Hoe, hoe, hoe

Here's the main crop potatoes in a row, the plants are still only smallish, I'll earth them up when they get a bit bigger like I already have done to the earlies. It was a warm sunny afternoon but quite windy, some of the french bean plants I put out have taken a bit of a battering so I'll wait until the others are bigger before I put them in the soil. They're doing well in the greenhouse, six leaves already.

The peas are coming along nicely, the first ones are just beginning to wrap tendrils around the sticks I put out.

The tomato plants are getting a little bigger too, proper leaves developing, they've got a fair way to go before I plant them though.

Likewise with the courgettes and squash, none of the later seeds have come through yet but the first plants are getting bigger.

The artichoke is starting to push up through the centre of the plant, it looks a bit like an acanthus plant, I guess they're related somehow.

I also spent today planting some dwarf beans left over from last year directly into the soil around the compost bin and also potting up some nasturtium seeds. I then had a good hoe around all the vegetables to get rid of the weeds.

Squash and courgettes

I planted ten seeds, two of each variety: Green courgettes, yellow courgettes, patty pan squash, cobnut squash and kobocha. Seven have now germinated, they all look very similar at this stage so I have to be careful about which are which because they don't all have tags like the patty pan squash above.

This is a green courgette plant. The three that didn't germinate were one of the yellow courgettes and both of the kobocha, I dug around in the soil and in all three it seemed the seed hadn't done anything yet so I threw them out and planted up some more.

I spent £5 of my birthday garden centre vouchers and bought some more parsnips and some beetroot, both seeds on a tape which I planted above. I also bought some sunflower seeds which I decided to start off in pots.

The greenhouse is getting rather full so although it's a little early I decided to plant out twelve of the french bean seedlings next to canes. I'll see how they get on before I put anymore out.

Hot on the plot

It was very warm and sunny today on the allotment. The first thing i did was go and check on the seedlings, they were all fine but I decided to repot a few things. Above is a broccoli plant with it's first true leaves, I split some of the pots where more than one plant had grown and filled in the the two pots the slugs had got to.

This tiny seedling is a tomato plant, there are ten in all that I transferred from a seed tray  into individual pots, to help them grow on better, it'll be a good while before they get planted out. I also potted some cabbages and gave the whole lot a good watering.

The potatoes are coming on well in the good weather and there is a clear row of the early plants.

Spot the difference? These are the main crop tatties.

Second peas are just beginning to show so I gave them a dose of bug killer so they don't end up with scalloped edge leaves like their older siblings. In fact I gave all the beans and peas a squirt of bug killer.

This is the bud forming at the centre of the artichoke, I hope to be able to eat it one day bit the plant isn't all that big so we'll have to wait and see.

The strawberries are covered in flowers at the moment, I hope I get a bumper crop.

Here's a bee going into a broad bean flower, they were buzzing about all over the place. I also strimmed the rest of the grass and then dug over the area by the compost heap, I need to plant something there to stop the grass growing back.

Bluebells

There's a lovely patch of Bluebells growing behind the shed, I really ought to plant more flowers in the allotment, I'm just not sure what's best.

The peas are coming along nicely but seem to have been rather nibbled around the edges, I don't think this is the work of pigeons as they would have stripped the whole lot and as you can see there are quite a few slug pellets around the plants to protect them. I bought some bug spray and gave the peas and beans all a good squirt, I then covered half the beans and put sticks next to the others for some bird protection.

My potatoes are beginning to grow, I was hoeing out the weeds and then I found them, just small plants but a good start. The earlies have come on better than the main crop but they are showing too in places.

The french beans have all germinated and grown, they weren't even showing last weekend and now look at them! I had planted the seeds in trays but repotted each seedling today, there's about thirty of them! There are also tiny tomato seedlings  and the cabbages and broccoli are doing much better now I've protected them from the slugs.

More rhubarb of course! These sticks are thinner and I'm not sure how many more crops I'll get this season but I'm not bored of crumble yet.

It was just about a year ago I put up my shed, doesn't time fly. Looking back in the archive it seems I'm much further on this year although that's not surprising.

Pea shoots

The peas have started to sprout, they're very tiny as you can see. It's been a warm sunny week and everything is coming on fast including the weeds. A few of the broccoli and cabbage seedlings had been munched by slugs so copious amounts of blue slug pellets have gone down around the greenhouse and some around the strawberries for good measure.
I planted up some courgette and squash seeds today, a little early perhaps but I'll get them going in the greenhouse and not plant them out until at least mid May. After last years courgette madness I've been a little more economic planting two yellow and two green types as well as two patty pan squash, two kobocha and two cobnut squash. I'll see if they all germinate and then decide where to plant them, I might see if I can grow the kobocha over the roof shed!

Another rhubarb harvest, ;ast weeks were delicious and there's enough here for another crumble too. Picking rhubarb is very satisfying, you reach down the stalk to just above the ground then twist and pull, there's a sort of pop as the stalk comes away.
To round things off after much weeding I put in a second row of peas lets hope they sprout in a couple of weeks as well.

New plants

The weather turned out much better than forecast for today so I made another visit to the plot. I planted up some asparagus seeds I had from last year, not sure what I'll do with them if they take but it's worth a go I thought. Then I did a bit of weeding, the weeds are all beginning to take hold so it's best to get them as early as possible. After that I decided to go to the garden centre where I bought some new strawberries, three plants each of two different varieties, Cambridge and Hapil.

I then replaced my rosemary with a bigger plant than I had last year, so I hope it'll survive the next winter.

This is the broccoli that I planted last week, three seeds to a pot and here all three have already germinated. As Paul pointed out it's not ready to eat yet!

I'm afraid the cabbages are even smaller, you can just see them there but it's difficult to focus on something so small with my camera phone. I also bought some more 3" pots and some courgette seeds, after last year I won't plant nearly so many courgettes but I do want to have a few.

Rhubarb!

I picked my first crop of rhubarb today! Not the longest of stalks but they're okay. The main clump was forming a flower head which I pulled up and then thought I'd better pick some stalks seeing as they looked so nice, I also picked a few from the second clump, which were thinner but pinker.

The new rhubarb grew quickly but I don't think I'll pick any of it this year, it needs to build up some strength before it's ready to be harvested.

Above we can see the two rows of beans and the garlic, which are all doing well. The weather has been warm with a bit of sunshine, bees were buzzing about and I saw a few butterflies. I planted some tomato seeds and also some french beans in tray and put them in the cold frame. Some of the broccoli plants I planted last weekend had already sprouted, no sign of the cabbages though. They'll both have a long growing season before they're ready to eat.

I now have dozens of strawberry flowers, they weren't nearly so early last year but they might have been held back because I had only just moved them in February when I first got the plot. The beans have likewise produced a few more flowers although they need to grow a bit taller yet.

There was a lot of new growth on the herbs so I picked some sage (above), parsley, oregano and thyme. The rosemary seems to the only one that didn't survive the winter, I'll have to get a new plant.

Also some growth on the lavender, the new shoots are really minty green against the bluer old leaves.

A close up of that rhubarb - yum yum.