Wednesday 4 May 2011

New Asparagus plants and an allotment update

My asparagus plants which I planted last year weren't a great success, only three out of ten survived.  I don't know why as I planted them all the same, in the same way and the same depth, and the three survivors look very healthy.  Anyway today I received ten new very healthy  replacement plants kindly sent by Stephen and Serena at Victoriana Nursery.  Here they are all planted up  looking small at the moment, but I have a good feeling about these, some are planted in another row just out of view.

Thanks to  Stephen and Serena for replacing them !!























I harvested the last of the Purple Sprouting Broccoli at the week-end. Out of six plants which had all grown very tall and looked healthy until our severe winter, only three survived and only one of those gave any decent pickings. It really wasn't worth waiting any more for the measly pickings left as I needed the bed to get my canes up ready for the runner and french beans.

So the bed is ready for the beans which are growing like 'Jack's Beanstalk' in the greenhouse and need to go in. I will probably get them in next week, surely we wont get any more frosts after next week ????

The Greenhouse is productive !



The Tayberry is doing amazingly well and has had loads of flowers, so hopefully lot's of fruit this summer.

There are so many flowers on the strawberries, and not just on my plot. Everyone else's plots seems to be having a successful year with the strawberries too.

Rhubarb has been amazing this year. It's the third year now so all the different varieties (which I forgotten the names as the tags are now lost !)  are at the right stage of maturity for a full picking. YUM !!!


The gooseberries are full of fruit, but I am a little concerned about the colour of the green gooseberry fruit as it looks like it's tinged a bit pink !!  and NO this isn't the red gooseberry which is green at the moment, but does turn red later on. The labels are still on the bushes from when I first planted them, so I know I haven't mixed them up (as the hubby suggested) so it's a bit of a concern in case there is something wrong with the green one (any Ideas anyone ????) I just clicked to enlarge this photo and the fruit looks a bit spikey doen't it ?  I must go back and check this out tomorrow.

The green gooseberry (honest)


The red gooseberry (it goes red later on) below. I checked the original tags still intact and it really is the red variety



 And finally, broad beans (doing very well) and red veined spinach, I love this variety and have also grown the larger leaved green one and a baby leaved variety as well ( Look out Popeye !!!!)



I almost forgot the Blackcurrant ! also full of fruit waiting to grow and ripen, it's going to be a great year for fruit. The late fruiting raspberries are growing like mad after being cut right back.

Such a long post ! isn't it nice when everything starts looking fruitful ?
M x

9 comments:

~TastyTravels~ said...

Things are looking wonderful in your neck of the woods!!

Mark Willis said...

You certainly have a good collection of stuff there... Do you find the scarecrow to be effective? I find that the pigeons get cheekier every year. since people don't shoot them so much these days, they seem to be less afraid of humans.

Kath said...

Looks great. We had a bad frost 2 nights ago. Even fleeced spuds have blackened a little.

Maureen said...

Thank you Holly.

Mark I'm not sure if the scarecrow (Rosie) is effective or not as I really put her there for fun and she has a lot of admirers from people passing the allotments. Pigeons are a real menace on out plots.

Vegetable Heaven Oh no bad news about your frost ! we seem to have avoided any bad ones SShhhh !! so far!

Pam said...

Not sure about the redness on your green gooseberries Maureen, but I'm certain they'll be fine - they all look so wonderfully healthy!
P xx

Maureen said...

Hi Pam. I had another look at the gooseberries this evening when we went up to water and I got Austin to check the labels and the one looking a bit pinkish is definitely the 'Green ' one, not all are tinged pink, so I took those off that were, I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

GYPSYWOMAN said...

yummmmm........it all looks so beautiful and delicious!!

Pam's English Garden said...

Dear Maureen, Your allotment looks amazing, and so does your greenhouse! Well done. I have to search through your posts for some rhubarb recipes as mine is ready for picking. Rosie looks very lovely in sky blue this year. Enjoy your bumper harvest. P x

Maureen said...

Thank you Gypsywoman. x

Pam I hope you enjoy your rhubarb. I lightly sugar mine and cook it for a short while to break it down a bit and then have it with custard or make it into a crumble, delicious !!