Time to resurrect my gardening blog. Veggies have been started.

Yesterday, in the biting wind I sheltered in my greenhouse and planted the onion sets I've been meaning to plant art the allotment. At least they can get going. 

My tomato plants are coming along and are nearly ready for potting up. I'm a little bemused that last year's expensive seed is haphazard in germination whereas the saved seed and old Henry Doubleday is doing really well.

Last week hubby and I made a start on cutting down the bay tree which has got hugely out of hand. We chopped down each branch and shredded the leaves before cutting down each trunk. We've now got to wait for the brown bin to be emptied before continuing but our work has opened up the garden such a lot already. We couldn't even get down the path easily. Hopefully it will shoot from the bottom and we can keep it under strict control.

We managed to save the wisteria which was climbing through it and will trim it back once it has flowered. It has 1m long flowers and is absolutely wonderful so I wanted to save as many buds as possible. 

I managed to harvest a few bayleaves to dry for cooking. 

I've spend a couple of hours weeding the veg beds her at home which I intend to fully use this year instead of the allotment just in case we aren't allowed there for a while. Its become hugely shaded in the 25 odd years since I set it up due to a huge sycamore growing in another garden so I've tended to only use my allotment but I've decided to make the most of what I have and grow shade tollerant plants like parsley, peas, lettuce and spinach in it.  I've also put my strawberries into new grow bags and they are down there too at the moment. We might move them temporarily to a sunnier patch as they begin to ripen.

Five hours well spent down the allotment.

Today I spent five hours at the allotment and got loads done.  Being a root day in the biodynamic cycle in went the onions and the carrots.

I managed to straighten the final edge and made the side bed about 30cm wider in places.  

I then planted out my Tree onions and the first lot of carrots and covered them in mesh to stop the carrot fly. I also popped in some home harvested radish seed as a cash crop between the tree onions and the potatoes.

The flax seed has germinated!!! I have never grown this before so it should be interesting to see how it grows.

I then planted my onions sets and onions sowed this year.  Just as well we like onions! They did well last year so fingers crossed for the same again this year.

My spring cabbages are making a good recovery from being eaten by slugs in the autumn and my leeks are about to be picked.

Add caption

I also harvested the first crop of rhubarb this year.  Rhubarb and custard it is then!

31 May 2013

Sorry. This blog is a little late being published but I have been busy on other things. 

I have at last got the Broccoli in  and covered one half with the mesh that I bought.  I just hope the rest survives until I get some more!

 The radishes are looking good and are nearly ready to pick but there is no sign of my spring onions.  The lettuce and  beetroot are coming along and the onion sets are making a good headway.

The rhubarb has exploded and is huge!  This lot is going to make Rhubarb and ginger jam.

I have now added some watercress to the pond.

I've actually planted something!

Today  I got the first bit of ground that I had dug over previously in my allotment, forked through, de-weeded, raked and I even planted something!

 I had previously sown some onions from seed and they had made onion sets last year. They have been growing nicely  in seed trays and I planted out in the newly prepared ground where I found the potatoes last time I dug there. It is a really sunny site so hopefully they will grow a lot better in my allotment than they had in my shaded garden.

 My inherited rhubarb is growing great guns in the sunshine.  Hopefully in a couple of weeks we shall be able to sample some. Every time I go down the allotment I weed over the ground around the plants. No doubt it will take many years to get rid of all the weeds busily growing around them.

While I was at the allotment today I was given a wheel barrow that was going spare!  It was really nice to be offered it.  There is a nice community spirit there.  I had to lock it to my compost heap though because people get in and acquire things if left around.  I left my watering can there too to save me having to remember it next time.

I think very soon I am going to have to get myself a shed to put all my tools etc in.  There is only so much I can lock to my compost heap!!