Something different for dinner...

 As usual, we've lots of purple broccoli to pick - and some green bits that are actually the tops of cabbages and brussels running to seed, but, at last something new for dinner -  a small cauliflower and the first of this year's radishes!!

pretty and productive - I hope

 We seem to have had constant rain recently but I took advantage of a brief respite to start my 'veg among the flowers' planting scheme with some blue flowered and podded peas - Blauwschokker.

Hopefully these will look attractive, like sweet peas, but still give a good crop of veg.

 

The wigwam is made from our tree trimmings - mainly the large front-garden rowan which has been severely lopped this year and some long lengths of my parents' apple tree.

April veg

lots of baby tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers growing. Just waiting now for some guaranteed good weather to plant them out.







Still struggling to cope with the broccoli glut - picking a dinner's worth every day and it can get a little tedious.

Hungry Gap?

We've just returned from a week's holiday to be met by a strange smell from the fridge. Amongst other possible culprits was a bag of home-grown apples from last Autumn - an experiment to see if they'd keep better in the cold and dark. Well - they haven't, those in boxes under the stairs have kept just as well, the few that are left.

We're now reaching the end of last year's stored produce so entering the 'hungry gap' time of year.
The apples will probably last till the rhubarb is ready to pick but we're down to smaller strange shaped ones and there's an increasing amount of soft damaged fruit among them.
We still have a small box of beetroot but again it's soft and starting to rot.
Sadly down to the last two parsnips! - didn't grow quite enough of these but wished we'd had carrots in store as well.

We're left with a lot of dried beans in jars - mainly because I forget to put them in soak the day before they're wanted, so we're not eating them! - and lots of tomatoes and broad beans in the freezer. Add to that a surplus of early purple broccoli and some salad leaves and we'd have a very strange diet if only eating home-grown produce!

This year we need to plan what we grow and what we eat a bit more carefully!

Surprise snow!

It's not really that unusual to get snow at the beginning of April - but last week was glorious and almost as hot as summer.

It didn't stay long and today the sun is out again though not amazingly warm and the daffodils and tulips that looked flattened yesterday have picked themselves up.

Changes - 2

Firstly, the dividing trellis has been removed which makes a great difference to the whole feel of the garden.

Now trying to find a new place for the bench which sat up against the trellis - this looks like a good spot but the view from it is blocked by a large forsythia bush!

Planting outdoor fuchsia and forsythia to hide the compost bin in its new position


Being helped, as always, by Dylan the Dog!

April flowers

April came in with glorious sunny weather and the garden in full bloom.




Later spring flowers - tall tulips, violets, honesty and forget-me-nots starting to flower





while the earlier daffodils and forsythia are still going strong.






Sadly we now have frost and possibly snow forecast.