Today at last I planted some things outside. I started with the more robust plants, red onions and spring onions (grown from seed), and then moved on to the plants that will have the protection of a Schweppes cloche, namely the peas and cauliflowers, also grown from seed. Well that’s what I intended to do, but I ran out of cloches and energy by the time I’d planted the onions and 64 peas.

I’ve decided to put a cloche on the cauliflowers for various reasons. Firstly I’ve never grown them before so feel I should be cautious. Secondly they are very flimsy, and it can get very windy here. Finally, they look the type of thing that might appeal to snails or slugs or bunny rabbits, or all three. Therefore I’ve decided to protect them in their first few weeks.

As for the peas, they have a cloche because the first year I grew them something, and I still don’t know what, ate them very early on. Cloches seemed to cure this the second year, so I’ve stuck with them.

I’m also pleased to see 100% success in my 50 shallots. The jury’s still out on the onion sets that I bought, but the success rate of these looks pretty good too.

All the time I was out the blackbirds were around collecting worms. They’re almost as cheeky as the robin. I was rather surprised he wasn’t there too, but he must have had something better to do today.