27 Apr - Tomatoes Planted

A quick update at the end of April. The leaves on the tomatoes in their pots had a hint of yellow to them, the nutrients having been exhausted in the compost.  So, it was either pot them on or plant them out in the greenhouse. I chose the latter as it has been warm.

I brought down some rough compost from the allotment compost bin and mixed it into the earth inside the bottomless pots I set out in the greenhouse bed. The pots ensure that the plants are mainly in a mix of new compost so diseases don't build up. I set out three Marmande beafsteak type and five Alicante. I grew too many last year so I'm cutting back, eight plants will be fine. I'll add some canes very soon so I can tie them in as they grow

As for the rest, the first early potatoes are beginning to show, just the odd one peeping through the mounds. I've got brassicas hardening off outside along with a second batch of lettuce. The first of the squash are just beginning to show in the propagator too.

That's it for now. Bye.

19 Apr - Main Crop Spuds & Squash Sowing

It's been a bit busy since Easter as on bank holiday, Easter Monday (17th), I took a deep breath and planted out my main crop potatoes. As last year, I'm planting the blight resistant Sarpo Mira that have been chitting away since late January. I had an excellent crop in the 2015/16 season filling three large hessian sacks; we finished the last of them in March. (Pic - early potatoes 'Rocket' in the foreground  planted in March and, the main crop Sarpo Mira newly planted in the background).

I'm trying a bit of an experiment this year with potato planting. I dug trenches for the early potatoes as normal but, for the main crop, I just dug a hole with a spade for each spud, dropped a bit of fertiliser in and planted the potato, mounding up the whole row as normal as I went. While it's still pretty hard on the old back, hole digging definitely requires less earth moving than trench digging. We'll see if there is any difference between a trench and large hole methods.

Today I planted some Winter squash seeds. Hopefully these will be up by the end of the month and will then have four or five weeks to grow on in the greenhouse before hardening off and being planted out in early June. The family are big fans of Winter squash which we have roasted with our Sunday lunches. I tried the silver skinned Crown Prince last season for the first time and they were excellent; large, tasty and easy to prepare. I've sown enough to hopefully get ten plants this year along with half a dozen Hunter F1 butternut too.

Squashes take up a lot of room so I dedicate virtually a whole 32ft x 6ft bed to them. Of course, the odd one can be grown virtually anywhere. I've also sown a few courgettes, the green Defender F1 and the yellow Atena along with a pumpkin for Halloween, Big Max. The Crown Prince and Butternut have gone in the heated propagator for a more consistent warmth, the others have been left in an unheated greenhouse to germinate.  (Pic - Winter squashes being sown, I put a few extra seeds in the odd pot to make up for any that don't germinate).

A quick round-up on the rest of my progress. The Bunyard's Exhibition broad beans are hardening off outside, I'll be planting them in the plot soon. The brassicas: kale, summer cabbage and Brussels sprouts are also outside now, hardening off before they too are planted in the allotment. The tomatoes have put on a growth spurt and I think they'll be put in their positions in the greenhouse by the end of the month. (Pic - broad beans and brassicas hardening off).

The second batch of lettuce is now putting on some true leaves. I'll have to prick them out and transplant them to grow on for a few more weeks before they are added to the plot as part of my attempt to successively grow lettuce all season. The beetroot that was sown at the same time as the second wave of lettuce is doing well too and the Nautica dwarf French beans are up and running in the greenhouse. I've taken my transplanted leeks in their large tray up to the plot to sit outside until they are planted in their final positions in a month or so. Finally, I've planted out a few spinach plants and have sown a second batch.

Over all things are moving on.  Bye for now.

06 Apr - Lettuce, Weeding & Update

The weather has been warm during the day for the past week and I've been hardening off some early lettuce. As I've sown some more as part of my plan for successive lettuce sowing this year, I thought I'd get these in the ground. The varieties I'm growing this year are Little Gem and Lollo Rossa.

I neglected to weed and tidy up the fruit bed in the Autumn and it's been a total state for months. Time to do something about it. My fruit bed contains blackberries, raspberries, gooseberries, rhubarb and strawberries. I did cut out the dead canes on my summer fruiting raspberries during the Winter so one of the jobs today was to tie in the new canes and dig out any raspberries that have spread beyond where I want them.

The strawberries grow like weeds after they have fruited, putting out runners everywhere. They had rooted on the path, borders and into the gooseberry patch. I composted most of the unwanted plants but saved a selection to give away. There was a fair bit of grass and annual weeds too so it was all cleared. I've still got a few jobs to do like clearing boundary paths and clearing a 'problem' strip at the edge of the plot.

In the greenhouse and the brassicas I sowed last month are growing well. The sprouts, kale and cabbage have all been thinned to one per cell. Most of the broad beans have appeared in their root trainers and I've added a few more beans to cells that didn't germinate so I have enough. The tomatoes are beginning to put on more leaves; they are definitely growing slower this year than last but I'm sure they'll catch up. The onions I planted out less than two weeks ago are beginning to put out green leaves.

I've sown a few other things too. A small batch of the bush type French bean 'Nautica' have been placed in the propagator; I didn't do too well with these last year because I planted them out way too early so I'm giving them another go. I've also sown another batch of lettuce and some Tundra F1 Winter cabbage. Again, I didn't have too much success with the Tundra last year; I normally sow Winter cabbage in June and plant out in July but it seems that Tundra is slow growing and needs to be planted much earlier. So, to avoid the underdeveloped plants I had this Winter I've sown them much earlier so they establish properly before the cold weather.

That's about it for this update. The sun is shining so it's time to do some more tidying up at the plot. Bye for now.

04 Apr - Parsnips & Carrots

Just a quick post for the start of April, I'll add a bit more in a day or two. The first thing is that I have sown my Gladiator F1 parsnips. My method for planting on my stony-clay soil is to bar them in. I turn over the ground as normal, lightly tread it down then drive a metal bar into the ground and move it in circles to make a conical hole around 2ft deep. 

I make up a large bucket of multipurpose compost and builders sand mixed together and then add the mix to the holes. Around 8 to 10 parsnip seeds are sown at each station, watered and are thinned down over the weeks to one strong plant. The results are very good indeed with some very large parsnips by the Winter months.

The brassicas have been thinned down to one strong plant per cell as they all now have 'true' leaves; I've got Bosworth F1 sprouts, Primo II cabbage and both Dwarf Curly  and Nero di Toscana kale. There's also a tray of Lazio F1 spinach. All is moving along nicely.

My experiment with growing decent sized carrots in a barrel has kicked off. I prepared the barrel a few months back with sandy multipurpose compost and sowed the the wonderful 'Sweet Candle' about a fortnight ago. I covered the barrel with a scrap piece of perspex to give the seeds a bit of warmth. I quick check today and most of the seeds have germinated, I've certainly got at least one at each station. I must remember to water them now!

That's it for this post. See you soon.