First Proper Visit To Allotment.

Set off this morning for first proper visit to the allotment. The weather has been sunny with clear skies. We managed to clear a few beds, dig up parsnips and carrots, build new frame for cabbages (two more to go) these will be covered in new netting as last year the caterpillars had a field day!
We repaired the compost bin. The inch thick ice that had settled there was turfed off. Had a general tidy up and marked beds which will have the sides added to complete the raised beds.

Had a general exploration: New buds have formed on the trees which were planted in 2009, blackcurrants have big strong buds forming, the rhubbarb has started to make an appearance and the comfrey has green shoots.

The leeks that I planted last year have started to grow!!! Garlic and shallots have green shoots.

Had some onions that were supposed to be planted last Autumn that I didn't get round to putting in so popped them in and covered with fleece (Red Baron and Troy) they have two chances!
All in all an enjoyable day.

Lettuce & Cabbage.

Pricked out Lettuce Webbs Wonderful and Little Gem they have been moved to a cold greenhouse. One tray of each.

Cabbages Hispi and Greyhound have also been pricked out into modules and moved to cold greenhouse.

I have moved them to stop them getting too leggy.

The Broad Beans that I have sow recently have made an appearance - no sight of the leeks yet.

Weather today is dull and 2 degrees - Wish it was March!!!

Germination.

Lettuces have germinated and have been moved to kitchen window cill. Once they are abit more established they will be moved to greenhouse.

Bronze Arrow has not fully arrived and was the slowest to germinate, hopefully it will make an appearance over the next few days.

Chilli's & Sweet Peppers

Today I am going to make an early start on sowing a few chilli and sweet peppers.

They will all be sow and stored in a heated propagtor until they are big enough to live on the window cills. I tend to start these early as they need a long growing season to get fruit of a reasonable size. I will only sow a few seeds of each and do another sowing in a few weeks.
Chilli seeds have been sown in compost and covered with vermiculite and placed in propogator.

Pea's-Feltham First - will be sown and stored in a cold greenhouse.

The weather here today is clear skies although abit damp.

Cold

The clear skies have led to two very frosty mornings over the last couple of days. The garden is frozen so not much doing.

Today I am going to sow:
Lettuce: Webbs Wonderful, Little Gem, A foglia di quercia (Lidl), and Bronze Arrow from the Heritage Seed Library.
Cabbage: Greyhound and Hispi F1.
Celeriac: Balder

First Sowings of 2011.

Today I have finally made a start on sowing.
All the seeds have been sown in a cold greenhouse.

Leeks: Blue Solaise, Snowstar, Lyons - Prize 2 and Musselburgh.
Hope I have a better year this year with leeks. I am planning on buiding a cover for the leeks similar to the sort used for stopping carrot root fly. I have purchased the netting ready for this task.

Cauliflower: All the year round.
x6 sown into modules.
Planning another sowing in mid February.

Broad Beans:
Witkiem Manita x6
Planning a further sowing in mid Feb of Crimson variety.

Spring Onions:
Ishikura - x3 modules.
Spring North Holland Blood Red - x3 modules.

Planning to make a start on chilli's, onions and peas later in the week.

Heritage Seed Library 2011

Selections For 2011.

Climbing French Beans:
Kew Blue
Cherokee Trail of Tears
Blue Queen

Pea:
Commander

Dwarf French Bean:
Soldier

Celeriac:
Balder

Lettuce:
Bronze Arrow

Looking forward to seeing how these perform. Must remember to cover peas if sown late to avoid the nasty pea moth.

Gardening Year Starts Here For Me.

Over the last season I just haven't had the time to blog. I have been beavering away at the allotment and had a rather good first proper season.



I have been juggling my time between home and family, working five days a week and the allotment. The garden has also been returned to flowers, herbs and some veg but the majority has been grown at the allotment.



At the same time as getting the allotment up together, we have also been decorating at home.



So this year, I am planning to spend alot more time at the allotment. At the end of the growing season I managed to get all the winter digging done, I didn't manage to get as many crops sown over the autumn for winter crops as I would have liked and got a bit behind so there is a lesson learned for this season.



I visited the allotment in January when it was covered in frost and decided to draw up the plan for this year. The plan is completed but may be subject to change. I have included crop rotation and I am planning to increase sucessional sowing as this also was an area where I can increase yeild.



At present I have the following at the allotment in the ground: Chard, Brussel sprouts (although these didn't perform particulary well - most have blown), cabbage, carrots, garlic and shallots.



In the greenhouse I have over wintered Broad Beans, strawberry runners (approx 50) and onion sets ready for planting soon. Indoors the seed potatoes are chitting.

I have been itching to get on with some sowing so today I will be going through the seed box and picking some varieties.



I want to start my leeks early this year as they were a disaster last year and were plagued by leek miner.



After the amount of fruit and veg we enjoyed last year, I am enthusiatic and itching to get started with the growing seaon for 2011.



Happy Gardening xx