Good day at the allotment

In fine weather it was ideal today to continue the preparations of the ground at the allotment.

Mainly this involved digging over areas which had been planted with green manure, and digging it in, and tidying up the raspberry canes and putting some chicken manure around them.

The area for the First Early Casablanca potatoes is all set, as is the area for the transplanting of the red onion sets which have been started off in the greenhouse and which have now grown good roots.

I'll get the onion sets planted by the end of the weekend and take a 'rain check' for the potatoes but think they also should be planted by the end of the coming week.

So far, so good regarding the newly planted fruit trees - we just need to keep them watered until they really get established.

Finally, I'll try to deter further weed growth in the upper half of the allotment by using some safe, but powerful, Glyphosate weed killer. If we can keep the weeds and nettles down this will really open up the top end of the allotment and we'll see the orchard to full advantage!

More planting, trimming, tidying

After a lovely lunch and chat with Jan and Jane at Bantock Park the weather was still fine and warm so we both headed into the garden when we arrived back home.

Whilst Linda undertook major clearing up and trimming, I planted Leek Shelton and Sprouts Maximus in seed trays which will start indoors until after germination and then go into the greenhouse for growing on until such time as they are large enough to be taken up to the allotment.

Meanwhile, in the greenhouse, the red onion sets in pots are all starting to form roots and sprout so they will be ready to go to the allotment once weather conditions are suitable.

Also germinating are the later sowings of broad beans - Express - and some of the nasturtiums.

Fruit trees

The three fruit trees which we ordered from Sutton's arrived last Wednesday so it was important to get them planted as soon as possible. A couple of days 'storage' in the conservatory occasionally dipped in a trug of water made sure they remained hydrated and I finally got the three areas dug and prepared yesterday after Linda had come down with me to make sure they were going to be planted in the correct positions.

We now have an almond tree (Sweet Mandaline), plum tree (Victoria) and apple tree (Lord Lambourne) though to be honest, apart from the almond tree they do look more like twigs! Still, they come well-regarded and are at least 18 months old, feathered trees.

Time will tell but if they can get established this year I'm hoping we'll have blossom and fruit to look forward to in 2012.

More seed planting

Made a start on planting flower seeds today with 2 varieties of Sweet Peas: Giant Waved Mixed and Cupani. I think they were bought at last year's Gardeners' World. They'll be started off in the house.

I planted more Broad Bean seeds this morning - this time Express (supposedly one of the earliest varieties, 30 pods per plant and an excellent freezing variety) in pots in the greenhouse to speed up germination, after which I'll put them in the allotment.

Quick update

In the last couple of days I've transplanted the Flavor garlic which I had got started in the greenhouse in small pots. They had shooted really well and didn't suffer any setback at all when they were planted in the allotment.

The broad beans in pots in the greenhouse look good, and with the extra space left by the garlic I decided to plant more broad bean The Sutton seeds to help with the succession in due course!

Also in the greenhouse now are some red onion sets in pots to try and get a head start for the allotment and produce rooted sets to make it harder for the birds to uproot them once they're at the allotment.

Some nasturtium seeds in a seed tray complete this week's work in the greenhouse and in the next few days I'll get down to the allotment for some final digging and turning over of the soil and then select some ground that I'll cover in soil-warming sheeting in preparation for the first of the potatoes in mid to late March.

Greenhouse activities

After a little more snow yesterday Spring seemed as far away as ever. However, a change to some sunshine today and the arrival of 4 types of seed potato and some spring garlic (Flavor) soon changed things.

I'll spread the potatoes out in boxes in the conservatory or garage so they can start to chit.

The garlic is already in pots in the greenhouse now, along with some early sown broad beans (The Sutton), so we'll see if this head start under protection will give us some extra early crops.

A few seasonal photos - December 2010

Here are a few photos showing the allotment during the recent period of snow and frost - plus a demonstration of how (inelegantly) to crawl in and out of the fruit cage! I need to change the size of the entrance for next Spring, methinks.

The sprouts were delicious - two meals from one 'stalk' and more to come, along with the parsnips once the ground defrosts!