A lovely Sunday morning and I made my usual visit to the allotment. Having emptied the weeds and kitchen waste into the compost bin, I decided to visit the café for my coffee and cake before I got stuck in to the main jobs. A bit of crack and sharing hints and tips is always welcome.
My first job was to plant my young broad bean plants to replace those sown/planted in the autumn which can be seen in the background looking very bedraggled. Grown in toilet roll tubes, once again my bulb planter proved very useful making the holes to drop the plants into.
My first job was to plant my young broad bean plants to replace those sown/planted in the autumn which can be seen in the background looking very bedraggled. Grown in toilet roll tubes, once again my bulb planter proved very useful making the holes to drop the plants into.
I then planted the 2 asparagus plants I bought from Waitrose. Not the usual source for my plants but the normal suppliers offer dozens of plants and I only needed 2 to fill the gap. If you look carefully in the photo you can see the freshly dug patch (no grass growing!) in the raised bed behind the broad beans where I had a gap caused by two plants failing last year.
Finally I dug over where my parsnips grew ready for my early maincrop potatoes. As there were no weeds my Backsaver spade made short work on the 2 by 4 metre patch. I cultivated it straight away to break up any lumps before they dried hard, giving me a lovely patch ready for planting.
I checked my cauliflowers but, although the leaves are curling over nicely, there is no sign of any heads. I may have to wait until May! However, there was quite a crop of Purple Sprouting in the other tunnel and I picked off the Brussel tops and a number of shoots where blown Brussel Sprouts had grown out. They make a lovely, strong tasting, green veg similar the Spring Greens.
I then dug up a lovely large celeriac. I also dug up a few Leeks, sharing them with my new neighbour opposite, who has done a magnificent job of clearing his plot ready to rotavate it. I remember nice neighbours doing me a favour this way when I started and had yet to have crops to harvest. Interestingly another neighbour queried with me about whether his Leeks were ready and I explained about them running to seed about now. I then noticed one of mine had done so and when the ones I had harvested were prepared to eat this evening some already had the solid core that is the developing flower/seed head.
Finally I dug over where my parsnips grew ready for my early maincrop potatoes. As there were no weeds my Backsaver spade made short work on the 2 by 4 metre patch. I cultivated it straight away to break up any lumps before they dried hard, giving me a lovely patch ready for planting.
I checked my cauliflowers but, although the leaves are curling over nicely, there is no sign of any heads. I may have to wait until May! However, there was quite a crop of Purple Sprouting in the other tunnel and I picked off the Brussel tops and a number of shoots where blown Brussel Sprouts had grown out. They make a lovely, strong tasting, green veg similar the Spring Greens.
I then dug up a lovely large celeriac. I also dug up a few Leeks, sharing them with my new neighbour opposite, who has done a magnificent job of clearing his plot ready to rotavate it. I remember nice neighbours doing me a favour this way when I started and had yet to have crops to harvest. Interestingly another neighbour queried with me about whether his Leeks were ready and I explained about them running to seed about now. I then noticed one of mine had done so and when the ones I had harvested were prepared to eat this evening some already had the solid core that is the developing flower/seed head.
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