Something I need to learn more about is companion planting. I find in the rush of spring planting , the thought of suitable companion plants is often overlooked. However, I did manage to plant lettuce and radish together (see photo below), which I now discover in hindsight are good companion plants. Reader's Digest has a good companion planting list which confirms this.
I planted some spearmint among the raspberries and rhubarb, though these are not listed together in the above list. In hindsight, I should have planted the mint in a container to keep it from spreading. But does not appear to be germinating, which may be due to use of seed several years old.
I gambled and planted the potatoes early (above photo), first week in May, as well as several other veggies. This year we were fortunate to have the last heavy frost on April 30, well before the average last frost date of May 20. Now to see if we have a below or above average hail year...
Future posts will include a scan of the garden layout for this year. Overall the plantings are more of the same that was planted in previous years. I did not plant peas this year as they did not do so well in the last two years. Most plants are doing well except the beans, which are struggling with poor germination and insect (or bird?) nibbling.
If anyone has more information on Growing-Degree Days (GDD) or related topics please feel free to share. I'm trying to find a chart of GDD for different vegetables but as yet unable to find anything.
The Lovage (above) came up after I dug the entire garden lightly with a shovel. I didn't realize it was perennial. Now I know! It came up shifted over somewhat from its former resting place, fortunately surviving the shovel abuse. Apparently 
The rain barrels were drained dry after a temporary heat wave last Saturday and Sunday (+20 °C), watering freshly planted seeds including bush beans and spinach. The heat wave was caused by the locally well known 
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