Sunday 29 April 2012

Spuds are up!

A walk in the pouring rain naturally took us under the railway bridge, through the lake which is Marsh Lane and on to the allotment.
The torrential rain and wind had blown some netting around the site but our plot was all in one piece - you can see how much it rained overnight and this morning from our rain gauge - amazing!
And we were pleased to see our first potatoes (Belana) have poked their first leaves out of the ground - knew they'd appreciate the rainfall! That's 3 weeks since they went in.

When we got home I sowed 3 Cape Gooseberries in the bedroom cloche - we bought the dwarf variety otherwise they can grow like crazy - especially if we do get the dry hot summer we're expecting!

Saturday 28 April 2012

Nice weather for snails

Soooo wet and chilly! We transplanted all the marigolds into the bigger trays and I sowed some calendula and put them all in the cloche.
We mulched around the raspberries with well rotted horse manure from Andy at work and took the bottle cloches off the broad beans which are big enough to look after themselves now.
That was enough - as it was we spent more than half the time in the container just watching the birds and enjoying watching the rain from under cover! It sure is getting a good soaking!

Friday 27 April 2012

Seedlings (& slugs)

Quick visit to the plot after work to see how it's managing after the windy/rainy/sunny week that we've had.

About 10cm of rain
The perspex over the beets had blown across the plot but the beet seedlings are looking happy enough so they should be alright without that protection - I'll sow a few more seeds to fill the gaps.

Boltardy Beets
The silverskin onions carrots and parsnips have all got nice little seedlings growing now. All onion seedlings have the bent over tops so they're easy to spot amongst weeds; carrots are a bit more tricky but if you pull one (even when they're this tiny) they already taste carroty!

Silverskin onions
Early Nantes carrots
The seedlings in the cloches are looking good too though I think we may have to arm ourselves with more slug pellets - this rain is really encouraging them to be out and about, dining on our lettuce seedlings!

Sunday 22 April 2012

Happy St Georges Day (for tomorrow!)

We managed to get some work done today before we got drenched and had to run for cover in the container.

Jamie cleared the area where the leonaris flowers are going to be planted - four of the six seeds have germinated at home in the cloche now. He was attempting to clear all the raspberry plants which have re-appeared since the area was last cleared!

I sowed a row of Oasis turnips - we had some last year. They are meant to taste of melon; not too sure of that description but they are a tasty treat whilst at the plot and they're nice in salads.

We sowed ten Speedy dwarf beans in paper potter pots and put them in the cloche. I also filled the gaps where some of the broad beans haven't yet come up.
There were several terns flying around - they make a lot of noise over the canal and Freemans Marsh. They seem to fight a lot!
Tern
We got the flag up for St Georges Day and then went home with very wet clothes :-(


Saturday 21 April 2012

Potato planting and other stuff

Jamie did all the work today. I've got a cold so just flitted about and mostly sat down enjoying the sunshine. It's definitely April - we've had some torrential showers over the last few days but managed to avoid them all this morning.
That meant that Jamie was able to plant the two remaining rows of potatoes - both about 6" deep with grass/paper at the bottom of the trench and then the usual bag of farmyard manure. These two rows have Kestrel, Orla and the last Duke of York Red (which we intend to leave in as a maincrop).
We were joined by a lot of robins and blue tits on the plot today - the robins are getting very cocky and are willing to pinch worms from a couple of feet away from us now. I spotted the kestrel and he sat on the telegraph wires long enough for me to get this pic of him. It's a bit blurred as I had to zoom in but his lovely pinky plumage really stands out when he's flying over the site.
Kestrel
Most of our seeds are emerging now, including some silverskin onions, beets, cabbages, sprouts, sweet peas, salad crops. No sign of the parsnips, leeks or spring onions but we've found them to be quite slow to germinate previously.
We need to work out our sowing plan for the rest of these busy weeks now, then we can sit back and wait for food :-)