June update

I've been hugely remiss in posting up what we are up to, so here is a little update and I'll try and be more regular with it from now on.

Since the last post our greenhouse produce has come on leaps and bounds. We now have tomatoes on the 4 plants we bought as little 80p seedlings, aubergines forming, chilies growing away, and now the cucumber is starting to produce flowers. This is all from the plants we bought, the ones we planted from seed are all doing well, but aren't quite at that stage yet.

Out on the plot the peas and beans are flowering and starting to form pods, the shallots and red onions look like they are doing well and so does the garlic. Early potatoes (Arran Pilots) have flowered, and the main crop are just starting to I think. We did have a minor incident where a bit of metal fence fell on the potatoes but it just snapped a few branches off and crushed a few plants, which have survived to tell the tale. I'm going to take up one of the early potato plants this weekend to see if they are ready for eating.

The one big bed below the fruit cage (see bottom right here ) has now been divided into 3 beds (north south) so that we can get into it, it was just too big to deal with before. In there are now purple sprouting broccoli, sprouts, lettuce, squash and some courgette seeds. Some of the courgettes have come up but not all.

Fruit is doing well, we have had plenty of strawberries and today for the first time some raspberries. Problem now is that we are spolit and can't go back to eating shop bought strawberries - I had forgotten what home grown ones tasted like. The gooseberries are getting bigger and some look like they are starting to ripen.

And we are overcome with weeds! Mare's Tail, Dock, Thistles, Nettles, Couch Grass. I'm considering glysophate, I'd rather not, but I don't know if we will ever clear it any other way. At the moment we are pulling out and drying or drowing weeds that are likely to survive the heap in the hope of exhausting them, but I think they are exhausting us!

Next plan for the plot is extending the greenhouse (to the right on the plan, making it twice the length it is now). We have 2 more of those window panes, but I think we could do a bit of jigging around with what is there already and with the addition of some kind of heat sink back wall to fill in the bit we don't have windows for it should work. Like so:

So that is what has been happening.