The first cucumber

Yesterday we had our first cucumber from the poly tunnel. This is several weeks earlier than most years and quite a treat. Most of the teeny weeny cucumbers have now been taken off the plants so that all their energy can go into growing upwards and onwards rather than producing too many cucumbers too soon.
Lots of tomatoes have set and we will now start feeding them and the cucumbers and peppers. We use Comfrey"tea" and an occasional bottle of Tomarite or something similar.

So available from the garden or poly-tunnels today  we have- potatoes, asparagus, lettuce, salad leaves, beetroot, cucumber and rhubarb.

I'm still checking the gooseberries every other day for sawfly caterpillars and squishing as many of the destructive little things as I can find. It takes nearly an hour to go round all the bushes but worth the effort. The bushes are laden with fruit and maybe I will pick even more than last years record which was  over 130kg = 130 x 2.2 = errrrrrrrrrr......................somewhere near to 300lb! I think. Although when C got carted off to hospital and had to stay there for 2 weeks while waiting to go for the stents, I maybe stopped counting.

This morning we got the squash plants out onto the field, 24  I think with some more in the conservatory just beginning to grow. It then turned into the hottest day so far - I hope they will survive. We gave them all a good watering so fingers crossed.

Each plant has the soil earthed up around it so it sits in a small hollow. This is to protect from wind damage and to help catch any rain. With any luck, in a few months time, this area will be completely covered with trailing plants and plenty of squash and pumpkins to sell. Over on the left are our 6 rows of main-crop potatoes just beginning to grow through the ridges.

Earlier this morning I went to Saxmundham to visit Mr Ts supermarket and as I had a letter that needed to go quickly I walked through town to the postbox at the sorting office. You can tell what a quiet life I lead as I got really excited because a new shop had a poster up " Opening soon" selling Antiques, collectables and SECOND HAND BOOKS! Sounds very interesting. Then I went a bit further past  the small wool shop, which at first glance looked as if it had closed down. But they had a poster in the window saying it was having a big refurbishment, would be re-opening in early June with new craft materials and CRAFT CLASSES. Things are on the up!

Back Tomorrow
Sue