they're off...

The first pea shoots of the season have poked their heads above the compost!

pea shoot

I sowed these in a container in the greenhouse twelve days ago, along with some broad beans in another tub which have yet to appear. Because we like fresh peas so much I’ll be making small successional sowings every couple of weeks over the next few months. Just being able to walk down the garden path and pick fresh peas to pop straight into your mouth on a summer's day is quite magical. I know, I'm easily pleased!

A couple of weeks ago I covered part of the plot with black plastic. There are two reasons for this: firstly it warms up the soil by a couple of degrees and secondly allows weed seeds to germinate. These can then be easily dealt with before they become a nuisance among the crops.

Into the slightly warmer soil I planted twenty onion sets (setton) and risked small sowings of carrot (Amsterdam 3-sprint) and radish (French Breakfast). I’ve fleeced them over to give a little more protection but the onions shouldn’t really need it. And talking of onions, I now have over 100 sets planted and I've yet to start on those growing from seed. It's a good job we like onions.

Rhubarb stalks are now about six inches (15cm) high and I noticed the blackcurrant buds are swelling nicely. All of the fruit trees and bushes got a good sprinkle of wood ash today and I’m now looking forward to bumper crops again.

blackcurrant buds

Because of the amount of overwintered salad crops I put in last year I'm running out of space in the greenhouse. I suppose I'll have to ditch some of it to make way for the new stuff. The spring onions and AYR lettuce will probably survive outside as long as we don't get any really hard frosts and I am getting a bit sick of lettuce leaves anyway. I try not to buy fresh produce out of season but it does limit what's available at this time of year. Still, not long to wait now and then we'll be spoilt for choice.