Everything is in now

[jontaylor9]

Thought I'd post my plans for this year and lessons from last year.
I've put raised beds on about half my plot this year as the soil was too dry and hard for a lot of crops to thrive and with this spring being really dry I'm glad I did. Brassicas don't seem to mind concrete soil but the pigeons and cabbage whites did their best to eat all my purple sprouting broccoli last year, with the hard winter as well I nearly lost it but in the end we had a few platefuls in March and April, great with a poached egg and toast. The brassicas are in a bigger cage this year. I'm trying sweetcorn for the first time, F1 Incredible and Minipop for baby corn cobs. I'm trying to do a three sisters bed, (corn, beans and squashes) to make the most of the space.

We had lots of beans last year but the runners were getting on top of us so I'm growing a variety called 'teeny beanie' . I was surprised last year that I got as many beans from my dwarf french plants as the climbers so I'm doing more of those, especially sungold which are delicious with a mustard, olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing and you can't get them in the shops.

I made a plait of last years garlic which kept us going until winter, this year I've done twice as much, it was in planted in October and shouldn't be too many weeks away now. The supermarket stuff rotted in the ground but the UK bulbs came good.

Peas struggled last  year, I sowed them in drain pipes and transplanted but despite regular watering the compost in the drainpipe and the clay soil never quite got it together and the peas dried up as a result. This year I planted 6 varieties in a heavily manured bed and covered with fleece, once I had  tendrils I removed the fleece and put pea sticks in. The two varieties that came up strongest (Ambassador and Sugarbon) I planted again in the gaps.
Rhubarb has really struggled, I moved it in February but then we had hardly any rain since March and now it looks half dead but half alive also. Raspberries, potatoes, asparagus (1 bunch this year, early days yet) and broad beans are doing fine. Squashes look a bit anaemic but the third lot of leaves look OK. It's hard to believe our last frost date was 19th March this year, last year it was 15 May.

Happy digging

Jon

[jontaylor9]

[Spudbash]

Nice work.  :)

It's always interesting to read about and see pictures of different people's way of doing things.

This year is quite exceptional: Little did I know when I sowed tens of chillis, peppers, tomatoes and aubergines in Jan and Feb that they'd all be huge by May! I've finally taken the plunge and planted out lots of tender stuff (tomatoes, squashes and melons), but there's still a chance of a nippy night...

Every year, every month, every week, every day, brings surprises.  ;D

[caroline7758]

our last frost date was 19th March this year, last year it was 15 May.

Ooh, don't tempt fate!

Certainly looks as if you've been busy!

[Deb P]

I got caught out in 2007 with a frost on 2nd June...wiped out all my beans and fried the potatoes too! My squash are going in this week, I've been keeping an eye on the temperature via the WeatherSpark website, really accurate temp. estimates so far this year.

[saddad]

I wish...
BTW metcheck says 0c next Monday and snow for Derby...  :-X