Getting Growing at last. May 11th 2018

The photo is of my little lettuce sheltering under glass from the cold, wind, rain and snow which we have had in abundance since they were planted. I sowed the seeds in early February inside a plastic ring and under glass. If it had been a good spring we would have been eating lettuce by now but instead the plants have struggled to grow. Hopefully now they will soon be ready to pick and we will feel like eating salads instead of soup.

We now have potatoes, onions and broad beans planted at the allotment with the rest of the vegetables, such as leeks, chard, kale, beetroot, parsnips and courgettes still in the greenhouse or inside plastic rings in the back garden. They have been slow growing because of the weather but so long as we get them in by the end of May they will be fine and at that stage the risk of bad weather and frost should be over.

My husband has found a wonderful website for growers -gardenfocused.co.uk. By putting in your nearest town you can print off a week by week calendar of what should be planted in your particular area. It obviously doesn’t take into count the exceptionally bad weather this year but is a good guide and reminder of what needs sowing, planting out or pruning.

The one consolation of this cold start means that hopefully my strawberries will be ready at the right time. Last year was particularly mild and they were two weeks early, arriving mainly when we were away on holiday. The birds and our fellow allotment holders had a bonus and we collected the stragglers.