Fruit and Veg at start of June

Hi
I have been a terrible blogger lately but life just gets in the way sometimes!

Our fruit and veg have been kicking in to contribute to the household budget nicely, that is, without overcoming us with a "glut".
We have had a nice crop of broccoli grown in our poly tunnel, now we have lettuce, radish and spring onions from there with some strawberries. Outside more strawberries are coming - a full bowl each last night.  I could not keep up with the early spinach so cut half right back to give baby leaves and dug the rest up. Husband spotted one potato plant looking a bit sick so dug that today. There were enough small pots there for a handful each with the lunch salad.
I have done a tour of our kitchen garden.

 This is one lot of outside strawberries. Second year. I have gone for weed control fabric this year which is working very well. Kept weeds away, I could select the best plants and just covered any off shoots from last year. The fruit is clean and I can spot any runners straight away. So far no trouble with slugs. I used a stiff close mesh over short bamboo canes, I think it was labelled as a pond covering in Wilco. This has remained tight and easy to secure so no birds have got trapped in there (yet) I ran out of metal hoops to secure the edges so I used bricks. Those have proved easy to lift off and harvest and put back.

 The next bed has 6 rows of potatoes and so far looking good. We have been through and weeded and my husband ran the rotovator up the rows that are wide enough apart to loosen the soil to bank up. We have a thistle problem so we keep pulling them out every few days. The two early rows are a bit too close so I am trying a layer of grass cuttings as a mulch between. It was recommended on the Scottish gardening programme Beechgrove the other day. We planted when the soil was wet (and really it was still a bit cold) and thank goodness we did as it is been terribly dry ever since.

 Here are the spinach I just cut back, the seed packet says you can do that 4 times to encourage baby leaves. I replaced one end with a dozen summer cabbage plants we had spare. Again gone for the weed suppressing fabric and cut holes in it for plants. We have noticed it stays damper under there too.

 Our next bed has onions (grown from seed), carrots (2 rows), parsnips and beetroot. They have been watered but are desperate for rain to "swell". The weeds are a pain and I recently picked my way up and down the earlier bigger carrot row, and the beetroot and parsnips, plant by plant. These are the best parsnips we have ever got going. We followed a Charles Dowdling recommendation and started them in plugs. Beetroot are still small and the hares have been down the garden nibbling on the tops already.

 Sweetcorn have finally gone greener and looks better. I have "de thistled" this bed with a spade but I need to go back and get the small weeds out with a hoe. As soon as we put the corn in we had fierce drying winds and they did not look happy. To the left I have a row of baby leeks. And a row of french beans, not exactly romping away either.

The peas and beans have gone in. The peas this end probably don't need canes that high but I had to put the mesh up to keep the pigeon flock off. The runner beans like the sweetcorn did not like the wind and dry and are only just getting up the poles.

The  last bed has garlic on the left, the main row is good but the garlic in the other two rows has failed. I think it was a very late (reduced)purchase at the garden centre and a waste of money. At the far end I have some dwarf broad beans. Just enough for husband as I dont' like them! Some more beetroot and then a long cage of brassicas. 6 each of sprouts, kale, cabbage, and 4 red cabbage. Some how a broccoli got in there and did not form one head but had several spurs on one plant. No problem as it meant a couple of small heads cut at a time, mixed with spinach was a nice green for several meals last week.

Just beyond the compost bins I have two courgettes. I have had to wander up with extra water to get them going and one has a small courgette on it.
We had a 3mm shower today and it has wet the soil a bit so things might get going. Promise of more rain in the forecast next week which we could do with here.

I will update you on the fruit crops on my next post.
Hope your crops are coming on now.