What is going on?

In the last three weeks the weather has been crazy. The bank holiday weekend was a scorcher followed by two weeks of cold windy weather, then a solid week of rain and now this weekend gorgeous weather again. All this changeable weather has made planning my sowing and planting out a nightmare.

If that wasn't enough I have a new friend living in my greenhouse. I say friend, I mean arch nemesis. My friend is probably the most sneaky, despicable creature I have had the misfortune to encounter, with an appetite for just about any seed known to man. My new friend is a mouse. He has eaten more peas, marrows and courgettes seeds than I have ever grown leaving me with no giant marrow for this years show. However as always the members of the NVSUK forum will hopefully be helping me out with a new seedling.

Baby Grapes

Anyway enough of the problems here's how the other stuff is going. My first tomato of the year has formed. The   concerns about having sown my Cedrico seeds too early have gone now as the plants are growing away well. My first attempt at growing long parsnips is going well as the first true leaves are formed so I will thin them down over the next week or so. I planted out my blanch and pot leeks today they are growing well at the moment with the blanches growing nice and straight in the foam lagging I am using to stretch them. I had a nice surprise in the greenhouse with my grape vines when I noticed the grapes had formed. They look like those beads you get on 'jazzies' the chocolate disc shaped sweets at the moment and I am hoping they will give me a crop because I have never had fresh grapes before.

Blanch Leek

It is a weird time of year for me filled with fear and anxiety about whether my crops will be good enough to win at this years shows especially as I did so well last year. Every small defect, failed germination and late sowing in my garden seems to be the worst thing that has happened to any vegetable grower ever. I would be interested to hear if anybody else feels the same way. I know i am not the best veg grower in the world but I do set perfection as a minimum standard and obviously I fall way short of anything like perfection which I take as a personal attack from the vegetables themselves right up to the point where the doors to the school hall where our local show is held and I see the cards next to my crops.

Parsnip Seedling

First tomato of the year!