Another year figuring out how to construct a bean support

So far it’s been a really wonderful start to the gardening year. Everything is in bloom. We’ve had warmth and some rain. OK, so tomato seedlings are now starting to sulk a bit because the sun hasn’t consistently been shining, but beans and courgettes are growing happily and our fruit trees are looking magnificent.

The edible garden is really filling up. We’ve planted our sweet corn, our courgettes and beans in the central bed. We’ve got lovely chard in the back central bed and we’ll plant some more beans tomorrow. The shady leaf bed now has sorrel, leeks, chives, parsley, variegated sorrel and our replanted mint. Where are we going to put cavalo nero? Probably in the place of the variegated sorrel which all of us find unpalatable and attracts aphids.

Under the far apple tree, our oriental leaves are going strong, despite numerous thinnings. Madeleine’s beetroot seedlings are growing on, as are the leeks. We’ve got dwarf peas in pots and courgettes in the middle orchard bed, and then a new strawberry bed underneath the pears. We’ve planted lettuces in a window box and renewed our herbs.

The new green shoots of our plum tree

Our fruit trees this year seem to be growing very strongly. The pear nearest the gate is covered in fruit; the next one in is a little less vigorous – it’s got a bit of leaf curl and it’s deformed the lower fruitlets. I’ve just taken off the mottled leaves and pinched off the deformed fruitlets.

The apples are far less infested with aphids than last year, though I need to get up a ladder to spray and squidge the infestations at the top of the trees. I’ve been rubbing out the growing tips of new shoots on the plum, and to some extent on the apples and pears, to stop them growing more branches. It looks like we should have good fruit on the apples and pears, but perhaps less on the plums. We’ll see …