A busy time at the allotment

I've worked at the allotment for two days this week, and enjoyed every minute of it. The sun was shining, and I met with a good friend up there who also has a plot and we sat in the sunshine outside her shed (Oh the good life !!) and chatted and had a drink break, TRULY Allotment Heaven !!!

The Broad beans are doing well, but still covered for the moment as they were raised in the mini greenhouse and not planted direct. I had hardened them off for a couple of weeks, but a severe frost could still knock them back. I dug up a row of parsnips 'Hollow Crown'  the seeds were from Victoriana Nursery and they are so nice that I got the same again for this years planting.

I still have this row of parsnips to dig up a bit later on. I will probably have to blanch and freeze them as I will need that bed soon.

The Tayberry is doing well and looks like the fruit is starting to come which is exciting as this is the first year, although it was a good healthy potted specimen and a good size to boot. again from Victoriana Nursery.

There are so many ladybirds about on the allotment, so hopefully they and their young will keep the aphids down, it's wonderful to see so many.

My plot is beginning to look more alive and lovely and green again.  I have Calabraise, cabbages growing, and  purple Sprouting broccoli I actually got my first harvest from it last evening (at last) it's in for such a long time. I lost three plants out of the six I planted, but the remaining three don't look too bad. I am hoping to harvest for a couple of weeks to make up for the long wait.

I did manage to sow some carrots as well. I sowed two rows each of Early Nantes 2 and Nantes 5, not sure what the difference is ! we shall see ! Oh and the potatoes went in at last too,  all earlies.  I don't grow main crop any more as we don't eat that many potatoes, so its  just for the fun of digging some up for salads really.
SO lot's done and heaps more to do. I have a mixture of traditional veg beds and also raised beds on my plot and I must say the raised beds are so easy to dig over as the soil is lovely in them. But all beds are full of lovely fat worms this year more so than any other year. It must be the good manure I put on in the autumn.

Have a lovely weekend and don't forget to leave your comment on the post for the giveaway David Austin Roses book if you would like a chance to win it.

I'm raring to go

I get very impatient at this time of year and can barely wait until February to start my seeds off. I went through all my seeds last week and there were so many that can be started in February, so yesterday (I know it's still January !) I decided to get started.

I sowed the Broad beans in my root-trainers using a John Innes seed compost. I sowed 12 each of 'Bunyards Exhibition' and the Red variety 'Red Epicure'.  Then I planted some Lemon Basil and  Sweet Basil and put these on the kitchen windowsill.  Also sown were some Bergamot 'Panorama Mixed' they are good for the bees and nice for cut flowers, so I'm hoping that they are as pretty as they look on the packet.

I also  got my order in to Victoriana Nurseries.  I ordered a Tayberry called 'Buckingham' which is thornless this will be grown in my soft fruit area on the allotment.  I ordered some seeds that I had from them last year that were so good I decided to get them again, which are Tomato 'Abraham Lincoln' and Parsnips 'Hollow Crown' both were very successful and delicious.
 Also ordered :-
Artichoke plants 'Imperial Star' and 'Romanesco' which will delivered  April/May  ready to plant out
and 2 x Lemongrass plants ' East India'. I grew my own Lemongrass last year but they never grew large enough for me to get more than a couple of small pieces from, so I decided it's not worth the bother. 

Don't forget that Stephen from Victoriana Nurseries is offering 10% discount on orders for readers of my blog, just click on the link on my side bar and your order will automatically get the 10% off.

I went for the first time to the Potato Day in Hampshire on Sunday.  It was a last minute decision to go. I was disappointed to find that there was an entry fee of £2 each, so that was £4 before I had even bought any potatoes. However they were only 17p a tuber as opposed to 26p at the garden centre and as I don't grow many ( we don't eat a lot of potatoes)  that wasn't too bad.  But it cost us more to look at the poatoes than it did to buy them, so probably wont be going again.

I bought  6 x 'Ulster Prince'  to try as they looked nice and had a good write up.
 6  x  ' Chopin' they also looked nice so giving them a try
 10   x   Inova which is a cross between my favourite 'Nicola' and 'Impala'  the man there said they were better than ' Nicola' so thought I'd try these as well.   Now to start the chitting !!

So ! there we go the start of a new growing year albeit a bit early, but I couldn't wait any longer.  I have to take some kitchen scraps up to the allotment later and whilst there I will check on my brussels and Purple sprouting broccoli (can't wait for that to be ready) the garlic planted last year is growing well and I still have some 'Hollow Crown' parsnips in the ground, oh and some cabbages, I keep forgetting about them as they are hidden under a tunnel.

Have a good week  X

A good start to the season.

I got to the plot yesterday to do some serious work and ended up staying there for four and a half hours. I dug another trench for the asparagus, that was hard work in itself, but then I had to fill wheelbarrow loads of manure and tip it into the trench with some compost and sharp sand. I planted the 'Conovers Colossal' that I'm trialing for 'Victoriana Nursery' I also bought 4 crowns of 'Pacific Purple' asparagus from a farm shop, which is why I had to dig another trench, I just fancied trying this purple one as well.

I pulled back the black plastic that I had covered some beds with over winter, it was great to see NO weeds. I have to work out where the potatoes and the Broad Beans are going, as both are ready to be planted soon.

Broad beans and Sweet Peas, photo taken 7 days ago

This photo taken today, they have grown very tall in 7 days

Onions, Red and White growing nicely and being hardened off each day, I have 3 more trays as well as these

Tomatoes growing in their little light box. These are 'Gardeners Delight' ( on the left) and just one so far has germinated of the 'Abraham Lincoln' but I'm hoping more will pop up soon of those as I am trialing those for Victoriana Nurseries. I have about another three more varieties that I'm going to sow next week. I want to try something different to the tomatoes I usually grow, and more varieties as well.

Needless to say I am aching everywhere to day, muscles I had forgotten I had. I will never learn that it's best to do little and often rather than long stints on the allotment. Ah well ! at least the sun was shining and I did achieve what I set out to do, so a very satisfying start to the season.

The postman delivered some goodies this morning

A few weeks ago out of the blue I had an e-mail from Stephen Shirley who owns and runs Victoriana Nursery Gardens. Stephen had been reading my blog off and on for a while and liked it, ( I feel very honoured ) and so he decided to ask me to do a trail of their plants and seeds. How could I resist ! as Stephen offered the plants or seeds of my choice for free.

I had already bought most of the seeds I needed so I asked if I could have some Asparagus plants. I had already dug my trench and manured it and added sand late last autumn ready to buy some, so having them free to trial for Victoria Nursery Gardens was a real bonus. I look forward to planting them and seeing them grow.

I also chose three packets of seeds : -

Tomato seeds - 'Abraham Lincoln'

Parsnip seeds - 'Hollow Crown'

Squash seeds - 'Turks Turban' a fellow plot-holder grows these and I admire them every year.

As I am doing a trial of these goodies I will be posting about them as they grow and produce their fruits, and you will be able to see how they do.

Victoria Nursery Gardens is a family business owned and run by Stephen & his wife Serena, and they have very high standards, so it's a pleasure to be doing a trial for them.

Thank you both very much for the opportunity.

PS.

CROCHET update, see my other blog for my crochet, it's growing and I'm chuffed to bit's that I have learned to crochet at last. http://mylottierecipies.blogspot.com/