18 March 2007 Weather damp and cool
Begin clearing the beds from the bottom left. Cleared around the herbs and around the plum trees.
Planted two more gooseberry bushes and a blackcurrant bush
25 March 2007 Overcast and light drizzle, warming up.
Planted three rows of onions (Stuttgart giant- bought off eBay for £1 plus P+P+) and two rows of shallots (Golden gourmet-99p).
1 April 2007 Overcast, light drizzle, and warm
Cleared the grass from the next bed along and planted a few raspberry canes. Dug over half this bed. This is where the spuds will go. Bought these in late February from eBay: King Edwards (6), Desiree (6), Pink Fir Apple (18) and International kidney -better know as Jersey Royal(10). These were £2 for the whole lot. They were chitted in egg boxes in the spare toilet.
8 April 2007
After reading on various blogs and websites about the pros and cons of direct or pot sowing, decide to start some parsnips (Tender and True) off at home. Planted about 28 peat pots with two seeds per pot in seed compost, also some French marigolds and beetroot (Globe 2).
9 April 2007 Has been damp weather but warming up now
I had meant to plant the spuds on Good Friday (6 April) as it is the traditional day to do this (first days holiday for the peasants after Christmas), but it chucked it down. Spuds went in today.
Richard helped with more digging over and clearing the area next to the spuds. This is where the various beans will go in.
Began skimming off the next area. This will be for roots.
16 April 2007
At home sowed four pumpkin seeds (F1 Becky) in large pots under homemade propagator (made from a small cardboard box lined with plastic and a PVC bag some of Evie’s bedding came in). Also planted 12 sweetcorn (Honey Bantam F1 Hybrid) seeds in pots in a normal propagator.
23 April 2007 The weather over the last few weeks has been very dry and warm for April more like later in May or June.
Planted 20 broad bean (The Sutton, a dwarf variety) seeds, two per station under cloches made from 4 pint plastic milk bottles. These have gone into a row adjacent to the spuds.
They spuds are showing now, main-crop more than the earlies. The pink fir apple seem as though they can’t be bothered, though I read somewhere they can take a while to show. If I remember correctly the seed tubers did seem a bit softer than the others, this may be partly to blame.
Next to the onions put in two small (1m) rows of radish (Sparkler 3).
The Gardener in chief paid a visit today to oversee progress. Evie seemed pleased with how things were going so far, but requested a little more progress in the coming weeks as she envisaged a need for a nice tea every night.
5 May 2007 Warm and dry
Built an ‘A’ frame from steel rods with Richard and his mate Steve (who provided the steel). This is next to the broad beans.
12 May 2007 Cooler and raining today. Certainly needed, as it’s been hot and dry with very little rain over the last month.
All but 3 of the parsnips pots failed to germinate. They are taking too much space, recycled the compost and decide to sow direct, if and when the bed is ready. The marigolds have done well and are ready for planting.
The pumpkins have done well as have the sweetcorn. I have decided to harden these off by putting them outside in the day and in at night. Then leaving them out overnight in a clear plastic storage box with the lid on for a few nights prior to planting out.
At home sowed 12 runner beans (Best of all) and 8 broad beans (The Sutton) in 10cm pots in propagators in Evie’s room by the window. Also sown in a 24 cell black tray with basic plastic lid 12 cabbage (Golden Acre-Primo (II)) and 12 lettuce (Red Salad bowl). These have gone outside on the window ledge.
I also bought 6 strawberry plants (Elsanta), bit of a rubbish variety favoured by supermarkets, but it was all they had in stock and I had vouchers. I also got a couple of sweet pea plants for a few cut flowers for Danielle. Dropped these of at the plot and added bamboo canes to the steel ‘A’ frame.
Really need to do some weeding the onion patch is full of them. The spuds are coming on very well and need earthing up.
16 May 2007 Light rain and cooler with a few sunny spells.
Weeded the onion patch, hoeing between rows and by hand around the onions. It took ages after two weeks of neglect. Loads of horsetails and dandelions (paying for sloppy digging earlier!) and many more annual weeds.
Earthed up the spuds, the main-crop seem to be growing faster than the new type.
Planted out the sweetcorn plants (12) in a 3x4 grid at the end of the bean ‘A’ frame. Planted out 3 pumpkin plants, (one had snapped off ‘in transport’), by the herbs. As these are quite tender I put one of my 99p plastic poly tunnels over them. Closed the ends off but left small air vent so air can circulate if it gets hot.
The strawberry plants have gone in next to the gooseberry bush, which lives at the end of the spuds. There are also three raspberry canes here. As birds love soft fruit I have built a frame of six one metre canes with wire around the top. Over this has gone green plastic fruit netting, which should keep the birds out.
Between the onions and radish I have sown two rows of beetroot (Globe 2) under 1cm of fine soil. Covered this with fleece to speed up germination and keep off the creatures, which would like to eat the seedlings.
The plot is finally looking like an allotment now, rather than a piece of wasteland with a few fruit bushes dumped on it. A whole one side of the plot (bar the bit around the plum trees are) has not been touched but the other side looks pretty good, for a beginner.
Broad beans are not showing, had a poke under the soil at one, it has germinated, so hopefully it will follow the heat source to the light (everybody needs the light).
26 May 2007 In Ireland so no idea about weather, but until our return it was apparently hot (25c and dry). Raining now, heavily.
Returned from a week’s holiday to find the runner beans sown in pots fortnight ago are growing very well, 25-30cm tall and in desperate need of planting pout. The broad beans are fine, about 5 cm high.
Also I had planted a herb growing kit (polystyrene box, compost and coriander, basil and chive seeds -£2 in sale at Homebase) at the same time as the beans and these are doing well, probably keep these at home. I may sow some coriander on the plot though.
The cabbages and lettuces in the cell tray on the window ledge are more variable. The cabbages seem to doing ok, about 10 of the 12 cells have nice seedlings in them. The lettuces are pathetic, only four seem worth saving. If they dried out or the wind damaged them (the window-ledge is on the first floor and they were uncovered), I don’t know.
27 May 2007
Still raining though quite mild.
At home sowed two pumpkins and six sweetcorn in pots. This is in case the ones I have planted out have not fared so well. Also sowed six 8 cm pots with fennel (Chiarino) and six 6cm peat pots with more lettuce (Red Salad bowl).
In my seed tin, noticed a packet of peas. I had forgotten to sow these when I did the beans (or ran out of compost?). Sowed six 10cm pots of the peas (Kelvedon wonder), they are fast growing dwarf variety.
29 May 2007
Sunny with a few rain showers, little cooler (14c) than recently as the wind is from NW. The nights have been chilly 5c, cold for late May.
At last get down to the plot. Weeds are rampant as expected.
Start with the onions, as this is the worst job, other than digging. Takes 45 minutes to do them. Then earthed up the spuds, a few have flowered, so I nipped off the flower heads, as the flowers waste the energy that could go into growing the tubers.
The spuds have really come on and even the Pink Fir apple, which hadn’t chitted well and were very slow to start, are starting to do well. The main-crop plants must now be 70-80 cm high including the ridge they sit on.
The sweetcorn look OK, though three are missing. Eaten I suppose. The broad beans are finally through and about 3-5 cm high, the ones in pots at home took three weeks less to reach this stage!
Under the fleece the beetroot has germinated, though a little patchy. Thinned them out where they have come through in clumps.
The pumpkins look established now; I removed the poly-tunnel, as I know they like lots of water. Hopefully we won’t have a frost now.
The gooseberry bush now has quite a lot of fruits on it, much more than the one that isn’t under net. Maybe the birds had most of those. The strawberry plants are flowering, so hopefully they will fruit soon.
Plum trees have quite a lot of fruit on, though I think they need cutting back a little. I will do this in the autumn and they may crop more heavily next year.
The runner beans have gone in around the ‘A’ frame, dug the soil for the third time here, even after dry spells it’s pretty moist underneath so I hope they will flourish.
