Two out of four

I’m being dreadfully mathematical: something that would surprise everyone who knows me.   But gardening, especially vegetable gardening, can bring out the geometric and mathematical in even the most reluctant numerical nerd.

I have spent a happy hour planting out.   This is when you shove the poor seedlings out of the comfort of their toasty home and plonk them in the cooler ground.   Hardening off? I don’t have time.   I have to get these crops in and coping before I abandon them in May.

I decided to try and finish an entire quadrant of the potager.   The netting is all in place in the peas and bean sector, so I decided that it would be a good place to put in extra lettuce and coriander.   It might even benefit from a bit of shading.   My lettuce always bolts later in the year, or refuses stubbornly to grow.

So in between the uprights of the sweet pea and bean poles I have added an oddly named Yugoslavian red lettuce.   I’ll add more winter gems there too when I can.

And the coriander will go in the front of the poles for easy picking.

Next up was rows and rows of rocket and spinach and more salad that were bursting out of their pots.   Even straight rows and a happy smile on the face of this gardener.

Even the tulips and allium purple sensation are poised to come out. A few more days of warm sunny weather and it will be a riot of colour.

The farm is a tasteful shade of white and lush green right now.   The cherry blossoms have exploded into bud all over.   I keep meaning to take more detailed pictures, but I usually have my horse manure gloves on and I’m juggling a heavy wheelbarrow load of horse pooh and trying to get it all the way up to the top of the terrace without being trampled by curious horses.   Tomorrow.