Dry and sunny

It's very nice to be working out in this warm, dry and sunny weather, but the lack of rain is starting to make an impact on crop growth. Because there's quite a lot of organic matter in the soil there's still moisture two inches down and further, but crops aren't growing as quick as they should and newly planted plants are slow to get going.

We start supplying cafes and restaurants from next week and on Monday 2nd May the veg stall will be open for business in Middle Town on St Martin's.

Katrin and I are working hard to get a range of crops ready for May, including salads, radish, potatoes, carrots, kale, chard, herbs, cucumbers, strawberries and peas. It's been a late start and very dry, but in general things are looking OK...at the moment!

The orchard was going to get mown this week, but the flowers are looking far too beautiful, so mowing will have to wait until they've died back and set seed.

Photos from this week

Some times, when things are busy it's easier just to post photos and let the images do the talking!

First carrots - doing really well under fleece

















Early onions growing away nicely now












Can never tire of apple blossom - beautiful












Sowing in the glasshouse - covering seeds with fine compost











Putting up strings for Climbing French Beans


















Planting cucumbers in the tunnel

Good growth

Late March and early April are showing signs of good plant growth at last. Since the weather has been coming from the Atlantic recently temperatures have increased, there's been a bit of rain, but best of all some lovely sunshine on some days!

It's been time for lots of weeding, planting and sowing. The early potatoes are being ridged up by Katrin, a German student working for us for the spring and summer. She's done a good job here and is a real asset to the team. In Germany she's studying organic agriculture and this work placement will give her practical skills to complement the theoretical learning at University.

For the German speakers amongst you, look at her blog www.kaba2010.blogspot.com about her stay on Scilly. Well, if you can't read German you can still look at some nice photos anyway. It's possible of course she's written something offensive on there and I would have no idea, so German speakers take it at your own risk!!