I’ve been busy planting out all of my veggies that I started in pots under cloched boxes. It’s been a strange month because it started very hot and dry and it’s been hard work keeping up with the watering. Then we had a dip in the weather and some things stopped growing all together and others rotted.

This is the run down of how everything is getting on:

French Beans – I haven’t been able to germinate any beans directly sown, only in pots. I’m not sure why this is but I made sure I planted enough to spare in case I lost any to slugs. They have been slow to start because of the funny weather but some now have their second and third leaves.

Tomatoes – These germinated quite successfully, then in April it was so cold they stopped grown completely and some rotted away. I had to start again in late April and early May. Planted out 6 cherry tomatoes and 8 standard tomatoe plants under bottle cloches. One of the cherry tom plants has out grown it’s cloche, and others are still only an inch high! The standard tomatoe plants are very slow going but I’ll leave them in and hope they catch up.

Squashes, pumpkins and Courgettes – I turned over the old compost corner at the back which was used for all my veggies last year. This has become my squash corner. After trying for weeks, I finally managed to germinate some squash seeds and they are all in along with a couple of courgettes and pumpkin. They are all still going and have escaped slug attack so I hope growth is good in the coming weeks.

Salads – Well for some reason, I’ve failed miserably on getting a good crop of healthy lettuce. There are a couple of red frilly and green rosso’s looking good but that’s nothing compared to the number of seeds I’ve planted. It’s been a bit of back luck in one way, as we have had extremely heavy rain fall which I think has washed a lot of the seeds away. Still determined to get something going, I’ve now put some seeds in pots and planted a few under cloches direct. We have been enjoying cress and rocket for weeks now which is very satisfying and tasty.

Potatoes – I’m hoping to dig some early potatoes soon. No flower heads just yet but they must be imminent. After I’ve cleared them, I’ll use the space for some winter veggies.

Cabbages et al – Put in 6 very healthy cabbages for autumn picking and they seem quite happy. A mole managed to dig up 2 of them but I put them back in, watered well and so far they are still looking lively. I’ve also started the Brocolli which will be ready of the winter months later this year and early next. Four have gone in and I’ve put a further 4 seeds in pots to stagger the growing.

Peas – Although you don’t get a lot of peas from each plant, they are delicious straight from the garden.

I’ve made the use of the short hedge along the edge of “squash” corner and have some healthy specimens full with pods waiting to ripen.

The other peas have been planted into the patch next to the beans and I’ve used some old tree branches as pea sticks.

These were later going in and much smaller but they have their first flowers just appearing.

Spring onions – These are a bit of a mystery. I’ve planted 4 or 5 times now and each time – NOTHING. I’m beginning to think it’s because they are a very old pack of seeds so I need to go and buy a fresh packet as I’m sure they are not that diffcult to grow.

Root vegetables – Parsnips are going strong and assuming the moles don’t get them, we’ll be enoying them this winter.

Carrots are another awkward customer but I’ve managed to get a few going and keep planting in succession. Beetroot has taken off all of a sudden and the purple and green leaves look a blaze in the patch.

All in all, it has been fairly successful so far – but hard work. I have planted some cucumbers, sweetcorn and small squashes down behind the hedge at the end of the garden as a bit of an experiment. It captures lots of heat there but it’s very rough ground and full of weeds. The constant cutting back of the grass and nettles might put an end to the idea next year, but we’ll see how it goes … Until then, here are just some of the lovely radishes we’ve been enjoying since mid April ..

There’s much to be said about making use of other peoples “unwanteds”. Apart from saving a bit of money, it gives you great satisfaction to have re-used something that would have otherwise gone onto the skip. During all those years of spending holidays in France, I often noticed just how many gardens had what I would have described as “piles of old junk” stashed in a corner somewhere.

Since living here, and being on a fairly tight budget, you get to understand why this old junk is there. It makes sense to re-use old pallets, wood, bricks and such like in the garden for which you would have otherwise paid a fair price for. I last reported on my use of some old bits of wood and pallets to make the surround for my veggy patch. Continuing on that theme, I needed to section off an area at the back of the house for a larger composting heap.

Pallets are useful but very hard work to split and bit on the bulky side for what I needed.

Then I was talking to our mate, Peter Beta Biker about his garden clearance activities and discovered that he had a couple of bundles of old chicken wire he was going to take down the tip.

They were in quite a mess, twisted and tangled and clogged up with old dead vines. On looking at them you wouldn’t have thought that there was much you could do with them, but I’ve learned quickly not to be daunted by such things and just get on and try it. If it works, great, if not then I’ve lost nothing except a little time.

After 45 minutes of clipping, pulling and unravelling I had a perfect roll of chicken wire ready for use.

I’ve already used a piece to support some peas and the rest is enough to make my compost surround – just need to sort out a couple of poles or stakes to make the supports.

After my success, I did the same with the second tangled heap and I now have another roll to use for whatever ……