It's sowing time!

Finally I can start sowing seeds, in fact, I have been.  After erecting the plastic greenhouse in the garden, I have sown the following...


Beetroot, Brussels Sprouts, Red Cabbage, Green Cabbage, Chard, Leeks and Pak Choi.  I have also sown Pansies and Gerbera's.


Now that this has been started, the temperature is bound to plummet!  I'll be outside wrapping the greenhouse up and lighting a small oil lamp to keep the temperature up.


I popped up to the plot for about 30 minutes this evening and planted the onion sets and shallots.  I have a whole bed of onions which equates to around 150 sets, hopefully I'll be in line for a good crop.


A few pictures of where I am with the plot.

The raspberry beds - not much at the moment!

Rhubarb - and it's only March!

The whole plot - some of which still needs digging.

2011 - A New Season

2011 is hopefully going to be a good year for the allotment. I've decided to stick to varieties of vegetables I have grown previously as I can guarantee (as far as I can) a good crop and at the end of the day, that is what I'm after.


The raspberries were looking very cramped in the bed I had originally put them in.  Because of this I have split them up and made new smaller beds which have six canes in each.  After a recent promotion from Thompson and Morgan, I obtained a further six canes for just the postage.  This brings me up to eighteen canes so hopefully I should get a good crop from them.


I like the idea of growing fruit as well as vegetables.  This does reduce the amount of room I have to grow other crops though.  Blackcurrant's are the most likely plant I will put in but we'll see!


The rhubarb has excelled itself again.  Other peoples are only just showing, mine has sticks over 15" long and I've already harvested ten sticks!  As with a lot of early rhubarb, it's very sweet and tender.


Sowing seeds in the greenhouse is the next job, that and continuing digging te beds.  The grass is becoming a pain again which is why I want to get the rest of the beds framed sooner rather than later.


Nearly forgot, the garlic I planted in November have all germinated.  The broad beans however are a different matter.  Out of the seventy I sowed, only eleven have germinated.  This could be because of the very cold winter we had but I suspect it's more to do with the family of mice I found living under a piece of wood next to the beans.  Little buggers!