sunshine and digging

has been the order of the day recently which has been nice, an hour here and there and i've alot done.
I had to move the compost bin so i dug a bean trench and placed half the good compost in it, and dug another one for the remaining potatoes Desiree which i put in yesterday morning. The dwarf fench beans i planted with my daughter a few weeks back are growing nicely and are in the greenhouse now , and i today sowed 20 climbing french beans 'blue lake' all for the trench next month hopefully.
This is the path edging i have done this week, not the straightest but it does the job, and the compost bin in its new home. i still need to do some parts of the top of the path which have now also started to give way.

I have also sowed this week a tray of broccoli autumn spear, pots of chard, dill and potted on some spinach sown indoors. I was given by an colleague from india some chilli seeds of a hot chilli pepper variety unknown and i sowed 3 pots up today which went into the propagator this evening. Next up is to sow tomatoes, and swede, turnip and parsnips directly in the plot.

quickly

i popped in the first row of beetroot 'bolthardy' and a row of turnips 'purple marian top' i think its called, in rows next to the onions towards the bottom end of plot.

2/4/08

As i'm off on holiday for a week i have stopped seed sowing about a week ago, the few seeds that have germinated have either died off or are sturdy enough to survive in the greenhouse now with a good watering. When i return the sowing will go into overdrive, starting with tomatoes,chillies and cucumbers, and then tray sowings of beetroots, chard, cabbage, cauliflower, french beans just to start with.

I also just popped over to the plot to get in the first sowing of peas 'kelvedon wonder' which i am determined to properly successional sow this year. I also put in a first sowing of carrots 'early nantes 5' in a space between 2 rows of onions, which seemed successful last year in keeping away the carrot fly. Again when i get back i have plenty of seeds to get straight into the plot, which should be easier now the evening s are lighter.

Potato's in

I had a chance this morning to go for a couple of hours so i put in the Red Baron onions and Red Sun shallots that i had growing on in some trays for the last month, and they had quite good root structure on them as well as some starting to show green shoots.

I also managed to put in 2 rows of potatoes, the 1st earlies Foremost and 2nd earlies Marfona. All i need now is to put in the final row of main crop Desiree and i have a small pack of Lady Christl also to put into a barrel/container.

24/3/08

I finished digging over the top part of the plot last week apart from a small grassy section, and my MIL kindly came and did the bottom part and some weeding also so the plot is looking ready for the new season, apart from the covered area which will need careful digging to remove as much couch grass roots as possible. This will be tackled when the weather improves and the evenings lighten up.The plots' secretary phoned me to say he had arranged for a few boards to be delivered to repair the path edge. It had been left to disintegrate so much that the path is joining the plot, and really needs attention. So this is a great help, i'll just have to sort that this summer also.
Purple sprouting broccoli just waiting to be picked, despite having 4 or 5 plants of good size only this one is producing spears so far. Hopefully this means the others will start later and prolong the season?
With my daughter who wanted to play in the shed with the soil (!) i got her to help plant some seeds. I thought that some dwarf french beans would be best, easy for her to handle, and its only a little early for them. I used the variety 'the prince' and in the propagtor they are now germinating. Whether they survive til planting i dont know but she had fun anyway!!

and more

The Red Baron onions and some Red Sun shallots i also picked up i started of in trays of compost in the shed, a method i read about somewhere. It seems to have worked as they have rooted well, some even starting to show green tips. I moved them into the greenhouse today to start hardening them off.

I sowed today some more seeds for the propagator, some savoy cabbage 'ormskirk', more spinach 'Monet F1', and maybe a bit early but some lettuce mixed leaves also.

The 'White Gem' parsnips also now have been start to be potted up, about 9 had germinated so went into loo rolls and into the greenhouse also.

I hope to get back over to the allotment again soon, i've turned over about 2/5ths ready for planting, and the potatoes are chitting so may end up in this area.

seedlings

the first seeds sowed have been in the propogator for a few days now and have started sprouting. Here comes 2008!!!
These above are the first through, cauliflowers 'all year round', and a couple of Brussels sprouts, same variety as last year.

These are parsnip seeds. I have always had trouble growing them, a common problem, and read about pre-germinating them on damp kitchen roll first, and as you can see a few have started to sprout! Hopefully i'll have more in the next few days.

26/2/08

Starting to tidy up the plot now and get things ready for the new season. I removed all the remaining plants (chard, swedes) still in the ground and have started to dig the soil over. The spring greens are still in the ground, although the cabbages and cauliflowers are not looking great, only a few have survived. The sprouting broccoli are appearing stronger though and a couple have even started to sprout so a small crop may still be had hopefully.

I also have bought a fruit collection from Aldi which was only £1.99 and is 3 roots, a redcurrant Jonkheer van Tets, Goosberry Red dessert, and Raspberry Glen Ample.

6/2/08

Well the plot has not changed much since the previous photos, and i still need to remove the remain chard and half eaten (slugs) swedes.

I have though been starting preparation for this year and been buying seeds. After buying all the seeds last year from a catalogue and have most fail, mostly due to the weather, i have decided to buy mostly seeds from stores nearby which are a little cheaper, and if i want a particular variety to get that specially. Reports of the seeds from the shop/chain i used are good on the allotments4all website which i highly recommend.

I still have some seeds left over from last year, either bought or saved from own produce. But these are the ones i bought the other day.

Sweetcorn - F1 swift
Beetroot- boltardy
beetroot - globe 2
Climbing french bean - blue lake
Dwarf french bean - the prince
Pea - kelvedon wonder
leek - musselboutgh
cauliflower - all the year round
broccoli - autumn spear
parsnip - white gem
courgette - zucchini F1
carrot - early nantes 5

There are alot of familiar names/varieties but all the packets were 70p/80p!!
I also picked up a packet of Red Baron red onions, which i have used before and have some success with. I found they do tend to bolt easily,but gave tasty onions on those that didn't succumb to disease.
In the past i think i have always autumn planted them and didn't plan to put any in this year but they were 99p a packet of 75 so thought i could plant them amongst the carrots this year to help deter the carrot fly.

I'm still unsure whether to plant alot of my seeds direct or start of in modules this year. A lot of the failures i had last year direct sowing i think was down to the weather but i'm not sure if i want to take the risk this year although it could mean alot of seed trays hanging around in the garden! But i suppose if many fail i will have not lost as much money this year because of the low seed prices.

I have also bought 2 apple trees for the garden, as we are not allowed to plant trees at the allotments. They were also available from the same shop and at £4.99 each it was to good to pass up my wife and i decided. We got Granny Smith and Elstar varieties which will polinate each other.

Still alive!!

Yes, finally an update, but honestly i've done nothing in the allotment for ages, apart from pick the odd thing. I did use recently the last of the pumpkins which we roasted and it was really good in a risotto.
Anyway i took these photos just before christmas. This one is a view of the whole plot, mostly dug over as you can see with a few things still in.
This one shows the one savoy cabbage i had, it did have a good sized head on it but then was eaten into by something. I've just not got round to pulling it out yet.These are the spring greens i put in, The purple sprouting look really good, and also the white sprouting. The two rows of cabbages are not far behind with a few casualties and the cauliflowers are doing okay.
Below are the things i need to remove, the chard, the remains of the swedes and a few weeds and pulled and eaten carrots. In the next few weeks i'll compost them, and remove the plastic covering to sort out the couch grass. I also need to rebuild the path edges with planks as they are quite degraded by the previous owners.
Anyway, see you soon, happy new year!!!