A change in the weather, still planting, hoping for fruit

It rained at last!  My plants all grew about an inch overnight I think, and my rain barrels filled up again.  Although now I'm wondering if that was our "summer" and it's going to be cool and wet from now on--not an uncommon occurrence.   

There was a very slight and unexpected frost at the allotment last week, touching just four of my zucchini plants.  Everything else:  tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, and the other four zucs were absolutely fine.  And the zucs are all planted near each other, right at the center of the allotment so it's a puzzle to me how only those four got it.  One plant was a goner but the other three may recover;  though if I do lose them all, I still have another four in the kitchen garden and have just planted out two more at the allotment.  I'm hoping it'll be another zucchini summer.  Though I need the weather to cooperate...

I cleared away all of the old purple sprouting broccoli at last and the son helped me fully sheet mulch over the bed so I could replant immediately:  six squash and five sweetcorn.  I am hoping to get at least six more squash (though I actually have around 12 more plants left) when I pull up the garlic--probably this weekend. I wish the broad beans were a little more forward so I could replant there too--they are right between the two other beds.  However, they're only just forming their first little pods so I probably won't be clearing them away for another few weeks at the earliest.  I'll still have time to replant the bed, but probably not with squash.

The daughter picked our first two strawberries of the year, which does seem pretty early (mid May).  I'm trying to remember if the ten plants I put down this spring are everbearing strawbs or not (I only remember thinking I ought to choose those, not if I actually did).  The first berries came from one of our older plants, and there are lots of little green ones forming, on both old and new plants.  I was lucky to get one bite of the smaller berry--the daughter is five and has quick fingers and a very persuasive manner!

Did I mention that both my apple trees flowered and set fruit this spring?  Since I've had them (pre-blog but not by a lot), both have produced biennially;  last year was an on year so I was expecting an off year for 2025 but it's an on year again, hooray!  Has the biennial tendency stopped now they're older?  Or is it just a freak accident of timing and they'll go back to their normal ways next year?  

The flock, using graywater, protecting the harvest

 

Eating some grass at the allotment, May 2025

I sent the son to the allotment on Sunday for the morning chicken check (I've been going up myself both before school and after work), with instructions to take a photo of the chickens for me.  They went up a week ago to a very grassy yard and have done a lot of mowing.  At this point I'm not sure how long they'll stay.  A few weeks?  All summer?  No definite plans at this point.  I wanted them up there to clear away the grass at the very least.  However if we get a heat wave they'll have to come back home to their house and yard in the shade.  Bonus from all that grass I presume:  egg numbers have gone up.

The ducks are still at home, locked in their large yard for the present.  I've been planting out the kitchen garden including the non-fenced portion;  when my new plants are bigger they can have some free range again.  

Once again, it's not rained at all in the previous week.  The husband and son wrangled the washing machine so it pumps out the dryer vent;  I've found some of my collection of pipes and hoses (I can't seem to find all of them), to direct the water onto some of the beds surrounding the patio.  I use homemade soap in this laundry (it's made with tallow, lye and water only, and well aged to make sure all the lye saponifies with the fat).  The pipes empty onto the soil itself at the top of the beds to seep downhill, not splashing directly onto my vegetables.  I'm generally doing one wash every morning.  

The water butts still have a very small amount of water, but I'm also saving some water from the house to take outside:  some bathwater (hard to transport), the water used in cooking and washing vegetables, that sort of thing.  Mainly I water my pots and planters with this saved water, the beds with the washing machine water.

This weekend I netted both my Morello cherry tree and my small strawberry patch at home.  Hopefully both are bird proof, as there's definitely not enough to share!  I also remembered to put my purple sprouting broccoli seedlings under insect mesh--I found one small patch of eggs on one of the leaves.  I really need to plant those out as they're getting too big, but where?  I'm thinking maybe I can plant them in gaps in the beetroot bed at the allotment--it still has insect mesh on it (mainly as a pigeon deterrent). 

Working, working

Though we've had some cooler days recently, it's hot and sunny again, no rain at all in the last week.  I've been walking up to the allotment with the daughter before school to water every morning (it's just down the street);  also to plant out a few things and pick the last of the purple sprouting broccoli.  This I've been gradually clearing away, picking the leaves to cook like kale and composting the stems;  I'm immediately sheet mulching the bed in preparation for the squash which is now finally emerging from its pots on my kitchen windowsill.

I finally got all the cabbages and Brussels sprouts transplanted;  the only brassica I have left is the new purple sprouting broccoli but I really don't have anywhere to put it.  I may try to grow it on at home just a little longer though I think it needs covering with insect mesh like the rest as I've found caterpillars on the mature broccoli already:  it's pretty early but they'll destroy my young plants if I'm not careful. 

The garlic bed at the allotment looks strong, probably to harvest in June, and the broad beans are all flowering well;  I hope I can start picking them later this month.  I've also started putting up some supports for my snap peas which are around 10-15 cm tall now;  I planted them in circles and have been making teepees out of last year's bamboo canes (tall but narrow canes from my own plant at home).  Last year I grew most of my peas and beans in rows but the supports kept falling over when it got too windy;  the one teepee I'd made for my French beans was the only one to stay upright--and was easiest to harvest.

We had a light frost at the allotment and it nipped the tops of a few of my tomatoes, despite the son and I covering them all with straw and netting the afternoon before.  It looks like most are ok though it might have been too much for one or two.  We had another forecast of frost a few days later so we absolutely buried them in straw that time;  I don't know if it did actually frost or not, but everything survived unscathed the second time.  We'd also buried the potatoes and they were unaffected too.  

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The first of the new season lettuce has been wonderful;  I've got two kinds planted:  a frilly oakleaf type and a butterhead.  I've planted the butterheads fairly close together in anticipation of cutting whole heads;  the oakleaf is for cut and come again.  All of these are interplanted with cabbage in my kitchen garden at home.  

Also at home are spring onions in the ground and in planters (some oakleaf lettuce in planters too), massive cauliflower plants with no heads yet, and some strawberries just forming.  I've interplanted the spring onions and strawberries, and may even put some leeks down there too--they don't take up a lot of room.  While I'm hoping to plant out leeks after my potatoes are lifted (a second early type), I do have a Lot Of Leeks.  

The next phase

It looks as though I have to stop with the seeds for now;  I have some empty pots and trays now and I can't refill them as I won't have anywhere to plant.  Now I'm moving on to the business of potting on and planting out.  

All my green cabbages are in the ground, some at home and some at the allotment;  the allotment ones are sharing the kohlrabi bed, under some insect mesh and the home ones are with some lettuce.  I have Brussels sprouts and red cabbage ready to go too, probably to go partly with the kohlrabi and the rest in the turnip bed at the allotment (also covered).  All the snap peas are also transplanted, mostly growing well (looks like a little bit of flea beetle damage).

The first batch of plum tomatoes are all in the ground at the allotment, and the cherry toms in planters.  I have a second batch of plum toms but as they are still pretty small I don't know if I'll end up planting them out.  Maybe.  I initially wasn't planning on growing sweetcorn this year but ended up buying a packet on special and only 5 of 25 seeds sprouted:  not that special.  I've potted them on already;  lots of people plant sweetcorn at the allotment so maybe mine'll still get pollinated and grow some corn.  I'll put it with the squash anyway, like I always do.  

I'm waiting for my squash to emerge actually.  I ended up sowing three trays of it:  two of the giant squash seed and one from the final squash of 2023 (that we ate in July of 2024).  Both came from the same lineage;  I hope they both grow big, long-storing squashes (we still have one last squash from 2024 on our living room windowsill--I'll save seed from that one for next year too).

Though the squash is slow, the cucumbers and zucchini are all looking fine.  I've put the cucumbers out on the patio already (sprouted indoors) but the zucchini are only getting day trips so far.  My runner beans are also just coming up in the cold frame on my patio.  I bought some dwarf French bean seeds and saved some climbing French beans seeds from last year but maybe I won't have anywhere to grow them this year;  I'll take stock in a few more weeks and see if it's possible or if I'll save them till next year.