[princesslayer]

I think we've had colder than average nights this spring. I went to a friends house today, all her stuff is doing way better than mine, but she has a very sheltered sunny garden with raised beds, her soil must have warmed up much quicker.

[cloddopper]

The green shoots of SUMMER have started     10 day germinating seeds have taken 21 days to show .
 Our outside geraniums have finally started to break into bloom and produce copious greenery this time last year we were looking like the Chelsea flower show .

I put 12 broad beans in a bed at the begining of November last year . They have been slow to grow  but did have inch long beans on them .  Yesterday I had to buy some bamboo canes to stake & tie up each two to three foot tall plant . The strong winds over the last two days created havoc and flattened the lot .

[MarkD]

Summer seems to be very late arriving this year and not much rain during spring. Not a great combination for growing.

[farmers wife]

The weeds are looking fantastic here!  I planted my first veg beginning of May and only seeing the tops of the carrots now.  Agree now its windy with a sharp wind with very little rainwater.  Should I be giving them a good drink?

[Lesley Silvester]

I would. I water my veg unless it's raining.

[cloddopper]

I harvested my overwintered garlic 10 or so days ago .The big over wintered Sturton onions are starting to ripen some are a good three inches across.
 Cut and come again salads stuff that was sown thre weks ago has only just really broken ground.
 A few carrots sown nearly a n=month ago are now 10 mm tall
 broad beans sown in early Nov last year are finally starting to pod up nicely ..should be eating a few fresh ones  in two or three days time .
The glasshouse started peas have hardly made any progress in the garden since we planted them out nearly a month ago .

The slugs have had a major slugfest on the french climbing beans despite two packs of slug pellets being used , I have now resorted to a Nematode control again .... it seems to be working well .

 Things are starting to buck up in the glasshouse. We've two cucumber plants with about 20 one inch long cuc's between them (for making  sweet pickled dill & cuc )  eight tomato plants , tomatoes starting to form .  Capsicums in flower , some are also set . we also have an aubergine plant that has the tiniest of eggs starting to form

[DavidandCollette]

We start as many things as possible in modules inthe greenhouse. It gives them a good start. Beetroot fennel beans ppeas salads etc. This year my oh bought parsnips in modules every one is growing well for the first time ever

[cloddopper]

We start as many things as possible in modules inthe greenhouse. It gives them a good start. Beetroot fennel beans ppeas salads etc. This year my oh bought parsnips in modules every one is growing well for the first time ever

 Are they the ball rooted parsnips or the standard long ones.. i tried putting the parsnips in 75 mm deep modules and everyone I transplanted into seasoned well fed deep soil came  to be like a swede shaped ball about 3 inches across when I went to harvest them ..

[pgkevet]

Onions, spuds, peas all doing really well..spuds have flowers. Beans were slow, cold, chewed by slugs etc and resown.. the second batch are doing better but a way to go. B Beans sown direct this year are a good height and flowering well but no pods yet.
Oe greenhouse bed is fine ./ loads lettuce and courgettes and the aubergines are growing strong but the pther bed has been a  disaster - I suspect a dud bag of compost ..everything stunted to the point that I dug t all out and swapped for fresh compost, washed the plant roots and replanted.. about half recovered but have been badly set back to the point that I resowed toms and peppers so it's goign to be very late before any harvest off them this season.
First carrot sowing failed outside but first parsnips strong and happy.. second ones through now and carrots at last as wella s sping onions. second pea sowng up for a follow-on. Firs brassica sowing slow but getting there, second one mostly eaten by crows and hares.. third lot of seedlings ready to plant out any time i catch up with weeding.
Watering is a major issue for a 1/4 acre. I tried sprinklers the first year and ran the borehole dry, wrecked the pressure vessel lining and learned an expensive lesson. So to water safely I ave to load up the sprayer tank on the quadbike, take off the nozzle and dose each plant. Its impractical to do them all - so they only get watered if desperate and in rotation - a couple of 90L tanks is my limit in a  day - it's tedious. Carting water from the stream would be even more hassle.

[cloddopper]

PG somewhere on the site there is a thread about hydraulic water pumps that can pump a height  6 times head of water at about 1/6 th of the supply going into the pump.

As they work by water flow alone  would such a device be of any use to you?
A series of them running 24 /7 from the stream could be good to fill a series & eventually to a final high header tank .  Then use low flow low pressure sprinklers or drippers or soaker hoses run from the final header tank system   

[pgkevet]

I've considered pumping but the brutal fact is that the bigger stream is 200+yds away with a smaller ditch/stream 100+yds away... pipe alone gets expensive at any bore that avoids drops from resistance plus the cost of burying it or a reel system to coil it up.
Local farmer delivered a 1000L eurotank one year which was just enough to give every plant a decent drink via watering can over a few days. Spraying would need at least 2 such tankfulls

It'd be more practical to stick 2 eurocontainers on my trailer with perhaps a PTO pump if one could find one cheap enough.. they can fill a eurocontainer in a couple of minutes (actually would take longer since the stream is small)....

[pgkevet]

..just stuck 90 brassica seedlings in .. that's my third and likely final brassica planting this year..now off to water them all in.
First planting doing quite well, second still recovering from bird nibbles.

It's very noticebale that the top 2 inches of soil and bone dry but below that it actually nice and moist and it's reflected in the types and ages of plantings and their root systems. All spuds now in glorious flower.

[Caroline1]

I was getting worried that my were not growing but they sounds about the same as what you have all described which is good. Just need to battle the blackfly/whitefly which seems to be everywhere at the moment.

[Marches Farmer]

Still cool nights here in the Marches.   Strawberries finally beginning to colour up, after sitting there for a month.  Runner and French beans barely moving and potatoes also sulking.  Onions doing quite well, however.  I may have to invest in cloches for next Spring.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

I had to replant my French beans, the first lot got blown to bits by the wind and eaten by the slugs n snails. I have planted tons of veg this year so it'll be a late crop I think. The strawberries are doing well, apart from the snails and slugs My blackcurrant bush I have had to net away from the birds, the fruits are fat and juicy and all ripening. so hopefully not a bad year after all.