You may not believe it but …

Looking at the contents of our plant waiting room (cold frame) at the moment you could be forgiven for thinking that we haven't made any effort to plant out anything yet. It’s still looks crammed full with plants but what you have to realise is that these are different plants to the ones in the last photo.

We seem to be missing any rain that comes towards us from any direction - we’ve had some slight dribbly stuff but nothing to change the fact that our soil is bone dry but the wind at least has granted us a bit of a respite so we decided to get planting.

The planting method that we are employing at the moment is to dig a hole as quickly as possible with the trowel - quickly because the hole fills up almost as quickly as we can dig it, then to pop in the plant and fill the planting hole with water. Then the hole is refilled with soil and the plant firmed by which stage the water has been absorbed enough to prevent my gloves becoming a soggy mess. Hopefully this way the plants have access to moisture at root level and not being on the surface the moisture shouldn’t evaporate as quickly.

So what have we managed to plant? First was a selection of cabbages and sprouts. As these like to be in firm ground I made sure I firmed them in really well. These were also covered with insect mesh netting to hopefully foil the wood pigeons that sit on the telegraph wires waiting for us to leave so they can swoop down and devastate any choice greens. Being insect mesh this also doubles as protection against the cabbage white butterflies which will try to invade anything left by the wood pigeons. Unfortunately it doesn’t keep off the clouds of whitefly that no doubt will soon descend.

While I was busily dealing with the brassicas, Martyn planted the first of our courgettes. He did do lots of other things too like tilling the bed where the dahlias were to be planted.

Once the bed was prepared the 30 dahlias that we grew from seed this year were planted alongside the dahlias that had survived the winter. Originally we thought that we had lost all last year’s tubers. Last year we planted one tuber of each of our dahlia varieties in the ground and we piled all the duplicate tubers on top of them and covered with a pile of straw and black polythene. We weren't too bothered about the duplicates as we wanted to plant some different colours. When we first uncovered the pile we thought as Martyn reported in his blog that all the tubers had rotted but we later discovered that most of the ones that were planted are producing shoots.

Another lot of broad beans have been planted out. These are the third lot - all the other broad beans are flowering and I planted surrounded by the beautiful scent of those planted earlier - no wonder the bees love them. Don’t you think that the flowers look a bit like bumble bees? The crimson flowered ones have also attracted the attention of some of our plot neighbours.

After erecting the great wall (well bamboo thingy) of Green Lane I planted dozens of sweet peas. I didn’t intend to have dozens - it just turned out that way. I usually buy a couple of packets but this year decided to also try a  short growing variety. As these were unavailable the seed company substituted some tall ones and we found another packet in a magazine. Then my plot neighbour ran out of room and gave me her leftovers too. If they all grow we will have a beautiful wall of colour - must keep them watered.

While I dealt with the sweet peas Martyn planted our first lot of runner beans and lots of lettuce.

Back in the garden I planted out the penstemon collection that had grown on in the greenhouse so the bed at the front of the house, although not fully planted yet, is filling up nicely.

Martyn has also planted up some tomatoes, cucumber, peppers and melon in some air pots that we are trying for the first time. We are going to risk some tomatoes outside in the garden and hope we don’t have a blight problem there.

Just a quick update on the new fruit

The nectarine fruitlets are hanging on and growing and the Issai kiwi seems to have set fruit. More on this later.

And another bit of news

We spotted a new bird to our garden this week - a male bullfinch - we have seen it twice - once when we were outside without a camera to hand and then yesterday when we were looking out of the house window. We had a camera this time but the bird wasn't very accommodating and hid behind a branch so the camera focussed on the branch - click here for one shot we managed. Hope if he becomes a regular visitor he doesn't cause trouble by pecking off our fruit and flower buds. Forgot to mention it's RSPB Nature Count week.