Ravishing radishes

I got up on saturday morning to find my radishes bigger than ever, and some of them even ripe for pulling (the size of a 10p piece). My first produce! Eight weeks after I sowed their seeds. Six gorgeous little red globes. I've manged to grow the easiest vegetable that apparently even a small child can handle, despite their suffering at the mouths of the slugs. I'm dead chuffed. (Cue raddish montage \/)

Mum and Merlin were also present for the occasion...

The first set of Tomatoes have survived the transplanting and are doing well. This was taken on Saturday, but it seems like they're already twice the size!

After sampling my produce I took some down to Rosie's, and we enjoyed them with salad and beer after a walk through some bright yellow Rapeseed fields. I can't believe how dry the ground is still. In the field below it had deep cracks running all over like a desert. We watched Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth in the evening, and it's hammered home even harder to me how we all need to take action on climate change as soon as possible. It's possibly the biggest challenge facing the human race in our entire history (linked in with resource management and over population). To oversome it is going to involve an altogether different way of thinking and acting together.

After getting back from another hot (felt like July), lazy day at Rosie's, I watered my plants and made my slug beer traps. I also planted some Mange Tout, more Little Gem and some parnsips where there should be some but aren't - although the horse may already have bolted for those. I prepared a seed tray of Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Calabrese too. Mmmm....

The plan for next week is to get my first Tomatoes outside in a makeshift mini greenhouse Rosie's parents gave me for my birthday.

Carrots and Coldframes

First thing I did this morning (well, after breakfast) was to weed the patch and thin out my radish seedlings. There's a lot of other stuff seeding intself as well as what I've put there. The good news though, is that the first of the onions are now coming through. They're in between the baby radishes, so I had to be careful what I was doing.

When I fnished, I dug a trough for my carrots in order to get all the stones out, before replacing the dirt and sowing the first row of seeds. I also did my last rows of parsnips and onions.

Merlin was out and about in the garden, sniffing flowers and rolling in dirt. Unfortunately (I was told later), this included the seed beds. The furry menace strikes - and not for the first time either I expect!
Mum got some Little Gem and Rocket seeds during the week, but I didn't have time to get any lettuce in because I'd agreed to go round and see how Henry was getting on before lunch.

He's sown his lettuce under an impressive cold frame, which he made out of a window and some skirting boards. The lettuce seems to like it, along with every other seed in the area! He's also been industriuosly sowing tomatoes and peppers which he's got in an outdoor propogater and his utility room. He's even got some courgettes on the go already, but apparently the're finding it a bit cold outside still.This got me excited about seeing my own Tomatoes get going, and when I got home I was surprised to find they have. The first little sprout and tom shoots have started poking up in the yogurt pots in the bathroom! Intersetingly, it was the pots I'd left damp paper on which have done something, so I've now applied this method to the others.

Spent the rest of the day practicing for a Burnt Toast routine with Strugz and Durbs, so now have a sprained wrist and am pretty spent. Time for bed and another week of work - with the prospect of an imminent four day weekend to get me through! :)