peas and beans

feltham first peas - if you look very carefully you can see the first pea pod has set.

the autumn sown broad beans died in the very cold weather over winter but hopefully there'll soon be pods on these sown in February.

picked this week

first radishes of the year!!
lots of salad leaves - various types of lettuce, spinach and rocket

more leeks

more broccoli,

more rhubarb - made rhubarb, orange and ginger jam.

chives

sweet May flowers

oriental poppies

aquilegias

flowering now

peonies

irises

and lilac

picked this week

rhubarb growing well - it's had a lot of the horse muck/compost mix on it. picked lots early in the week in a panic about frost damage.
leeks and broccoli again - starting to get a bit boring.

alderman peas

we're growing Alderman peas again this year. these are a tall variety - up to about 6' - which continue to crop over a long period. we have 2 batches of seed set - the first is last years' home grown seed, with a high germination rate and growing well,

the second tray is the purchased seed which is now about 4 years old - very few of these seeds are growing at all.

planting out

it's been cold overnight all week and most of the veg have been covered in fleece but hoping we've now seen the last of the frosts. started moving plants out of the greenhouse; Painted Lady runner beans ready to grow up a wigwam; a row of brussels sprouts; another of small french beans; and the largest courgette out into the coldframe. given some garlic bulbs and mint by granddad, so planted these out.

picked this week

actual leek-sized leeks this week - cooked with smoked haddock, then mashed into baked potato, sprinkled with cheese and baked. need to think about clearing them for space but some are starting to bolt.

first rhubarb of the year.

purple sprouting broccoli still cropping well. loads of salad leaves - lettuce, rocket, spinach

flowering now

just coming into flower yesterday and today - pink, white and blue bells

lily of the valley

clematis montana

and welsh poppies

apple blossom

all three apples now in flower - the pippin with lots of blossom

only one clump on the new tree

the small tree is absolutely covered with flowers

picked this week

the glut of brassicas running to seed continues. we have a lot of loose cabbage leaves, popping brussels sprouts and their leaves to eat at the moment. I'm trying to avoid either throwing everything away or freezing it so trying to find interesting ways to use it all instead of living on a diet of plain boiled cabbage. have added it to minestrone soup, to pasta sauces and stir fry but best idea so far is using it as a replacement for spinach in curry.

also have; - early purple sprouting broccoli starting to come ready - slightly different to the brassicas but not very.

- leeks

- some over-wintered, very woody radishes. some just aren't edible at all.

- lots of salad leaves -various kinds of red and green lettuce, rocket, some spinach.

- oregano, lemon balm and mint shooting up.