Last year’s remnant decided to sprout up in our seedbed of leeks, so we have no leeks, just potatoes… can’t complain

Tomatoes are looking great, all green so far, but hopefully a bit of sunshine this week will have the glowing red!

Cauliflowers = disaster  Birds and bugs have got at them.

We had breakfast – lots of raspberries, straight from the canes – delicious! Shop-bought berries really pale in comparison.

Potatoes are looking healthy, plenty of time to go before we dig them up though.

And we planted a row of beans (Cobra) – the seed packet was very scruffy and out of date, but you never know!

Then it started to rain, so we legged it!

We also harvested three sticks of rhubarb and a test onion! Oh, and some sage… it is going mad so need to find a good way to dry it or freeze it – any tips?

Hopping around us for much of the morning was the friendly robin, loving the fact that we were unearthing a lot of worms for him… greedy little thing!

Planted in an old drawer (recycling as well!) we have sowed Sweet Marjoram, Parsley, Sage, Thyme and Basil (Sweet Genovese and Red Bordeaux).

With a bit of luck they’ll be springing into life and we can transplant them into the main plot

Also today we purchased some asparagus crowns and Maris Piper seed potatoes from Wilko – not sure where to put them yet though!

We put in another row of King Edwards and we’re already looking forward to the roast potatoes!! So there’s two rows of King Edwards now and we still have some left… in two minds as to whether we add a third row or whether we’ll need the space for other bits.

Unearthed a ‘Swift’ potato from last year which was beginning to sprout so might stick that in on an end of a row… we didn’t get any earlies this year which is bit of a silly oversight.

Garlic is fab – the entire row has sprouted So glad we properly weeded that section as the leaves look a lot like grass! It’s not grass, honest!

Raspberries are doing well too – leaves are looking really healthy so far – one of the six canes doesn’t seem to be doing much, but we can see a little bud near the base, so hopefully that’ll be fine. We do need to create some sort of supporting structure for them, but so far we’ve left them alone… need to think about the best option.

Nearly had a disaster with potatoes before they were even planted… we’d left them chitting away in their bag, but Lisa’s husband thought they’d gone bad so binned them! Luckily the bin men hadn’t been so he redeemed himself by rummaging in the bin! We’ve not yet planted them, but want to get them in very soon.

All of a sudden the chives have sprung into action and are looking really good too… and no, that’s not grass either, we tasted some!

Our mint isn’t looking great, but it’s running everywhere. I think we’ll have to dig it out properly and replant a small bit of it – in a pot this time!!

Wildlife is up and about too… a robin, blackbird and a few sparrows were fighting over some worms while we were digging (yes, still digging, but doing it properly is really going to help us in the long run).

Very tasty indeed – boiled them and mixed them up with some olive oil, black pepper and allotment thyme and sage

It was only a short row, but we’re pleased given the disastrous chitting and stupid planting! Oh, and the weeds that started to grown into some!!

Not all have come through – grass and weeds are encroaching – but most are looking like this one

Well… at least we think this is good?! They look healthy anyway and so far there are no bugs munching them!

The potatoes were probably ‘over-chitted’ to be honest (four or five inch sprouts must be too long??) as they didn’t really have enough light while they chitted (aka as ‘sprutting’ apparently!), so it was quite difficult to plant them properly as there were roots sticking out in all directions! Not the best of starts, but we’ll see what happens!

We got most of the Swift earlies in, but there’s still loads left and still the Epicure to plant too. The potato plot may end up a bit larger than anticipated!!

Lisa’s pink t-shirt and the cotton bag (re-usable & washable – ooooh!!!) are available from our shop