More sowings and plantings....

I sowed these sweet peas back in February, they are starting to put on some serious growth now.


These are the greyound cabbages I sowed last week (or was it the week before?), and the leeks are starting to sprout now too, which were sown on the same day.


The Stevia (left) has grown a little bit - I have put the pots into a tub of water and I'm keeping them quite wet, which has given them a little boost. On the right are some Heatwave chillies, the first to germinate. And next to these, below, in the propogators are more chillies (in various stages of germination) and two lots of tomato - Ferline and Legend. Both are meant to be blight resistant, which is just as well as they are destined for the allotment.


Speaking of the allotment, still no sign of the broad beans. I'm getting a bit worried now. Perhaps they still need more of a chance. The garlic is doing great and the autumn planted onions not too bad. On Sunday I planted about 10 more rows of onion sets. I hope I haven't overdone it. The weeding is going to be a nightmare....

Other news: we have exchanged contracts on our new house, and have accepted an offer on this one!

Shallots are in!

This is one corner of my alium bed, on the right is the garlic - doing quite well, further along are the overwintered onions, not quite so perky. I have scattered a few chicken manure pellets among them so with any luck they will start to green up and get going soon. A row of shallots has gone in next, to demarcate the spring planted onions from the autumn ones.

Here are the still rather small and puny leeks, in last year's alium bed, this year's potato bed. Below is the purple sprouting brocolli, which seems to have been about to sprout for several weeks, but still hasn't. I'm seriously wondering whether it's worth growing any psb this season. Because I may have a new allotment by this time next year, I don't really want to plant anything I may not be able to harvest. And it needs so much looking after for such a long time. Maybe I'll just do a couple of the early sort and it can share a row with the brussels sprouts. I've never done sprouts before but I have set myself a goal to grow all our own veg for Christmas dinner. I'm doing some parsnips as well, also a new departure for me.

These are the stevia seedlings, sown on the 8th February! I've never known anything grow as slowly as these are doing. They are about the size of a 5p.

Even the celeriac, sown only a week before, are romping ahead in comparison!

Somehow I don't think I will be using stevia to cook my rhubarb!

I have sown my chilli seeds, they are in the heated propogator, and also some leeks and some Greyhound cabbages, in the greenhouse. Everything else will have to wait until the week after next. I have a very busy week coming up - it's the last week of term at work, which means putting in extra hours to get the reports/end of term mailing out; our house is now on the market, with the first viewers coming tomorrow morning, which means constant cleaning and tidying from now on, plus I have just taken on two big curtain-making jobs. That and the start of seed sowing frenzy should keep me busy over the Easter holidays.

Anyway, I have just had a phone call from my mother to say thank you for her Mother's Day card, and to ask how my Mother's Day had gone, to which I was able to say: I received two beautiful home-made cards, with some very touching words inside, a bar of chocolate, and some lovely hugs from my two lovely boys. My husband is now cooking the supper while I amuse myself with blogging.

Greenhouse Springclean

Well it may not look terribly tidy, but I have turned out the whole thing and swept away all the cobwebs, dead leaves, dusty old compost etc etc. The pots are all clean(ish) and ready to be filled with seeds, and I have put up the shelves ready to put the pots of seeds on!


I haven't cleaned the glass, but that can wait until I take it apart when we move. It looks as if we are almost definitely moving now. Everything is in place ready to exchange contracts, so fingers crossed. Until this morning all those pots were stacked up outside the back door, looking a real eyesore and not really what you want your prospective buyers to see, hence the clear out. I have been tarting up the house a bit as well, touching up paint here and there and generally tidying and cleaning. We are putting it on the market next week.

I have also emptied a finished bin of compost and bagged it up ready to take up to the allotment. Such a satisfying job, but I ran out of old bags and had to make do with all sorts of odd little containers.

Tomorrow I am going to sow some more broad bean seeds (at the plot), maybe also some shallots - I noticed someone else has obviously put some shallots in a while ago because they have already grown quite a lot. Perhaps they overwintered them. I will also dig up the remaining carrots, and with what is left after I've extracted all the bugs and cut out all the nasty bits, make some soup.

I'm going to have a massive seed sowing session during the first week of my Easter holiday (week commencing 22nd March). I reckon this is soon enough as it's still really quite cold, especially at night.