North wind

It was a chilly night.  A north wind was blowing all day on Saturday and on Sunday morning the max/min thermometer in the polytunnel showed a night-time temperature of only 3 degrees.  But thankfully, it warmed up on Sunday.  In fact, when I decided to clear the willow out of the ditches near the cabin it was way too hot and sunny for hard work.

Not sure if we will have strawberries for Juhannus (Midsummer festivities are next weekend) but they are well on their way.  I decided to hang CDs over the row to frighten off the birds and I also netted them.  The CDs look pretty in the wind, but I have no idea if they really keep the birds away.

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These are "smultron" wild strawberries that grow on the edge of the forest.  We ate a few today, they have a very strong flavour, quite different to cultivated varieties.

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Having weeded the carrots I can now confirm that we do actually have some carrots...  

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The beetroot are doing OK, but I did sow a fresh packet of seeds in the gaps.  

Today I also planted another packet of french beans (hopefully they will be ready a couple of weeks later than the rest) and a row of parsley.   

I planted some courgettes in pots as I only have three in a growbag, the ones I sowed direct outdoors didn't come through.

I picked a few more asparagus spears as well and weeded all the onions.

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In the polytunnel the aubergines are doing really well.  I also managed to buy two more tomato plants (at the market in Karis, having stopped at three nurseries on Saturday and not managed to find any!)

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Some of the butternut squash already have flower buds but if I remember correctly the male flowers appear first and the female flowers don't appear for another week or two.

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