Welcome back to our Allotment Retreat. Today, with a tiny bit of help from my friend, I managed to plant the first row of spuds. The First Earlies,(v.
Maris Bard) are amongst the first spuds to go in on the site. The first in though were third week of feb by Steve - good luck with those!. I figured it was about time to get planting. All told, we have a total of 120 odd tubers to go in, so we'll try and do a row every couple of days. The ground (recently dug over by Neil) is not too wet and I think we'll get away with it. Time will tell! (There were plenty of raised eyebrows from those "that know" as we set about planting! I even got "told" i was throwing money away. We'll see).
The
Rhubarb is seemingly flourishing, with the first stem a good 8" tall , and the second stem just appearing. There's loads more weeds too, but they're on the list. The list - boy is it growing!!
My plot neighbour (whom I've yet to meet), has decided to erect a scaffold net wall around his plot, which saves me a packet as I wont need a windbreak now. All i need now is all the other neighboring plots to do the same, and I'll be quids in. I know it looks neat and tidy, but is it really necessary ? Some people just seem to throw money at the allotment - goes against the grain with me!
The
Primulas that we transplanted from Bill's garden in Strood last year, are finally coming into their own. Lets hope they do really well and keep the
Bee's coming back to the plot. More flowers is the order of the day. What shall we add next ?
Finally, or should I say at last? The seed planting is underway at home. Ruby got the ball rolling this year after Grandad bought her a Tomato starter kit. These are doing ok on the kitchen windowsill, So we decided to get cracking. Regular blog readers will know we have accumulated an abundance of seed, and we're gonna try hard not to buy too much more this year!
Today's sowings include: Sweetcorn(v.
Swift Early), Courgette (v.
All Green Bush), Tomato's (v.
Garden Pearl) - for the hanging baskets at
Reads Retreat, and some Sprouts (v.
Red Delicious).
That's enough to get us going. The enthusiasm is overflowing now, so watch this space for more news from the plots.
Take care all and enjoy your gardening.
TTFN.
Welcome back to our Allotment Retreat. Today, with a tiny bit of help from my friend, I managed to plant the first row of spuds. The First Earlies,(v.Maris Bard) are amongst the first spuds to go in on the site. The first in though were third week of feb by Steve - good luck with those!. I figured it was about time to get planting. All told, we have a total of 120 odd tubers to go in, so we'll try and do a row every couple of days. The ground (recently dug over by Neil) is not too wet and I think we'll get away with it. Time will tell! (There were plenty of raised eyebrows from those "that know" as we set about planting! I even got "told" i was throwing money away. We'll see).
The Rhubarb is seemingly flourishing, with the first stem a good 8" tall , and the second stem just appearing. There's loads more weeds too, but they're on the list. The list - boy is it growing!!
My plot neighbour (whom I've yet to meet), has decided to erect a scaffold net wall around his plot, which saves me a packet as I wont need a windbreak now. All i need now is all the other neighboring plots to do the same, and I'll be quids in. I know it looks neat and tidy, but is it really necessary ? Some people just seem to throw money at the allotment - goes against the grain with me!
The Primulas that we transplanted from Bill's garden in Strood last year, are finally coming into their own. Lets hope they do really well and keep the Bee's coming back to the plot. More flowers is the order of the day. What shall we add next ?
Welcome back to Reads Allotment Retreat, where I start this post with a shot of the lovely Roses I gave my darling wife today. Aren't they beautiful, just like Jen - love her to bits xx.
Whilst at the plot I took great delight in spotting that our Rhubarb crown is bursting forth from the manure mound that was unceremoniously dumped on it before Christmas. Rhubarb - as you know - is a hungry feeder, so hopefully this "rough treatment" will see us bag a bountiful harvest this year?
Well - what a grand job.
Whilst at the plot, we couldn't resist harvesting a half dozen or so Leeks, some of which went into tonight's stir fry, while the rest will go into a leek tart for tea tomorrow!
Welcome back to Reads Allotment Retreat. Finally we have got our seed potato's and have set about getting them chitting. This year we have decided not to grow Maincrop varieties as; despite their excellent taste, they take up a lot of ground for a long time. Also, they are readily available locally for £3.50 per 25kg sack! So, our choices ? Well, our First Earlies are Maris Bard(pictured). Although we have started the chitting process a bit late, it looks as though the planting date may also be later than usual too. The recent heavy rains have left large parts of the allotment waterlogged and unworkable. Couple that to the fact that I'm off sick from work still with my neck problem, and the planting of these seems far away! Once again we purchased these tubers through the allotment society, which proves again a great cost saving i.e. We paid £4.90 for 6kg of tubers - which is 55 tubers to be exact. Some of these are quite large and will be halved to make them go a bit further. Our choice of Second Earlies is Nadine. We grew these last year and were really impressed by the yield and their taste. These too were £4.90 for 6kg, and we'll get these chitting soon too. This represents a considerable saving over hgh street costs where, typically, 5 tubers are about a quid! The other main learning from last year is that we will not plant all at the same time, rather we'll stagger the planting for a continued crop.
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