I've got my tomatoes out early instead (most of them anyway).  My squashes should have enough time to grow even if transplanted out in June;   if it was too cold, I'd have to delay planting them out till June (as I do some years).

The majority of snap peas are planted out and growing well at the allotment, though I have four or five dozen pots not yet sprouted;  while they've been in their pots for several weeks, I'm still getting three or four a day poking up so I don't quite feel like giving up on them.  I've managed to start a packet of 50 runner bean seeds as I've been emptying out the snap pea pots;  these I haven't grown for a few years as the son didn't care much for them when he was small--maybe at 15 he'll feel better about them.  The husband and I love them and I can't remember if the daughter has tried them before (age 5).

Also got a tray of pickling cucumbers now emerging;  I'm risking them in my little cold frame on the patio next to my back door to make more room on my kitchen windowsill, overflowing with trays stacked on top of each other;  the just-emerging sweetcorn has gone out with it.  The rest of the week is forecast warm and sunny but if anything changes I can rescue them back inside.  

For a couple weeks the windowsill was empty, as I'd moved all the tomatoes to the cold frame, but I'm in the second wave of seed sowing now, for both indoor and outdoor seeds.  Obviously my outdoor seeds are outdoors;  my patio table and other surfaces are still completely covered and in some places stacked several trays high.  Some things have been planted out in the past week:  Welsh onions and some zinnias at home, cherry tomatoes and of course snap peas at the allotment.  But as soon as I empty, I refill with something new!

So busy!

This past week the son and I have done a lot of work at the allotment;  the husband and daughter have made occasional appearances too.  Son and I have transplanted out kohlrabi into a newly sheet mulched bed with fine compost on the top layer (usually I don't have enough compost for the top of a sheet mulch, but there is a pile of it next to the stables on site).  We have also begun planting out the snap pea seedlings, limited by the number of plastic rings I put around them to help acclimatize new transplants--they stay around the plants for a week or two, depending on how fast they grow;  the onions might not lose theirs until harvest.

At home I got out 15 cabbage plants, interplanted with several dozen lettuce plants;  I covered these over with bird netting but something has still been nibbling them.  I'm pretty sure it's a bird, as they were being nibbled while in trays on the patio table too (now also netted).  A couple days later I adjusted the net so it is flush the ground (in all but one or two small gaps)--I'll see if this protects it.  I still have another 10 cabbages to plant out, but I may grow them on a little and try them at the allotment.

Then at the weekend we prepared another bed at the allotment for beet seeds;  it had been sheet mulched a couple months before but was already starting to regrow couch grass--it won't die!  Despite calling myself a no-dig gardener, we dug over this bed and raked out all the couch grass runners we could.  The husband and daughter sowed four good rows of beets (while I planted out a few more peas).  No doubt it'll be overrun with grass again by the time the beets are ready.

Later on that day I took the pots I'd emptied in the morning and refilled them to sow with cucumbers and courgettes--I'd already filled the previously emptied pots with sweetcorn and pickling cucumbers a few days before.  I also pricked out some leeks into trays (I've got three trays so far and not done yet) and the last few plum tomatoes into individual pots--these and the cherry tomatoes are all now in the cold frame next to my back door to harden off for next month.  What's more, I broadcast seeds onto a few larger pots for pricking out when they sprout later:  marigolds, spring onions, asparagus.  

So busy!  Spring is when all the hard work needs doing, as I reminded the son;  once it's done we won't do it until next spring.  For my part, I'm looking forward to a year of vegetables.

Trying to find room for it all!

The blackbird cheepies left the nest yesterday! This is them five days previously, April 2025

Our run of good weather has lasted even longer than I could imagine--my rain barrels are almost completely dry and I've even had to water at the allotment (just the newly seeded planters/beds and onion transplants--the established plants are fine).  Maybe I've even got a tan??

Over the weekend the son and I prepared a new bed for kohlrabi and beets;  the kohlrabi are for transplant and the beets for direct sowing.  This is a bed I sheet mulched earlier in the spring but we've been spreading some fine compost over the top and raking it;  I've been waiting for some rain to sow and transplant (the kohlrabi seedlings are really really ready!).  It's supposed to rain today, finally. 

I also shoveled out some good compost from the chicken yard at home and spread it around one bed in the kitchen garden;  this will be for cucumbers and courgettes hopefully next month.  I also raked a light top dressing onto the next bed for cabbages, lettuce and spring onions, also ready to transplant (has it rained yet?).

Now looking at my beds at the allotment, I have a slight problem:  where am I going to put everything?  Almost all my beds are already in use;  I have only one bed and the chicken yard unplanted now.  True, I should be able to clear away the purple sprouting broccoli by May, giving me another bed (kind of small though).  And in June or July both the garlic and broad beans should be finished.  But I'll need a big space for squash and sweetcorn by June at the latest, along with several other things (climbing beans, pickling cucumbers, tomatoes, etc). 

It perhaps didn't help that I made a tactical decision to cover over the very grassy bed at the very back of the plot with old carpet and tarp, to stay in place until next year.  I admit this bed didn't grow much last year--I got some beets out of it at least, though it wasn't used to its full potential.  To try and get some kind of harvest from it I've moved my big pots and planters back there--despite it being a pain to water--so at least something is growing there.  It doesn't free up much room from where the planters used to be but I'll try to plant up their old space too.

Nestlings, seedlings, potatoes, a little bit of veg left

 

Blackbird nest by the kitchen window (they hatched last week), March 2025

Our own Cheeky blackbird and her mate seem to have gone to the happy hunting ground--not seen her or him at all this year;  but we have a new pair with new nestlings right up against our house under our grape arbor;  it's a bit of an exposed place actually, so I hope the cheepies are ok in there;  our garden itself is great for birds--lots of safe perching places, lots of bugs and worms; and while we do have neighborhood cats, they don't visit our garden very often as it's hard to get in and out now (they used to slip through our gate until we put up a piece of wire).

In other news: some of my snap peas--sown last month in small pots--are finally sprouting up!  Actually it didn't take that long, especially compared to last year;  it's been a much warmer spring this time around.  I'm still out of pots and am down to one tray, but it doesn't matter as I can't use it anyway--I don't have anywhere to put it!  Every flat, elevated space is taken on my patio and I don't want to put them on the ground in case of rampaging chickens/ducks/five year olds.  When the snap peas get transplanted out, their pots will immediately go to French beans, squash and sweetcorn.  I need them to get growing!

But the weather has been cooperating so far, like I said.  It's been unseasonably sunny, dry and warmish, though still getting close to freezing at night so not quite ready to put anything tender out;  my tomato seedlings get day trips out, but come back in for night.  However, it does mean the soil is warm enough for direct sowing.  At the allotment the (pre-sprouted) direct sown broad beans are growing well and now released from their mesh cover;  and I've direct sown one bed each of parsnips and turnips, each with a mesh cover to protect from slugs/bugs/birds/etc.  If the parsnips come up (didn't get any last year) I'll take the cover off when they are a few inches tall but the turnips will probably have to stay covered until harvest.

Also trying no-dig potatoes this spring, after not growing any for a couple years now.  I bought a 2.5 kg bag of Charlotte seed potatoes, cleared a space on a thickly sheet mulched bed, and placed chitted potatoes onto the wet cardboard, well spaced.  Then I covered them with composted manure and piled the whole bed high with uncomposted stable bedding (mainly straw with a little bit of manure).  Haven't seen any sign of growth yet but it's still early;  when I see any green poking out I'll keep topping it up with more stable bedding.

I'm now picking purple sprouting broccoli at the allotment, as well as rhubarb once or twice a week.  At home there are a few self-sown salad greens to be had:  mizuna, lambs lettuce, chicory, chard.  Fresh veg is a bit slim right now, but we still have a little preserved veg from last year:  one last squash (I cooked the second to last one the previous week), a few pickled beets, pickled gherkins, a big jar of kimchi (partly homegrown), a bag of frozen tomatoes;  I also have a couple jars of dehydrated veg from 2023 too.  My little lettuces and spring onions are up and growing so I hope to be eating those next month, when the rest of the veg runs out.

Ran out of pots...

 

Clearing the weeds (again) Mar 2025

Well, I've run out of pots again, like last year.  Even with the addition of about 50 new ones (actually we've been washing out and saving the small tubs we buy cream in), I have seeds to sow and seedlings to prick out and no pots to put them in!  Most of them are holding my 300+ snap peas (two peas to a pot), all stacked up in trays on my patio tables, shown slightly at the top left corner.  I soaked them first and some started to sprout little roots before I could get them into their pots.  It looks like some are just starting to come up now--hopefully as soon as possible because I need those pots!

Why didn't I sow direct?  Peas and beans in particular are really susceptible to pest damage at my allotment and garden;  often I lose most if not all direct sown peas:  maybe to mice, maybe slugs, birds, who knows.  I actually sowed my broad beans direct this year (soaked first), but covered the bed fully in insect mesh after sowing.  I tried to bury the edges of the mesh so no mice or birds could get in, but it looks like a few did get dug up anyway;  regardless, it looks like most of them survived which I am thrilled about (last year I sowed them in pots and still lost a significant amount).

My patio table is also full of larger pots which are sprouting up lots of broadcast seeds, ready to prick out as soon as possible.  I've got cabbage, lettuce, purple sprouting broccoli (actually just started harvesting the ones I grew last year), Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi and more.  How did I mistime so badly?!  Well, I'll make it work somehow;  I can prick out some directly into the few trays I have left;  I think I can get some into the ground too.  The rest can wait until the peas can transplant.  I hope.