Last weekend the weather broke it’s usual bank holiday pattern and was the hottest, since the the early May bank holiday was introduced in 1978. (I didn’t know it was only 40 years old, every day is a learning day!)
This was good but also bad. It was very hot and it’s hard to do hard work in the heat for any length of time. Monday also marked my two year anniversary of tenancy of Plot 186a. In that time it’s gone from this
to this
May is the time I usually start to panic about getting everything sown and planted, but I’m feeling quite relaxed about it right now because everyone else is panicking and although I would rather be further ahead, I’ve done all I can do, we’re in good shape and if things aren’t growing, it’s not because of me!
This weekend, I planted out the sweet peas. They’ve been in the cloche for a week and I needed the space so into the ground they went. I was reminded that last year, I was convinced that they would all die but they managed just fine, even after frost damage. So we’ll hope for the best and if they don’t work, then I can always buy some plug plants later!
We also had a bonfire, finally! It’s the first time that the burning pile has been dry enough to burn and got it all done and the ashes on the compost heat. It was also slightly illegal, apparently we aren’t supposed to have them from May to November, I plead ignorance especially as the committee had one on Saturday during the volunteer day. It’s done now and I won’t do it again until I can!
I sowed more peas, next to the chard, and french beans and earthed up my frost bitten potatoes. I did cover them with fleece but that clearly didn’t work, but it happened last year and we got potatoes so I know that they will catch up but next year I’m putting them in cloches!
We also put an ant killing station on the broad bean bed. Last year the blackfly was terrible everywhere on the plot so I’m trying to nip the problem in the bud by killing the source, the blackfly always starts on the broad beans. The broad beans are in flower and pod and it’s all getting very exciting.
My blueberries are looking much less stick like
and the strawberries are full of flowers that will, hopefully, translate to fruit this year.
We ordered some more lawn edging so I can frame in an area at the top of the plot for a squash bed and we have a friend looking out for pallets so we can execute our plan for hillbilly decking next to the shed. I’ve also recruited Mike, who was one of my shed builders to help me with it. He has a good eye for this stuff and I do not!
We worked hard but there’s so much more to do, at least this area is free of rubbish now. Once the bed for the squash is defined, I think I’m going to woodchip the rest the time there’s a delivery, it doesn’t stop the weeds but it does make them easier to see and pull up!
So the work list for next week, when I am all by myself (Ma is going away for the weekend and neglecting her duties which means more rhubarb for me!) looks like this.
- Frame in bed, add compost to bed
- Add compost to bed next to the compost heap
- sow sweetcorn
- pot on tomatoes
- sow kale and chard indoors
- weed and general tidy
That’s enough to be going on with.
The sweet corn is going to be part of my mini three sisters planting. I had planned sweet corn and borlotti beans, but I’m also going to bung a couple of cucumber plants in that bed for ground cover. I have 14 seedlings (we love cucumbers!) so I’ll have more than I can plant in the bed and might as well use them for ground cover!
The plan assuming the weather co-operates is to plant all the tomatoes and squash out over the next bank holiday weekend and pray everything catches up!

Other than watering, I haven’t done much work on the plot, that happens today but I did get to the community work day on Saturday and we worked hard. Every time I go to one of those days, I feel better for making the effort, knackered but better and every time, I am thankful for the committee who do so much to make the site such a nice place to be and grow.
I went to dinner at Christelle and Mike’s on Saturday and we walked the dog on Sunday morning. Some of my friends have children, others have dogs. Of course some of them have children and dogs but not at the same time, the dogs arrived when the children left! But this is the newest, she’s a lovely dog, mostly very well behaved for a puppy and like her owners, likes her own way, so just occasionally….


Cornflowers…
Carrots and radishes
Raspberries
Plums
I cut the grass, it’ll need a bit more next week and I need to spend some time weeding the edges to beat the couch grass back but thats for a warmer day.
As are the beetroot and spinach and lettuce. I took the fleece off and netted them to protect from the fox.
The fox had a go at my bathtub of strawberries so I brought out the chicken wire to prevent them.
All of the strawberries are flowering, so hopefully, we won’t have a late frost to kill off the flowers.
We did cover the potatoes in case we do have a frost this week.


I was scanning photos last week and I love this one, taken by my Mum way back in the 80’s. I remember this day, we went for a picnic at Richmond Park, there was paddling. We don’t have that many pictures from when B and I were children and given that Ma couldn’t get Dad’s head in, you can tell why!
We went to see the Avengers: Infinity War last week, I really enjoy Marvel films, but that one had a tough ending..

That wasn’t helped by his father’s decision not to let him stay on at school past 14. You see Grandad was bright (the maths thing that Ma and Ben do, that came from Grandad) but you had to pay for school past 14 in 1928 and I’m guessing that my great grandfather couldn’t afford it.
If you had asked me about him when I was little, I would have told you that Grandad worked three days a week, came for dinner on Tuesdays and came over on Saturday mornings, usually bringing us pocket money and lots of fruit and kit kats. Ma banned sweets, the other cousins got sweets (and I’m still not over it!). He belonged to the Salvation Army and he went to Belgium on the ferry from Ramsgate, for two weeks every year and came back very tanned and with Toberones for all.
