There has not been much progress in the kitchen garden during May; the weather has been too cold to encourage any real growth. It has been the coldest and wettest May for many years.

Without any heated greenhouse, my seedlings are about a month behind where they should be.

• The squash seedlings (gem squash and buttercup squash) are in an incubator close to the house, and are ready to go out.

• The tomato seedlings in my mini greenhouses have germinated, but are very slow. They need a few weeks of sun to be ready to plant out.

• The corn seedlings are only just germinating now and are starting to come through.

• The exception to this are the herb seeds, which are all doing well. They are ready to go out into the new herb garden.

The vegetables in the raised beds are having mixed success. The lettuces are struggling with the cold, wet weather, as are the young beetroot and celeriac plants. The peas and broadbeans are also in a holding pattern, waiting for the sun to put on growth. The carrot seeds have not germinated yet. The potatoes are growing well in their air-pot potato towers and the strawberries in the old wheelbarrow have early blossom. I have planted all the onions and they are doing well : red and white onions, spring onions, french shallots, garlic and leeks. I use them to divide the rows of other vegetables.

The fruit trees are doing really well with all this spring rain. They are still young and won’t produce much fruit this year, but are putting on promising growth in this early part of spring. The cordons and fan-trained trees are filling out nicely with a small crop of apples and pears on some of them. The trees and bushes in the fruit dome had a good show of blossom in early spring and are shooting up with all this rain. I am hoping for a small crop of cherries, plums and a few apricots later in the season.

Cross fingers that the weather improves in June and the plants can catch up. 🤞🤞🤞