24 APRIL 2012

As promised by the weatherman a day free of rain ,so i took the chance and headed of to the allotment ,i was a bit worried incase any rat holes had appeared there or even worse a rat was waiting there for me !!!
Everything was fine though but i don't think i would have stopped there alone just incase
I took some more peas down with me from the greenhouse and planted them with the others they are doing well

Had a quick check on the potatoes none had appeared yet so carefully checked and the first earlies are just under the surface i would imagine by the weekend they will be showing meaning i have to keep an eye on the weather incase a frost is due!!

Tried to tidy up path edges but my back hurt too much so gave up on that and decided i would finish it next time

this is my red currant bush that another plot holder gave me looks like i'll be getting some fruit from it this year :) i have another 3 but they are alot smaller

the blackcurrant bushes i bought last year have new growth on them ,I'm not expecting fruit this year

here are my onions doing well so far ,under the fleece i have sown parsnips and beetroot

strawberries are growing again this time last year they were in flower

seven rows of potatoes

I'll do a monthly upload of whats growing in my greenhouse tomorrow ,doesn't look likely ill get to the allotment before Saturday that's the next rain free day

14/04/2012

I've just been looking back on here at last years blog posts from the allotment the weather was very warm in fact one post mid April the temp in my car was 30C!!!  and i seem to have been much further on with things ..... this is what i wanted though as i was too eager to start things last year and a lot of stuff was stuck at home waiting to go out but couldn't because of frosts

Another trip to the allotment today and it was very cold!!!! but once we got stuck in and the sun came out it wasn't too bad.
Today's jobs were to plant some peas not many just about 8 that had grown too big i have about another 60 in the greenhouse, some just sown others germinated all at various stages. They didn't take long to plant it was the supports that i put it that took up the time , i did take a picture but it wasn't that good.

I also took down my paris silverskin onions that i have grown from seed they are the variety that come pickled in jars ..different from normal onion sets and shallots ...these are similar to spring onions in how they grow, each seedling produces one white bulb that you pick when they are at the size you like and you don't have to wait for the leaves to die off , i intend to pick mine when they are about the size of a marble ...
There was plenty of chatting today with my plot neighbours saw one of them today i haven't seen since last summer hope i get down there next week but looking at the forecast it's another week of sunshine and showers

11/04/2012

Well today was different at the allotment i decided to go down this afternoon after lunch ,the sky started to look black but decided i needed to sow my parsnip seeds I'm very late this year.
We got halfway which isn't far from my house and saw the roads had puddles all over ??? we had nothing at home, i did think it would be too wet and was going to turn around and go home but didn't in the end.
The ground wasn't too wet for what i wanted to do so we made a start .

My soil is very stony not good for growing carrots and parsnips as when the tap root hits a stone it causes them to fork meaning lots of little roots instead of one long thick one.
They did ok last some did fork though and i wanted to give them a little more attention so me and callum dug out a small trench quite deep then very slowly sieved the soil back in ,we did it in sections rather than one big trench from one side to the other, this was going fine until the heavens opened we ran in to my little shed which is very messy at the moment and both squeezed in , we couldn't run to the car as it was really heavy!!
 we were stuck in there for a good 10 minutes so we had a tidy up too .

When the shower had stopped we headed back on to the plot and carried on it took a long time but we got there in the end and sowed a row of parsnip seeds fingers crossed all that hard work pays off !! we then covered the row in fleece to keep the worst of the cold off

In this picture are my onions i put in at the weekend and the parsnips from today





My strawberries are finally showing signs of life

showing my potatoes

06/04/2012

Back to the allotment today to plant maincrops :) put 5 red rooster seed potatoes in and the rest of the row  a variety mr lawrence gave me, also put another 2 rows of them in on my hands and knees :)

now have 8 rows in total of potatoes put in the ground i  now have to watch the weather for frosts and keep rushing down to earth them up once they show!!!

Had a good weed around the strawberries too  that patch is weed heaven!!!

We will be back there again tomorrow to plant my onions that have been started off in the greenhouse and hopefully build a pea support system so i can get them in next week, have quite a few that have come through in the greenhouse planted 50 something so far :) last year i sowed them down there and had bad germination and some bug that enjoyed nibbling the leaves i forgot the name of it so i have started them here in my greenhouse

I will also take down some parsnip seeds just incase i have time to sow some i'm late with them compared to last year
enough rambling will report back tomorrow :)

1st April 2012

Sunny Sunday at the allotment today me and callum went down this afternoon with a mission in mind ... to plant potatoes :)
put 2 rows of first earlies in last week (foremost) and this week did half a row of them then the rest in the row were a different variety called pentland javelin  heard good things about them so thought id give them a go it was only a small bag i bought from poundland

next a row of second earlies called charlotte i have tried them at home before with good results

and finally i put in a row of second earlies maris peer supposed to be good and according to the old men at the allotment the maris varieties do well ..i saw that for myself last year

I wanted to wait another week before putting my second earlies in as last year there was the late frost i managed to avoid damage by rushing down with garden fleece but had the idea if i planted a little later it would be better although the first 2 rows were later than last year ,looking back at my blog im about the same time planting seconds as i was last year .... holding off the maincrop for a week or so

Then i came up with the bright idea of moving the carrot bins to make room for the tayberry bush im late planting!!
this job involved moving the soil from one  blue bin to another move it then fill it again ... its done now and i wont be repeating that again!!