Back in April, in Part 1 of Tales from the Vegetable Patch, I wrote of my intention to prepare the vegetable patch and plant seeds before the end of April.
Well, it turns out the famous saying by John Lennon: ‘Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans’ is true. Not only did we have the wettest April on record here in the UK, but the first half of May turned out to be pretty grim too. And, apart from the weather and trips to the osteopath for my bad back, I came down with a dose of flu and it’s taken me a while to recover.
Which means that I am now a month behind schedule. But excuses aside, I can now proudly say that the vegetable patch is finally properly dug and prepared, and the first crops of the year have been sown.
This weekend I planted seeds for kale, spring onions, beetroot, chard, pak choi and lettuce. The patch is very small so unfortunately there wasn’t room for more. I still want to plant more salad crops like rocket in pots.
And it seems that I’m in good company, as this week Michelle Obama is publishing a book about kitchen gardening called American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America. In it the First Lady promotes healthy living and also documents the woes of vegetable gardening as well as the many delights.
Many of the vegetables I planted can continue to be sown right up until the end of July and others like the lettuce and chard are ‘cut and come again’ varieties, which carry on growing new leaves throughout the season, so only need one sowing.
In the meantime, because we’re enjoying lovely warm, sunny days here in London, I’m keeping the vegetable garden well watered – using a watering can, of course, as believe it or not, we are currently experiencing a drought here in the UKand there is a hosepipe ban.
Now the exciting part is waiting to see which seeds germinate first. I’ll keep you posted.
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