February-April
2014 January
2014 May 2014 
Saturday 22nd February
First
day for the Shed opening this year. Went up and found hardly any queue for
once. They’ve changed the shallots from Golden Gourmet to something else, drat,
thanks to a new supplier. Look mostly the same though! Bought quite a lot of
them, a pound of onions (thankfully still Sturon) and eight each of Charlotte
and Sárpo Mira as usual.
Put
the spuds to chit and this time remembered to get the onions laid out on paper
plates so they didn’t go mouldy. Planted the shallots in pots, realising a bit
late that I’d not got enough as they were heavy bulbs. Fortunately had some
fairly large Golden Gourmets left so planted them to make up the numbers!
Saturday 12th April
Planted
27 shallots out in the allotment. They have gone next to the garlic, making the
bed all alliums. I am very impressed at the state of the garlics – growing very
strongly. But I guess they would, given the warm winter we just had. Decided to
put a few slug pellets about, since lots of slimies will have survived as well
and I don’t have the luxury these days of risking losing crops.
Leeks
also looking fantastic. Will have to get them up soon or they’ll be bolting.
Time to eat a hole in the freezer I think. Dug a few!
Looking over the main part of the plot Shallots, garlic
and leeks (and a few beetroot)
Wednesday 16th April
Up
to the Lottie after bath time and straight to work planting potatoes. Off came
the cover from the bed and I found very few bindweed shoots given what there
could have been. Hand weeded them out and then dug holes. Instead of manure or
comfrey, put a good number of chicken manure pellets in the bottom and put the
potatoes on top, before covering them with little mounds of soil. Was quite a
relief to get them in given forecasted rain. Have too many other things to
plant out come the weekend.
Potatoes, before covering up. The usual way of doing the
rotation! Back of an envelope…
Friday 18th April
Out
of the house at 11am and then spent an hour trying to find the square
non-deformable netting for the Brussels sprouts cage. Wickes didn’t have any.
No surprise there. Neither did South Heath, which was rather odd, though they
did have the deformable by-the-metre stuff which is just big enough for
butterflies to get through, so useless. Picked up some leek seedlings while
there. Only Musselburgh though. Managed to upset the sprouts all over the place
while going relatively slowly round the Gt Missenden roundabout and had to stop
to rescue them. One snapped but rest OK, if squashed. Cross. Got two packs of
netting at ridiculous cost from Hildreth’s so I have enough for next year, and
finally made it to the Lottie about midday.
Started
out by clearing the old cabbage bed and then digging up the few visible weeds
growing under the weed fabric. Forked it over a bit then planted 140 onion
sets. Sprinkled over a decent lot of chicken pellets. Then moved onto the bed
with the massive marjoram/oregano plant. Lovely smell but taking over, so up it
came. Getting the soil off the roots was fun! That then freed up the space
nicely and I put the covering sheet from the old broccoli bed over it before
planting the sprouts. Getting the netting over was a nightmare. It wasn’t big
enough. So how did the old netting fit last year? After a lot of grumbling,
ended up getting the second pack out and tying them both together and to the
support.
Next
up was tidying the cabbage netting. Decided in the end to take up the cover
from the old spud bed and put the holey cabbage one back down, then put up the
supports and net. No plants, but at least it’s ready and tidy. So only thing
left is the runners bed which Gardening Lady is currently working through.
Garlic, shallots, leeks Potatoes, cabbage, runners, marrow
beds, onions and sprouts.
The
whole plot is looking good. Having it worked and productive for a whole year
makes a massive difference in how it looks the following year, especially when
black weed fabric is used the instant a bed is cleared (and during growing if
possible). I might even cover the runner bean bed this year too, before
planting.
Easter Sunday 20th April
Sowing
today, in the dry of the potting shed as it threw it down outside. Have now got
most of the tender veg sown: French beans (15 pots, x2 seeds), courgettes (6
pots, x1), marrows (3 pots, x1), aubergines (3 pots, x6) and basil (3 pots,
lots). All are in the heated propagator. No runner beans as I can’t find the
packet! Oh and a giant pumpkin which I hope does better than last year’s.
Easter Monday, 21st April
Bought
more runner bean Enorma and sowed 15 pots. Left them in the shed until I can
get the second heated propagator out and plugged in somewhere. That’s the lot.
I hope. If all the cucurbits grow, the plot will look like it’s been taken over
by aliens.
