April so far

Last weekend (4th/5th) was a busy one - two full days on the plots.
I planted out the broad beans...And transplanted the peas into the same bed. I love the way they almost instantly know where and what to curl their tendrils around.

I also planted out the yellow mange tout up against the hazel and chicken wire frame I'd put together.

And on Sunday we put in most of the potatoes - Nadine & Charlotte, with only the Pink Fir Apples to go.
I also sowed lots of flowers - poached egg plant, love-in-a-mist, cornflowers and two kinds of poppies.

Last of the Broad Beans

...went into a very delicious risotto.

Rain stopped play...

..but still managed to have a very productive bank holiday weekend. We went up to the plot on Friday night after work but sod's law the heavens opened just as we were getting the tools out of the shed.....!

However Saturday dawned fine and sunny so we managd a full day's pottering and got the following done (long boring list I'm afraid).

• planted the reamining broad bean plants
• dug and weeeded another small bed
• sowed 3 types of carrots - Giant Red, Large ????, Large 1/2 Long into the small bed
• sowed 2 types of beetroot - White and Bolthardy in to the small bed
• MJC started digging another large bed and put woodchips on the paths - very professional looking!!
• planted the horseradish next to the artichokes
• weeded what was the strawberry bed and rescued another 3 plants from the clutches of the couch grass
• cleared around the artichokes and one of the blackcurrant bushes
• mulched the new red gooseberry plant and the cleared blackcurrant bushes
• installed the 'Greencone'

On Sunday it was too wet to do any digging so instead I did some sowing at home and managed to finally sow some other beans - 12 borlotti (Lingua di Fuoco), 12 purple climbing french (name?) and once I find the rest of my supply of toilet rolls, 12 yellow dwarf french. Also sowed 18 sweetcorn (Golden Nugget) and most of the winter squash varieties - 3 each of Thelma Saunders Sweet Potato Squash, Buttercup XXX, XXX Acorn Squash but still got Baby Bear Pumpkin to do.

Monday we went up for a visit with our next door neighbours to show them our vegetable 'kingdom' but we didn't really have time for any serious digging.

Just wish I had the rest of the week off as the weather's supposed to be lovely....sigh!

Peas and Beans

Peas have finally emerged and I've put the broad beans out into the mini-greenhouse to start to acclimatise to the great outdoors.

Must sow some more of both and start thinking about sowing some french and borlotti...maybe when things warm up a wee bit more.

Little and Large

The littlest seeds - Celeriac - have emerged at about the same time as the biggest - Broad Beans - despite being planted a week or so later. I suppose the Broad Beans have a big energy store that they can burst into life as soon as they're given the right conditions.

(You can see the tomato seelings in the background). But that doesn't quite hold true for all legumes as the sweet peas and the edible peas (only just emerging now) took quite a long time to germinate.

More sowing...

Finally got round to sowing the 24 broad beans (.......) that have been soaking since Sunday night into the cardboard tubes... oh ok, loo roll inners...
Planted 6 of the Gladioli bulbs in one of the big terracotta pots and the others are to be planted somewhere on the plots. Will plant up the other two big pots with the Dahlias. Sowed 3 artichokes as I'd like to give the plantlings as presents, and sowed 6 small pots of leeks.

Other Seed News - Almost all the tomatos are up. In last place are the Golden Sunrise which are still just loops of stem above the soil. The sweet peas are hinting at an imminent emergence and still no sign whatsoever of the physalis or sweet peppers.... hmmph!


MJC has put together the plastic greenhouse and this morning I put the peas and chitting potatoes in there (to free up some space in the outhouse).

We got given 4 raspberry canes from MJC's mum (thank you very much, most kind) but they'll have to wait in their pot awhile before we can plant them out. But seeing as the evenings will be much lighter after the clocks go forward at the weekend then I think we can start spending some plot quality time on school nights!