Flowering

The mostly fine Spring weather has meant that everything seems to be going well in the garden. In some cases a little too well!

The tomato seedlings are straining at the sides of their pots and demanding to be planted out. We're intending to try to grow half the greenhouse tomatoes by the 'ring culture' method this year: this involves a bed of gravel or similar (in our case some of the rubbish we've dug out of the garden) and a circular bottomless pot. The only problem is that turning to the web for sources of information reveals a bewildering plethora of different methods and various bits of advice.

It'll be a case of testing it out this year - fingers crossed we choose a successful technique. We have plenty of plants which we will grow according to a few different methods (including grow bags), so if the summer's as good as it's predicted to be, we're looking forward to a good crop.

As we are with our various other little projects. There's nothing quite like fresh broad beans, especially in summer salads (they go really well with goats cheese and herbs like dill or mint). Last year was an unmitigated bean disaster; this year we're more hopeful, not least from the bean plants putting out the lovely little flowers in the picture at the top of this post.

These plants are growing in a raised bed, mostly filled with our own compost, so we shouldn't see the problem of poor soil quality that put a curse on our beans last year. The plants are looking good and healthy. We have a secondary crop in one of the other beds, but these are the first ones to be planted out:



The broad beans aren't the only flowering plants in the garden at the moment. The plum blossom may have passed, but next door's apple tree is still looking lovely with its pinkish white bloom. The tomatoes are starting to show their first flowers, still closed, but a reminder that we have to get a move on with the next phase:



We've even been enjoying the first produce from the garden (excepting the rhubarb, which has been going strong for a while). The salad leaves are ready to eat and make a lovely addition to a sandwich, while thinning out the radishes not only gives us a few small radishes as a little treat, but also gives us their tops, which make a great addition to something like our spiced kale. Here's the main salad bed, looking pretty good, with its rather makeshift twine as protection against birds digging around:



The bare bit of ground that we cleared for planting with grass has been modestly transformed now that the seeds are growing. It will no doubt need some more seed to fill in some of the gaps, but I'm really pleased with how well it's doing. It won't be long now before it gets its first cut with the mower:



Here's the 'before' picture:



And last of all (but not least), the latest beer is now ready and drinking really nicely. Here's the post from when it was brewed. It's a version of a recipe for Timothy Taylor's Landlord and has a very pleasing balance of sweetness and hop that isn't a million miles from the original:



Cheers!