Digging and Mulching

On Saturday I dug and manured an area at the front of the square plot (see above). I also had to remove all the weeds that were growing in the manure pile. The pile is looking a lot smaller now (seen just behind the fork) and the rest will be spread over the remaining so far un-dug areas of this plot which will house the squash. The area I've just dug will be for the Sweetcorn and Runner Beans that will probably need planting out in the next few weeks.


The Autumn Raspberries I planted last year are looking very dead and without any signs of life, but I decided to give them one last chance. So I weeded them and gave them a thick layer of manure as a mulch (see above, Raspberries left, Peas right). If this doesn't get them growing then I suppose I'll have to plant some new canes for next year.


The Asparagus is still sending up spears from all 10 crowns and looking very good (see above). There should still be some more to be picked over the next month.


The Autumn-sown Broad Beans are practically ready for picking now (see above). The beans inside the pods still felt a little small so I'm going to leave them a little longer and then try picking some. The Spring-sown Broad Beans have once again failed to produce many plants. There's about 10 plants from 2 rows. The Autumn ones seem to fair much better.

More Sowing

At the weekend I sowed a load more seeds. The two previous tunnels with the Carrots and Parsnips (just starting to germinate) were joined by a third tunnel (see above) in which I sowed more Carrots (Autumn King). I now have 6 rows of carrots in total. Next to the tunnel I sowed a row of Leeks (Titan), half a row of Beetroot (Boltardy) and Melissa sowed various other salad items including Lettuce, Radish and Spring Onions.


On the other plot I sowed some more Peas (Hurst Green Shaft), using Pea/Bean netting as support for the first time. There are two double rows of those (see above). The first rows of Peas that I sowed two weeks ago have germinated really well and all the rows look very good (see below).


I have also picked some Asparagus for the first time (see below). This is its second year, so I'm only picking a few spears - just 4 on this occasion. Hopefully it will continue to produce a few more spears and then next year have a bumper crop.

Potatoes and Seeds

On Saturday I planted potatoes at the allotment. I used an area that I'd manured, then dug trenches, filled the bottom with more manure, added a layer of newspaper then sprinkled grass cuttings on top (see above). The potatoes were then placed on top of this and the trenches filled back up with soil into ridges (see below). I planted 3 rows of Second Earlies and 2 rows of Maincrop (Maris Peer/Maris Piper).


At home the Tomatoes, Celery and Peppers I sowed right at the end of March are all starting to take off (see below). They're not ready for transplanting into individual pots yet, but they're looking healthy.


Over the weekend I also had a major seed sowing session, sowing everything that I plan to start off at home. The seeds were sown into individual pots or seed tray modules and placed in the two plastic mini greenhouses on the patio at home. (French Beans and Sweetcorn are in newspaper pots) I've sown the following:

Brocoli (Belstar), Cabbages (Mila Savoy, Red Rookie, Holland White), Cauliflower (Gypsy), Courgettes (Zucchini, Gold Rush Yellow), Cucumbers (Burpless), French Beans (Maxi), Pumpkin (Spellbound), Runner Bean (Enorma), Squash (Festival, Butternut Sprinter, Futsu, Uchiki Kuri, Bon Bon), Sweetcorn (Tender&Sweet)

Sowing Peas

Yesterday I sowed 4 double rows of Kelvedon Wonder peas, putting chicken wire fences in place ready for support (see above). The autumn-sown Broad Beans are looking very good, with loads of flowers (see below). They'll probably start producing pods soon. There is still no sign of the spring-sown Broad Beans in the polytunnel and I'm starting to think it's not worth trying spring ones next year. The weather has been really warm and sunny, and I actually needed to water everything that is in the plot at the moment. In places the soil is rock hard with huge cracks in it, it's so dry.


The Onions, Shallots and Garlic (see next two photos) are all growing incredibly well and starting to produce bulbs.



The Asparagus has just started to emerge through the layer of manure spread on the bed in the autumn. There are currently two spears visible, with this one below being the biggest. As this is its second year we should be able to pick a few spears for the first time in a few weeks.

Parsnips & Carrots

The start of April and time to get some seeds sown at the allotment. First I sowed 2 rows of Carrots (Heracles), adding a fine row of Chive seeds next to them which apparently should help to deter Carrot-Fly. I left enough space for a 3rd successional row of Carrots to be sown at a later date, and then moved on to sow 3 rows of Parsnips (Archer). I've sown the Parsnips a couple of weeks later than last year since the germination was very poor last year. Another attempt to improve germination this year is to keep the Parsnip seeds covered with a mini polytunnel for a few weeks. So after the seeds were sown in their rows (see above) I then covered them with two tunnels (see below).


Back home I also sowed Tomatoes (Gardeners Delight, Golden Sunrise, Sungold), Celery (Granada) and Sweet Peppers (Carnival) into pots/seed tray inserts. They are being kept inside the house until the weather warms up. Should have sown them several weeks earlier, but didn't get around to it till Friday.

Having recently started a new Strawberry bed on the new plot I have been building a fruit cage to put over the plants to protect them from the birds. I did this with my original Strawberry bed last year and it seemed to work well. So with some cheap timber from B&Q and some netting from Wilko's, I built a new Strawberry cage and assembled it at the allotment (see below). The lid hinges in the middle so that one side opens on to the other side, allowing easy access for picking.


The Rhubarb that I planted last year disappeared completely over the winter and I was starting to worry that it had died. But it is just start to re-emerge now (see below), so hopefully it will establish itself this year and we might even be able to pick a bit.