Cold and Frosty Morning

Last night we had the first real frost of winter, down to -3 degrees in the garden and zero in the greenhouse, despite the bubble wrap and heater.

The ground on the allotment was too hard to dig, so I spent a couple of hours tidying the allotment shed - a task well over due.

Some frosted veg...

Chard

Lettuce

Shallots

A Good Day

A few hours were well used this morning. The plots certainly look a bit better for it.

The midweek gales had made a mess of all the netting, so all covers were removed, which made a general hoe much easier.

Non of the carrots were worth saving (root fly), so they were all removed.

The gales had knocked a timber into the water but tap, so emptying it. The tap may need replacing... we'll see.

A lot of general digging over now makes it look like a plot well cared for - well almost!

Sown today.

A few cells of seeds were sown today for germinating inside in the warmth:

• Tomato - Moneymaker
• Tomato - San Marzano
• Tomato - Gardeners Delight
• Tomato - Red Cherry (did well last year, but were a bit tasteless)
  
• Basil - Minette.

All of these have been free with magazines or the Kitchen Garden calendar!

New Year Audit

On Monday I took the opportunity to do and audit of the allotment in preparation for finalising the new year's rotations.

On Plot 53b Captain Custard is using part of the ground as a nursery bed. the bright orange Willow sticks show well:

There are still plenty of leeks on 53b too:

Back on 54b the last of the roots have been removed from bed 4, and the bean trench started:

More shots of 54b: