not quite spring....

but we're nearly there. A couple of gorgeous sunny days have really brought things on so we must now all hope that we don't get any sharp frosts.

The greenhouse potatoes are romping away. These are three Lady Christl in a grow sack and should give us our first picking in about 6 weeks. I'm using a technique learned from Iain at JBA which involves giving the seed a good watering at planting time and not a drop more until the shoots are well up like this. The idea is to encourage a good root system into the compost as the plant goes in search of water which in turn will allow it to absorb the maximum nutrients to ensure a good crop.

All the soft fruit bushes now have healthy leaf growth showing.

blackcurrants coming into leaf.

I still have jam from two years ago as well as last years so I'm looking for ideas to use up the inevitable glut of fruit. I thought about making smoothies and freezing them in plastic milk cartons. Not sure if it would work but if you don't try....

Had to go through to the caravan today to fix a burst pipe before we can use it for this season so didn't get any gardening done. It was such a lovely day that I hung around and just took photos.

This is the view from the Brough to Middleton-in-Teesdale road. In the distance you can just make out Inglebrough on the left and Whernside on the right. These are two of the 'Three Peaks' and are roughly 40km from where I was standing. It's not always grim up north!