Bursting out in the June garden

Well, despite the miserable amounts of rain we get over here in the East, the garden is looking pretty lush.  And the greenhouse; peppers are looking very strong (in homemade compost too !).

Shame about the allotment - on the heavy clay it quickly bakes rock hard and it is impossible to give enough water by hand (well, not whilst holding down a day job !).  My Quinoa showing is poor, peas poor.  But on the bright side, beans and beetroot have come through well, and spring onions which seem to like their place on the Hugelkultur bed.

Over the winter I did as requested by the council and fitted a water butt to my shed.  But there is a fundamental error of arithmetic - my plot is about 100 sq m, and the shed roof is 2 sq m. The amount of rainfall captured makes very little difference - but I suppose every little helps, and it is conveniently placed so useful when it isn't empty !  

How are your growing spaces doing ?

In answer to your last question - generally a bit lacklustre.
Outside I have early potatoes (planted rather late) just starting to show and red onions a bit slow but the recent rain should kick start them a bit.  I've put in sprouts and cabbages which look ok so far but that's all.
Things seem a bit slow in the polytunnel but with the early good weather I'm probably forgetting that it's still early in the season.  My tomatoes were showing signs of magnesium deficiency when I first planted them out but the new growth is looking healthier after some Epsom salts treatment.  Out of 6 melon plants that I started, 5 of them have very bumpy, curled leaves.  The other one is perfect.  It looks like aphid or similar but I have examined the plants very carefully and couldn't see anything on them.  I've given them several sprays with an organic bug killer / plant invigorator and taken off the side shoots to see if the new growth is better.  It was a packet of new seed.  I've had almost zero germination of squashes - I'm not getting any showings from a new packet of Uchiki Kuri seed.  I did manage to buy one butternut squash plant from a local nursery and I have one very slow one that I germinated.  I have put a couple of Uchiki Kuri seeds in situ in the tunnel but nothing yet.  I will be disappointed if they are a no show as I love the huge leaves and aerial squashes all over the roof of the tunnel.  So far the sweetcorn is looking ok.

I've got French beans starting to climb their poles, and runners which have just germinated. The peas are like a jungle but with few flowers so far. Tomatoes are in greenhouse are now OK, since I discovered that there was a blockage in the pipe from the reservoir, and two plants were bone dry! Courgette plants are small but look healthy, I have four purple sprouting plants from the seed which FloBear kindly sent, and the strawberries are looking promising. That's about all I've got in the garden. What amuses me about this time of year is how many pests you have to protect everything from - every plants seems to get at least two protective measures as it's planted out, whether copper rings, straw, netting, mesh. Let's hope it all works!

I still have to be a bit careful not to do too much outside, 14 weeks after my knee replacement, so I really haven't done anything in the parts of the garden where I have flowers. But it's been looking stunning over the last few weeks - a lovely collection of things which survived from last year, or seeded themselves, against a backdrop of flowering grasses. I can't take any of the credit!!

They're pretty Dandelion, I hope they haven't been too battered by the rain today.
Ive always had aquilegias that I allow to seed and I get all sorts of interesting crosses. I started them nearly 20 years ago but this year they've all but disappeared, there's only one or two come up. I'll have to start some from seed again.

Funny you should have a lack of Aquilegias, Ploshkin. I usually have self seeders popping up all over the place but have noticed hardly any this year.

The pea thicket. Judging by the fact that it dwarfs the bean poles behind it, it must be in excess of 8 feet. I only put a few peas into flowerpots and put them in the greenhouse before I went into hospital, then Mr D planted them out for me. Underneath is a custom made metal support, but Mr D has had to put in an extra stake to keep it upright. All I wanted was a few fresh peas to make a risotto - at this rate if I freeze them we'll be able to feed everyone in our road if there's a no-deal Brexit!!

I find peas always exceed the stated height on the packet which is a bit annoying as they end up flopping over.
It suddenly struck me why there's a dearth of aquilegias this year, it's obvious really. The self seeded seeds were unable to germinate in the long hot period last year.

Wow those peas are rampant. What variety ?

They're Tutankhamun - I think I put some in the seed swap in previous years. I'm sure I'll have plenty of seeds at the end of the season if anyone wants any - all the pods which get hidden at the entre of the thicket!! It's a heritage variety from the gardens at Highclere Castle (rumoured to be descended from the peas found in King Tut's tomb, because Highclere House was the home of Lord Caernarvon, but I doubt this very much!)

Not just rampant, but utterly delicious. I got mine from the seed swap. Absolutely worth a try, CH.

I can third that, Tut peas did very well for me but I haven't grown them for a couple of years. I might just have some seed from you Dandelion and give them another go.

Now I do remember seeing them in the seed swap, but don't reval growing them. Can't think why. I'd like to try them at the lotty I think, where I can give them space !

Watch this space - I'll be harvesting all the pods which got left behind later in the summer! (That giant pea mountain was grown from six five inch pots, which each had four or five peas in them, three pots planted out on either side on a four foot raised bed. I really didn't think that was too thick, but I was wrong!)

Fourthed. I grew the Tut last year and they were rampant and delicious. My supports - usually perfectly adequate for runner beans, fell over!