More sowing

Sowed ~12-15 peas, all one type; also sowed 5 each of Nantais Hatif and Brunswick Cabbages.

Seedling Update

Seedling update:
Tomatoes, Aubergines, Foxgloves, doing ok.
Greyhound/Red Cabbage, Cauliflower, Morning Glory,
Put the first Broad Beans out of the greenhouse for the day,
First sign of the lemongrass and the chillies sprouting this week,
no sign yet of the celeriacs, cucumbers or the second broad beans, Nantais/Brunswick Cabbages (in Greenhouse)
Fed Citrus

Back to the Allotment

Gate manufactured and installed, as per photo.

Garlic growing well, Onions, Shallots sprouting, signs of a couple of broad beans poking out of the ground. Raspberries look like they're alive (unlike the ones we bought from lidl last year).

Moved the compost heap and put it on some chicken wire, dug over the beds for the carrots, parsnips, and then fleeced one bed to make it warm up a bit.

Planted first bed of potatoes - 10 Rockets, 6 charlottes, 6 Arran Pilots and a lot of Belle de Fontenays.

Some Pictures

Paper pots in the greenhouse

Squash House -















Fig Tree repotted



















Also, potatoes on the windowsill to chit.

Planting 15 March

First use of the greenhouse today. Planted out lots of things to germinate in paper pots:
More broad beans (witkiem manita) x 10 .The ones germinated in the house are blasting away and we've moved them out to the greenhouse. We should be able to plant them out next weekend if they carry on at this pace.
Peas - planted 12 each of the two varieties, Avola and Tafila. The Tafila seeds have just gone out of date, but fingers crossed that they'll germinate anyway. I should have planted twice as many of each, but didn't have enough pots. I'll try to make some more to plant in during the week.
Leeks - sown in cat litter tray (surprisingly cheap). Three rows of each of Monstrueux de Charteran, Bleu de Solaise and Blue Green Autumn Neptune (left over from last year)
Cabbages - planted only four of each type - Brunswick and Nantais Hatif - as I'd run out of pots. Will do more in the week.
Cucumber - planted 4 of Wautoma. Fingers crossed since the cucumber was such a disaster last year with its sudden death. Bit nervous about having to pollinate and deal with male flowers.
Lastly in the greenhouse, I've repotted the fig into the big green pot. I gave it some of our compost but I'm not 100% sure that the soil is good enough. Will keep an eye on it and give more compost if it's flagging. Fig will stay in the greenhouse for another week or two, before moving to alongside the garage.

Lettuce - planted a half row of each Reine de Glaces and Sonette outside, straight into the salad bed. It might be too early, but it's so warm today that it's difficult to believe it will be cold again (not that I'm trying to tempt fate or anything). Also, seem to have planted them on top of Ian's spring onions (unmarked).

Celeriac - planted seven large pots for germination on the kitchen windowsill. It's a bit difficult to tell how many seeds I planted as they are a bit like dust. They need to be kept at between 18 and 20 degrees so I hope our house is warm enough.

The boring details

Things planted/germinated so far:
Aubergines: purple and thai green both potted 20/2/09 (indoors, no sign yet)
Chillis: potted 20/2/09 (indoors, no sign yet)
Broad Beans: potted 10 beans 23/2/09, ~5 germinated, still indoors
" " : 10 broad beans planted 28/02/09, no sign as yet.
Cabbages - Greyhound and Red Drumhead, potted indoors 9/03/09
Caulliflowers: idol, mini, planted ?/?/09, most germinated so far.
Garlic: planted 18/01/09 directly in a ridge, under snow 1st feb - 14th, germinated by 28th, growing healthily. Reserves planted in pots 29/01/09, germinated, planted into ground 11/03/09. (Two types - arno and marco)
Elephant garlic: planted with garlic, no sign yet, but some evidence of rooting.
Khol Rabi: potted indoors 9/03/09
Onions: red baron, planted directly 5/03/09, fleeced, ~4" spaces
Shallots: jermor + 1 other type, planted 5/03/09, fleeced, ~6" spaces (fitted 2 lines of garlic, ~30 shallots, ~100 onions in 1 bed.)
Tomatoes: marmande, potted late feb/early march. No sign yet.
Lemongrass: potted 20/2/09 (indoors, no sign yet)

Broad Beans?:

The story so far

We got an allotment at the beginning of October 2008. It was pretty overgrown, although abandoned fairly recently. You can see the remains of the previous owner's runner beans looming over the rest of the plot. We dug and dug some more until we had removed as many of the weeds as we could. We divided it into fourteen beds, each 10ft by 4 ft with small paths between. We edged the beds with wood reclaimed from old pallets and surrounded the allotment with a chicken wire fence to keep out the reportedly pernicious rabbits and pheasants/partridges. Five months later we have a respectable looking allotment and it lacks only a gate for perfection.