Winners and Losers

Some things are doing really well in my patch of dirt - as you can see from these pictures - I've even added one from a different angle this month for you to see my main successes so far - my legumes and potatoes coming on a treat! With a bit of luck I'll be eating peas and broadbeans and maybe some new potatoes in only a matter of weeks!



My parsnips and sweet corn are also doing allright, even though they are still quite small.

But I have also had a couple of resounding failures. My carrots are a disaster! They germinated but now I only have a couple of plants! I've no idea why. Did something eat them? And I have only one cauliflower plant. I put them outside the greenhouse to harden off and the slugs munched them!!! Death to slugs!!! And as for my courgettes and squash - it was really sunny here on Monday and they were sat in the greenhouse while I was at work and when I got home they were all scorched and brown. Anyway, I've planted them out so we'll see what happens.

So to try to fill the gaps I've popped in a row of beetroot and some onions. I'll let you know what happens to them :-)

What are Wheelbarrows For?

I need some more potting compost - and some growbags - everything is going wild in the greenhouse and starting to look a bit root bound.

So off I head to the garden centre.

Boy these bags are heavy! I buy one of compost and then one growbag because that's all I can lift. Mind you a rather fit bloke helps me to get them into my car.

Sadly he's not there when I get home so I'm going to have to do this on my own. Somehow I've got to get them down to the greenhouse at the bottom of the garden.

Easy solution - I'll use the wheelbarrow....

... or not :-(

The wheelbarrow is full of broken panes of greenhouse glass. I know a couple got broken when we assembled the greenhouse and hubby had to nip out to the glazier to pick up some more - but I thought he'd got rid of them ages ago.

There are also some bits of rusty metal, some decomposing weeds, and the whole thing is half full of stagnant water.

There's nothing else for it - and I'm certainly not waiting for hubby to get home and help - so I half carry, half drag the bags down the garden.

Excellent - done it.

Except now I'm too knackered to do any gardening - I need a cup of tea!

May Update

Here's what my patch of dirt looks like this month.

On the left you can see my legumes - broad beans, peas and runner beans, all coming on nicely. Behind them the potatoes are breaking the surface. You can't really see them but trust me - the carrots and parsnips are germinating, as are the onions. The sweet corn and squash will soon be ready to go in and in the greenhouse I'll be growing melons, peppers and plum tomatoes.

I feel hungry already. :-)