Perfect May Weather

When I was about 10, a group of us at my school learned to do some Maypole dances, using ribbons so we could weave patterns during the dance and then unweave them as the dance finished. The plan was that we would give a display of Maypole dancing at our school fete that year. The day of the fete dawned - grey, cold and wet. I remember looking at the rain dripping off the empty stalls, which had been left outside, and running down the forlorn maypole onto the sodden grass. It was clear to me that we would not be giving any dancing displays that day.

Today's weather reminds me of that long ago May day. It has been raining steadily since about 10.00 am this morning, and isn't looking like stopping any time soon. The patio is covered with pools of water and rain is dripping off the teak table and chairs and off the shed roof. And I'm delighted, because yesterday was spent sowing vegetable seeds, and the water butt was empty, and this is just the weather the garden needed.

The new house has a long garden, with a nice big patio, a shed and one flower bed. Most of it is laid to lawn, and we are working on a garden plan to be implemented over a few years. At the end of the garden is a vegetable plot (which is approx 31' x 7', including an area set aside for composters - of which we now have two).

This plot had clearly been used by the previous owners for vegetables, as there is a row of what looks like raspberry canes at the back fence, plus a large patch of strawberries. We also discovered a couple of rows of carrots - obviously left from last year - and (while digging over the plot) quite a few potatoes that had started sprouting. We rescued the best carrots - they were very small as they hadn't been thinned out - and made a pot of carrot and coriander soup, which was very nice.

The vegetable plot is the largest area I have ever had for growing vegetables, and we made a plan of what to plant there and bought seeds. Over the last week we have sowed red onions, sugar snap peas, runner beans, broad beans, dwarf beans, carrots, potatoes and white onions. Now the bed is full, and we still have leeks, parsnips and more carrots to sow, and shallots and courgettes to plant out. Oops! I think we might have to construct one of our planned new raised vegetable beds this year. Tomorrow, even.

Onions, peas (under the cloche) and runner beans. Strawberries on the right.

Potato Trench

We did do our display of Maypole dancing in the end, by the way - at the school summer fete, in July. That's the British weather for you!