The potting shed - the tea is on, come in for a natter.

[radiohelen]

It's nearly April... So far in my ickles plastic greenhouse - aka the four tier tardis - I've got tomatillos, tomatos, leeks, beetroot, peas, parsnips, green cauliflowers and some flowers, sweet peas and nasturtiums.

I planted my spuds and more rows of broad beans. Still got the onion sets and garlic to put in.

I've pruned my new apple tree and gooseberry bushes, dumped potash on the goosegogs and currants and mulched with compost.

I've also potashed my peonies in the hope of better show than last year.

What have you been up to?

1- no idea

2- depends on type but some you can cut& they will come back others you need to replant. It's good to have a patch at each stage

3 - peas need something to grow up, net/canes/string

Is everybody very busy? I seem to be stuck in a never ending cycle of weeding here.

We managed to finish a very long fence last week so that means our garden is lovely and private now and safe from next door's dogs, but unfortunately not their cats.

We built two more raised beds and still have a small mountain of top soil left that we don't know what to do with.

A friend very kindly has given me 20 strawberry plants, do you think that's enough to provide strawberry teas in the summer and make the odd pot of jam or should I buy some more? Also aubergine, courgette and two fruit plants, I don't know the name of the fruit but those little orange ones with like papery leaves that you get on top of cheesecake sometimes, if someone can tell me the name I'd be grateful.

I was also given loads of brussel sprouts plants which have gone in. Everything is going quite well and I'm still enjoying myself which is the main thing.

Physalis/cape gooseberry-v yum!

Lots of weeding here. Potatoes & bindweed main problems.

Market day today = more plants!

20 strawb plants should give a good number of berries (it does vary a bit by variety too), although if your family is greedy for strawberries like mine they will want more! But no point in buying any, as the 20 you have will put out lots of runners and if you leave a few on you will get plenty more plants for free next year (by which time you'll have a better idea how many you want).

You can't have enough strawberries!

Arggh! just been up to allotment and all my early spuds have severe frost damage (I didn't realise we'd had a frost, but it was a couple of mornings ago apparently).

I think I shall sulk now...

Argh at the spuds!

Bedding plants came tonight so in for a busy morning tomorrow.

Pouring down now, about time , I'm sick of watering! Do have some planting out & weeding to do but I'm quite happy to wait

Back from holiday yesterday expecting everything to have died but both plants and weeds have gone crazy. Spent yesterday weeding around my burgeoning brassicas in attempt to stave off jetlag... Cabbages and kale now look lovely. Slightly worried about the kale - I'm growing it because I heard it was easy, and it seems to be so far, but I've now realised that I don't even know what to do with it and when to pick it! Assuming cook like cabbage, but when to start picking? Any top kale tips?

Strawberries looking like they may have suffered from not being watered much while we were away though so got to spend today giving them some TLC.

And then need to weed the greenhouse (!) before I can put tomatoes and cucumbers in there.

No idea on kale picking. Dh tried to convince me on it but I hated it(don't like cabbage either).

I got some celeriac plants in the end & they are now in. Garden looking very full & lots of spare plants. Just filling greenhouse number 2 then I've nowhere left!

Weeds, weeds, weeds - the three raised beds we built are covered in the little blighters, I think it's all those dandelion heads and willow seeds that were flying around a couple of weeks ago they've all taken root. I feel like the hoe has become an extension of my arm. The problem is because this gardening lark is all new to me I don't know what are seedlings and what are weeds unless they are obviously in a spot where I haven't planted anything.

DC2 and I had picked out a couple of strawberries last night for his breakfast this morning, when we went to pick them this morning either a bird or a mouse has scoffed them, he was not impressed.

I'm very impressed with the brassicas that I put out in the cold frame at the beginning of April, they are three times the size of the ones that are passing time in the car port.

Everything seems to be doing fine in the garden, although I have this overwhelming urge to dig up my onions to see how big they've got. The only thing I'm worried about is my spinach. When I grew that in my garden in the UK it was dead easy, here it's really struggling. Doesn't help that the cat keeps eating it. I wonder if I have the wrong type of soil.

Sorry tortilla I know absolutely nothing about Kale but if it's easy to grow I'm interested in planting it.

I think I've had a bit of a disaster with the carrots, I just stuck all the seeds in a row and it looks live they've all germinated so I'm going to have to thin them out quite drastically, I hate pulling out healthy seedlings.

I'm still loving pottering about in my veg patch though, I went to the market this morning and bought some lovely veg off the organic people who have a stall there, as I was walking back to the car I thought soon I'm going to be eating all this stuff I've just bought from my own garden. It was such a great feeling. I can't wait to make my a salad from my own garden and cook a Sunday lunch with veg I've pulled that morning from the garden. My secret dream is that Christmas dinner is cooked with all home grown veg.

We had our own purple broccoli for tea tonight

We have some sweet potato plants , anyone else going them? We've not done them before

Disaster, the birds have stripped my brassicas overnight, all I'm left with is a row of stalks sticking out of the ground, to make matters worse it was on my list of jobs tomorrow to go and buy a net. I wouldn't mind but my neighbour spends a fortune on seed, fat balls and food for them. This could be war.

Argh! Nightmare. Didn't realise birds even liked them

Kale - pick it when it is small. Very easy to grow, but tastes yuk!

Woohoo, patio furniture up!

Hi all. It is kale-a-go-go here. DH and I have discovered that we dislike it on its own, but with other strong flavours it works really well. So we've thrown it in various veg stir frys, and done it on its own as a side dish with garlic, sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds and soy sauce. I have also just whizzed it up with parmesan, pine nuts, garlic and oil to make a pesto - hope the DCs like it for tea!

It's the only thing ready in our garden at the moment - blackcurrants nearly there, and 2 spring onions almost the right size :o

In other news, a week of crazy levels of rain (we have had barely anything for 3 months in Sussex, and then deluge after deluge this past week) seems to have set my courgettes and beans on the right track, but my celeriac (which is meant to be super easy) has got very confused and appears to be either on a massive growth spurt (hopefully!) or bolting (likely :()