Planting Out Begins!
Plus garlic progress, and ground cover plans.
While it's true there will probably still be the odd frost or two, we have started planting out some of the slightly tougher veg plants into the main bed - the broad beans are in which is always the start of the veg garden year for me. I started some off in the greenhouse this year rather than direct sowing, but have popped a couple of beans straight into the ground too to provide a couple of later-season plants.
Baby broad beans straight out of the pod are such a treat, and seeing as we aren't growing peas this year it will be a fine thing, as long as some actually make it to the kitchen! We have also put the kohl rabi plants out…a bit risky but they seem strong so we'll see, gardening is all about experimentation.
In the greenhouses there is lots going on, cabbages will be ready next then the purple sprouting broccoli with leeks following on behind. We are growing radish and potatoes in containers this year for space as much as anything and have already had a few radishes in salad. Bell peppers, tomatoes (plum, golden and cherry) are doing well, courgettes (yellow and 8-ball) are looking good and the cucumbers are in with their supports ready and tied on to the greenhouse frame to take the weight of the fruits.
The garlic is doing fabulously, good upright stems so we are looking forward to having a decent supply in a while. The cold weather will hopefully have encouraged the bulbs to divide into cloves.
We have planted some step-over apples this spring, which I will photograph in a few weeks. They are positioned along the edge of a path to make a border to the veg bed, growing only a couple of feet high they will provide fruit that is easy to pick!
As always there have been some failures, we have bought a couple of butternut squash plants as our seeds failed, no luck with chard or aubergine either but to be honest I'm not sure we would have had the room so it's all good.
The last thing I will mention is ground cover. We are attempting 'no-dig' gardening for the first time this year and so far I am a total convert (as are our backs) and we have decided to leave the rampant alpine strawberries and forget-me-nots in the flower beds to keep the soil covered, only removing them if we need to plant something or when they have gone over. They are very easy to weed and will discourage bigger, more difficult weeds from establishing. The other ground cover plants that is both beautiful and delicious will be nasturtium which grows amongst the veg plants, so I looking forward to that.
