Change of plan

I started out the year with a good idea of where different vegetables were going to be planted along with a rough plan of how I would rotate the beds throughout the seasons. Already now, at the beggining of May, this has completely gone out of the window.

A trip to the garden centre the other week saw me come back with a horseradish plant, this was not originally catered for but has been squeezed in alongside the rhubarb. Some Jerusalum artichokes bought from the farmers market had begun to sprout in the kitchen, of course these weren't going to waste so I cleared a patch of ground for these to go in.

This isn't bad news however,  I shouldn't have expected to be able to plan months in advance depending on the weather and performance of different plants. The garden is evolving as I go on, so whether it is a snap decision to plant something in a certain place or a long term plan, as long as it grows it's fine with me.

At times I think I haven't sown enough to fill the beds so I dash out to the polytunnel and quickly sow some more seeds. Other days I look at all my rows of pots and wonder where I'm going to put them all. The latter is a problem I am more than happy to face and in reality is more likely to be the case.

I have also been trying to sow a few surplus plants to sell, the polytunnel has proved really useful for this. It would have been nearly impossible growing enough seedlings on my windowsills to fill the beds let alone have surplus. I've been amazed just how quickly things are growing in there. Germination rates have been high with strong growth afterwards. I perhaps should have cleared the floor of grass and weeds first though as these too are shooting up.

I already am on the verge of having a constant supply of salad leaves, this really is something anyone can achieve inside or out. Over the next couple of weeks I will be harvesting my first radishes to add to the salad.

The successional sowing is working out with my first early potatoes shooting up, my second earlies just poking through and my maincrop going in last week.It shouldn't be too long before I get to harvest some broad beans too,  all I need now is a bit more sun to spur things on.

The hedgerows will also soon be abundant with wild treasure too, top of my list at the moment is Elderflower which will be in season very soon near me. Roll on the champagne!