Now that we’ve reached this point in mid-May, I like to think it’s a good time to assess just how well this spring is fairing in the garden.

            I’m lucky I get to garden in two parts of the country in Aberdeen and Perth, where the weather this year in both feels just about right for achieving nice and steady plant growth, just exactly what I want. Its not been gloriously warm and sunny like we’ve seen in previous springs but I’m not going in the house at night longing to feel the warmth of the sun on my back either. A quick look at the progress of the tomato plants growing in my 6ft x 8ft greenhouse is telling me just the same being a nice green colour, putting on good strong growth and not just sitting in their pots doing nothing as its too cold, or becoming thin and leggy because its too hot and bright.

            I tell you, you can’t beat home grown veg but especially tomatoes, they’re all lovely but in the Cunningham house we can’t beat the smaller cherry or plum types. One of the varieties I’m growing this season called ‘Celano’, this is a bush variety so will only grow to around 1m tall. Just now I have it sitting on the floor of my glasshouse but will eventually have it sitting on the bench at the perfect height for picking when I finally have the room, finished with my pots of lettuce and have all my bedding plants outside. A common problem for all greenhouse gardeners at this time of year!

            With the taller tomato varieties, that you might also see referred to as a cordon or vine, we pinch out the side shoots that form where a leaf joins the main stem so the plant can focus its essential energies into the production of fruits and not more foliage. With bush varieties it’s the opposite and we can leave these side shoots on so to develop where already I’m salivating at the thought of the juicy fruits that will emerge from them from early summer.

            Those grow-bags you find in the garden centres are handy, but I still prefer growing my tomato plants in large pots. Over the growing season they’ll produce so many roots that consistently need to be kept moist and not dry out, so to avoid crop problems like fruit splitting or sunken brown patches on their base called blossom end rot.  I find it easier to achieve this by growing in 7.5 litre sized pots.

At first I pop the plants in the bottom third of the pot, this gives me the opportunity to top up the pot with fresh compost two or three times over the season giving these hungry plants a nutrient boost. When you’re buying your plants and compost pick up a bottle of tomato feed too to help you on your way, or better still grow a patch of comfrey where the leaves can be cut down and steeped into a bucket of water for making your own plant food.

            Another way I’d gage how nice a spring it is we’re having is by how many times I’ve put my shorts on. It’s only been twice this year due to a persistent cold wind that doesn’t seem to be going away, but some will say that’s doing you all a favour keeping my milk-bottle legs covered up. which some may say that’s no bad thing. Anyway, there’s plenty time yet, what’s the saying, “ne’er cast a clout ‘til May is out” meaning don’t discard your big jacket until we see the opening of the massed, white, sweetly-fragrant flowers of the Hawthorn tree.

            The monsoon style rain that’s becoming more of a thing these days was a break in the relatively dry spring I also feel we’ve been having. After a panic clean of the shed roof gutters, the rain helped replenish my water butts that I use for as much as my watering needs as possible, but that’s only brought another saying to the front of my mind that could determine the success of my summer.

With my eyes monitoring daily the canopies of the oak and ash trees around me I’m saying to myself, “ash before oak, we’re in for a soak; oak before ash we’re in for a splash” observing Mother Natures way of maybe hinting to us if we’ll have a wet summer or not. Just in case you’re as daft as me with these things, we’re hoping for the latter. So far it’s a dead heat which I’m not sure the bearing this will have.

Back to the here and now where there is still so much more of spring left to enjoy. Looking out across my garden everything seems so colourful, the foliage from my lawns to the last of those unfurling on my beech hedge so lush and healthy. Spring really is a magical time of the year and no matter what the weather brings the rest of the summer, I can’t wait for more gardening.

First published in The Weekend supplement of The Courier and Press & Journal newspapers on Saturday 16th May 2026