Pots and pottering

It’s a bit of a grey, drizzly day here on the island. With enough of a breeze to keep the midges away though, for which I’m thankful.

I’ve been pottering in the polycrub with a mug of tea and a harvesting basket. I say basket, today it’s actually an old waxed paper bag into which I pop ripe strawberries, lettuce and herbs for todays dinner as I browse through the growings.

It’s peaceful here sitting amongst the green. I’m surrounded by plants and insects all doing their thing and if I look up and out of the polycrub window I see the grey clouds scudding across the skyline of the hills at the back of the croft.

May sees an absolute explosion of growth this far north. It’s almost as if all that pent-up energy has been released once we get to continual temperatures above 8°C. That may sound cold to most of you, but as long as the overnight temperature here doesn’t go below that, most things will thrive. Daytime temperatures here are around 15-18°C at max. The polycrub adds 10-20°C to that on sunny days.

The croft beds outside are full of potatoes, kale, cabbage, cauliflower and carrots.

The polycrub produce is still in sheep-lick tubs this year as we’re too busy finishing the house to build fixed raised beds. But nevertheless, we look as if we’ll have some crops despite the restricted growing space.

So far we have potatoes, spring onions, tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines, gigantes beans, rocket, peas, cucumbers, beetroot, carrots, chillies, lettuce, strawberries and celery growing in there.

We also grow lots of herbs in the polycrub – purple sage (for Beth’s sage puffs), coriander, parsley, basil, orange mint, rosemary, lemon balm, thyme, marjoram, lemon verbena, tarragon and blackcurrant sage.

There are three big half-barrels out by the croft beds too with mint, chives and lemon thyme growing in them. I love fresh herbs. Once the beds are extended I fully intend to grow more.

The hawthorn is blossoming and the trees are a vibrant green, full of sap and promise. The hedge around the vegetable area that we planted a month ago is also putting out tentative green shoots.

The aim is to eventually plant up an asparagus bed, a squash/pumpkin bed, a perennial vegetable bed and more. We’re getting there slowly!