A video tour of the greenhouse.

Exciting stuff eh?



On your tour you may have seen begonias, peppers, more peppers, aubergines, melons potatoes, various strawberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, and other assorted salads.

Temporary Spring

Yesterday we took advantage of a beautiful day to spend around 3 hours on the plot. Inevitably on what was the first proper session of the year, much time was spent clearing up.

Quite a few of the overwintering vegetables hadn't survived (e.g. some cabbages, and the broccoli), so these were removed or consolidated into one area.

The Autumn planted broad beans and peas are a bit patchy, but I have some replacements doing very well in the greenhouse.

The first bean trench was dug and part filled with compost and cardboard.

The Autumn planted raspberries, asparagus and rhubarb is still dormant (or dead). I hope there will be signs of life there soon.

Meanwhile, in the greenhouse, the start of the massive spring sow has started, and the potatoes (from a Woodborough Garden Centre, Wilts) are chitting in the shed.

Pink Soup

Earlier in the week I made some lovely soup. It was the usual recipe... bung everything in with an onion and a stock cube. It also had a whole leek, a whole celeriac, a load of celery, a couple of small potatoes, a carrots, some beetroot that were too small to cook, and the juice of one orange.

The effect of beetroot and the orange juice was impressive, but it tasted great.

Progress on a sunny afternoon.

This afternoon was a beautifully sunny and warm spring outing to the plot. There were quite a few allotmenteers present, which resulted in me taking home three cabbages and a bag full of leeks from kind neighbours (no produce from us yet).

Most of the time was spend weeding, but I also managed to layout the "pottager" bed and plant some onion sets in it, another row of "Jaguar" peas were sown, and a short row of salad leaves in the sweetcorn bed.

Having cleared the weeds, the emerging crops are more evident. Exciting!

Autumn sown broad beans:



Spring sown broad beans:



Rhubarb:



Strawberries:



Garlic:



Peas:

More snow... and potatoes

On Thursday there was yet more snow: quite a lot of it, which put pay to the planned day on the allotment for Friday. I've just looked at MetCheck, which gives a loner range forecast, and there looks like little let up for another two or three weeks. This means my planned preparation has gone out of the window.

Meanwhile I have sown a few things in doors:

• A few more broadbeans, as replacements for those lost since November, in peat pots
• African Marigolds
• Hollyhocks
• A few peas ("Twinkle")
• Three sorts of pepper (free on the cover of KG Magazine)
• Cabbage (F1 Tundra)
• Basil

I might walk round to the plot later, just to see how deep the snow still is. There was a big thaw yesterday, but a deep frost last night.

Here we are, I walked round in 25 minutes and took a series of photos to make a panorama:

Click to download a bigger size.

Whilst there, I found that the seed potato orders had arrived and at the allotment hut, so for £5.00 I now have the following chitting at home (I also have longer arms from carrying them home on foot):

• Javelin 7lb (Early)
• Kestrel 3lb (Second Early)
• Romano 3lb (Main)
  

The Weather Forecast

Constantly looking at the forecasts, it now looks as if the cold winter will extend well into March. If it's true, it will mean manic sowing at the end of March onwards. I suppose it's good for keeping weeds down, and will reduce soil bourne diseases.

Meanwhile, I've sown a few more broad beans and some early peas in peat pots, so give them a head start. Holyhocks have also been sown in a tray.

Number 7

It's not a scene from the prisoner, but today I've been working on bed number 7, which will be roots. The trouble is that although I thought it was already cleared, once I started digging, I realised it was still full of bramble and some bindweed roots.

The weather was great for lots of digging... cold and sunny, with the bitter north wind being sheltered: I assume by trees and houses.

In just over two hours I managed to completely dig the bed ( approx 3x3m) and clear the major roots. After leveling and tamping down, I placed a row of old large water bottles over a row. They're not doing anything, but it looks as if there is something happening. I also marked out beds 6 and 8.


In my extensive reading I've just found out that onions and legumes don't go well together: only three months late. The onions are doing so badly, I might move them any way!

Tomorrow is the big day........ the shed comes.

First harvest

A guerilla post by David:

News just in - the radishes seem to have survived an earlier gastropod massacre to give this viciously colourful first harvest.

More peppery roots to follow before the week is out.