Spring Clean II

With a taste of winter forecast to return next week, made the effort to get down to allotment and get some preparation done.

Saturday - In addition to some weeding and tidying up, finally got first early potatoes (International Kidney) in the ground - bed E1. Broke the 'no-digging after Xmas' rule to get troughs deep enough. Usually would set them in peat but trying multi-compost/sand mixture this time plus a little hoof and horn - and then well rotted chicken manure over top of soil. Covered up E1 & D1(after a quick rake) with a big tarp to keep warm and give spuds a boost to catch up - should have been in 2 or 3 weeks ago.

Sunday - Another sunny day, with a bit of a cool wind that only briefly dropped. Bought and potted on some red cabbage, swede, cauliflower and khol rabi seedlings - 6 of each (with a couple of small extra's in the cauli's) plus a couple of pots (16) Broad Beans. Placed inside 3 tier polly house, but set up only to two tiers to keep it out of wind a bit more.

Managed to weed and rake all the other main beds, save for F1 which am leaving wild for now and A1 that still has last year's leeks and wind sown salsify. Limed B1/B2 in readiness for brassicas and dug C2 into 4 troughs ready for 2nd early potatoes in a couple of weeks hopefully. Scattered organic manure into troughs and left uncovered to let rain wash into ground.

Twittering

Too busy to garden so started twittering - http://twitter.com/Todalot

Spring Clean

After being shamed into admitting allotment had been neglected a bit recently, managed to get round to a couple of hours tidying up today post-race. Railway crossing stuck on red but no trains appeared to be running.

Managed to plant onion sets, along with a new anti-air defence experiment, but potatoes still in waiting. Garlic looking a bit healthier than last month.

Gave most beds a rough rake and hand picked a few weeds out. Pruned pear and cherry trees, and gooseberries, blackcurrants, red currants and blueberries... better late than never.

Checked forced rhubarb but barely awake still, perhaps prolonged cold has put into a deeper dormancy but hopefully a mild week and a bit of sun should bring it along quickly now.

Must get on with this year's crop planning soon...