Sunday 22 March 2009

Greenhouse space is running out..


I have sowed more tomato seeds this year than ever before, which might seem a little foolhardy after the last two years, however, I have started relatively early, so I have a fighting chance of harvesting a reasonable amount before any blight strikes, and you never know, we may even have a good, hot summer! I will also be growing as many as I can fit in the greenhouse, so I should still get a decent crop even if we do get blight. At the moment though I am running out of space in the greenhouse, and there is still more potting on to be done. I have put these tomato and pepper seedlings into newspaper pots, which are a decent size and as they are flexible, you can fit 8 or 9 into a shoebox.

Down on the plot, I have put onions in - white, red and shallots. The garlic is looking good, but the overwintered onions still a bit feeble. If they don't come to anything I could always do extra leeks I suppose. I have also done lots more weeding and digging, and planted two loganberry plants, one of them is from my father-in-law's garden, one that layered itself. Two of the three blackcurrent bushes appear to have died, so now I have to decide whether to replace with more dodgy Wilkos ones, or spend money on garden centre ones. Decisions decisions.

In the 'perennial patch', the rhubarb is coming on nicely, and I am considering forcing the biggest, best established plant, but I'm dithering a bit and if I'm going to do it I should get on with it, before it starts growing properly. One reason why I'm dithering is that I'm not sure the plant is strong/established enough yet, and the other is that it's right next to the fence by the path, and large upside down container drawing attention to itself would be an open invitation to vandals and troublemakers. Speaking of which, there was an incident up there yesterday afternoon: I was digging away happily when a teenage lad ran past, hotly pursued by a police car, two police officers jumped out and managed to catch him. They arrested him and took him away, but I don't know what he had done.

Also in the perennial patch, the comfrey is coming up and I planted a selection of flowering perennials. I've also got wildflowers sown, and sunflowers, and this is all in the interests of biodiversity. I really want to do more borage, as it was so popular with the bees, but I can't seem to find the seeds I saved from last year.

This afternoon I will just be mowing the lawn, so probably no more allotment action until I plant my potatoes, probably next weekend for earlies, around Easter for maincrop.

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