Good afternoon! Well I am pleased to report that I had very mild side effects from my covid vaccination, how I managed that I don’t know, must be the red hair, we have special powers you know. Hopefully when I have my second jab in about 12 weeks time I will sail through just as easily. I was a little achy, but just from my knees down to my ankles. I felt tired, so had a little nap for 2 hours late afternoon, but nothing to stop me going through a load of emails. My head started to feel a little “upset”, but a regularly took paracetamol and ibuprofen and that seemed to make my aches go away and my head feel happy again. But the weirdest feeling I had was that my head felt like it was in a goldfish bowl, not wet and with fish swimming by all the time, but that spaced out feeling. To be honest it was really quite nice. But with that feeling I wouldn’t have wanted to drive anywhere and my brain did feel a little foggy as well.

So I spent the day, yes in my pj’s, catching up on various things on the computer and watching various things on the TV. I did watch a film, but my brain is still quite foggy and I can’t remember what I watched. What did I watch? Hang on let me go downstairs to have a look…..Knives Out, that was it.

This morning when I woke up I felt nearly normal, I haven’t felt completely normal for a very long time, so it’s the best I’ll get at the moment. My knees only started the ache again at lunchtime, so I had another couple of paracetamol and they were fine in about an hour.

I decided that I wouldn’t push myself too hard today as well, so after pottering around in the house this morning, I went out in the garden this afternoon. I didn’t do any hard digging, but I did manage to get the last of the sowing done which is very exciting.

I sowed the last of the flower seeds I have so some Honesty “Purple and White Mixed” as well as some Cleome or some people call Spider Flower. It looks and smells like Marijuana but is totally legal. I guess that’s the closest I’ll ever get to having something in my garden that is a bit suspect.

Now that it’s May I can sow my French and Runner beans. I always sow them the first week of May which gives them 3-4 weeks of growing time before they can be planted outside. I live in the South on the UK, and any tender crops can go out from the beginning of June as we won’t get any frosts after that date. If you live further North, then work back 3-4 weeks from your last frost date and sow yours then.

I find that they’re about 6-8 inches tall when they go outside, which is the perfect size and haven’t started to twist around each other by then. My greenhouses are getting very full and various plants like the lettuce and brassicas could go out in a couple of weeks time, but it’s going to be tight for space soon.

I sowed various beans and planted 2 or 3 French bean seeds per square pot and just 2 Runner bean seeds per pot. Don’t plant them together, I did mine in diagonal corners. When you come to plant them out, don’t separate then, they’re quite happy to grow together. Here are the ones I’ve done:

French Beans – Two Dwarf varieties “Mascotte” and “Safari (Kenyan Bean)”. The dwarf varieties don’t need a structure to climb they are self supporting. If you’re short on space then these are perfect, they can also be grown in containers as well. And then a climbing variety “Blue Lake”. These will need a structure to climb up so in a few weeks time I’ll decide where they’re going and make a wigwam. You must make sure that the structure is very stable as the beans will get very heavy and if you suddenly get strong winds then they will blow over. It’s happened to me before.

Runner Beans – Again you can get some dwarf varieties of these as well. The variety I have, I’ve had for a few years so don’t know if they still do it. I think it was an experimental seed as it’s just called “TZ1111”. I also have 2 climbing varieties, the first call “Guinness Record” which I grew last year and they produce very long pods, the other “Scarlet Emperor”, from what I remember are very prolific. Again I sowed these 2 seeds per pot.

Here’s a little video I made last year to help you on your way.

I think I’m done for the day, time to stop and sit down with a cup of tea and watch some telly before I have to start dinner. Feeling a little tired again, but not enough to have a nap. If you’re yet to have your vaccinations just be prepared to take a couple of days off. Don’t fight through it like I always used to do when I was ill, it’ll last longer and it’ll be worse. I know it’s easy for me to say, but British people have always had the view that we must drug ourselves up and carry on whatever. It just doesn’t work. Listen to your body and do what it says. If Covid has taught us anything it’s if you don’t feel well, be it a cold, the flu or anything else then take some medication, snuggle up under a blanket, watch your favourite films or binge watch something on Netflix. Hopefully someone will be able to bring you food and drinks and do all the house chores. You’ll recover faster, and then you can get back to work sooner.

Take care everyone, Summer is on its way and freedom is within our grasp. We can see friends and family very soon, I’ve not seem my sister or parents since February last year! But soon we will be able to get together and hug.

Until then be safe, be kind and carry on gardening!

Love Claire xxx