Late May: a snapshot
Tipping from late spring into early summer
Now we’re nearly at the end of May, flowers suddenly seem to be out everywhere. From my garden office I can see so much colour. Purples, pinks, yellows and oranges: lupins, geraniums, geum, aquilegia, wallflowers and allium. Delphiniums, one of my absolute favourites, will be out within a few days, and the roses look promising too.
On the park, the cow parsley is looking resplendent. But in the hedgerows, the snowy May blossom is starting to go over, its white-pink petals lost to the breeze.
On my allotment, nearly all the tender veg are planted out and settling into their final positions. Corn and courgette in the raised beds, squash and cucumber starting to climb up their makeshift frames, and pumpkin with lots of lovely space to spread out across the earth. I can see the parsnip and carrot tops clearly now, and onion and garlic sit, happily fattening in the soil. The peas my daughter planted last month are coming up quickly, and there are pods on the broad beans. In a few days we’ll be eating the very first tender, earthy beans with pasta and olive oil.
I work my elderly parents’ garden too, half an hour’s drive away in Matlock. Here, I’ve got runner beans and french beans planted out, climbing the wigwams with boundless enthusiasm after weeks of being trapped inside. There are more broad beans, and red cabbage, lettuce, beetroot and radish, carrot and parsnip are all growing in amongst the weeds. I do my absolute best to keep on top of weeding here, but since I can usually only get over once a week I (and my parents) have to accept it will now always look slightly wild. The most important thing is keeping it watered, and I’ve set up a sprinkler so they can do this easily.
No matter how much I try to slow down, time moves fast, and the seasons seem so fleeting. I can already feel a change in the air as we move towards June and early summer, and we’re losing spring already. In just a few weeks, we’ll be eating strawberries off the plot (if the woodlice don’t get at them first), harvesting blackcurrants for jam and making lemony-sweet elderflower cordial.