The Darling Buds of May

It's amazing what plenty of rain followed by some warm, sunny weather can do. After a cool early spring, trees, shrubs and hedges are now wearing their bright new green leaves and everywhere is bursting with life.

At the plot, after a frantic few weeks, all the seeds for this year have now been sown, most have germinated, and a hardy few are taking advantage of the current sunny and warm weather.

I have, in no particular order:

Tomatoes - Sungold F1, Gardener's Delight, Golden Sunrise, Alicante.
Chilli - Cayenne Pepper
Cucmbers - Burpless Tasty Green and Crystal Apple.
Courgettes - Kojak F1 and One Ball F1
Squashes and Pumpkins - Cobnut, Mammoth, Gold Nugget, Baby Bear, Jack O' Lantern.
Beans - Cobra, Barlotti 'Lingua di Fuoco', Polestar, Purple Teepee.

The last to emerge will be the Sweetcorn Honey Bantam F1, which currently reside on my window sill in their toilet roll tubes - they only went in last night!

Thanks to a recent decking job I have finished off the last of the raised beds at the allotment. I hope to be down there this weekend to cull the dandelions and get on top of the profusion of weeds before the above plants go in after the late May bank holiday. I plan to take a few pictures and upload them to the blog as I am proud of my efforts this year and there are some lovely sights. 'Best of plot' at the moment must be the fruit trees - the bramley and the morello cherry are full of blossom and the bees are busily working away on the flowers. I anticipate a great crop this year, provided there are no late frosts and I can net the cherries before the blackbird gets them.

We've also picked the first two crops of asparagus - enormous fat spears - and steamed them only an hour or so after picking. They tasted great, but it does make your wee smell funny :-)

Finally, before signing off, a word of warning for anyone who might be tempted to tackle nettles with a strimmer. Make sure your skin is completely covered before trying this. Nettles may sting when you touch them, but boy does it hurt when you are showered with tiny fragments of nettle being blasted by a strimmer. Ouch!