Out back

                    The garden's starting to come alive

Pyrrhosoma nymphula

Spotted two red damselflies today, a mile apart from each other.

Not my Kniphofia

                Neighbour's red hot pokers looking flaming good

Deadhead dianthus

These dianthus have been happy in a hanging basket for several years and respond well to deadheading.

Trending purple

These irises didn't flower last year, possibly because they didn't get enough water. Like the foxgloves in full sun, they're darker in hue than ones in the shade.

Baked garlic with side salad

Early spinach, fresh lettuce and some of the early garlic crop, which has benefited from baking in the sun.

Speckled fox

      Apart from comfrey, nothing keeps a bee busier than a foxglove

Aquilegia rose

The aquilegias - or granny bonnets - are starting to form seed heads now and the flowers will soon be gone. Meanwhile, roses have erupted into bloom and aphids have been attacking the new growth.

Après le déluge

Harvesting the last leeks and the first garlic was made easier after the torrential rain of the last couple of days, which has given the soil a proper soak for the first time in weeks. Some of the garlic seems to have a bit of white rot, so it's inadvisable to grow it in that location again and it'll need drying out and using up quickly.

Spuds bounce back

The early potatoes have recovered from the cold shock of a couple of weeks ago and are putting on new growth.

Cobra beats fox

There's something magestic, cobra-like, about verbascums, rising early before the foxgloves. Some years the spring's a bit wet for them, but they've enjoyed the recent dry weather.

Angel's wings

The angelica heads are reaching maturity and attracting a diverse range of winged insects. Harlequin ladybirds are common, if not dominant now.

Vergissmeinnicht

Some plants are almost impossible to eradicate, come back year after year and are a real pain. Others, like forget-me-nots, you can live with, for a bit.

Risky bet

Risked planting out some early cobra beans, which should really have collars or cloches on them to keep them warm and the lurking molluscs away.

First Crunch

The radishes have germinated and matured quickly, giving a good peppery crunch to a salad. Unfortunately, a few of them have already been nibbled a little by something else.

Fresh Brew

A brew of comfrey and nettles to feed hungry crops. It's starting to pong good and proper now!

Hippeastrum

This amaryllis is five or six years old now and lies dormant indoors for most of the year without much attention, until sprouting a vigorous stem, reminding you to water it, on which this year there are four vivid red flowers.

Rodents threaten floral futures

Thought that this osteospermum had succumbed to the winter, but although part of it died off, there are still plenty of these long lived flowers, which open wide in bright sunshine and close in the evening. Some of the new seedlings, sown indoors a couple of months ago, have been attacked by mice, which also seem to like Phlox and possibly Cosmos and Nicotiana, unless something else has been nibbling them.

Maysky

Beantalk

The early broad bean crop is in flower, but the growth of both the early and late plants appears to be a bit stunted and the early ones have started to get blackfly: The whole point of an early crop, sown in November, is that they're supposed to flower before the blackfly are around. Marigolds / calendula, which deter blackfly, aren't in flower yet and there don't seem to be as many ladybirds around as usual. It's possible that they all flowered early on short stalks because of the unseasonally warm and dry spring. As usual, the leaves have been chomped by weevils, although it never causes a problem with the crop.

Thirsty for a brew

The strawberry bed's not as packed as it's been in previous years. Quite a few of the plants are in flower and like everything else, they need a good watering a couple of times a week. They would probably benefit from some potash to encourage fruit formation or some of the first batch of comfrey fertiliser, which is brewing in a bucket.

Clinging to bristles

The peas seem happy, although they're not keen on climbing old raspberry cane sticks because of the bristles. Scattering a few fennel leaves deters slugs and snails, although it's been so dry, and cold, that there's been no major mollusc appearance yet.

Waiting in the wings

The runner beans germinated quickly on a window sill and are raring to go. Need to gradually accilmatize them to being outside and then plant them out once the cold snap passes.

The north wind doth blow

 

The dry spell continued for most of the month and then, just as the potatoes pushed through the soil, a cold snap blew in on a north wind and ruined them. Should have given them some protection, but the temperature wasn't supposed to drop so low - and hasn't done at this time of year for at least a dozen years. Just as well there are a few seed potatoes left over with which to have another try.

Bloomin' early

The Cox's apple tree is in blossom early and unlike in previous years, the weather's good for flying pollinators.

Yum

Loads of lovely purple sprouting broccoli around now, hidden away from the pigeons all winter under nets and wire mesh. It grows back after harvesting if you leave a few young shoots and produces more if you give it lots of water.

Truly tulip

Ribes sanguineum

After the delicate perfume of the late winter flowering Daphne, the vibrant early spring flowers of the American currant - Ribes sanguineum - have a rather pungent smell.

Ambient Allotment

Sprung Greens

The start of the purple sprouting broccoli season and the last of the leek and kale harvests (apart from a few leeks left to fatten during the coming weeks, or left to flower and seed).

Early buds

                                              Gooseberry

                                             Blackcurrant

                                              Apple (Cox's)

A warm spell has encouraged fruit bushes and trees to bud about ten days earlier than last year.

The Sower

Came across a postcard of Van Gogh's 'The Sower' this week, apt for this time of year, when so many seeds are crying out for compost, pots, modules, seed trays, sunny window ledges, an airing cupboard or a well-tilled soil.

Already on the go for the veg garden :

• Tomatoes (Roma & Costoluto)
• Chillies (Cayenne)
• Courgettes
• Peas (Kelvedon Wonder)
• Broad Beans
• Celery
• Lettuce
• Spinach 
• Coriander
• Parsley

And a few flowers :

• Sunflowers
• Sweet Peas 
• Antirhinnum
• Osteospermum
• Cosmos
• Rudbeckia
• Phlox
• Sweet Rocket
• Black Eyed Susan
• Calendula
• Tagetes
• Coreopsis

Better not have forgotten anything!

Early bee on an anemone

Grubs up

At first glance it looked like cat shit, but on closer inspection it was a frog nestling in the soil at the base of an olive tree growing in a pot. The olive leaves have been nibbled by vine weevils in the past couple of years and although it doesn't affect the tree, the small white weevil grubs that live in the soil and attack the roots do. Fortunately, frogs and toads like eating the grubs, so this one is providing an important service.

Swelling underground

Garlic looks healthy, on top, but it's what's under the soil that's important and whether it gets too wet over the next few months in the heavy clay soil.

Protection

Ain't no pesky varmints gonna trample on these broad beans, for now.

Early doors

Always a good sign that winter is nearly over: You can smell the sweet lemon scent of this daphne odora several metres away. A shame it's not mine and that cuttings are difficult to root, but it's next to a path, so many people benefit.

Ratty and friends

It seems a longer, darker and colder winter than for a while, despite there being no snow or severe prolonged frost. Foxes, or badgers, have trampled on some broad bean plants that had made a good start in the autumn and a couple of storms have battered most of the others. The dwarf kale plants and leeks have grown very little and rats have got into the shed and eaten most of a marrow and some apples.

All Hallows' Eve

Holey Cabbage

Almost impossible to prevent slugs from chomping the outer leaves of these late summer cabbages, even if the nets prevent pigeons from having a go too, but the hearts are usually dense enough to make them worthwhile.

Bachelor's Buttons

The injestion of Feverfew, aka Bachelor's Buttons, appears to be as beneficial as it is a hazard.

Evergreens

Plenty of fresh veg still around, though running out of onions as the first leeks begin to mature.

Seedy business

 

Now that the sunflowers, marigolds and rudbeckia are starting to wilt, it's good time to collect seed heads before the rain comes. 

Long haul

The garlic planted last month has already put on lots of growth (some of the cloves were unearthed by curious birds, badgers or mice, hence the protection) but it'll be another eight months, around June, until it'll be ready to harvest.

The colour of autumn

Into October and the sweet peas are still flowering, which is unusual. Any remaining colour at this time of year is welcome, before it all goes black and white. More pointless gourds, useful lettuce and tasty beets.