Parsnips!

It's been a rubbish few weeks at the plot really weather-wise, too cold or miserable to do any real digging, though I have managed to get on with a fair bit of sowing/pricking out in the greenhouse. I had put some parsnips to chit in a blueberry punnet packet between two bits of paper towel and ran water through the packs and placed them on a tray on the windowsill in the kitchen. In a week they've started to chit! Varieties are: Imperial Crown, White King, White Gem and Arrow.

Today I popped 7 White King and 7 Imperial Crown seeds into loo rolls of compost in the greenhouse and we'll see how they go. I had planned to put the chitted seeds straight into the ground but it was too cold and I really didn't feel like digging in the drizzle. We're planning to go tomorrow too, so may get some more into the ground along with some more early spuds. Not holding my breath though and I'd have to cover it all up as the cold weather is rumoured to be on it's way.

I pricked out 32 mammoth onion seedlings. 20 into these nifty pot trays from Aldi and a further 12 into 2in cells. I've managed to mix up the onions so although I have a vague idea whether they are red or white, I may be wrong. Good job I'm not really bothered :o)!

Some peas are poking their heads up in the loo rolls (planting with the moon and doing well). As well as the Lincoln peas sown in the guttering. The Kelvedon Wonder are not doing so well but the guttering did seem rather drier (soon put that right!).

The two buckets below contain my salad bowl seedlings. The bucket nearest are going strong but were planted first. The back bucket has the same seeds but planted with the moon - further behind, but then planted a week later.

My jostaberry is now full of leaves and finally my rhubarb is about to burst. This is only one of them, my other two are still asleep! All three have had a hard life to start with so I'll give them a bit more time to do their thing yet!


And finally my lovely chitting spuds. I'm sooo keen to get these in, fingers crossed for tomorrow! XXX

Affectionately named Rudolf!

And finally my seeds arrived from http://www.amishseeds.com . Tomatoes - Little White Rabbit, White Currant and Fantome Du Laos. Beans - Heirloom Pole Beans and True Red Cranberry Pole Dry Beans. They are from the USA and may not do well here, going to give them a go though as they are really interesting varieties.

Stained the shed!

Or rather half of it (the bits that others can see, I'll finish off another day). I think it's much improved!

Hubby dug over the penultimate bed on the plot on Sunday (I started to help but got bored very quickly and left him to it!). It was probably the weediest bed that we've tried to dig so far, totally full of bind weed and brambles - it's the first time we've had to double dig too. It took HOURS! This is due to have parsnips in so I'll need to go through it again before I sow them.

While hubby was digging I prepared a bed for the 4 jerusalem artichoke tubers I bought from B&Q. Has a bit of confusion as to which way up they should go in the ground as they had stringy root type things coming off them, but also a kind of crown on the same end too?? I settled for them on their sides as was told by our resident allotment 'fountain of knowledge' that they'll turn themselves. Fingers crossed.

Jerusalem Artichoke bed

I brought some chalks with us to the plot this time. What a hit! It kept the kids happy for an hour and a half!! Here follows some of the fantastic artwork!

Spring!

I've been reading about Lunar gardening and am interested to see how it can affect veg - so I'm going to experiment with it a bit (though probably won't stick to it rigidly -making good use of fine weather spells, etc.). However, even though it is probably a tad early I've gone by the moon to put in some early spuds on a 'root' day. The ground was lovely to work, we dug in the manure we put on a few weeks back and popped them in. To be on the safe side I put some black plastic sheeting over too in case of frosts.



We had some really strong winds on Friday night. I went to check the plot on Saturday and there was only damage to 3 greenhouse panes. We were lucky, up the hill a shed had been turned over and one greenhouse had no glass left at all due to the door being blown into and out the back of the greenhouse. I think we're quite sheltered where we are.
Anyway, I cleared up the glass and Hubby changed the panes for some spares on Sunday. The strange thing was that the door was still on and there was clearly one pane that had smashed on the slab when it was blown/shaken out of the frame. The other, however was some six foot away on my broadie bed (poor things - a little flat but otherwise okay). I still don't get how it got flung so far out of the frame??? CSI, I am not!


The UK had an earthquake on Tues 26th we felt it very strongly here. Shook us awake then very nearly jolted us out of bed! A very weird experience!

Hubby planted a row of 6 Wilko asparagus. Not sure I really like them, so this is his project (under my guidance of course ;o) ).


In the greenhouse I've sown Corona D'ora (with and without the moon) and Mr Fearn's beans also moon trialled Kelvedon Wonder Peas and some really tall peas I swapped for at Ryton Potato Day - all in loo rolls.

Also sowed some Kelvedon and Lincoln Peas in guttering.
Sowed some small onions from my back garden last year to see if they do anything. These are the white ones and I've 9 Red Baron too.

Pic of my leeks and mammoth white and red onion seedlings. Germinated at home and now in the greenhouse at the plot. Happy enough!

Hubby made me some fab carrotfly foiling frames to put over the carrot beds, which I think are great. I think I'd like something similar for the parsnips. They're buried a bit nd secured with tent pegs so hopefully won't move.

I seem to have a fair few bulbs springing up on the plot next to my manure bins (and probably under them too - as we didn't know they were there). I'm keen to see what they actually are. I found these little fellas too on the next door plot that will soon be a communal area and saving them from the rotavator moved them to this bed. The community plot will still be able to see them as it's right next to them (but out of harm's way).