I have taken two pictures of Plot 18 Spinach below to show how quickly crops are growing at this time of year, with the warmer weather (sometimes!!) and the long day lengths you can notice almost daily the increase in leaf size. I have a  harvest planner on my desk which lists all the crops and estimated start dates and Plot 18 will be started on the 18th June and should yield approximately 1700 boxes by 12 bunches in each box.  We anticipate harvesting the crop  for only 3 days to ensure the best quality at all times.

There was a huge migration of Painted Lady butterflies at the end of May beginning of June and we had a phenomenal amount on the Sweet William flowers which are now coming to an end. We have started the first sowings of Kohlrabi(picture below)and Flat Leaf Parsley in the last week and will shortly start Mint.

We have had 10 lapwing chicks of which one is with a surrogate mother! One nest had 4 eggs of which 3 hatched within a couple of hours of each other the fourth egg was hatching but very slowly and the mother needed to move the chicks to the safety of cover. Meanwhile in another field a lapwing had 4 eggs hatching of which two were taken overnight by either crow, magpie or fox. As the lone hatching chick had been abandoned I decided to put it in the other nest and by the next day there were 3 healthy chicks running around (result!). I have found my first ever Reed Warbler nest with four chicks in our wet area, so changing that area has provided valuable habitat.  The other exciting thing, Shepperton Studios is across the road from the farm and since before St. George's day they have being erecting a huge castle set for a film we think will be called Nottingham,  its begininning to look very authentic.

I have been very busy over the last couple of weeks with mixed weather, very dry and windy which is not good for growing. The irrigation man Mariusz has had terrible trouble making sure the water is going on the intented crop and not blowing away.  The birds have been extremely busy and we have had 14 Ringed Plover chicks and the above 4 lapwing chicks hatched and ringed. We currently have 5 Lapwing on nests some 3 weeks old and some just laid.  Before the eggs hatch you can hear them cheeping inside and then a small hole will appear where they are using their beak to peck themselves out, this process can take up to 48 hours. I have also seen Yellow wagtail, Reed Warblers in our wet area and Reed Bunting.