Spring Returns to the Pyrenees

Small tortoiseshell enjoying the chive flowers.

Has Anyone Had Spring?

Prompted by checking back on my garden diary for last year and noting that it was a very pleasant 25 degrees on the 24th of May when I planted Charentaise and Sweetheart melons out into the garden, I thought I’d see just how bad this year has been so far.  It certainly feels as though it has been continuously cold and wet with very little sunshine.

Putting together some very rough statistics for the months of March, April and May, or Spring as it used to be called, revealed the following:  In 2011 we had 21 days of rain and 66 days of sunshine over those three months.  In 2012 the figures were 20 wet days and 41 sunny ones.  This year – up to 25^th May we’ve had 60 wet days.  That’s sixty days when it has rained or snowed for at least half the day and night.  Sunny days have been a mere 24.  

The Hungry Gap

 The scent around me is intoxicating, sweet and heady.  Not roses or honeysuckle, but black kale in full bloom.  Clearing away the last of the winter and spring brassicas makes me realise that we are now firmly in the grip of that period in the self-sufficient growers calendar know as the Hungry Gap.  It somehow seems wrong, when the temperature is hovering around thirty degrees,  and the bees are humming,  to find that the vegetable garden is a bit thin on edibles. 

Looking around, I can see garlic and shallots which won’t be good until sometime in June.  There are a few leeks, very much on the point of bolting – slightly corrugated as the flower head pushes up through the centre.  And, yes, I can see one flower spike already.  So leeks for a another week, perhaps.  A few chard and perpetual spinach plants are just starting to put on some new growth.  Eat it all now, or be patient for a week or two?  By which time they too may be running to seed.