Tuesday 31st March 2009

I popped down after work today and managed to post a row of peas (Hurst Greenshaft), a double row of broad beans (Sutton Dwarf), and a row of mixed salad leaves at the end of the potato bed as they should mature way before the potatoes crowd them - hopefully !

Henry's radish have come through a little more and the greenhouse looks right at home at the bottom of the plot :-)

View of the allotment with greenhouse frame in place

Sunday 29th March - the greenhouse arrives !

We all met Nanna & Grandad down at Great Grandpa's at 9:30am and Daddy & Grandad got straight to work dismantling it. Nanna was doing some more cleaning of the house and I was chatting to her ! And Henry was doing a little bit of everything - mostly showing off his new lunchbag with cars on !!

At about 11am Henry, Nanna and I went to visit Great Grandpa in his new home, Newton Hall. He seemed very happy and his room was lovely. He was very pleased the greenhouse was coming down well, he was worried it may fall apart I think. We had a chat and Great Grandpa had a Whiskey and then we went back to see how Grandad and Daddy were getting on. We found they had almost finished taking down the frame.

After they had taken down all of the frame we stopped for a picnic - Henry's highlight of the day ! We all had some sandwiches and a drink and then Grandad, Daddy and Mummy loaded up the trailer whilst Henry and Nanna picked some daffodil's to put in a vase at home. Nanna picked a special bunch for Henry and this had some blue flowers in called 'Forget-Nots (!)' so Henry wouldn't forget Nanna - he now has these in a vase in his bedroom !

Once we had packed everything we set off for the allotment. Despite looking like a mish-mash of metal, Grandad and Daddy appeared to know what they were doing and the greenhouse frame went up relatively easily. As time was plodding on we decided to leave putting the glass in until the weekend when Uncle Nige can help us too (and we needed to buy 2 new pieces of glass for the door as they broke on the journey across).

Saturday 28th March 2009

We all went down this afternoon to prepare the bottom of the allotment for the arrival of Great Grandpa's greenhouse tomorrow. We are meeting Nana & Grandad at Great Grandpa's and 9:30 tomorrow and then dismantling the greenhouse, transporting it to the allotment, and putting it back up (hopefully !!!).

We measure out the area (6ft x 8ft) and then flattened it off and edged it with bricks, making sure it was all level as well. Henry supervised whilst he was eating sweeties !

All the trees and bushes are looking healthy apart from the blueberry which we thought was possibly dead last time we were down ! We've left it in for now just in case though, if not we'll buy a new one in a couple of weeks time. We had to move the Bramley Seedling apple tree a bit because of where the new greenhouse is going, but that is all fine now in its new place. We also put in some rhubarb from Grandpa's garden which Uncle Nige got for us.

Henry's radish are coming through, as are the potatoes we planted a few weeks ago (the ones which had sprouted in the cupboard at home) - I think they were Rooster potatoes. No sign of the lettuce, spinach or parsnips yet, although I think Dad told me parsnips had a long germination period, so we'll wait and see.

The raspberry canes that came from Lauriston are doing really well (full of leaves), the others are not doing anything just yet. The cherry tree has lots of leaves coming, as does the 2 apple trees.

Early potatoes are in - hooray !

I ran down in my lunchbreak today to plant the early potatoes. So we now have a row of Accent potatoes and a row of Anya potatoes. Everything else seemed to be doing well, nothing appearing yet from the new seeds we sowed but patience is a virtue !!!

Just need to pop down sometime, maybe tomorrow and sow a row of peas and broad beans.

Monday 16th March 2009

After school today Henry and I sowed a tray of Musselburgh leeks and a tray of Bedford Fillbasket brussels sprouts. Gave tem a good water and put them in a sunny position in the garden :-)

Sunday 15th March 2009 - The Sowing Begins !!!

We all went down after lunch today as the weather was so lovely. Daddy dug out the remaining bed up near the raspberries and apple trees so that is now ready for planting the broad bean (Sutton Dwarf), and the early pea (Hurst Greenshaft) which we are hoping to do in the next week.

Henry & Mummy planted a row of Lollo Rossa lettuce, Countess F1 parsnip and the free trial radish we got from Marshalls seeds (Radish MSC 7695 - Yellow Radish) in Henry's bed. Then in this years 'Roots' bed we planted one row of Countess F1 parsnip, and in the end of the bed with the red onions and shallots in we planted one row of Tirza F1 spinach.

All of the fruit trees are starting to bud and produce leaves which is lovely to see. And the blueberry might look slightly more lively than last time we were there ! Fingers crossed. There are 8 spring cabbage and they are starting to get a bit fuller now as the weather improves a bit.

Henry and I are hoping to go down sometime after school this week to plant the early potatoes (Accent & Anya), one row of Hurst Greenshaft peas and one row of Sutton broad beans.

1st March 2009 - St Davids Day & March is here !!!

We went down to the allotment after lunch for a short while today. We transferred the 3 raspberry canes that were in the back garden down to the allotment and also the thornless blackberry bush that we had.

Having done a little tidying, weeding and put the plants in their new home we picked a leek to pull up for Henry's tea and then came home.