Double Red

I've just put my sweetcorn plants into the ground. It seems early, but they got to a size that demanded transplant. Two varieties this year, 'Supersweet Mama' and 'Double Red' from Real Seeds. These look interesting with the red pigmentation extending right down into the roots. I have noticed (though haven't researched) that pests generally seem less interested in red varieties. The slugs will demolish all the green lettuce and leave the red for later. Same with the cabbage white and even the pigeons when it comes to brassicas.

Tiny, Darting Things

The weather spiked again this past weekend, reaching 27° with not a cloud in sight. Unless you happened to be in the Shetland Isles, which sits up there in the top of the map looking like Al Capp's Joe Btfsplk.
Beetroot seedlings are now about an inch high and potato growth has just become apparent. Below, another sample from the bog/fen/swamp (hey swampy) ...

There amongst the tadpoles are a crustacean/amphipod, a couple of nematodes(?) perhaps, and about a thousand other tiny, darting things.

Forty Winks

Squash 2018

The line-up for this season - Green Hubbard, Patisson Orange, Queensland Blue, Cream of the Crop, Chirimen, Blue Banana, Anna Swartz (Hubbard) and Gourd Gigantique! This photo is already one week old, they now have true leaves and demand to be potted on. Then I need to find space enough in the garden for their exuberance.
And here is the last of last year's just roasted.

Pondlife Update

Hairy-Footed Flower Bee

Temperature today hit 24° and will reach 25° tomorrow. Suddenly it's summer. The Hairy-footed Flower bee has been busy in the rosemary bush. Anthophora plumipes is all black with an exceptionally long tongue and doesn't sit still for a portrait so she is a bit blurry (whereas the rosemary is sharply in focus).

And I just saw the first Himmelblaue Bläuling of the season flitting around the back of the garden. On the downside, this sunny weather brings out Homo cretinicus in great numbers. Next door must sun bathe with a transistor radio that broadcasts, presumably, out of a hole torn in the space time continuum. I kid you not, while I had my tea I heard 'Like a Rhinestone Cowboy' followed by 'Daydream Believer' by the Fab Four - no, not That Fab Four, a much more fabulous foursome - The Monkees.

Need Money?

Monday I noticed this mass of glibber in the concrete bunker filled with stagnant water that we euphemistically refer to as 'the pond'. Of course, it is a heap of frog's eggs and in a few weeks I guess I shall see several hundred (?) tiny tadpoles swimming around. Unless something eats them.
I will post updates. (These posts are a bit like the buses, nothing for months and then two in the space of 2 days.)

Spring 2018

This feels like a proper spring - gradual warming and lots of rain. Saturday I harvested and cooked the first rhubarb of the season. And there are lots of fresh young nettles for my porridge. The lettuce seeds I sowed after arriving back from our hibernation on March 14th are now ready for planting out. Cabbage seedlings are potted on and tomatoes are 3 or 4 inches high. Yesterday I started trays of amaranth, sunflowers, sweet corn and popping corn, a few cucumbers and zucchini.
Higglety and Pigglety are laying about 10 eggs a week between them (well, under them). I was thinking that when they outlive their usefulness, stuffed they would make a fine pair of ornaments for the mantle...