Polytunnel polyculture & spring flowers

A quick photo blog – I just wanted to share some spring pictures from my back garden!

Most of the plants in the no dig polytunnel were planted last October into beds which were mulched in May, just as the tomatoes and other summer plants were going in here: no other fertilisers were added, one annual spring mulch feeds the crops year round. The polytunnel has 1/3 mesh and 2/3 polythene doors, which ensures good ventilation and gaps above the doors are large enough for small birds and insects to enter. During the winter I recorded temperatures lower than -4°C in here so everything freezes, however the cover keeps the weather – wind, hail, driving rain – off the plants which makes a huge difference for extending the growing season and feeding my family.

Bruton where I live is in south west England, zone 8/9.

A week ago I planted Swift potatoes into one of the beds and sowed some catch-crop radish in gaps where we have harvested vegetables. I mostly grow annual plants here but there are some perennials; recently I planted an apricot tree, on pixie root stock so that it won’t get very big. Other trees – a peach, nectarine and a mystery fruit – are on unknown rootstocks, so they are growing in large tree pots. A 3 year old grapevine is established at the back of the polytunnel. The lemongrass planted in the ground may have survived the winter, it looks hopeful and other overwintered perennials are snug in their pots in side beds.

This is the flowering mystery tree. Unlike my other potted fruit trees, last year this one didn’t produce any fruit so I do not know what it is. An apricot, peach, almond?

The polytunnel is 12ft x 40ft. During the summer the beds are completely full but at this time of year I make the most of the dry covered space and set up a potting bench. There’s also my saw horse, a stack of card for mulching, bags of compost and lots of young plants waiting to go outside.

carrots, elephant garlic. spinach, lettuce and more

spring cable growing well

I’m looking forward to the first carrots

coriander

brassicas including kale, cabbage and calabrese

spinach and garlic

calabrese

dill

Swift first early potatoes are planted here

kales

large oriental leaves for stir fries

The lettuce on the left has just been picked. The larger lettuce is the chosen Grenoble Red plant for saving seed. I chose this one because, unlike the other lettuces, this one self seeded from the lettuce I was growing for seed last year – it chose where to grow (ok, that is a bit of a romantic notion, but I like it…) Grenoble Red is the best lettuce for overwintering here, very prolific and tasty.

startled winter density lettuce, after picking

the chosen lettuce!

Signs of spring – some of the first flowers in my garden, all outside except the apricot.

Flower on my new dwarf apricot

An early plum tree full of blossom

last year this little tree was hit by a severe late frost so I had no fruit

hyacinths growing under a gooseberry

emerging peony and forget me nots

one of the primroses

euphorbia flowers

bud of the new apricot

polyculture of hyacinths, yellow dead nettles, gooseberry and Japanese wineberry

apricot flower

lung wort flower – this spread like mad

ladybird and rosemary flowers

flowering hairy bittercress – a widespread edible weed, I don’t want it in my veg beds

cowslips have naturalised in the perennial bed

my first tulip of the year

hellebores have been flowering for weeks now

CCCC