After the Gales

We had a really bad day here yesterday, gale force winds and pouring rain.  Did a recce of the garden today and, to my surprise (and delight) there is very little damage.  My broad beans were a bit flattened and one plant broke completely.  This is the second year winds have damaged the broad beans in May so I'm now making a note to give the next crop loads of support and NOT REMOVE IT  too early to support fledgling peas!  Although there are loads of embryonic bean pods on the plants there is nothing ready for eating yet.  

There was a thread on the Irish Gardeners Forum this week about the viability of seeds and I discovered that bean seeds are only viable for two years which explained the non-appearance of 

all the beans I sowed a fortnight ago.  I decided an emergency purchase was necessary so off I toddled to the garden centre yesterday and bought a pact of runners, Scarlet Emperor and some climbing Kentucky Wonder Wax, a heritage American variety with waxy yellow pods.  When I went out to sow them in the failed seeds pots what did I find?  Yes, a seedling!  Isn't it sweet??!

The upshot is that I decided to leave the pots alone for another week so I sowed the new purchases in their own pots.  There could be a glut of beans in this house yet.

As I had the camera out I did a photo patrol of the rest of the garden.  Here's some of the highlights.

Purple carrot seedlings 

Garlic!

Herbs:  green and purple fennel, curly and broad leaved parsley, salad burnett, garlic chives, horseradish, oregano, scorzonera (re-growing from last years roots) and a sprinkling of self-seeded welsh poppies

the sister's woodland garden, two months on.

A Lidl cherry tree