May Update: What are you growing in 2006? (Tips here for Fruit, Veggies and Flowers!)

Popped two kinds of bean (Climbing Barlotto - speckly red beans!) and runners into little pots to get going, as well as liquorice, strawberry and welsh red onion - some of those are a bit late, but they only arrived from eBay the other day.

The Sub Arctic Plenty tomatos are racing along, probably due to the sunny windowsill effect, and the redcurrant is doubling in size everytime I look at it. The Black Cherry tomatos are very small, but they popped up late.

The courgette/pumpkins (a seed mix-up means I've no idea what I've got yet) are just sitting in their gro-bag and sulking.

Blackberry and raspberry are waving a few desultory leaves around.

Iris bulbs are being very green, but no sign of flowering.

Mint and basil have popped up a few leaves, gotten scared and popped back down again :S

Three lettuce seedlings (out of dozens of seeds) have sprouted, looking like little red-tinged dandelions.

The mixed flowers seeds are leafy, but that's it. Since I've never grown flowers before, I've no idea what to expect!

The capsicums have come back from the dead; they were an experiment back in September to see if seeds from peppers would take, and they've got a lot of new growth now. If nothing else, they'll look pretty - I'm not expecting fruit.

The olive has finished flowering (a bit early?) but if there are any more than 7 olives, they're not making themselves known.

The fig is leggy, but not flowering either.

My chives are refusing to do more than sprout 4" bendy green shoots.

The dwarf lavender is being very quiet and small, but perhaps that's to be expected.

The 'melon plant' from Wilkos keeps dying and popping up again. I'm getting a bit concerned about it. And my Black Peppermint, a gift from a friend, has died completely

I've still got the potatoes to do - just waiting for some to sprout, and will need to find something for the beans to crawl up, eventually.


Getting a bit concerned about how to move all this come the autumn; we're supposed to be moving for J's PhD, assuming someone finally gives him some funding :S

I thought I was well behind being so ill and unable to do anything early in the year but things seem to be catching up a little for me.

Beauftiful strong looking first leaves on the courgettes. I appear to have one red pepper seedling out of a whole tray. Also the sweetcorn seedlings have appeared really quickly which surprised me.

The tomato seeds are sulking and not doing anything and I think something has got into my mini greenhouse and eaten all my pumkin seeds out of the pots. The butternut squash seeds are not doing anything either.

Uncovered the cloches today and I have one lovely thick row of beetroot seedlings and one baldy looking row where a cat has got under the cloche and done his business

Same again with the two rows of Swiss chard.

Today I have planted - carrot seeds, lambs lettuce, ordinary lettuce, sugarsnap peas, cauliflower, red shallots, onion sets and rocket.

I was given 6 gooseberry bushes and 4 rasberry canes and I've put those up against the sunny fence. There is a little bed just outside my shed and I've dug up the lavender and spindly rose bush and planted American Blueberry bushes instead.

Just a lot of tidying up to do tomorrow and 12 strawberry plants to stick in an old galvanised bath down the bottom of the garden. I have some copper tape to go round that to try and stop the rampage of snails that ate all mine last year

Nothing exotic growing here, just a good supply of basics:

22 tomato plants and 12 runner bean plants in the cold frame (I'm planting the beans 6 at a time in the hope of staggering the picking season a bit)
6 yellow courgettes moved today from cold frame into veg patch - 3 under cloches and 3 in the open to see if it makes any difference.
Leeks and spring onions sown under cloches directly in veg patch.
Two rows of peas sown in veg patch. Will do another 2 next week, again to try and spread the picking a bit.

I've got three tumbler tomatoes, just gone outside in big pots, hope this isn't too early!

Also about 10 santa tomatoes with about six leaves each.
15 chilli plants, all looking okay with about six big leaves each, 5 sweet peppers, four courgettes looking good and also just gone outside.

My aubergines seem not to be doing very much and stuck at two leaf stage, have quite a few of those still on inside windowsills, also some spinach which i have resown after getting nowhere with the first lot (the new ones are looking okay at the moment fingers crossed).

Outside we've got garlic, onion sets, coriander, salad leaves, rocket, broad beans (just planted) and peas (just planted). These are all in some great raised beds that OH made (our 'garden' is concreted over and we can't change it according to our leasehold), and he's made some lattices for the peas and beans to grow up too, when (if?) they appear.

I think that's everything... I am trying mint too but having failure after failure with it - any ideas?

kjl26 - I got mint reduced down to Woolies for 10p. It came as part of a 4 pack of herbs that was originally £2.99 but because they others had died it was reduced down to peanuts. it was spearmint and quite a nice size. I've planted it into a pot as I remember having mint at a student flat years ago and it took over the whole garden!