27 Apr - Snow & Hail

Wow, what a cold snap we've had for the past few days. It's been quite frosty in the mornings and today we had a heavy hail & snow shower that briefly made the allotment white. It's the very end of April, what happened to the warmer days of last week?

Unfortunately, my early potatoes have made an appearance too, not many, but enough to concern me. Luckily I had already spotted them before the cold snap and scraped more earth over the top of them. Hopefully this will protect the young shoots. Still, it's an ongoing job now to keep an eye on what is poking through the soil.

Now to a quick update with the rest of the stuff. The beans sowed in my last post are making an appearance in the greenhouse. Both the Cobra French beans and Firestorm Runner beans are beginning to poke their way through the top of the deep root trainers. (Pic - Firestorm Runner Beans).

Likewise the Sweet Corn, Incredible F1 are beginning to show too. Despite the protection of the greenhouse, I'll be happier when this cold spell passes and we get back to warmer temperatures. (Pic - Sweet Corn Incredible F1).

The Hunter F1 Butternut are beginning to show in the heated propagator. The ones that have germinated I'll pop on a windowsill in the house until this cold snap has passed and then they can go into the greenhouse. Any spaces in the propagator will be filled by the Turks Turban that I didn't have room for initially. (Pic - Butternut Squash, Hunter F1).

Everything else is doing well in the greenhouse; the cabbages, kale and Brussels sprouts are looking very strong; the tomatoes continue to grow up their canes and, the salad onions I sowed into cells are just appearing.

That's it for now, see you in May.

19 Apr - Sowing Squashes, Beans and Corn

On the 17th April I decided it was time to sow the beans and corn. I'm aiming for around 20 runner bean plants and 10 Cobra French beans so I was able to use a single set of 32 deep root trainers. Along with the Cobra I'm planting runner bean Firestorm, new to me, chosen because they are supposed to be self-pollinating. I used the other deep root trainer pack for the sweet corn, Incredible F1 that usually does well. I used all the seed I had and will plant as many as germinate as I have the space.(Pic - black Cobra French Beans in deep root trainers).

Yesterday, the 18th April, I was at the plot sowing Detroit beetroot and Nantes 5 carrots direct. The beetroot was sown in a simple line as normal but for the Nantes I created a slit trench by wiggling a spade back and forth then filling it with a sand-compost mixture and sowing the seed on top. This worked well for me last year, providing a surprisingly large number of finger carrots to eat throughout the summer while the main crop Sweet Candle carrots grew to their large size.

I was in the greenhouse today sowing this season's Winter squashes. I'm doing three varieties this year, not including the pumpkins which have already been sown. I've sown a dozen Hunter Butternut F1, ten Crown Prince (which are new this year) and finally ten Turks Turban. The Turks Turban will be used as space fillers as I'll be concentrating on the Butternut and Crown Prince. The latter two were put in the electric propagator to help germination and the Turks Turban left in a the greenhouse, covered with a cloche as there was no room. (Pic - ten Crown Prince squash seeds sown).

A quick mooch around the greenhouse showed me that everything is proceeding well. There are more flowers on the tomato plants; the sprouts have really come on; the Primo II cabbage are getting floppy because they are so large; the Kale has large true leaves and; the first Marketmore cucumbers and Defender courgettes are beginning to show through the compost. Hardening off outside are the perpetual spinach, leeks and some flowers - nasturtiums and sweet peas. (Pic - Defender F1 courgette appearing).

I've had the lettuce hardening off outside for a few days but, as cold weather is forecast for the weekend, I thought I'd get the lettuce in the ground for a few days of sun to settle. The lettuce are Mazur which did well last season, these are a frilly type that are cut-and-come-again. Lastly, I sowed a couple of rows of radish, French Breakfast. (Pic - Mazur lettuce planted out with a couple of rows of radish).

The majority of this year's seed is either growing or has been sown. The only things left are a few swede and kohl rabi which I will sow direct when I put the brassicas out under nets next month.

That's it, bye for now.

16 Apr - Main Crop Potatoes & RIP Jenny

Just a quick note to say that the main crop potatoes, Sarpo Mira, went in today. I dug three trenches measuring nearly 100 feet in total, I added a bit of Growmore fertilizer, backfilled and mounded over the top. My back was aching a bit when I'd finished but I had a couple of beers in the fridge as a reward! So, all the spuds are in, 80 odd of Rocket and 60 odd Sarpo Mira.

On a sad note, the last of my first batch of chickens died in her sleep this morning. Jenny was a rescued hybrid who extremely friendly and always responded with a 'cluck' if you talked to her. I had four chickens in August 2014 from the British Hen Welfare Trust but, looking back in it now, the hens probably had had a very hard life and were plagued by various forms of ill health from the start. One died in her sleep a few weeks after they arrived and two had to be put down due to illness the following year. 

While having rescued hens is a charitable undertaking, knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have any more. These hens are bred to last no more than eighteen months, they are put in the large chicken sheds at point of lay and are kept for around 12 months before being culled. It's a real challenge to keep them thriving after this.

Over the past few months she slept a lot, tucking her head under her wing or just dozing where she stood; she just looked 'old' compared to the other hens in the flock. She was barging the others out of the way last night to grab first dibs at the scratch corn and died mid-morning sat in straw in the coop. Jenny was my favourite and I hope she enjoyed her stay with me and the freedom of pottering around in her large run with the sun on her back. (Pic - the old girl Jenny dozing in the Winter sun back in February).

That's it for this quick update, bye for now.

12 Apr - Toms Planted Out

Today started off a bit foggy and cold. I was at the plot just before 07.00 letting the hens out and noticed a nice image of a neighbours fruit tree appearing through the fog with weak sunlight behind. The sun eventually burned off the fog and the day went on to be sunny and bright.

Having looked at the tomatoes I noticed that there are flowers forming on some of the plants already and that the stems are really sturdy. So, I have decided to plant them into the bottomless pots in the greenhouse which I have already filled with compost. I've also filled a couple of extra pots too. This year's tomatoes have been great so far; they have developed well and I'm hoping for a good crop. There are five beefsteak Marmande and five Alicante plants.

At the plot I got busy planting out the Dwarf French beans, variety Nautica. I'm still unsure as to why I sowed them so early, they should be sown this month not last month. Anyway, they are getting a bit too big for their cells so I've planted them out using plastic bottles as cloches taken from the broad beans I planted out last week. Let's hope they survive the cold nights, not too many frosty ones at the moment but we still could have some for some weeks yet.

The last thing today was the sowing of the Sweet Candle carrots. Once again I've used a bar to create around 26 holes which I've filled with a compost and sand mixture. A few seeds are sown on top of each and are covered with the same mixture. I need to have a think about how to protect them from carrot fly this year before they germinate.

That's it for this quick update. I'll finish this post with a shot I took a few days ago of plum tree blossom; I'm hoping for a good crop this year as I had nothing at all last season. Bye for now.

09 Apr - Early Month Update

It's all go in the greenhouse at the moment with the cabbages, peppers, lettuce, leeks, sprouts, kale and spinach all coming on well since being transplanted into individual pots or cells. All of them have 'true' leaves now, including the slow growing sweet peppers.

The tomato plants have been potted on for a second time and in a few weeks will be planted out into their final positions in the greenhouse. I've already chopped the bottoms out of eight large pots to create plastic rings which have been sunk into the greenhouse soil. Each ring has had fresh compost placed into it and the tomatoes will be planted into these. The idea has been inspired by those rings that you can buy to place into growbags to provide extra growing depth.

I'm hardening off the dwarf French beans at the moment by taking them out of the greenhouse during the day to get used of the temperatures. Likewise I've a few nasturtiums to provide colour in the garden hardening off too though it will be sometime yet before I'm confident enough of the weather to plant them out. (Pic - dwarf French bean 'Nautica' hardening off).

On the plot things initially looked a bit static but, on closer inspection, there are developments here too. The Sturon onions planted out as sets in my 23 March 2016 post are just starting to put out green shoots, not all of them, but a lot. It won't be long before the rest follow. The garlic cloves I popped in at the same time have really sprung into life. I was quite surprised to see how developed they were. (Pic - garlic springing up out of the soil). 

On the 31st March I planted out my Bunyards Exhibition broad beans but I covered them with plastic bottles as a mini cloches as I hadn't had chance to harden them off properly. I've taken the bottles off today as they are growing on well. It's just a matter of keeping the slugs and black-fly at bay. I've also put in the first row of Hurst Green-shaft peas, the start of successional showing.

The Gladiator F1 parsnips have also been sown direct on the plot using the 'bar' method once again. I've created three rows of seven sowing spots and each has been given a good sprinkle of seed which will eventually be thinned down to one per position.

That's it for now, bye.