I've put a fair bit of work into the plot over the past few days, mainly clearing old crops and digging over the beds ready for the new season. There was one remaining path that was used to separate the beds that needed to be taken up to make the use of the petrol tiller easier. So, as I dug over the beds on the north side I took the path up too.
The black plastic that covered the path did a good job over the past two seasons and there wasn't any weed or couch grass root left at all; it was just a matter of digging the compacted soil with a spade to break it up and then smashing down the lumps with the tiller.
In the process I cleared the remains of the kale that was rapidly going to seed and the Brussels sprouts plants. There were still loads of sprouts left so I picked the best ones off to take home. While some of the plants looked quite stunted, the spouts were plentiful and tasty. The plant tops went to the chickens and the stems discarded as they are just too tough for the compost bin as I didn't have anything to hand to break them up.
We've had a dry week or so but, according to the forecast, we are due a bit of rain in the next few days so it's an ideal time to get the onion sets out. I've prepared the ground by digging, raking into a fine tilth and adding some general purpose fertilizer. This was done last week and just before planting I added a large bucket of material from the compost bin too.
The Sturon onions are set out four inches apart, which always looks too close but all the books and the label say that distance and it seems to work OK every year. I use part of a scaffold board to walk on so I flip that over to do the next row so the rows are around 9 inches apart (22.5 cm). This year I planted 8 rows of 17 onions and threw away some of the smaller ones - 136 is enough as we are still eating last years!
I grew garlic last season which did well, so I've saved some cloves and replanted a couple of rows next to the onions. It seems a bit late in the season as they like frost to get going but they were there and I'd like to try and establish my own garlic variety by planting cloves from the previous year; apparently garlic adapts to it's environment over time. Anyway, 20 cloves went into two rows.
From the plot we move inside for a quick round up. The tomatoes are growing strongly on a windowsill in the house, I reckon it's still a bit cold in the greenhouse for them though I'm sure they would appreciate the light. I check the pots regularly to see if they need potting on but so far they seem fine. The sweet peppers are slow growers compared to the toms' but they've just put on some true leaves so I'm hoping they will get a head of steam up over the next few weeks.
In the unheated greenhouse things are moving along nicely too. The leeks which were moved into their larger tray on the 4th March have recovered well and are putting on new leaves. The broad beans are up in their root trainers along with the dwarf French beans. I've also got some perpetual spinach established in cells too. (Pic - perpetual spinach in cells on the left and dwarf French beans on the right).
Finally, I've pricked out a dozen Primo II summer cabbages into their own pots to grow on for a month. The sprouts are still a little too small as I didn't get as many germinating as I wanted so there's a second batch just appeared. I'll give them a few weeks then move them on to their own pots too. The Lollo Rossa lettuce has been a 'now show' probably due to the fact that the seed was a few years old but, the Mazur 'cut and come again' green lettuce has germinated really well and I'll be transplanting them into cells in a week or two. (Pic - foreground Mazur lettuce - background Primo II summer cabbages).
That's it from me, bye for now.
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