Blue Poppies and Mustard

I came home from a week away to find this beauty had produced its first flower. I've been waiting ages for this. Here's another one just coming out:

Below is a patch of mustard green manure, which was just about to start flowering, so the first job I had to tackle was to cut it down. I've left it on the surface to mulch down until my leeks are ready to go in. Believe it or not I did it all with a pair of secateurs, which may sound bonkers but you see I didn't have a strimmer with me and the shears were just too much like hard work. (I'd been up since 3.30am to catch the plane home)

There has been some progress at the plot, a few beans have come up but I've planted some more in pots as back up. Back home in the greenhouse however, everything looked more or less how it did before we went away, a bit disappointing. Chillies are still only an inch high, some of them. Still, there are always a few failures aren't there?

Hungry gap harvesting

This time of year is known as 'the hungry gap' - when your winter/spring crops have all been eaten and your summer ones are not yet ready. If you are very organised AND have plenty of space there are things which are ready at this time of year, such as spring cabbages, cauliflowers and early salads. This year things have been a bit different. I have waited so long for my spring veggies to be ready, it's now almost summer (in theory). Anyway, my caulis are now finally ready, and of course they're all going to be ready at the same time. I've sown lots more for next year but now I'm wondering whether there is a way to stagger them so I don't have this problem again. They are definitely worth growing as they are currently about £1.80 EACH in the shops!

Today I have also harvested some rhubarb for a crumble, and a good sized bag of purple sprouting brocolli - another 'hungry-gap' stalwart.  

I am beginning to get a harvest from my cutting patch now too. These are Camassia, Ranunculus and Tulip 'Spring Green'. On Friday I visited the Malvern Spring Gardening Show, where I spent a very pleasant couple of hours wandering around the floral marquee, getting floral inspiration.

In less than two weeks we are off to Barcelona for half term week, so as well as the usual last minute laundry, shopping and packing I will also be stressing out over seedlings not yet big enough to be planted out, last minute weeding, watering and greenhouse organisation. Usually at this time of year my tomatoes and peppers are all in their final pots, in their final positions in the greenhouse, and all my seedlings would have been planted out for the summer. But this year nothing is ready, and it's still very cold to be planting out tender crops, so I am having to ask my friend/neighbour to look after them all, which I feel is a lot to ask of someone, especially as she will be feeding the cat as well. I hope it won't prove too much trouble.

Slow Progress

           

This year I have decorated my cherry tree (above left) with a windmill and some sparkly wrapping paper ribbons, to try and keep the birds off. It seems to be working, all the blossom still looks pristine.

I have put up some trellis against the rain shelter, and planted some sweet peas at the bottom, so hopefully that will look pretty later in the summer.

I now have a phone which takes reasonable photos, and is also easy to upload the photos to the computer, so I have no excuses not to take regular pictures of progress at the allotment. Not that there has been very much progress, despite the sunny weather we are now enjoying, things are still going frustratingly slowly. Seedlings seem to be taking for ever to do anything. I sowed squash and sweetcorn seeds two weeks ago, and they are only just starting to appear. In fact I have had to re-sow the sweetcorn because it did nothing. This time I have pre-chitted, so hopefully it won't take too long. There are some tiny lettuce seedlings coming up at the plot, and some tiny carrots. I have had to re-sow beetroot because they didn't appear. 

However, at least my potatoes are starting to show, which is reassuring. The broad beans are starting to form flowers and the later row I sowed has also started to come up. Below is mustard green manure, which is growing where the leeks, squashes and sweetcorn will go next month. I'm a bit worried that the cauliflowers will still not be ready by the time these need to be planted out, they're so late. My spring cabbages are still very small but if the worst comes to the worst I'll just have to plant round them.

                         

What a difference a couple of weeks makes

 

Colour in the garden at long last, and they are not the only signs of spring:

This batch of spawn has been laid quite recently, the first batch we had was laid several weeks ago, and then got badly frozen and will probably not have survived. I think I saw a newt in the pond the other day but now I'm beginning to doubt myself because I haven't seen it again since.

These are my hardy annuals, some of them will soon be ready for planting out at the allotment. This morning I moved all my half-hardy annual seedlings out to the greenhouse (from the conservatory) because although it's probably a bit colder in there at night time, it gets warmer earlier in the day and is warmer generally in the daytime so I hope they will make good progress now. This morning I have sown courgettes, squashes and sweetcorn.

At the allotment all my potatoes are now planted, and so are the onion sets which had rooted well in their modules. I have sown carrots, parsnips, beetroot, lettuce, spinach and more broad beans, and also planted a few flowering plants in my cutting patch (SO excited about this!)

It's just occurred to me that I don't have a space allocated to celeriac, which I have decided to give another try this year. I have never had much luck with purple sprouting broccoli, so I'm just wondering now whether to give them a miss this year and use the space for celeriac instead. Decisions, decisions. 

Still too cold for planting....

...so I've found some other jobs to do. In the fruit patch, I sprayed the couch grass a few weeks ago - I know, I'm not really keen on using weedkiller if I don't have to, but you can't really get couch grass out from among raspberries without digging up the whole lot - and now that it has died back I am planning to cover the area with bark chips. There is a big pile in the car park for anyone to use. I started this job this morning, firstly by covering the rows of raspberries.

I took the temperature of the soil as well, with my new soil thermometer - result - less than 1 degree c. Closer to zero actually. So I have taken the drastic step of covering up the potato patch with clear polythene to try and warm it up a bit. I have anchored it down well with bricks, tyres and water barrels, and buried the edges with soil, so I hope it doesn't blow away or rip. I've sown what I can in pots and modules in the greenhouse, and will be doing some more this afternoon, but everything else such as carrots, parsnips, spinach etc that I would normally be sowing around now, will just have to wait.

On a brighter note, here is my first harvest of the year - a lemon - from my lemon tree! It's quite small, and not very juicy, but it definitely looks and tastes like a lemon. Naturally, I used it in a G & T - cheers!

Seed Progress

Well, it's still VERY cold for the time of year (just in case you hadn't noticed...) so progress is rather slow, and much of the normal activity for this time of year has just had to be put on hold. It's two weeks since I made my first sowings, and this is how the seeds have progressed so far:

                               

Tomatoes have done well and have been pricked out. Orange peppers and aubergines likewise, and they are inside my new heated propagator, which I picked up on Friday, 25% off and I had some vouchers to spend. I have left the vents open so they don't get too sweaty. To be honest it doesn't feel that warm inside it, but there is some condensation on the lid so it must be working. These seedlings are being kept inside in the conservatory, which is still very cold, but that's what heated propagators are for, and at least it's bright. Celeriac is doing well, and the chillies are just coming through.

In the greenhouse, the broad beans are doing ok, most of them came up in the end, just 4 no-shows  altogether. These will probably be used to replace the October-sown outdoor ones that have not survivedI the cold winter. I'm still hoping to sow some more direct, when it's warm/dry enough. The hardy annual flowers are mostly coming up, still waiting for the larkspur, sweet peas, sunflowers and scabious. It's quite encouraging, given how cold it's been.

I still haven't put any onions in, I haven't really had a chance to go to the allotment, what with the weather and work etc. I'm thinking of getting a soil thermometer, as I think we have had so few warm days that the soil will be much slower to warm this year. I don't want to sow too early and waste seed. Apparently potatoes need a soil temperature of 6 - 8 degrees to grow, and looking at the chits on my spuds their little sprouts are looking a bit reluctant, and not ready to be planted anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't end up going in until mid-April at this rate.

I'm struggling to stay philosophical about the weather, I know there's nothing we can do about it, but it will be unbearable if after all this cold and wet, we have another summer like last year. Please please PLEASE Mother Nature, don't let that happen....

First of this season's sowing

The trusty windowsill propagator has been taken out, wiped down and plugged in, and into that has gone Sungold and Marmande tomatoes, aubergine 'Ophelia' (mini ones), red and orange peppers, celeriac, Caribbean, Orange Habanero and Memorial Day chillies. (After last year's disaster, I've decided to give celeriac one more chance...)

In addition to these, I have done a variety of hardy annuals: scabious, sweet peas, sunflowers, calendulas, larkspur, godetia, cornflower, chrysanthemum, borage, and echium. These I have sown in pots in the greenhouse. Some are just for the bees, and some are for my cutting patch.  The plan is to sow the half hardy annuals in the propagator once the tomatoes etc have been potted on.

The allotment has been almost all dug over and will soon be ready for planting. I suppose I can begin putting in onions etc quite soon. I've been delaying most of my sowing this year as it's been so cold, but I don't think onions mind a bit of cold soil. I've also got a couple of lily bulbs that have started to shoot in their packaging, so I suppose they will have to go in as well - it does say plant Feb - June so they should be ok.

After such a long, cold and wet winter I'm really champing at the bit now to get going, I think there is milder spring weather just around the corner now....