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!

Yellow

With three races squeezed into the weekend, there was barely time to do much but with the warm weather everything is growing fast... especially the weeds.

Daffodils that arrived late are already starting to wilt away with red tulips taking their place as the dominant colour in the garden - that is apart from the forced rhubarb. 

Under the dustbin, a week or so of warmth had rocketed them to the top, so I have taken the lid off and cropped the first few stalks. (It's absolutely criminal the prices charged for a few spindly stalks by the supermarkets for this abundant weed).  Even after a couple of days of sun the bright yellow leaves stand out from across the valley!

The first early batch of lettuce seedlings planted out last week have vanished without a trace.  No sign of slug trails, so unsure as to the culprit?  Replaced with more... half covered/ half open.  Suspect many of these will go, but always a good barometer of predators for the more vital seedlings. 

Seedlings coming out of our ears at home, a cooler week should slow their progress.

Springing into shape

Finally a bit of sun and warmth and spared a few hours away from work to get allotment into shape.

18th... Strawberries thinned and replanted in extra raised bed in [D1] but plenty still in ground under Pear trees.

23rd... Onions [D2] and early Potatoes [B1] planted and main potatoes chitting.  Couple of trays of radish and lettuce seedlings moved down into shelving to harden up ready for planting.

24th... Garlic Planted [D2]- 5 months late - tried to recover lost time a little by sticking garlic and onions into a tray of soil to get roots and tops sprouting.  May need to switch to a 2 year plan with garlic.

Beds E1/F1 weeded and soiled dug/raked with a bit of added compost/sand/etc... and then covered up.  Ready for planting.

C2 and E2 tidied up a bit but along with B2/F2 are next on list to prepare.

Forced rhubarb coming along well and close to first early crop.

Lots of seedlings popping up at home... carrots, kale, little gem and lolla rossa lettuce, sweetcorn, and broad beans sprouting.  Tomatoes ready to pot on.

Run out of spare window sill spaces so will hold off next lot of seed planting this week!

Just Like Starting Over

Kale-monster  (once appeared
as an extra in Dr Who!)

Finally made the first visit of the year but ground still frozen so unable to do much more than a bit of random tidying up.

Covered up one of rhubarb clumps with a bin to start forcing and pruned fruit bushes - blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries and blueberries.

May

Brassicas and Beans coming along nicely and should be ready to go in ground shortly.

Thurs 6...

Belated bought some sweetcorn and planted today (in attic) along with a few pots of basil.

Weds 6...

Cropped forced rhubarb today and left uncovered now. Broke off developing flower heads that were just starting in all 3 patches.


.

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.

A New Hope...

Finally managed a quick visit to check on things today.

Although in the main it is a scene of death and rotting destruction, already signs of new life appearing with blackcurrants and blueberries budding well.

Seedlings (Cabbage & Oriental Mustards) coped with cold drought (in plastic box)to varying degrees and still plenty of them alive.

Garlic looking a bit sorry for themselves, but the cold should spark them into cloving well. Scattered a bit more sand over - partly to catch a bit more warmth if the sun comes out and partly for drainage as ground still saturated. Last year's leeks still doing well, if a little small.

Put bin over a rhubarb crown to start off this year's forced chosen one. No sign of life yet.

The deep snow seems to have rotted a lot of the anticipated spring cabbages, but few surviving well. Still a few reds coping ok and cropped a load of sprouts today.

Feeling Fruity

Carrying on the 'where it's at' theme - the fruit zone...

- gooseberries (green and red) are nearly ready to pick
- blackcurrants are turning blacker but still sour!
- rhubarb now finished picking and leaves starting to die back
- redcurrants: early bush very sweet and ready and middle bush ready to pick, late bush still green. Two cuttings (from Mum's last year?) growing ok.
- blueberries are still greenish but looks a bumper crop on 3 out of 4 main bushes. 3 small cuttings still alive but growing slowly.
- 2 cherry trees (one tree had 3 cherries, but I knocked them off - oops)
- 4 pear trees
- strawberry patch fruiting well

The polly house... suffered badly in the strong winds of May and after just one month the zip split down one side of the door. At least with a crack in the door it's keeping the temp down, but even so have twice hit a max of 55'C (131'F) at the top shelf level (4feet). There seems to be a rather basic design fault in having no vent at the top. (Dragons' Den here I come!)

- 1 cucumber - growing poorly and the other died, no sign of flowers or fruit
- Courgettes - after weeks of male only flowers the females finally joined the party but even with a bit of help they are just not pollinating as well as last year. Some fruit swelling at least.
- Chili peppers - originally grown last year at home but never flowered so still alive!

Rhubarb Rhubarb

The last couple of weeks in April mainly spent weeding and tidying up but on the crop side Charlotte Potatoes went in (a bit later than planned) on 20th April.
First real multi-harvest of the year of forced rhubarb, radish, cabbage and leeks on 25th but have been eating rhubarb for past couple of weeks and had the odd cabbage all winter. Am now leaving cover (upside down bin) off the rhubarb so it doesn't weaken too much and stopping cropping that one.