Vivi's Kitchen Garden

With outstanding jobs mounting up quicker than seeds are germinating I decided it was time to have a full day in the garden to get on top of things again. It was a typical day of a bit of everything…..seeding, planting, structure making, weeding, tidying, organising…..and so on…..here is the morning session…..the afternoon session will follow in part two.

It is 7 weeks since I did my initial sowing of carrots and parsnips….and 3 weeks since I did a repeat sowing. It’s time to give these beds a little attention…….and the cats want some attention too….

On a scorching day, that felt like summer, I got stuck into the tedious job of pricking out seedlings…it feels like it takes forever so I keep reminding myself of the food to come. It is also time to start bringing the indoor seedlings/plantlets to the garden to begin the process of hardening off…..

Seed sowing continues……..today it’s all about the Loofah and the Achocha……plus a few back-ups for the squash I started indoors. I also put something out in the garden which always makes me think that summer will be just around the corner.

The direct sowing continues…..today it’s all about the beans, both climbing and bush varieties, with old favourites like Gigantes and some lovely new types to try……….and the chickpeas, one of my all time favourite vegetables to both grow and scoff.

So much to do, so little energy to do it with! A surprise parcel helps though……. With a predicted cold spell I get stuck into earthing up my spuds and protecting the new herbs…….dig a little more, move lots of heavy stuff and generally work until I need a beer……and what a beer it was!

Hurrah for the mad month of May. This is one of the busiest months in the garden for me……..the month when the majority of my seeding happens, plants go into the ground, structures go up……this is the month when the garden really gets set up for the rest of the year. Here’s how it’s looking at the start of the madness.

It’s a wonderful moment each year when the first plants go into the ground! Today I’m planting and sowing peas……which means the first sticks or poles are also going into the ground. Hurrah! I also check to see how my experiment is going with the plank topped carrot bed……