20/5/08

Had a day off today to spend at the plot and got a lot done. i put up the pea netting and cloched the second sowing, and sowed a third one. The bean trench was filled in and poles put up, and planted the dwarf french beans. The climbing beans are ready to put in but i didn't get round to that today. I also planted the 6 strawberry plants i bought at the weekend, i've never had much success with strawberries so fingers crossed this time. Potatoes were earth up, and weeding ++++.
At the bottom of the plot the parsnips look like they have germinated which is great, and i thinned the swede and turnips. At the end of the swede row i planted the 3 chard plants i had in pots, and also weeded the beetroot row and filled in the gaps with some tray sown seedlings and sowed some more seed in the remaining row spaces. In the carrot row barely 5% had germinated so i weeded that and resowed with a new variety 'Amsterdam 2 sweetheart'. I then repeated this with the row that originally had 'autumn king' in which again had poorly germinated.

I removed the purple and white sprouting broccolis which had gone over, and was given some seedlings by another plot holder of cabbage 'greyhound' which was put in last night. I then weeded around the remaining cabbages and onions. The remaining weeding to be down is under the tarpaulin which is shrinking slowly but has alot of roots and taking a long time. This is where the summer crops will go, pumpkins, squashes, sweetcorn, and i also want to sow some more carrots, spinach, chard.

In the green house i have planted into growbags one tomato, 2 cucumbers, and 1 sweet pepper, and have to go in a few more tomatoes and all the chilli plants. I was given some chilli seeds by an indian colleague who is not sure what variety they are, i was unsure also whether the would germinate but they have so i will grow on 2 plants, and also 2 jalapeño plants. I have also bought another tomato plant which should just be for eating for me, whilst the others will be predominantly for sauces. The courgette sowed has surprisingly failed to germinate so i bought a plant last weekend which i potted on and seems to be doing well.

Phew, busy day!!!!