Planting Broad Beans

Put in two double rows of broad beans; Witkiem, the same variety as last year, and covered them with netting to keep the pigeons off.  Last year we planted them in February and they had already come up by now. Will be interesting to see if it make a difference to when we get a crop.

Suddenly there is lots to do.  We still need to plant peas and the rest of the onion sets.  The first early potatoes will need to be in the ground next weekend before it's too late.  The leek seeds need to be planted too.  This year we are going to try starting them off in a seed bed for transplanting later rather than plant them at home.

Clocks go Forward. Purple Sprouting. Early Carrots

It was a lovely spring day, quite warm and sunny.  The clocks went forward last night so we can stay later on the plot now that the evenings are longer.

There was plenty of really good purple sprouting this weekend.  We harvested the top parts and there are lots of new spears growing from the stems underneath.  To get to the purple sprouting we had to repair the brassica cage which had been partially collapsed by the snow.

We took the black plastic off the front of the new plot and started digging it with the azada.  The plastic had been there since we got the plot last September.  The ground was quite clear underneath but there was still a fair amount of couch grass root.  The first early potatoes will be going in there next weekend.  We are going to grow potatoes on most of the new plot so as to clear the ground (and to try to become self-sufficient for potatoes).

The first seeds of the year went in today; Amsterdam Forcing early carrots, broadcast sown in the cold frame.    They will be ready to eat in June.

Started to dig over the end of the onion and legume bed where the broad bean and early pea seeds are going.  This bed follows potatoes in our crop rotation.  The soil is quite rich from the chicken manure and compost we put in for the potatoes, and virtually weed-free apart from the annual weeds which are OK to dig in.  The onion and garlic sets we planted there last autumn are growing really well, particularly the garlic, and there are still quite a few leeks to harvest.

Beautiful Weekend. Onion Planting

It was a beautiful Spring weekend.

The shallot and onion sets we spread out to dry last week were almost all OK with just a few rotten ones.  Using a dibber we planted eleven four meter metre rows with the width of a rake between rows.  The onion sets are just under the surface, six inches apart, and there are three rows of shallots planted eight inches apart.  We covered the whole lot with netting to stop the birds from pulling them out.  We have enough onion sets for another three or four rows so hopefully we won't run out this year. The early onions and garlic we planted last Autumn are growing very well and we have plenty of smallish but very tasty leeks.

Our friends got started on their new plot too. Very sociable.

Spring on Saturday, Snow on Sunday. Rotten Onion Sets

Another lovely Spring day on Saturday.  Lots of people about, including four of our friends who have taken on the plot next door but one.  We finished off the raised onion bed with lots of compost from the heaps and a small amount of chicken manure pellets.

When we went to plant the shallot sets they were very damp and a few were mouldy.  Quite a few of the onion sets were rotten too.  We had kept them in plastic bags since the beginning of February; not the best idea in hindsight.

Went to the allotment shop on Sunday morning in freezing cold and heavy sleet.  We bought some nice onion sets, about half of them red ones.  The shallots in the shop weren't much better than ours.  Think we'll plant them and hope for the best.  We have have spread them out to dry.