I’m back! Yes, this week normal service resumes after a three week break in which much was achieved, but tinged with a feeling of what might have been. Some of you might think that we had a wet spell….we didn’t. Granted, there were a few light showers and it was grey, gloomy and cool for a while there, but as for rainfall, pah! I thumb my nose at your so called wet week. In the whole of May I have recorded just 6mm of precipitation so far, that compares to a long-term average for this part of the country of 50-60mm, and what we did have came in bits and pieces, so it did sweet fanny Adams in terms of helping the horticultural cause. On top of that there were a couple of damaging frosts that did for the courgettes and runner beans, but I had other batches on the go so not too much was lost.

That’s enough negativity, what did I achieve? Well the greenhouse is now completely planted up, except for one small bed that I am saving for Basil….the herb, not some random chap that I share the greenhouse with. So that’s tomatoes, sweet peppers, chilli peppers and cucumbers – 2 generations of them, with a third coming on in the propagating greenhouse. By the end of the coming week I will be cutting the first cukes from the original plants, initially in small numbers, but it’s an encouraging sign. The polytunnel is also planted up now with tomatoes, more peppers and courgettes. The latter will only be allowed space until the outdoor crop comes on stream. I held off planting the tomatoes in there until I was confident that there would be no more cold nights, and as a consequence of that the plants got too leggy in their pots, so will take a couple of weeks to look healthy again, but it’s still early so I am hopeful that they will come good.

Outside I have sown dwarf French beans, planted replacement runner beans, celeriac, more lettuce and parsley. I have cauliflowers and kale to add to the cabbages and broccoli previously planted. They are doing okay, but only because of regular irrigation, the same is true of the perpetual spinach and chard. I am having to have the sprinklers going for long periods just to enable me to work the soil, but even that’s futile when it’s as hot as this because the precious water evaporates almost as soon as it hits the ground. I’m already sick of watering, and we are not out of May yet. Lovely weather for the upcoming Suffolk Show though.

There has been a lot of activity on the wildlife front. The Canada Geese are still coming regularly to the potting shed for breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea. My original pair have returned with their brood of 6 goslings, which are growing like topsy. My beaten up cock pheasant, with no tail feathers and missing lots of plumage off his back is spending a lot of time in close proximity to me now. He regularly comes into the shed asking for food, and follows me around, appearing in the greenhouse or polytunnel when I am working and will look for somewhere to have a dust bath.

There has been evidence of a lot of nighttime visitors in the garden, and so early last week I did a tour of the perimeter fence to see what point of access the local wildlife was using to have its overnight raves. Frustratingly I could find nowhere obvious that they are getting in. The farm manager, whose cottage looks out over the bottom half of the garden said that he has seen Muntjac, Hares, Geese and a fox at various times, and I have found places where a badger has been digging. On Friday I was planting lettuces, and I was nearing the end of the row closest to the hedge that is between the garden and the orchard when I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. About 30 metres from me, heading down the hedge line was a fox, and in its mouth was a pheasant. It trotted down towards the bottom corner of the garden and disappeared into the hedge. After finishing my planting I wandered down to see if I could see where it had got out, and as I got close to the bottom I heard rustling in the hedge and a Muntjac darted out, ran straight towards the bottom fence and leapt straight over it! The rail of that fence is about 4’6″ high and it wasn’t even close to incurring 4 faults by clipping it. A fox, I suppose could also hop over it, but I can’t imagine a badger or a hare doing the Fosbury Flop over it, so I still have to plug a hole in the wire when I find where it is.

I spent the next couple of hours fretting over whether or not the pheasant in the fox’s mouth was my tame bashed up cock, so imagine my relief when he turned up at the shed door to ask for his next snack.

There is still limited produce availability, but I have managed to cobble enough together to make it interesting – thanks in large part to our European organic growers. I am at least cutting my own red oakleaf lettuces and there are some mini plum tomatoes from the Isle of Wight. As mentioned earlier, they may be cucumbers from the greenhouse next week, and possibly some spinach. There are no carrots this week, but I hope to have some new season bunched ones from Suffolk for next time. There are Crimson Crisp apples from Kent, oranges from Valencia and large lemons from Portugal.

We have a few days of challenging extreme daytime temperatures to contend with, so I may go on a Mediterranean work pattern of early mornings and evening hours to avoid the worst of the heat. Lots of factor 50 and water is the order of the day….and a hat.

It’s good to be back, I hope to see you soon

Phil