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

Manuring the Raspberries

I have managed to get up to the allotment twice this week YEAH ! the weather is getting better, although of course we could always get another load of snow.  We moved into our house many years ago during a February and I have photo's of us all making a snowman, so you never can tell !!

Anyway! this week I have managed with the help of my gardening assistant (Austin) to put wheelbarrow loads of manure (that we had delivered at the end of last Autumn) onto my Raspberry canes.  Because of  the cold weather I was unable to cut them back before now.  However I have finally managed to cut the canes right back this week.  They are a late fruiting variety (unknown) I always get lot's of lovely fruit from them, but not as large as the fruit from the canes on the plot where my young canes came from.  I checked with the person who gave me my canes who says she always cuts hers back and manures them.  This is the third year that I have had mine planted, so I thought I would cut them hard back, manure them and see what happens. I only hope I have done the right thing?

There are lots of things going on in the beds, such as flower bulbs peeping through, buds sprouting on the gooseberry bushes and the blackcurrant bush. The herbs are starting to look healthy again, but I have to either dig up and thin out or cut severely back the purple sage as it's far too big for my herb bed.

I am looking forward to growing Globe artichokes this year and I am going to order some plants from Stephen at Victoriana Nursery  who incidentally is kindly giving any of my readers 10% discount on anything you order from him.  If you want to take up this offer just click on the link on my sidebar as it takes you to his website and when you order the 10% is automatically taken off, but please do check your order to make sure that happens before hitting the final step in ordering. I have checked it out and it does work, but technology sometimes does funny things.

I am going to sow my broad beans in the first week of February and this year I am trying a different one called 'Red Epicure' ( Unwin's) which are chestnut crimson coloured beans which apparently if lightly steamed keep their colour, we shall see !! as well as these I shall grow my favourite 'Bunyards Exhibition' which are tasty.
I think this year I am going to try sowing direct on some things, as I find that keeping an eye on seedlings gets to be a bit of a pain especially if we want to be away for days at a time. There are certain plants that I do like to see that they are good and healthy before setting them in the beds, such as - broad beans, onions, pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers,  come to think of it quite a few things, so maybe I wont be so brave after all ha ha.

NeiNei's Blog

I want to share a blog link with you. I came across this blog by 'bloghopping' as I'm sure we all do at times. Nei (short for Stephanie) is a young woman who has survived a near fatal plane crash and has gone through major surgery and has been left with terrible scarring to her face and body. I think her beauty still shines through and she is a remarkable young woman who makes me feel humble and ashamed of ever moaning about trivial things (not that it ever stops us moaning , it's human nature I suppose !) Even more amazing is that Nei's blog is a happy bog and her humour comes through her writing instead of 'why me' she is glad to be alive to see her family grow.

There is a button on my side bar with NeiNei's name on it, ( Blue button saying 'I read NeiNei' underneath the Renee award) click and you will go straight there. She has some awesome photo's of her life and family.
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On another note I managed to dodge the rain today and get a fair amount of work done on the allotment, with Austin's help ! he collected two large pop up gardening bags of leaves for me, whilst I lugged cow poo in wheelbarrow loads to mulch around my lovely raspberries, which incidentally I am still harvesting albeit small amounts now, all going in the freezer to add to the big bag in there for my raspberry curd. Yum !

We are off to play with the grandchildren tomorrow for a few days, so that's it for gardening and allotment's !! until next week , I have to plant my garlic yet and dig and manure a trench ready to plant my asparagus in for next year.

Have a lovely week-end.

An update on the crops.

I have had quite a relaxing day for a change. I got up late (I wont say what time) but I went to bed extremely late last night, so I needed to catch up with my sleep. I had also fed my little grand-daughter throughout the previous night so my daughter-in-law could get a restful night, so I think I deserved a lie in.

The only thing about getting up late is that I can't wait to get out into the garden to see whats going on, does anyone else do this ? I think my neighbour must think I am a little eccentric (or crazy!) as there I was in my P.J's pottering around the garden, pulling up the odd weed, when he called out to say hello!

I went up to the allotment at about 6pm with the intention of just watering the greenhouse, but ending up staying for almost 2 hours. I was digging up marigolds from the herb bed and planting them elsewhere. There have grown enormous, goodness knows why, perhaps it's the' growmore' plant food, I have never seen such big marigolds.

The sweetcorn is looking very healthy with nice thick stalks and growing tall. The spinach beet (perpetual spinach) is delicious and never stops growing, it's great to pick it knowing that it will keep going. Delicious lightly steamed with baby broad beans.

The runner and french beans are growing well up the supports, and the raspberries have doubled in size since I put them in last year. I am very pleased with the onion growth, I was a bit unsure about growing them from seed, but they are trouble free and I would defiantly grow from seed as opposed to sets again next year.

I want to get an Asparagus bed going for next year, even if I have to forfeit potato space. I have been harvesting a neighbours plot for the asparagus., and it has been a real treat. They gave up the plot to move to one nearer their area and no-one has taken it over yet, so myself and a couple of others have been harvesting it. That is until it became really very badly infested with asparagus beetle, they are horrible little things.

The fact that the plot hasn't been given to someone from the very long waiting list is a disgrace, it's been empty now for around 2 months and there are over 100 people waiting for an allotment. Also it's unfair to the next person who takes it over as it is now full of weeds and badly overgrown. Had it been given straight away the new tenant would have had hardly any work to do other than do a plan then prepare the beds for planting. This is an issue that needs addressing all around the country.

Onions and munchkin squashes

Raspberries


Runner beans and French beans


Sweetcorn

Spinach Beet and Calendulas