Kitchen Garden Kicks Off
This year's crops are in full swing in the new Kitchen Garden. Even the sweet peas are flowering, thanks to May's warm weather. 

Rocket rules... 
I began to harvest lettuce and rocket from mid March. Good crop but a mixed bag in terms of flavour. As ever, the rocket was great - hot, peppery, fierce, fantastic when compared to shop-bought. But lettuce was another matter. 


... but lettuce does not...
I don't think I'd sow "winter salad" mixes again - they contain too many brassicas for my liking. Nor would I sow Romaine lettuce "Bionda Lentissima a Montaire" again - it was too bitter for my taste. "All year round butterhead" lettuce cropped well from seed, and was tender, but pretty bland. Once I've cleared the ground of these crops, I'll sow red lettuces and chicory instead, and hope for better results. 

... so eat chard instead.
Chard has been a real success, though. I've grown several types, both Swiss Chard "Lucullus" and "Verde a Costa Bianca," and I'm already harvesting  young chard leaves. They're delicious braised in salty butter. These I would definitely grow again and again. 

Autumn sown broad beans 
I've been harvesting autumn-sown broad beans Aquadulce Claudia since mid May. This was the "final" year I was going to grow broad beans: I was so fed up with them being devoured by aphids. For the first time I tried the autumn sowing approach. From now on I'll always grow broad beans this way. 

(Sow them into individual pots under cover in the autumn; transplant late winter/early spring into the soil; chop off new growth in early May, once they've flowered and begun fruiting, to avoid attracting aphids; keep weed free throughout.)

Agretti
Now I'm harvesting Agretti (Salsola soda). All of my veg, this was the one I was most excited about growing this year. I first ate it last summer, at Worton Organic Garden, and loved it. It looks like floppy samphire, but tastes less salty.

Huge anticipation, bit of a let-down
My experimental attempt to sow it under cover last autumn failed completely. This spring I tried to sow it under cover and then plant out, and also to plant out direct. Of the two approaches, only the direct sowing worked. My harvest is good, but the flavour is hugely disappointing - it needs jazzing up with lemon and olive oil, but is still akin to crunchy grass.  Let's just say that Mr. P will not partake, and I'm not sure I'll bother growing it again. 

Next on the radar - the first strawberries (Frigaria ) - for which my mouth is already watering. Fingers crossed I manage to eat them before the pigeons, rabbits, chickens and slugs find them.

In the meantime, the sweet peas are coming on nicely, and the Oca, Yacon, Salsify, and Cardoons are in the ground. I've planted several squash on a heaving compost pile. Now I just need to find  some space for all of those Globe Artichokes... 

I love salad, rocket and watercress especially; but it's expensive to buy, and has usually been highly processed before purchase. Last season, though, my big success was rocket. I direct sowed it in succession, and we enjoyed lots of hot, firy rocket well into autumn.

This season I sowed winter lettuce, cress, and rocket under glass, in both seed trays and guttering, and then planted them out in March. They stayed in semi-stasis for a good few weeks, before suddenly bursting into growth in April. We've been eating all these leaves for 3-4 weeks now. 

But I rather over-estimated our capacity for salad consumption, and this past fortnight, I've certainly been feeling like I have to dutifully scoff large buckets of leaves at lunch and dinner. I've been giving it away to neighbours... but I finally accepted that enough was enough. The flea beetles have been beginning to make inroads, and, believe it or not, the rocket and the brassicas included in the winter lettuce mix have already begun bolting.

So I chopped down and thinned most of it, and am hoping for a second batch in a few weeks. Next time, though, I'll be a little less generous when I sprinkle the seed. After all, a girl cannot live on cress alone. 

Early spring bounty
Last autumn I planted several thousand bulbs in the garden - mainly tulips, but also some hyacinths, alliums, and crocuses. Spring was mild this year, and I had an unusual treat - I was able to enjoy snowdrops, daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths and even some early tulips, in March. 

Tulip Gala
Then the tulips arrived in late March / early April - full month earlier than expected. They have been the real treat, and were definitely worth planting Here is a snap of the "hot" border, planted with oranges and pinks. Watch out for my update, shortly, on which ones I'd recommend for planting again.