April Update

 

My courgettes and Squash have not germinated as well as I expected so with only two Squash and Courgette seedlings growing I have sown extra. 

 

My Crystal Lemon Cucumbers have also been poor , I currently only have one seedling so more seeds have been sown. The climbing French Beans have been better with fourteen out of twenty germinating.i will pot them up into coir pots and transplant in late May.

 

The peppers are in the greenhouse and growing slowly. My Chilli are still inside the conservatory and are showing a better growth rate. The winner has to be the two Cherry Bomb Chilli plants that I overwintered indoors.They both have masses of flowers and fruits are developing.

 

 

Asparagus for Tea

The third cutting of asparagus this year, although I probably need to add some more crowns.

 

 

Pumpkins have Germinated

The Pumpkins are the first to germinate, I have one Squash, one courgette and one french bean also showing.

 The Blueberry plants are in flower this year so we may get fruit

 

There is a lot of Blossom on the apples which is incouraging.

 Swiss Chard has a little way to go but some have been transplanted out already.

 These are the brassicas, Brussels, Cabbage, Cauliflower and Kale.

Training Peas

 

Last year I sowed peas and left them to  it. We had peas but they were very low and packed together. Now this is fine if you have an agricultural hybrid but we just grow the standard varieties.

My first peas germinated and were planted out in March, but the second batch, to replace poor germination have only been outside a couple of weeks.

They need something to grow up so I thought I would use old bean poles horizontally above each row. They looked good but a bit high so I have now suspended some wire grids from them the the peas should reach before they get too tangled.

 

I also repotted my chilli seedlings so I have four of each variety, however I really only need two of each. These will go back into the conservatory until they are a bit bigger.

 

The mini pop corn that was such a disaster in February has had a better germination rate for the second batch. I have transplanted them out and I will probably have enough.

 

The Cherry Bomb chilliest that I over wintered have started to flower in the conservatory, so if the fruit is good I will do the same next year.

 

 

The broad beans and field beans are growing quite quickly now and I have the French bean poles all ready. The apple trees are coming into flower and it looks as if it could be a good year.

 

More Sowing and Transplanting

My second lot of peas have sprouted and the germination rate is 100%, they were growing well so I took the opportunity to transplant them to their final position.

Swiss Chard, Leeks and Beetroot are a bit slow but the brassicas have now germinated.

The new chickens have arrived

The others sowings today were French Beans, Courgettes, Squash, Pumpkin and Crystal Lemon cucumber in the greenhouse. They are a little early probably a week but I want to make sure they germinate in case I have to resow like last year and then they were behind, and they did not catch up very well.

Tomatoes, Peppers  and Chilli are strong with a couple of Chilli varieties a bit slower, Paper Lantern and Purple Tiger.

 

I sowed two beds of Broad Beans and one of Field beans, they were doing very well and then the mouse found them. Not a total loss but a bit of a disappointment.

The Strawberries are starting to show signs of life.