Sowing the Douce Provence Peas

I finally got around to sowing the peas.  I dug in the green manure, mostly grasses, and raked to give me a good tilth.  The soil in this bed is particularly friable.  I had put some seed in sectioned trays and they had germinated well so I decided to set them out as well.   I covered the Douce Provence with scaffol netting  over cloche wires to give them a little protection from the cold weather, pigeons, rats and mice.  The seeds I had left over I will put with the Kelvedon Wonder so they are sown and not wasted.  Some would say that it is a little early to sow peas but Douce Provence is a hardy early variety and survives the colder nights.  I am going to sow Kelvedon Wonder next week. 

The parsnips I sowed were Tender and True, Gladiator, and Sabre - one line of each.  All three lines are covered with enviromesh to give them a litte protection from the weather.   

I cleared up the last of the  ramail next to the allotment putting it onto the plastic sheet over the abandoned allotment opposite.  There was some good remail on the  other carpark so I went down with the barrow to collect some for the  new vegetable mould windrow.  This remail is just like leaf mould because it had so many leaves in it.  I mixed it with the scrapings from the path.  The blackbirds like to cover my paths with soil and ramail dug out from the beds.  This means that the remail is process by the birds and I walk over them crushing the pieces.  I will empty the darlek bins mixing the contents and adding them to the windrow.  Eventually I will have a 5 foot vegetable mould windrow.  

I walked a 2" square concrete paving slab around to the pea and bean bed to finish off the path but it didn't fit so I just left it on the allotment path and put remail around it.  The allotment path could be improved by concrete slabs, however I will not have enough to stretch all the way to the trackway.  

The sweet pea plants will have to be put out soon because they are getting quite big.  The weather forecast is not too good for the rest of the week so I am keeping them in the green houses for the moment.  Flea beetle is a major pest of sweet peas this time of the year and is another incentive to keep the plants indoors for the moment.  

I need to take a note book down to the allotment to record where I plant each variety.  The wooden lables rot away and are made illegible in the process.  

 Starting to sow a lot of seed.

I have already germinated mellon, cucumber, tomatoes and pepper seeds.  The propergator is full and I still need to sow more seeds.  

I am going to sow all the brassicas next week.  Early peas and parsnips are going to be sown this week but there is some suggestion that the week is going to be very cold.  I intend to protect the peas and parsnips with scaffle netting or enviromesh.  It seems to give seeds just that little bit of protection and allow them to germinate when otherwise they wouldn't.  

I have grafted 16 apple trees all of which are new varieties for the allotment.  Most of the grafts have been simple grafts but I have tried a crown graft using the East European varieties.  I had two Pitmaston Pineapple apples so I cut one down to do the crown graft.  If I get a lot of the grafts to take I will grow them as cordons just so that I can fit them in the allotment.

I am starting to dig in the green manure but leaving as much as possible to grow on until I need the beds for sowing or planting.

Sweet pea beds are all prepared and I am just waiting for the flea beetle to die down a little before I plant out the October sown sweet peas.  I have used poles rather than canes for the supports.   I had just enough to do seven double rows. I gave the bed a sprinkling of garden lime to protect the plants from yellowing during the summer. I have done the same for the sweet peas at Wightwick Manor gardens.  (National Trust) They are January sown seed so they will flower at the end of June onward.  October sown seeds will flower at the beginning of June.

All the sweet peas are going to be grown as cordons with one stem tied into the supports with garden twine.  Garden twine rots eventually and is better for the garden.  Side shoots and tendrils are taken off so that more of the plants energy can be diverted into flower production.  

The paths between the sweet peas have been cardboarded and then covered in remail.  This helps to prevent the paths becoming too consolidated, breaks down the remail so that it begins to compost, provides a bit of a mulch for the sweet peas and keeps my boots clean.  Luckily the tree people bought some remail and left it right next to my allotment.  Saves wheelbarrowing it uphill from the bottom car park.

Potatoes are chitting in the greenhouse.  I do not need to plant them just yet.  I sowed green manure on the bed in January.  Remarkably the green manure has germinated under enviromesh and scaffol netting so the ground is not exposed to the elements.  I have taken the nets off now, rolled them up and stored them away in old dustbins.  I will need some of them for the peas and parsnips.  

I have already planted the oca tubers.  They seem be cold resistant.  I have two rows of about 12 feet so may be able to use a lot more of them this year.  

The yakon is in the small greenhouse. I put them in pots with my own compost over winter.  They would probably survive during the winter in the soil but I wanted to make sure they would be ready for this spring.  

Things to do today.  Check the greenhouses to see if the seedlings need watering.

Continue putting ramail on the paths.

Sow peas Douce Provence and parsnips Tender and True.

Take some photographs of the allotment.