21 Mar - Onion Sets & Early Potatoes Go In

It's a bit later than mid-March and we've had a few days of fine weather, ideal for getting the onion sets and early potatoes in the plot. I pulled the covers off a bed and prepared it on the 26th February and popped some garlic cloves in one section. The garlic is already showing strongly and I'm pleased with the way it's getting on. That indicated that it was warm enough for the onions to go in now too. (Pictured - garlic sprouting).

I raked over a section of bed next to the garlic and added a sprinkle of fertilizer though this bed was one of those I took over last summer so it hasn't had veg growing in it for at least two years. I dug it and cleaned it last summer and covered it for the Winter.

On the 20th March the onions went in. The onion sets are my usual 'Sturon' which performed so well last year. I still have pounds of large onions in store that we are slowing getting through. When it comes to putting out the sets, I simply push them into the soft, prepared earth up to the stalk in nice lines. It's an easy way to get decent onions.

The next day I cleared the last of the Brussels Sprouts and roughly hand forked the bed for the early spuds. This season I have an entire 32 by 6 foot bed for early potatoes due to my extra room. I planted out two rows of 30 'Rocket', making 60 potatoes in all - Rocket did well for me last season with the family eating them from the 3rd June last summer - literally 10 weeks from planting. (Pictured - a row of early spuds go into a trench).

Added to the Rocket first earlies I have decided to plant out some second earlies - I've never bothered with second earlies before as I never had the room but I do now of course. So, next to the two rows of Rocket I have planted a row of 26 tubers of Maris Peer second early potatoes. I've a complete bed of 86 tubers that should start cropping from early June. What is great for me this season is that I can dig and use as needed rather than having to take the lot up in one go to re-use the ground. Hopefully this lot will last most of the summer. (Pictured - the two rows of early and one row of second early potatoes).

After a little rest from the digging, I took the covers off another bed over the new side and turned it over with the tiller ready for the main crop potatoes which will go in around mid-April. A cheeky little Robin took advantage of my hard work too!

10 Mar - Sowing Brassicas & A Cucumber

Time to sow some brassicas today. The first to go into some cells in the greenhouse are some Primo II Summer cabbages. I sowed liberally as I'm not too sure what the germination rate will be given that the seed is a few years old, still, brassicas seem to do OK with old seed.

This year I'm trying Cauliflower for the first time. These are supposed to be rather hard to grow successfully but hey, I'm up for the challenge. I'm going for Autumn Giant and hope to get a few heads by the end of the season, we'll wait and see on that one though. (The leeks sown on 26th Feb are doing well and can be seen in the background in the next picture).

I've also sown some Kohl Rabi, 'White Vienna', an interesting vegetable that can be eaten raw in a salad or cooked. I lost most of mine last year to pigeons having forgotten that they were from the brassica family and should have been protected by nets. The Brussels Sprouts, Trafalgar F1, also went into cells and hopefully this is the start of a long growing season for them.

I sowed a few Marketmore cucumber seeds in a couple of pots too - to be honest, two plants will be enough so I will thin them down to one to a pot.

Bye for now.

08 Mar - Sowing Lettuce, Broad Beans & Spring Onions

Yesterday the weather was lovely but this morning dawned wet and miserable. Nevertheless, with brighter weather promised this afternoon, I decided to sow a few seeds under cover of the greenhouse.

The first was some early lettuce which I will grow on in the greenhouse until it can be planted out on the plot. I've a few varieties in stock but I thought I'd try two kinds, something new and something well known. The new lettuce to me is Mazur, a 'frisee' type lettuce that doesn't heart up; the leaves are taken as required. The second variety is a family favourite, the red Lollo Rossa. I sowed the lettuce seeds into a few cells, a variety each side. I don't want loads as I'll be sowing some more in a few weeks.

Last year I sowed my broad beans earlier as I needed them to be finished by June so I could put squash in their place. This year there isn't the urgency as I have a full plot for the first time so my broad beans can go out a little later. I initially sowed Sutton last season then did a catch crop of Bunyards Exhibition which did really well. This time I'm only sowing Bunyard's as they are larger plants, they produce more beans and time pressures aren't important. I've used root trainers and they'll stay in an unheated greenhouse unless there are severe frosts.

The last thing sown today were a few White Lisbon spring onions. Despite the books saying that these are easy to grow, I've always had sparse germination when sown direct in the plot - I know I'm not the only one on my site that has this problem which makes me feel a little better! As a result I've always raised a few in seed trays then have dibbed them in when established. I've seen a few videos now where growers sow them into cells and plant out a clump which seem to grow on OK, rather like a clump of shallots. This seems a much better idea then trying to handle them individually so I'm trying something similar.

I dropped by the local allotment shop today to buy some bulk items. This shop was established after a bit of local allotment association re-organisation and is located on a site down the road from me. I remember the old shop further up the valley, all I can say is that there were a couple of people there who had a very bad attitude indeed and went out of their way to be as unhelpful as possible. 

Today's shopping experience couldn't be more different - the people manning the shop were jovial, polite and couldn't do enough to get what I needed. Given that allotment sites are now encouraged to engage with the public, there has been a sea-change in attitudes - whereas I used to be regularly quizzed about which site I belonged to and whether I should be 'allowed' to buy from the allotment shop - now there are signs up on the main road encouraging anyone to come and make a purchase. Well done all.

That's it for today, the next sowing will be brassicas. I'm off to write my monthly allotment article for the local newspaper. Bye for now.

07 Mar - Garlic Planting & Bed Digging

I've already had my first disaster of the season and the season has barely started! I sowed some expensive Shirley F1 tomato seeds on the 26th Feb (see post with that date). However, there must have been some grubs in the compost I used because they have chomped through at least three seedlings as soon as they appeared. I've dealt with the wildlife and currently there are only five or six seedlings left - not enough. So, I've opened a new packet of Alicante tomatoes which I luckily already had in stock and have sowed a batch to make up for losses.

On the 4th March I planted out some garlic cloves, Germidour, in a small strip of ground I dug over last week. It's had a covered frame over the area just to help it dry out a bit and to warm the soil. This strip is at the edge of a bed that will contain onions in a few weeks. (Pictured - garlic planting).

Yesterday and today have had decent weather; today has been especially warm with lovely sunshine - real T-shirt weather. I've taken the opportunity to start digging some beds ready for the early crops like onion sets, broad beans and early potatoes that will be planted in the next few weeks. I forked over the current brassica bed, though there are a few Winter cabbages and Brussels sprouts plants still in situ. These will be pulled up just before the early spuds go in. It's only been roughly dug as the potatoes don't need a fine tilth - it'll get another bashing just before I plant the tubers. This bed was dug over by hand and, despite being open to the weather all Winter, wasn't too bad to break up. (Pictured - ground roughly forked over).

Given the warm sunshine today I decided to dig the rest of the bed which I've started by planting some cloves of garlic. This bed hasn't been used for a few seasons and was pretty overgrown with grass when I took over his side of the plot last year. I dug and cleaned it by hand last summer and turned it over in the Autumn with the small petrol tiller. It was covered in black plastic all Winter. (Pictured - the covers are pulled off).

The ground didn't look too bad to be honest; the soil wasn't overly compacted and the ridges from the previous tilling were still visible. I decided to break out the petrol tiller again and see if it was dry enough to cope - if it's too wet it just clogs the tines. The plastic covers do help with moisture content but as there is a slope, this side of the plot does get massive amounts of ground water. It's good to get the covers off on dry, breezy days as it helps the soil dry out.

The little Mantis tiller managed to chomp through the soil but the operator was pretty out of breath when it was finished! Still, I was very pleased by how this little machine performed especially as it started immediately (a great Honda 4 stroke engine) and this was the first dig of the season so it wasn't dealing with the easiest of soil conditions. (Pictured - bed after tilling). 

The soil broke down well and I finished the bed off with a rough rake just to flatten things off a bit. This will be just right now to plant onions in a fortnight (weather permitting). If there is heavy rain forecast I might recover with plastic - I'll see. (Pictured - bed after a quick rake).

Before calling it quits today I hammered in a few posts at the ends of the raspberry rows and tied a few wires across. I tied in most of the canes with soft twine and noticed that there are fat buds on the canes already. The raspberries were poor last year as I had moved them in the Autumn- I'm hoping for a better crop this season. The whole area needs a good weeding so that's another job to put on the list. (Pictured - posts and wire for raspberries).

Not a bad start to the season - one bed roughly forked over and, after a few brassicas removed, will be ready for the early spuds to go in. A second bed tilled to a decent tilth and is now ready for some onion sets and the raspberries tied in. All in all, I'm happy I've made the most of a few days of good weather.

Bye for now.