Sunday 17th April

Well, what a glorious day - I'm pretty sure the temperature must've topped 20 today. It was beautiful. We spent a good couple of hours at the allotment this morning. Daddy and Henry cleared the weeds out of the two big beds and also dug them over ready for the vegetables to go in. In the greenhosue things were looking good apart from the 2 Gardener's Delight tomato plants which had died - not really sure why but the others look fine and we have plenty of plants still left. Henry's pumpkins (Spellbound) were both out, the tray of cabbage (Greyhound), Broccoli (Parthenon) and lettuce (Lolla Rossa) were all out and the Squash were just breaking through the surface of the pots :-) I sowed 2 trays of beetroot (Boltardy and Deltroit Globe), 2 trays of sweetcorn (Extra Sweet), a tray of climbing borlotti beans, a tray of climbing purple beans (A Cosse Violette) and a tray of runner beans (Lady Di). I also moved the net over a new row of mange tout and took it off the Cavalier peas which are looking great. We gave everything a good water and earthed up all the potatoes and then left it. Hopefully Henry and I shall pop down tomorrow and give everything another good water, the weather looks like its going to be nice for a while (Fingers crossed !!!).

Sunday 3rd April 2011

The first little leaves of the first early potatoes were showing through the soil yesterday morning which was nice to see ! Hopefully by next weekend we'll be able to see all of them poking through ! We took the tomatoes down yesterday morning and planted them in the greenhouse. I've stuck with 2 plants from each type we grew so as not to be overwhelmed by tomatoes and to leave enough room for the chillies, peppers and any lettuce we want to grow in there too. We have Shirley, Gardener's Delight, Golden Cherry and Tigerella. Hopefully they will do OK, we'll pop down after school tomorrow and water them. We will have to check on Henry's tomato plant he rescued and planted outside in his patch (he made a little bottle greenhouse for it so fingers crossed it doesn't die - he'll be upset ! The broccoli and some salad leaves were coming through in the trays as well so that is nice.

Tuesday 29th March 2011

Well, Henry had his final tooth extraction today and is now free of the teeth that have been bothering him thank goodness. It was a nasty one too - it did not want to let go at all, hopefully he won't be too bruised but we shall see. When he was feeling a bit better this afternoon we popped down to the allotment and planted the rest of the potatoes (Maincrop - Cara and King Edward), and in a space left in the potato bed we put a couple of small rows of purple topped turnip and purple kohlrabi. We did some general weeding and I pruned the tops off the raspberries and tidied them up a bit. We watered everywhere and got Henry's patch ready for planting. We planted one row of parsnips in his patch then tidied up and came home.

Second Earlies in the garden !

The second earlies (Charlotte) are now in the garden behind the garage so that's good. Just need to put the maincrop in down at the allotment maybe at the weekend if the weather is ok.

Monday 28th March - half day at work !

I made the most of the nice weather today and started clearing the allotment and getting ready for the year ahead. I did some weeding outside and also planted a row of Swiss Chard (Bright Lights) and a row of Cavalier peas. I've covered the peas with chicken wire so hopefully the birds will leave them alone and we'll have a nice lot of pea plants through in a couple of weeks or so.

Next I moved into the greenhouse and planted two Pumpkin - Spellbound, two Squash - Invincible, a tray of Greyhound cabbage, a tray of Parthenon broccoli and a tray of Lollo Rossa lettuce. I gave everything a good water and then came home !

Sunday 20th February 2011

So, the gardening year (or at least ours) has begun. We went down to the allotment this morning and planted the Sturon onion sets, and the Jermor shallots. We dug the Jerusalem artichokes out and put one back in to grow for later this year. We dug over some of the beds, and removed old dead cabbages and kale ! Then we transplanted the blackberry bush from by the greenhouse to where the cherry tree used to be before it died. Hopefully it will be OK.

The leeks look fine and the onions and garlic that were planted in the autumn are all doing well. The same could not be said about the broad beans - there is one poor lonely looking plant in a big bed by itself !! Will have to plant some new ones when the weather improves I think !

This afternoon we planted the tomatoes (Tigerella, Golden Cherry, Shirley & Gardener's Delight), the peppers (Diablo), and the chillies (Hot Mexican and Caldero). The chillies and peppers are in the airing cupboard, which hopefully will speed the germination along :-)

Monday 24th January 2011

OK, nothing much is happening but I need to keep this up to date this year so here we go. So far I have ordered some seeds from Marshalls which should be arriving in the next few days. The allotment shop opens in a couple of weeks and so we shall get the seed potatoes, beans, shallots, onions and anything else I fancy ! Will update again soon.