3 June - May at last!

Yesterday I put out my runner beans and tomatoes into the garden - jobs I normally do in May.

Usually the love-in-the-mist grows like a weed in my garden, this year I had very few, and most of those were where the beans were to go, so up they came! Also very few swiss chard came up, and only one ruby chard which was on the edge of the runner bean bed. I tore off some leaves so they didn't provide a route for snails to reach the beans and hope, by keeping an eye on it, that I can keep it to goes to seed.

I haven't been able to use the metal and bean wigwams I bought as the ground was too dry. Next year I will have to try in late winter when hopefully the ground will be soft enough for me to press the centre stakes into the earth.

I used the green plastic slug collars round each of the beans. It is always a worry that I have trapped a snail, or more likely a slug inside the collar with the bean. This morning only two bean plants had nibbled leaves. One had the culprit - a snail - crawling on the slug collar!

I put some tomatillo seedlings into the seed pots the beans had come out of. And next weekend I will put out the climbing french beans.

This morning I had extra watering to do, but am looking forward to all the vegetables in a few months time!

Asparagus pea: weird!

I got some asparagus pea seeds from the the Organic Gardening catalogue (though they weren't organic). Pretty red flowers and small, winged pods that are picked before they are more than 3 cm long.

Only half my row came up, but they survived the slugs, and I picked a handful today. Had them with onions, courgettes (from the garden), runner beans (first picking from the garden) and pasta as a chunky soup. Not impressed, don't think I'll bother again. Also used a stock cube, but rather salty.

Had it with sour dough bread from the new Organic Lea stall off the Leytonstone High Road. I am pleased that sour dough is getting easier to find.