Getting Things Done!............................

With the weather being great all week, it gave me the opportunity to get stuck in and get things done on the plot.
At the start of the week I planted out 3 different variety's of main crop potatoes," Carra," "Dessiree "and "Pink Fur Apple". With these and the "Pentland Javellin" and "Kestral" that were already planted hopefully that should give me enough potatoes to last me many months.
In the first bed at the front of the plot I have planted "All Year Round" Cauliflowers and "Primo" Cabbages. To save them from being eaten by the pigeons, I have protected them with debris netting.
In another bed I planted out a dozen of each of "Evesham" Sprouts and a variety of Red Cabbage the name of which I cant seem to remember at the moment. Again, these are protected by debris netting.
I have built two bean frames, one for Runner Beans and the other for a variety of French Climbing Bean both of which are coming on well in the greenhouse.
I also sowed Petis Poir Peas, Mooli, Spring Onions, Breakfast Radish and Beetroot directly into various beds.
I was given a Sunberry plant this week by a fellow plot holder. To be honest, I have never heard of them before. By all accounts its a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry, the fruit of which is supposed to be very sweet. This has been planted with the rest of the soft fruits.

I managed to get a fair bit of digging done but because of the large amount of "cooch" grass roots that need to come out, it seems to be taking forever to finish the last bed.

In the greenhouse everything is doing well, all but 3 of my sweetcorn have come through, not bad considering I have about 50 plants.
The down side of the week is that a number of sheds have been broken into and tools stolen. Because of this I have fitted an additional lock to my shed hopefully to deter the B******ds.

Busy Busy Busy...........

Went to the allotment this morning to find the place packed, the car park was full and there were fellow plot holders everywhere. Its amazing how a bit of good weather brings them out.
After spending some time chatting and drinking coffee, which seems to be the norm, i finally got around to doing some work.
Started off some sweetcorn in pots, hopefully these will be ready for the end of May, and then I pricked out some celery seedling, which have been given to me. There are two types, one is a self blanching variety, and the other is called "Giant Pascal", which I am lead to believe will require blanching manually. This is done by rapping the celery in newspaper or corrugated cardboard once it reaches a certain size. I will need to find out when exactly at a latter date. Other plot holders I have spoken to seem to have had trouble growing celery in the past, but hey! I'm willing to have a go, as the old saying goes "Nothing ventured, Nothing Gained". I'm really grateful for the free seedlings because the celery seeds I sowed, all failed to germinate.
I managed to sow a couple of rows of Parsnips directly into my root bed before I went home. These are in addition to the ones started off in toilet roll tubes which I have already planted.

Plot Update..........

A few photos of the plot and the things that are growing at the moment







A section of the potato bed

Broad Beans, Winter Onions & Garlic

My early peas are starting to flower

Red Currant

One of three gooseberries that was moved from another plot in the Autumn seems to be coming on well

The coldframes are full with yound plants hardening off

Sweet Peas, Cauliflower Cabbage & Sprouts

Shallot Seedlings

Blackcurrent cuttings taken the end of the summer and over wintered in the cold frame

On Saturday I spent a few hours in the greenhouse potting on some of my Tomatoes and Brassicas. I also started off some extra tomatoes (Moneymaker), 6 different variety's of courgettes and some watermelons.
Over the last few weeks I have been starting off parsnips in toilet roll tubes as apposed to sowing them directly in the ground. A number of them had germinated and the tap root had reached the bottom of the tube so I planted them out in the root bed. I also sowed a couple of rows beetroot and four rows of carrots while I was at it.

Update.....

Things are really starting to move now, the cauliflowers, Primo cabbage and some of the sprouts have been moved to the cold frames along with the onion seedlings so as to make room in the greenhouse.
Also in the cold frames are my sweet peas. They are starting to look a wee bit on the leggy side, I will need to make a decision on when to plant these out shortly and take a chance that we don't get any frosts.
Last week I planted out my main crop onions and shallots , but a couple of days later, I realised that I hadn't got any Red Onions so it was a trip out to go and buy some, so they are also in now.
I finished digging my new salad bed during the week, so hopefully it wont be long before I get something planted in it .
Lynn came to the allotment this after noon and hand weeded my winter onion beds for me while I planted out my second early potatoes ( Kestrel ). That's another job done , but there is still so much to do.