April sky

A sunny month with lots of blue sky.

These clouds rolled in like waves on April 19th.

April 11th

April garden.

Looking down the path in the vegetable garden.

On the left parsley, in the middle garlic mulched with sweetcorn stalks, on the right clover, the yellow flowers are kale for the bees.

Forget-me-nots self-seeded amongst the leeks. A few leeks at the far end will be left to go to seed, the leeks have very tall flower heads, the flowering leeks will be supported by the hazel rods which are there for the next crop, runner beans.

In the foreground, peas with a cover crop of crimson clover at the edges of the bed and behind, a cover crop of poached egg plant, not yet in flower.

April 9th

Purple sprouting broccoli.

Lichen, Ladybirds and meadow flowers.

March 31st

This group of ladybirds overwintered on this gorse bush.

April 21st

Lots of ladybirds this spring, this one was on blackthorn blossom.

This Lichen is growing on a crab apple, I love its vibrant colour.

Spectacular year for primroses. They are spreading well in the meadow.

Pink wild primrose.

April 19th

 Fritillaries are slowly but surely establishing themselves in the meadow.

Polytunnels in April.

The big tunnel. Tomatoes and sweet potatoes were planted out early in the month. Aubergines and peppers in the middle of the month. The tall crop on the right are early peas, there is plenty of lettuce, rocket and other greens too. This photo was a week ago.

The big tunnel. On the left, potato onions edged with lettuce.

 On the right, Peas edged with alpine strawberries.

Looking at a woodlouse.

Digging

This morning in the big tunnel Alfie played digging and dumping while I transplanted self-sown seedlings.

 Tivon has planted the sweetcorn every year since he was very little.

 We save our own sweetcorn seed and start it in modules in the small tunnel.

  The small tunnel.

The nectarine, like the peaches, is covered in tiny fruit, thousands! 

and must be thinned to have an edible crop. 

There has been a good set on the apricot trees this year.

Honey bees on currants, dandelion, pittosporum, blackthorn....

April 21st

 The currants are busy with bees.

April 21st

I was surprised to see how popular this pittosporum is with the honey bees.

This picture gives a better view of the flowers. 

Pittosporum silver queen is a large evergreen shrub, the flowers have a very deep hue and a pleasant scent.

Crab apple.

April 21st

Pear, this one is Doyenne du Comice.

The hedges are white with blackthorn blossom and I saw a few honey bees on them.
The bees are also on the wild cherries.

The bees are on the bluebells.

The Abundant dandelions are fabulous Honeybee flowers.

The honey bees continue to forage on the forget-me nots and the rosemary too.

Thistle and Lee

Zoe with Alfie and Lee on March 31st.

Thistle and Lee spent a week or two in the garden before going out to the field.

Alfie feeding Thistle.

Little helpers in garden.

 

This area in front of the big tunnel was mulched over winter, using cardboard covered with the meadow cuttings. Now I am digging out a few perennial weed roots to get it ready for planting.

As I was digging Alfie left his play and went off..... coming back with another fork.

So he could dig too!

Tivon pruning the dead ends from the Californian Poppy.
Another case of, he wanted to do what I was doing!

Tivon helped to pick the cauliflowers.

Bees on willow, forget-me-nots, wild pear, osmanthus...

April 9th

 The gooseberries have been humming with honey bees and bumbles.

Gooseberry on April 9th.

 Osmanthus Delavayi was busy with bees on April 9th.

Osmanthus Delavayi

April 9th

The wild pear is covered with honey bees and bumble bees.

April 9th

Forget-me-nots have self-seeded abundantly in the vegetable garden and are busy with honey and bumble bees.

Honey bee on willow. For most of March the bees could be heard but not seen, as they were in the tops of the willow trees. Hard to get a photo up there!

Bumble bee on willow.