Apologies for the lack of updates - it's been a hectic and eventful Spring so far - my partner Lucy gave birth to our son in March, and since then I'm just amazed at how much we have actually managed to achieve out in the fields despite having to split my time more.

We're ahead with a lot of of planting - this year we have used more fleece to bring forward outdoor crops, our first outdoor lettuce will be harvestable this week and look fantastic, and we managed to protect our early courgettes and beans. The fleece has also proved useful in the polytunnels as it's frequently dropped below freezing in there right up until the second week in May and we have had some great pak choi, turnips and lettuces already and are just starting to crop our new potatoes, beetroot, kohl rabi and fennel, as well as having bunched carrots in another three weeks.

April saw us planting up our glasshouse and two tunnels with tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines, peppers and chillis along with a dozen tomatillos and cape gooseberries, the cucumbers won't be long, but at this time of year with the weather so hot outside it's such a shame these crops aren't producing right now.

This month has seen us planting out our red, white and savoy cabbages, brussels sprouts, our first batch of swede, sweetcorn, squash, lettuce, calabrese, chard, onions, and this week our leeks. We're not planting as many leeks as last year, but it's still a huge amount to put in by hand, especially as we're having to water them into the parched soil, I won't complain about the lack of rain, it's been a fantastic month to be working outside after all, but I certainly won't complain when it does finally rain - so long as it doesn't last all summer of course.

As we enter June we will be taking the fleece off the beans and setting up canes so they can begin climbing, it looks like there are very few gaps for us to replace so at least the dry weather has deterred the slugs from their usual destruction.
June sees us planting more courgettes, some summer squash, more peas and beans, weeding our carrots and parsnips, and later planting out all our cauliflowers, kales and broccoli. We used to leave the kale and broccoli until July, but the past three years have seen a very wet July preventing us from preparing the soil to plant, hence they have gone in late resulting in a small yield. Our decision will at least make sure we all enjoy the warmest July in years.

Onto the failure of the year. Last year we decided to try using sweet clover as a green manure, it is a fantastic green manure, fixing masses of nitrogen and producing a large root mass to improve the soil structure. I had read that is needs to be killed off before planting the following crop, and so I tried. Unfortunately it was dormant when I attempted to destroy it, and so survived. As a result our potato crop isn't going to be anywhere near as good as last year - the clover already towers over the plants, and while I can top it to reduce the impact it's still going to affect this years yield.
On the positive side, at least it will be putting even more nitrogen into the soil for next years brassica crop - when I pulled up a plant early in the year I was amazed at the amount of nodules already on the roots, stocked full of nitrogen.