Spring Gathering. More Broad Beans & Green Garlic

The Spring Social was this afternoon. It was a very pleasant gathering with a barbecue and plant / seed swap. Musical entertainment was provided by a plot holder who played some excellent accordion music. Plot 205 played a few tunes on the ukulele too.

There are plenty of young broad beans for picking and we also pulled some green garlic which sprouted from a couple of garlic bulbs we missed when harvesting last year.  The whole plant can be eaten and will make a delicious omelette.

Weeds & Broad Beans. Runner Bean Planting.

It has been wet and we have been busy so we haven't been to the plot for a couple of weeks.

The potatoes are growing well, and so are the weeds. We strimmed and mowed the paths today but there is lots to do.

We started harvesting small broad beans pods from the bottom of the plant. They can be eaten whole. We picked some broad bean tops too. You can't buy such delicacies in a supermarket. Delicious.

At home we planted a lot of runner beans saved from last year for transplanting later on.

Precious time lost to a rainy weekend

A week is a long time on an allotment, especially at this time of year so it was disappointing to wake up this Saturday morning to see that it has been raining heavily.  The ground will be too wet all weekend.

Last of the potatoes planted. Hop supports. Peas, leeks & weeds. Draw Hoe.

The weather was nice this Spring Bank Holiday weekend and the soil has dried out enough to work in.

We have planted the last of the main crop potatoes.  The bed still had some space so we planted block-planted some  peas and two rows of leeks.

The peas (Jaguar second early) were out of date seeds that we never got around to planting last year. Hopefully enough of them will germinate.  They are planted quite closely together, approx 2" apart and in rows around 8" apart. The packet says they will self-support if you plant them that way.  They are netted to keep the pigeons off until they have established themselves.

The leeks (Winter Giant) should really have been sown by the end of April. We planted a packet in a seed bed for transplanting later on.

The annual weeds are starting to grow quickly.  We hoed around the garlic, onions and shallots using a draw hoe for the first time. It is great for getting close to the sets without causing damage.  All are growing well.

The hops have wound themselves almost to the tops of their canes so we made a wigwam for them using coppiced hazel we got last year from the nature reserve adjoining the allotments.  It's about twelve feet high.

Rhubarb Crumble

It rained a lot this week so the ground is too wet to work this weekend.

There is absolutely loads of rhubarb so we picked some to make the first crumble of the season. English rhubarb is £5 per kilo in the shops right now.

Main Crop Potato Planting

Planted four different varieties of main crop potatoes in the rotovated and manured bed: Arran Pilot, King Edward, Pink Fir Apple and Cara. We still have a few more rows to plant.

Rotovator - Wow! Planted First Earlies

We tried out the rotovator for the first time today. Although it is heavy work we got an awful lot done and it leaves a fine tilth. Very satisfying. We used it to dig a potato bed and to work in some manure.

We planted three rows of first early potatoes; Rocket, Jersey Royal and Red Duke of York.

Planting onion sets, Strimming

Our new petrol strimmer gets a lot done fast so the plot is looking quite respectable.

We have planted a lot of onion sets, Sturon and Red Baron. No early onions this year as we missed the boat with over-wintering onion sets.  All of the alliums are in now; garlic, shallots and onions.

Manure, Hops

The allotment committee kindly arranged free manure - up to two barrows per plot. Ours will be used on the potato bed.

The hops are growing again. Weeded around them and put some canes in the ground so that they can climb. A taller structure will be needed later on.

More Digging. Broad Beans, Cabbages and Garlic

It has been dry all week and the fine Spring weather this weekend made for a busy and sociable weekend at the allotments.

Our plot is beginning to look in better shape after the neglect of last year. We carried on with digging where we had previously covered the soil and moved the mypex to cover other areas. The ground had dried out quite well so the digging is getting easier.

We planted out a few more cabbage plants under the netting, and broad bean seeds in the gaps between plants sown last Autumn.

Where we have prepared beds we planted garlic and shallots.  We have always had a year's supply of garlic since we took on the plot.  However we usually plant the cloves in later Autumn but like most tasks on the plot we didn't get around to this last year.  We planted out a mixture of sprouted garlic (Wight) that was grown in modules at home over the past six weeks or so, and the bulbs that we bought at the allotment shop recently.  It will be interesting to compare the progress of both.  We accidentally left some garlic in the ground last year.  This has sprouted and is growing well in clumps.  We will leave it to grow and harvest the delicious green stems later on.

We bought various brassica seeds to plant at home for transplanting later on.

Digging

It was a lovely sunny day today. The ground is dry enough to dig.  We also put new netting over the early cabbages.

Seed Potatoes, Onion and Shallot sets, Garlic. New Petrol Strimmer

It was nice to be back on the plot today.

For various reasons, our attention to the allotment was very sporadic last year so it was a pleasant surprise to see the broad beans doing well, and there is kale that wasn't expected.

There was some lovely Wight garlic in the allotment shop so we bought three bulbs. Usually we plant the garlic in October but we never got around to it last year.  There is some growing in trays at home.

We also bought twenty rows of seed potatoes, shallots and onion sets.

We have a new petrol strimmer and got loads done with it very quickly today. We covered some of the strimmed areas with black plastic to kill off the weeds before we rotovate it.  The plot looked well before we left. Very encouraging.

Wettest Winter Ever

The wettest Winter since records began in 1766. No activity on the plot so far this year.