Sunday, 13 April 2008
Although the weather has been cool, especially at night, with a string of frost, my early spuds are doing well under their cloche. Today, with the sun warming damp soil the weeds are muscling through and it is now that I have a circular hand hoe permanently stuck in my back pocket so that as I peruse the beds I can scalp offending weeds on sight.
My sowings of radish, lettuce, beetroot and spinach of a couple of weeks ago are now well up under their cloches. The parsnip have yet to show themselves, but this vegetable is notoriously slow to germinate, as is carrot, so I must be patient. The important thing is to keep the seed bed moist. It is amazing how quickly the top inch of soil can dry out under a cloche when their is lots of sun.
Today I have sown spring onions, rhubarb chard, rocket and turnips into open ground. A major sowing of cucurbits in the propagator at home has taken place this weekend. I have sown four varieties of squash – Butternut F1, Pompeon, Uchiki Kiri and Marina di Chioggia – three types of cucumber – my outdoor favourite Burpless green tasty, the Zanzibar one I tried for the first time last year and a HSL variety Dekah, the latter two to be grown under glass. I have also sown some gherkin seed I bought in Lidl for 29 pence!!! as well as a white marrow i found in a Zanzibar market and a hybrid melon Sweetheart. So the greenhouse this year will be full of cucumbers and melons I hope. I also sowed two types of courgette, Zucchini F1 and Altedellio Sakara, (if my memory serves me correctly).
