Thursday, 6 March 2008
OK, so I’ve been quiet these last couple of weeks. It’s not that I have been ignoring my veggies, but it has just been less frantict. The major task has been the preparation of the first new raised bed, which has required a serious amount of digging, shit shovelling and back-breaking moving of soil and building of timber sides, etc. I have transplanted some Broad Beans from the allotment greenhouse. Now they are establishing themselves under a cloche and look quite happy.
This weekend I will plant my early potatoes, a variety called Accent. The ground has been warming up for them for some time now. They are planted six inches deep, 12″ apart in two rows 2 feet apart, through black poly. I’ll keep them covered with a poly-cloche until the haulm is filling the space, probably around early May and then they will have to take their chances against late May frosts. With luck I’ll be pulling early spuds for my birthday on 20th May.
A number of crops in the greenhouse, (onions and beetroot) need to be moved into a cold frame prior to transplanting at the end of the month: My lettuce and brassicas will be transplanted under bottle cloches on a warm day in the next week or so – probably the Easter weekend.
I have noticed that some peas that I sowed last autumn are now demanding attention. they’re a bit patchy but large enough for the cloches to come off and for me to give them a wire-netting framework to grow up.
My lettuce, radish and spinach are all doing well in the allotment greenhouse but the early carrot seed germination is very poor and I worry that the crop will be ready by the time I need the space for tomatoes, peppers adn melons.
