Easter Update

A warm dry April has provided ideal growing conditions – if only we could find sufficient time away from http://www.butterwickwells.co.uk/ to take advantage of the good weather. The big allotment re-design will have to wait another year!

Progress update:
A1 – Originally earmarked for sunflowers, but switched to Broad Beans, planted out over Easter after a week or so outside at home to acclimatise to early April indoor sowing. Slightly droopy at first so hopefully they will toughen up quick.

B1 – POTATOES (international Kidney aka Jersey) planted out early April, good amount of growth now peeking out. Will have to watch for any frosts.

B2 – still to prepare for... sweet corn?

C1 – LETTUCE planted between last year’s leeks which are approaching readiness – Couple of unsuccessful attempts, with a couple of lines of seedlings mysteriously vanishing overnight. Stalks still in ground, but nothing above... unlikely to be slugs as too dry and sanded around. Possibly slugs/snails, or more likely mice?

C2 – prepared ready for peas (first batch just sown at home)

D1 – LETTUCE – third batch planted out, of slightly bigger, seedlings so hope they will fare better.

D2 – ONIONS and GARLIC coming along nicely.

E1 – New carrot raised bed installed but a little light on soil.

E2 – Still a handful of SPRING CABBAGES cropping, with Main POTATOES (Wilja) belatedly put in around them over Easter.

F1 – prepared.

F2 – still to prepare for Brassicas (Plenty of Cabbage, Savoy, Kale seedlings on the go) – an early line of radish slowly up to marble size. Another week or so and may start to crop.

Other seedlings in progress... beetroot, sunflowers, chillies, peppers, tomatoes, basil, and sage, well only 1 sage germinated so far. Need to start off another round of salads and a few more savoy as low germination rate from first batch.

G1 – RHUBARB – Forced batch finally rocketed in the heat and were pushing bin off, so cropping and eating away. The batch in H2 is getting a bit out of control so will need splitting and moving (although as nowhere to put them, may sell/donate instead).

G2/H1 – Blackcurrants, Redcurrants, Blueberries and Gooseberries all seem to be flowering well with the promise of a bumper crop this year.

H2 – Pears and Cherry Trees all blossoming well, with cherry-lets just starting to form!

Shitting in the Wind

Sown first of this year's seeds - 6 x half trays of early salad stuff... radish, little gem lettuce, mixed lettuce, mixed mustards, spinach and (the much nicer) spinach beet.

Potted on the broad bean seedlings that had doubled in height since buying, and checked on brassica seedlings which were still damp and fairly warm in mini polly house. Added an extra shelf layer to lift beans up away from the awakening slugs.

Fairly windy and more forecast for first half of week so wrapped a line around just in case. Weather looking like a reasonable prospect of a high building from Weds so some sun and cool nights likely.

Wind too cold to get much done - hampered by achilles injury too - so just a general bit of tidying done and a bit of newt spotting.

Rhubarb has finally awakened and forced bin rocketing into action.

Some selfish idiot from other end had chosen to allow their dog to run around loose and uncontrolled again, shitting in other people's allotments - quite ignorant behaviour and should be kicked off.

Lovely bit of Toxacara Canis never did anyone any harm, did it? I mean its not like the eggs stay in the soil for months waiting to blind someone... do they? Maybe I'll just invite myself round to dinner and shit on their table.

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.