Our first courgettes

The warm weather means that cucurbits have been making rapid growth & we can report our first courgettes. I'm not sure of the variety.

It'll be a few weeks before any of the squashes produce fruit, they are always a little slower to establish than courgettes.

The climbing french beans & runner beans continue to make good progress up the wigwams.

The first flowers on the beans are already appearing.

Runner bean 'Celebration', the photo does not really show the very pretty salmon colour of the flowers

White flowers on a climbing french bean

The mangetout peas are very nearly ready to start eating, the variety 'Golden Sweet' appears very productive.

'Golden Sweet' mangetout peas, only a few days before they're ready to eat

Many of the self-sown annuals are in full flower.

Calendulas backed by blue phacelia

Borage & calendulas

Pink self-sown cornflower, Centaurea cyanus. The flowers are pretty & attractive to insects, but it'd've been even nicer if this were blue, like the wild type of this species.

Thymus sp, the bees love this

It's not only flowers that are providing colour. An allotment neighbour gave me some seedlings of the Mexican tree spinach, Chenopodium giganteum. It's a most ornamental plant, but apparently the flavour of the leaves is not so fine.

Mexican tree spinach, Chenopodium giganteum

Whilst there are still many bees working the flowers, not all insects are as welcome. Although we are delighted to have butterflies, rather disappointing that the first one we should notice is a cabbage white, Pieris sp.

Caterpillars of the cabbage white butterfly, devouring the remaining leaves on a mustard plant.