Major sowing time

Over the past few days I've sowed a whole load of seeds and put them in my mini plastic greenhouse on the patio at home (see above). I have sown Runner Beans (Enorma), Brocoli (Volta), Savoy Cabbage (Mila), Cabbage (Puma), Red Cabbage (Red Rookie), Courgettes (Zucchini, Gold Rush and Clarita), Pumpkins (Spellbound), Butternut Squash (Sprinter), Squash (Festival, Sweet Dumpling), Cucumber and Sweetcorn (Xtra Sweet Improved). These are all in either small pots or seed tray inserts in the green house. Once they get big enough I'll plant them out on the allotment.


The tomatoes that I sowed at the end of March are now looking very good and starting to form their second set of leaves. As you can see from the photo above, the red cherry tomatoes (Gardeners Delight) on the left had a much higher germination rate than the yellow cherries (Mirabelle) on the right. These seedlings are nearly ready now to be put into slightly larger pots before they eventually make it into either grow bags on the patio or out onto the allotment.

The Aubergene, Sweet Peppers and Chilli Peppers that I sowed in mid-March are also doing very well (see right) and are growing quite happily in pots on a window sill. There are about 3 or 4 plants of each. When they're a bit bigger I'll move them out to the plastic greenhouse (if I can find any space in it!) to harden off. Eventually they will be transplanted into bigger tubs on the patio. Since it's a south facing garden I'm hoping they'll grow quite nicely out there.

Over the coming weekend I'm hoping to sow some more peas, plus carrots and leeks directly into the allotment.

Peas and Bonfire

Over the extended Easter weekend I made a couple of visits to the Allotment. The first task was to sow a row of Peas. I uncovered an area on the plot, turned over the soil to bury the manure, and then put in place three rows of chicken wire fences (see below). This is my usual method for growing Peas. The fences are about a foot tall, held in place with short bean sticks, and provide just about enough support for the pea plants. I then draw a shallow trench either side of the chicken wire fence with a rake and sow the peas ever couple of inches (see right). Although I've put in three rows of the fences ready for growing the peas, I've only sown one row so far. I'll wait a couple of weeks before putting the remainder in.


Over on the new plot I had amassed a pile of weeds and dead grass, most of which I had just raked off the surface as I started clearing the plot. Since it was mostly very dry straw like material I decided the easiest way to get rid of it was to burn it. I'd already decided against composting it as I'm fairly sure the plot was sprayed with a very strong weed killer before I took it on, and I didn't want to add that to my compost. So I popped down to the local hardware store and purchased a metal dustbin-style incinerator. Fairly soon I had a decent fire going (see below), and I gradually got rid of most of the pile. Anything that was left over I bagged up and took a car load of stuff to the dump to get rid of. So I have now got rid of the pile of weeds completely, leaving a nice empty area ready for digging.


The new plot is gradually coming along. There is still a fair bit of digging and manuring to do, but I made a little more progress this weekend. I also decided to sow a double row of broad beans (Feligreen) on the new plot, having already done so on the old plot a couple of weeks back, to give an extra harvest - making it the first thing I've sown on the new plot if you don't include the Asparagus crowns I planted last week.

Asparagus

Last night I planted my Asparagus crowns into the raised bed I built specifically for them. I ordered 10 Gijnlim crowns from Asparagus-In-Kent but didn't really know what to expect. They're very weird looking things, loads of long thick roots and a tiny crown at the top - like some kind of alien octopus (the picture below left shows them in the box). I dug two trenches in the bed and put 5 in each. You arrange them on slightly raised ridges at the bottom of the trench with the roots spread either side (see above right), and then fill the trench back in. The only frustrating thing is that you're not supposed to cut any Asparagus in the first year. Hopefully the long wait will be worthwhile.

Potatoes Planted

On Saturday I took my chitted potatoes (see right) down to the allotment to plant them. I knew it wouldn't be a quick job, but it ended up taking me all afternoon. First I removed the black plastic sheeting that had been covering the ground. Then I dug in the manure that I had spread on that area in the Autumn. The ground felt a lot more moist than it always used to before I added the manure, which is a great sign. Next I dug four trenches, mounding up the earth in between the rows. They were probably a spades depth by a spades width. I added a few barrow loads of manure to these trenches, just enough to cover the bottom, then I placed some sheets of newspaper over the top of the manure.

My plan had been to add a decent layer of grass cuttings next. On Friday I had mowed the lawns for the first time this year in order to have the cuttings ready to add to the potato trenches. But unfortunately the lawns weren't quite ready to be cut as they still hadn't grown that much this year, so I had a fairly small about of cuttings to use. This meant that it was more like a dusting of grass cuttings that I added on top of the newspaper in the trenches. Finally I added the chitted potatoes, four rows of 14, and raked the mounded soil back over the top. Once that was finished I pegged some fleece over the surface to keep off the worst of the frosts. (See photo below of the potatoes in the trenches before the soil was replaced over them)

Tomatoes Appearing

Just a quick update on the Tomatoes. One week after sowing my tomato seeds a couple of them had started to appear. Now, 10 days on, nearly all of the Gardeners Delight have come through and most of the Tumblers. So far though there are only a couple of the Mirabelle (yellow tomatoes) visible.

Broad Beans and Asparagus Bed

The first thing I noticed when I arrived at the allotment on Saturday was that the council have finally given every plot a brand new number plate. As you can see from the photo above, my first plot (No.21B) is still mainly covered in black polythene sheets and a mulch of manure. My first job of the day was to sow some Broad Beans (Feligreen). I put them into an area that has been manured and warmed up with the black polythene for the past few weeks. I also removed the fleece from the Broad Bean plants that I sowed in the Autumn and put it over the new seeds. The Autumn Broad Beans are looking very diseased so I'm not expecting much to come from them - but they were just an experiment, with the Spring sowing to be my main supply.

The Onions that I sowed in February and Shallots that I sowed in January have all finally started to shoot (see right) which I'm quite relieved about. The Garlic continues to grow incredibly well too. I picked another dozen leeks, just down to the thin ones now, and there's probably another 20 or so left in the ground. I also had to rearrange some of the black polythene as it had got blown out of position by the wind. Ideally I'd like to have planted my potatoes and peas this weekend as well, but I didn't have time. So next it was over to the new plot to get on with a few jobs there.


Using a few pieces of timber that used to reside in the loft at home, and some left over fence paint, I made a very simple raised bed on the new plot (see above). It measures 1.8m x 1.2m and will be home to my 10 Asparagus crowns which are due to be delivered this week. Apparently an Asparagus bed can last for 10 years, so I thought it would be a good idea to house it within a border to keep it as a well defined bed. I also dug in pleanty of manure so hopefully this will be a great spot for the Asparagus. The rest of my time was spent covering a few areas of the new plot with some black polythene (£3 per sheet from Asda, approx 10m x 1.5m) and continuing the digging and manuring. (I came up with a fantastic way of holding the sheeting in place - weighed down in each corner with an old empty tin of 'SMA Gold formula' filled up with soil - I knew they'd come in useful one day!) As you can see from the photo below I'm gradually making progress with the new plot.