May - baby seedlings fill the greenhouse!

The greenhouse is stuffed full! This is the month when everything is being sown and stuffed onto shelves and staging, waiting to go outside into the Patch. I get so much pleasure from the white labels sticking up in rows and knowing that the plants are protected from strong winds (we live on a hill!) and slugs while they germinate and grow strong. 

At the moment the loose leaf salad is feeding us well from under the staging. The rocket has bolted but the Black Seeded Simpson, the Cocarde, the Green Oak Leaf are supplying salad every day from one bed and Tom Thumb and Salad Bowl are producing crunchy hearted lettuce from the other. The artichokes are now in big 9 inch pots under there too waiting to go out into their bed in June. 

And behind them you can see the main crop peas Hurst Green Shaft in their gutters just about ready to be slipped into their bed in the patch.

Baby leeks, red veined sorrel and a host of tomato seedlings are growing on well - the shelf is full of aubergine an pepper seedlings.

More tomatoes on the shelf, borlotti, french beans and scarlet runners are nearly ready to go out and the pots of coriander will soon be in the beds.

Borlotti beans Lingua di Fuoco will go in a huge tub between two sturdy fence posts. This is the first year I have grown them and I'm looking forward to cooking them the Italian way in the autumn. You can dry the beans for the winter but I am not sure I will wait, they are so good cooked fresh and drizzled with earthy green olive oil....

Blue Lake were recommended to me as a great climbing french bean and so I will put them next to the runner beans on the supporting frame this year. I am hoping for a great harvest from them. We have strong winds up here on the farm so the windbreak netting will be vital when they first go out. Last year every leaf of my french bean seedlings was torn off in a couple of days so protection is needed!

And behind them the pots of St George runner beans growing on well. The best thing about runner beans is that they freeze beautifully and nothing beats their unique flavour. They are also very prolific which means that they are good value in a small patch and produce from August until the first frosts - a staple late summer crop. 

Baby squashes and zucchini are coming on well and will be able to go out at the end of the month - Defender (old favourite), Best of British, Soleil (yellow), Romanesco, di Nizza (round)and Patti Pan will be in a long row on the terrace providing more than enough zucchini for our needs and then behind them with a high bank to grow up will be all the squash - Yellow Scallop for the summer and Gem Rolet; the for the winter Hunter butternut, Red Kuri and Kabocha with the little Munchkin Pumpkin. Its fun to see them all germinating in the greenhouse - a whole shelf of them. 

This is the aubergine and peppers shelf - I am growing Moneymaker aubergine this year as I want some of them to be able to grow outside in pots. Some will stay in the greenhouse too - we love them and want loads. Marconi Rosso is a pepper highly recommended by Sarah Raven as it is so prolific so I am growing them inside and out too with Californian Wonder as a second pepper. Chillies are growing in pots on a greenhouse shelf too...I want to dry them and string them up in the kitchen in the winter - the best christmas decoration. 

The salad is wonderful - here is a bunch from under the staging - a perfect lunch. Baby Tom Thumb lettuces start in pots behind and you can just see the kohl rabi babies and some sprouting broccoli seedlings too. 

Not an inch to spare and by the beginning of June all of these will be outside and the greenhouse will take on its summer form - tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and aubergines in the two beds with the wooden slatted shelves removed and green and purple basil planted to fill the place with their delicious aroma every time I water! My first spring with a proper greenhouse has been a great joy.