Nets, squashes, peas and currants

The raspberries are showing signs of ripening, and the birds seem interested, so we dug out last year's nettings and covered them up. The nets still had the strings on them and surprisingly none of them reached the ground, so the canes have clearly grown much bigger than last year. The nets worked well last year - they were the cheapest we could find from Boyes in Hull. By not reaching the ground they let the bees and other beneficial insects in under the netting, yet seem to deter the birds. They don't look pretty, but they're not on very long. They are pegged down at each side, so it's not hard to pull the pegs to get at the fruit, which looks to be abundant and some is starting to ripen.

Jean planted our four squashes out. They came from the BBC Dig In scheme. There were six seeds in the packet and only four germinated, but they look to be good plants, so we'll see how they do over the summer. She also planted our second batch of mange-touts. The first batch have produced a some lovely pods, but not as many as I had hoped, so I hope these do well. I have tied some string over the peas to help support them. I think I'll try to keep the raspberry canes that we prune off this year to use as pea sticks next year.

We have picked the second batch of black currants. The berries look to be a good size so our extra water seems to have helped. There are many more yet to come, but we have enough for our first pie of the year.