It's a sign!

Plot 68 has two new signs, a birthday present from my Dad. He made them himself and painted them in several coats of bright green paint, the colour of the kitchen cabinets in about 1988. I saw one of the site inspectors as I was carrying them in, he said their ought to be a competition for the best plot sign.
The other thing you might spot in this picture down by the shed is my new mini-greenhouse. It cost £9.99 from Argos and is neither mini nor a green house as such, more like a plastic bag that goes over a few shelves. I had seen similar things for germinating seeds so looked online at Argos to see what they had, I didn't want anything too big as I planned to cycle home with it, the mini two-teir greenhouse was ideal so I reserved it and went to pick it up. I was rather surprised by the size of it, opening the box I found that it was the trays that made it so large as they were in one piece, there was no way to cycle with the box so in the end I took it to the plot on Thursday lunchtime by tube from Victoria to Putney Bridge and walked the rest of the way which took just over an hour in all.

Today I built the greenhouse and then went to the garden centre to get some compost and seed trays. I've planted up two types of courgettes, dwarf beans, french beans and some savoy cabbage all in trays which I've left to germinate. It was surprising how much warmer it felt in greenhouse, I do hope this works.
Out on the plot I could see that the weeds have been growing a pace, the seem to have done best in the area that I spread the horse manure on earlier this year, which begs the question were the seeds in the manure or has the manure enriched the soil to make the weeds grow? I don't know but it'll make me think twice before doing this again. When weeding I discovered that I have got some leeks after all, they are absolutely tiny like weedy bits of grass, I hadn't seen them before because they're so small and there are so many weeds. Also with closer inspection the parsnips have germinated as well which is good news as I was beginning to wonder if I'd done something wrong, the only vegetables that haven't come through are the carrots which I will give a bit longer and have some more to plant still anyway and the perpetual spinach. I'm giving up on the spinach I think, I'm not sure if I planted it too early or too deep but not a single thing has yet sprouted and they are in a very clear patch next to the radishes which are doing fine.
After all this weeding and sowing I then decided to start my herb garden along the top of the plot, I've planted seeds for lavender, thyme, rosemary, sage and flat leaf parsley. Much cheaper than buying plants, lets see if they grow.

What a difference a day makes

A few more daffodils in bloom

A day later and a bit more sunshine and spring has sprung a little bit more as you can see.

A warm sunny afternoon so I planted some seed tapes - The seed tapes have ready spaced seeds on them so although I'll have to thin them a bit it'll be much easier than hand sown seeds. They were also very easy for planting, just make a shallow trench, roll out the seeds and cover them over. Today I've plant parsnips, radishes, leeks and perpetual spinach, they all came in 5m long tapes which is just short of one row on my plot, in fact the parsnips did fill a whole row either they were a longer 5m or the plot narrows at that point.

I also planted out some garlic cloves to finish off the onion set rows from yesterday, I just used a regular shop bought head of garlic split up - as the Vegetable And Herb Expert book suggests, it goes on to warn you about using your garlic very sparingly 'or you'll be put off forever', rubbing a salad bowl with one clove then discarding it is apparently enough to start with 'then if you have lost a little of your garlic fear, you can try using crushed garlic on meat as the Continentals do.'