Parsnip Progress

The parsnips are starting to sprout.

Spuds

Today we sowed the seed potatoes (all 77 of them!). In the spud-bed-to-be we found garlic seedlings. I don't know whether they will make it to adulthood, but we thought we might as well give it a go and so I moved some to the bed under one of the step-over apples. They seemed happy enought at first but over the next few hours went a little floppy - hopefully they'll perk up!


The spud beds got a dig over and the strawy manure mixed in. I then marked out the rows and sowed them from side to side in long rows rather than short 'across the bed' rows like last time. I got single rows of Red Duke of York, Swift, Kestrel, Romano and Valor and two rows of Pink Fir Apple. I still have well over 100 left :oS so will probably sow some in bags or tubs at home too.


The left-overs!!!

The boy's pal on a plot next to ours has just had a raised bed made up for him. This meant that the boy then really wanted a bed of his own to dig (something he has shown no interest in - despite my encouragement for the last year and a half!). While on one hand I think it is brilliant, on the other hand the bed was spoken for for other veg . Dunno where my parsnips or red onions will go now! :o(

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Anyway, as the spuds were demanding all my attention, I showed him where the bed was and said that 'if he really wanted it he will need to look after it or I will need plant my veg in it - here's a fork!' and left him to it. Well, I think it was the best thing I could have done! Up until now even with me saying I'll help him dig, even sorting him some link-a-bords, he never spent more time on it than to sow some seeds. However, TODAY he dug it over, weeded it properly and put up a little wigwam for peas ready for next time we go (with the minimum amount of help needed to put the net on it). I'm really proud of him! The girlie turned up a half hour later and I gave her what was left of the bed and she dug hers too! Brilliant!

The PSB has at last bloomed!

The Wind.....The Wiiiinnnndddd!

....blew out more panes from my greenhouse :o( I've now run out of spare glass so any more breakages means a trip to the shop for some more. The replacements were a fraction too big and so couldn't fit in the frame properly, but I managed to cobble it and tape it so the rain wouldn't run in. It'll do, it is an allotment after all!



I moved the tomatoes and chillies to the greenhouse today. I'm sure they won't like the change, but they were starting to stretch for the light so I'm going to risk it. I must remember that I need to pop in on my way home from work to water in the week too. They'll need potting on in a little while - I'll just give them a bit of time to settle first.



Peas and sweet peas are looking good.

I also sowed my first lot of carrots. I have a real problem getting carrots to grow on my plot. In fact the whole allotment site does. Still ever the optimist (and the fact that I desperately want to grow them) I prepared the bed today - getting out all the big stones and squishing the lumps. However, I didn't take the usual time to carefully sow in rows, instead I just pulled back the top inch of soil broadcast several different varieties of carrot over the bed, then pulled it back again. As an after thought I also sprinkled over some marigold seeds, watered the bed and very lightly raked it over again. Lets see if the haphazard approach works!

Finally they have started work on the fence. I've got my fingers crossed that they are going to leave the bushes on the other side as they not only shield my plot and keep out the bad'uns, but they are also full of the Plot 6 wildlife. I'll have to wait and see!

I had the urge to make lemon curd - so I did. It was supposed to make 4 jars but as you can see only made 2. HOWEVER, it tasted amazing!! Just like the the filling from lemon meringue - fab! The recipe was from the Women's Intitute's Book of Preserves a terrific book that I borrowed from the library but thought it was so good that I bought it (came today - yippee!). I'll update this post with the recipe next time I'm on here!

The Latest Plan

Onions, onions!

At home my chillies and toms are happy enough. My toms definately look happier than last year where they were far too leggy.


I've started my parsnip seeds off on some damp kitchen towel. This worked brilliantly last year and as far as I know I had 100% germination. I've chosen two types, Gladiator which is a big canker resistant type (not tried before) and Imperial Crown which has a smaller crown and I have tried this - very tasty! Pop another folded bit of kitchen towel on top to keep them damp and stop the seeds floating off when you water them. In about a week these should have sprouted and I'll then sow them as usual.

I went to the plot this afternoon. It was lovely hazy sunshine in the morning but had gone behind clouds by the time I had got there and it had turned really cold :o(. Shame! Anyway got in 45 onion sets (forgotten the variety) in rows and a further 40 odd in a patch under the step-over apple tree to eat small or uses to fill gaps / put around my carrots. I still have some left and they were good quality sets too - from Wilkos for £1.25. Better than the independent garden centre up the road. They had 50 red Baron sets for £1.99 and they had a fair few that were mouldy! I'm going to get my red ones from Wilko too!

In the greenhouse the sweetpeas are doing well - as are the lupins. I've also moved the pumpkins into the greenhouse now, hopefully they will cope with the highs and lows temp wise in there. I wanted to move everything before it all got too crowded on my windowsills and they were struggling for light.

Perfect Plot Day

It was a glorious day to start with this morning when we got to the plot. We had a really productive day too. Firstly I put in some more broad beans, filling the gaps in the Aquadulce and then sowing 2 rows of Masterpiece Green Longpod. I've put net over it in a vain hope of keeping the mice and pigeons off.


Next were the peas. I love the rustic look of this teepee structure. This year I've got 'Magnum Bonum' peas on it again (a heritage variety that I got from a seed swap at Ryton Organic Potato Fair last year) - these were smashing. Because I only had 9 seeds of this (I wasn't organised and ate all the peas and forgot to dry some for sowing next year - durrrr!), I also sowed some Mangetout 'Carouby De Maussane', which also grow tall at 1.5m +. The blue bit of carpet is to stop the weeds which I couldn't reach to weed very well last year once the peas had grown.

On the subject of peas, the Meteor and Blauwschokker Peas I sowed in the guttering have come up, as have a few of the many sweetpeas I sowed.

Other jobs done today: - Hubby hammered in the last two posts for the step over apple tree, cleared Bed 6 ready for parsnips and carrots, hammered the loganberry's wonky post back in, popped in a few more japanese onions where they had been pulled up and did loads of dock weeding around the fruit bushes.

Overall a good day!

I went over to the plot yesterday afternoon and what nice weather it was. I really enjoyed it in the sunshine tidying and sorting. I bought another plum tree from Tesco (Rivers' Early Prolific). It's even better than the first and goes well between the arch and the bean frame (which progressively gets smaller and smaller as I take out bamboo. I'm going to grow less on here and instead use the arches for beans this year so they can scramble over them and the beans can hang down).

A pic of my plum. It looks boggy, but I've only just watered it.


Another view from the other side showing the plums, bean frame and arches.