Now is the time to prepare for summer. You can start planting seeds now. Two weeks ago I planted basil, habanero chilli, capsicum, and four kinds of tomato. We're short of sunny spots, so I've been moving the seedling trays to maximise their exposure. I just read in "Forgotten Fruits- the story behind Britain's traditional fruit and vegetables", that gardeners for the Roman Emperor Tiberius, grew his cucumbers on carts which they wheeled about to follow the sun and even bring them in on cold nights!
We have neither gardeners nor carts, but do have some large pots which get moved to follow the sun. The strip plot along our southern boundary is full shade over winter, so we layered it with a sprinkle of blood and bone, a 5cm layer of horse manure and left it fallow since June. As summer approaches, this zone will get hours of full sun so it will host the new seedlings. Our raised beds are still pretty full of the chard, golden spinach, red kale, cos, mizuna and rocket - we'll see how they last in the hotter months.
This weekend we'll get another trailer of horse manure and use our small chipper to turn prunings into mulch for the compost bin. I've accumulated bags of blood and bone and rock dust so that they will be on hand when I ready the southern plot for planting.
Our broad beans are producing reasonably well despite being battered by the strong winds. So far, the beans have gone directly from plant to mouth. Delicious.
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