First harvest from the vegetable garden

We've harvested the first of our new potatoes from the vegetable garden. We planted our seed potatoes, an early variety, back in mid-March and they seem to have done really well, despite taking a battering during the recent high winds.

It's the first time I've grown potatoes myself and I'm really pleased with the results. We'll enjoy these this evening with lashings of butter and some fresh mint from the herb garden. Pulling up a couple of roots of potatoes has left me with enough space to plant a few extra Leek plants, which we'll be glad of later in the year when there's not much else in the vegetable garden.

We've been harvesting Rocket and Lamb's Lettuce for the past few weeks, as well as Chives, Basil, Lemon Balm, Oregano, Rosemary, Mint and aniseed-flavoured Fennel tips, which are great mixed into a salad. The salad and herbs have done really well and we've had a near constant supply; it's weeks since I've had to buy any from the shops. The trick is to sow salad seed at regular intervals so that you have a continuous supply through the summer months.

Our Beetroot, Radish, Onions, Garlic, Spinach and Peas are all doing well, but my young Squash, Courgette and Bean plants have all suffered slug damage. More about that later...