26 Feb - First Digging, Cabbage Swingball, Leeks & Toms

There seems to be a bit of a cycle in progress at the moment - one day it's bright, sunny and even warm, the next, it's wet, windy and dismal. Yesterday it was lovely and 10C, I was comfortably wearing a t-shirt most of the afternoon outside. Today, I need a snorkel it's so wet.

At the plot yesterday I pulled the black plastic back a few feet and dug over a small strip ready for my garlic. I only needed to lightly fork over the area as it was dug in the late Autumn. I tried planting over-wintering garlic last season but the wet conditions contributed to a large dose of allium rust at the time when the bulbs were supposed to be thriving. The rust curtailed growth and the bulbs were small. This season I'm going back to planting garlic in early Spring.

Needless to day the soil was pretty wet even with the black plastic but I'm hoping that a light dig and a covered frame over the top will start to warm up the area and dry it out a little. I want to plant the cloves in the next week or so but, until then, I keep the bulbs in the fridge to mimic a  spell of cold weather they need to form properly.

On a fine day this month I finally upgraded the hen enclosure fence to a more permanent structure. A combination of treated tree stakes and chicken wire should keep the hens off the vegetables. After a brief hiatus for three weeks, I've eggs appearing once again - only from one of the hens though. I'm hoping that at least another one of the three will start laying again after their mid-Winter break. To keep them happy I've been suspending a cabbage on a piece of string - a bit weird I know but other poultry keepers recommend it - sure enough, the hens appear to love a bit of chicken swingball - er swing-cabbage, it keeps them amused for ages. (Pictured - the hens gather around for a game of cabbage swing-ball).

The leeks sown on Valentine's Day have germinated well in the heated propagator and I've moved them to an unheated greenhouse so they can get more light. I'll keep an eye on the weather and will cover them up if heavy frosts are forecast. No sign of the sweet peppers yet, I'm not expecting them to show for another week or so yet. (Pictured - germinated leeks sown on 14 Feb).

As the wet weather has driven me indoors to the greenhouse, I decided it was a good time to sow this year's tomatoes. I'm sowing a new variety to me, Shirley F1. They are damned expensive, a total of 12 seeds for £3.70, luckily I got them free. Unless the crop is amazing, I can't see me splashing out that kind of money in the future when I can get the reliable Alicante variety for a third of the price and loads more seeds to boot. 

The Shirley F1 were sown in a single, wide, pot with a thin layer of compost sieved on top. They're placed in a heated propagator until germinated. As it's still a bit cold for the tomatoes in an unheated greenhouse, they'll be kept on a house windowsill until they can be potted on into individual pots. As soon as things warm up a little and there is less chance of heavy frosts, they can go in the greenhouse.

That's it for now - February is almost nothing more than a memory and a potentially busy March is around the corner - see you then.

15 Feb - First Sowing Of The Season

Yesterday (the 14th, Valentines Day), was notable for two reasons. The first reason is that it's a year to the day since we had an horrendous storm that really hammered the allotment. I was relatively lucky, I just had covers and canes blown about while some of my allotment neighbours had glass blown out of their greenhouses. (See post dated Feb 16 2014).

The second reason is that I sowed my first seeds of the 2015 season. The first to be sown were my Musselburgh leeks. I always sow thinly in a seed tray until they germinate and have established themselves then I transplant around 40 into a larger, deeper tray where they grow on until they are dibbed into the plot sometime in June. Musselburgh are an old variety that always do well; they seem to cope with the Winter weather and stand well.

Last season my sweet peppers, California Wonder, took 19 days to germinate even with a heated propagator so I've sown them now and hopefully they will have germinated by the start of March. The seed is about two years old and I'm using up the last of the packet. I'm not expecting a great germination rate but if I can get four to five plants as I did last year, I'll be happy. The sweet peppers produced well last season and I picked them from the greenhouse right up until October.

The Musselburgh leeks and the California Wonder sweet peppers were given a good watering and placed in a heated propagator indoors. When (or if) they germinate, the leeks will go into a cold greenhouse and will be protected by fleece if there are any heavy frosts but the peppers will be kept indoors on a windowsill until the greenhouse warms up a bit.

That's it for now, in the next post I'll be sowing tomatoes. Bye for now.

04 Feb - Sarpo Mira & Season's Start

Wow, it's February already, time is simply flying though Spring still can't come soon enough for me. My blight resistant Sarpo Mira main crop potatoes arrived from Thompson & Morgan on the 19 January - they were well boxed up and delivered quickly. I unpacked them immediately and set them chitting with the earlies and second earlies. Hopefully they will do well for me this year as they did last season. (Below - the Sarpo Mira arrive).

The weather has been pretty cold most nights since the last week of January to the start of February. On the 29 Jan we had some really heavy snow showers but it didn't stick on the ground though my local mountain looked pretty white for some days. There's been ice most mornings in the water barrels at the allotment and I've taken to storing the hens' drinking water in the shed at night to stop it going solid. (Below - my allotment shed is in the background there somewhere).

I've still been taking vegetables from the plot despite the weather. I've plenty of sprouts, savoy cabbage, swede and leeks though I'm down to my last parsnips. The leeks are looking a little tattered on the ends but are still thick and tasty. My Winter store is getting depleted now - the butternut squashes are down to the last one or or two though I've a fair number of hybrid squashes and Sweet Dumpling; still the squashes have lasted well. There's also still a load of onions in storage along with carrots in the freezer. (Below - just one or two parsnips left).

This week I'll be digging out the heated propagator and starting off my leeks - I suppose the 2015 season has already started with the spuds chitting away but, it will really feel like things are on the move with a bit of seed sowing. Until then, bye for now.