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....

A Long Winter Break

No, I haven't given up blogging, there has just been very little allotment-related activity going on, and my mind hasn't really been on vegetable growing since the bad weather set in all those weeks ago. The only thing I have done is to re-roof the shelter with felt shingles left over from our garden office. The flimsy corrugated plastic blew off in the gales a couple of days after fixing it on. Lesson learned. I still need to fix some braces to the back and sides (it's a bit wobbly) and I might fix some of those willow hurdles onto the back and sides to keep out the worst of the weather. But the water butt is now full and will probably soon be overflowing.

These are the broad beans I put in last October/November, and they have come through the cold, snowy spell pretty well I think. I am going to sow some more in March, and I will probably do a few in pots during February as well. I want loads of broad beans, they are very popular in our family and they freeze very well too.

The garlic hasn't minded the cold either, and the onions (left side of picture) have grown noticeably during the last few mild days.

Now that the veg-related parts of my brain are coming out of dormancy, and the sap is rising (so to speak) I am starting to feel impatient to get going again. I haven't ordered any seeds yet, I'm going to wait and see whether Thompson and Morgan start sending me vouchers and offers like they did last year. In a couple of week's time I will be going off to choose my seed potatoes, and I have asked the kitchens at work for some of their empty egg trays, as I suddenly realise I have failed to save any egg boxes for chitting in.

While I haven't been giving much thought to veg, I have been getting quite excited about my new flower-growing project, and have spent quite a bit of time over the winter poring over flower seed catalogues, and learning about the technicalities of caring for cut flowers, from some books I got for Christmas. So - now  I'm raring to go, just need the rain and wind and snow to go away so I can get down there and start digging!

Water Collection and Shelter

This weekend's project was to construct a rainwater harvesting and dry tool storage structure. We are not allowed sheds on our site, so quite a few people have built something similar. Mine is fairly basic and probably not the most sturdy, but it should do the job. Above is what we got done yesterday afternoon, below is the (almost) finished object.

Apart from the two posts and metposts at the back, all the wood has been salvaged from the allotment site or from our shed at home. I did have to buy the corrugated plastic for the roof, and the guttering.

All it needs now is a bit of downpipe for the gutter, and a couple of pieces of trellis I thought I could attach to the sides, then I can pretty it up a bit with annual climbers in the summer, which will provide a bit of shade, should I ever need it. 

A look at my plot

It's been some time since I took my camera to the plot, so as it was a lovely sunny afternoon, (after a number of nasty wet days) and it's also been some time since I posted, I thought I would take the opportunity to update you.

I have cleared the very weedy, overgrown strawberry patch, reducing them to two rows, to make them easier to net in the summer, and to make more room for my flower patch next year.

I have put in some tulip bulbs, and this little Chinese lantern plant which was going cheap at the garden centre. Behind that, the fruit bushes which I have pruned quite drastically.

Here is where my beans were. I decided the easiest thing to do was just to spread them out over their patch, to help smother all the weeds over the winter. I have left the dwarf beans in, as ground cover, for the same reason.

We are still eating tomatoes as they ripen, and I had to bring in all the peppers to ripen on the windowsill. They do ripen, but not without going all wrinkly at the same time. I have been charring the skins under the grill and peeling them, there won't be many going to waste. I brought the chilli plants into the conservatory where they are ripening beautifully.

Other than that we are now very much onto the winter veg... a few carrots are left, and some winter cabbages. I dug up the first couple of parsnips the other day - one huge and one quite respectable, so that is promising. Sprouts are nearly ready, as are leeks. Looking ahead to next spring and summer, there will hopefully be purple sprouting brocolli, cauliflowers and spring cabbages, and I have put in some broad beans, garlic and overwintering onions