Planting regardless of the cold weather.

This blog is a personal reflection on what I have been doing on the allotment.  It is a working allotment that is designed to produce as much fruit, vegetables and flowers possible.

The blog just records how and when I do things in order to inform next year's planting plan. The blog does not give a very good explanation about how to do things.

There are a lot of plants that have been potted up and are in the greenhouse waiting for the weather to become a little more clement.  It started off really warm this morning but by twelve o'clock it was very cold again.  A north easterly wind was blowing onto north facing allotments.  Little or no protection against it was available for the plants.  This has put us back about two or three weeks compared with last year.

So what is germinating and growing on the allotment in the first week of May?

The carrots are through as are the parsnips but they are not growing very fast.  Salsify has germinated but little of the scorzonera is showing.  There are no signs of the Hamburg parsley,  beetroot or salad burnet.  The lettuce plants planted in April are surviving well but do not seem to be growing.  The Swiss chard, celery and celeriac seem to like this wet weather and are growing quite well.

I have a tray of dill to plant out on this bed and I will probably have time to do this tomorrow.

Strawberries are beginning to flower - what can you say?  Peas are doing remarkably well.  The winter cauliflowers still have not headed up.  I will give them some more comfrey liquid fertiliser tomorrow.
The polls are up for the heritage "Trail of Tears" climbing French beans.   It is far too cold to plant them out at the moment and they are languishing in the greenhouse at the moment.  They will have to be hardened off soon though.

All the brassicas are doing well but some are being eaten by flea beetle.  A little annoying but I have more seed and seedlings to replace any badly affected.  It is mainly the kohlrabi and swedes that are affected.  I still need to plant out the Brussel sprouts and the purple sprouting broccoli but when I do that will be the brassica bed full.

The black currants have a remarkable amount of blossom on them.  If it turns into fruit then we will have a good crop this year.

The sweet peas have not liked this wet weather at all.  They have stopped growing and started to turn a little red.  All they need is a little warmer weather to start growing again.  I cut out the extra shoots and left only one then tied up the plants so that they did not blow about in this cold wind.

I have put a row of gladioli between one of the rows of sweet peas.  I put some mychorrhizal fungi in the planting holes and I am hoping that this helps to produce some big flowers.

The rest of the bean canes were put up where the leeks had been taken out.  There are a lot of beans potted on in the greenhouse, which I am trying to harden off.  These cold nights are not helping.  When I get some more glass for the cold frame I will be able to harden them off on the allotment.

Onions, garlic and shallots are growing but very slowly.  I have started to remove the tulips from the rest of the bed so that I can put in the sweet corn, cucumbers, squash, pumpkin  and tomatoes.  I have built a hot bed with the farmyard manure and put a cold frame on top.  The cold frame does not have glass in it at the moment so that is another project for as soon as possible.

Rhubarb is producing some good leaves and petioles.  I am taking some home almost every time I go to the allotment. I love eating rhubarb.

Spuds - the potatoes are the only things that are growing and they are just what I do not want to grow in this cold and frosty weather.  I have hoed them up again and the mounds are quite large now.  Covering them with soil in this way might help them to survive the frost.

I emptied one of the comfrey bins today putting the old comfrey onto the compost heap.  I will be filling the bin with this years first cutting of comfrey, nettles and sweet cicely.

Due to the cold wet weather nothing is growing very fast so I am running out of jobs to do on the allotment.  When the weather warms I will be hurtling about trying to get everything in and growing well.  Roll on the warmer days.  Blooming English weather.

Still planting and sowing.

In order to make some space in the greenhouse, I have planted all the onions except the ones that I am going to try to grow very large.  The onion Vision was planted today.  I had just enough plants for one row.  I doubt if I will need any more than that.  They were planted under the enviromesh with the other onions.

Another row of lettuce was planted in the 'leaves' bed next to the other lettuce.  I have covered the early lettuce with cloches to get a crop quite soon.  I will probably use this area to plant some of the herbs like cumin and dill when all of the lettuce have been eaten.

I have sown two rows of beetroot;one row of Hamburg parsley and a row of salad burnet.  There is still room for fennel, spinach and parcel.  I would like to plant out the chamomile, marjoram, dill and cumin seedling in this  area too. 

I put in another row of turnips just to see how they do without any protection from cabbage root fly.  A small row of radish was sown next to them.  I will carry on this row with American land cress.  

I have decided to make some hot beds to plant the tomatoes on.  I dug a shallow trench mainly to get some top soil to put  into the ring culture pots.  Into the trench went lawn mowings with a liberal layer of cow manure on top.  The ring culture pots, full of top soil, were put on top of the pile.  Apart from bringing the tomatoes on the hot bed will raise the tomatoes above the soil level and there will be less likelihood of slug damage to the fruit. 

That is all I have done today but it still took me about five hours.  Where does the time go to.  I did stop a couple of times though.  Don offered me a cup of coffee and that was very appreciated.  Then I was given a vegetable samosa which was also very appreciated.  

I love samosa -  but not too hot.     

I will take photographs of the allotment on the 20th because I took them on the 20th of April last year.  Not such a warm April this year and things are not so advanced.  

Planting up the Allotment.

At the moment I have four rows of carrots; one row of parsnips, salsify and scorzonera; two rows of lettuce and one row of Swiss chard on the top bed.  I still need to sow some Hamburg parsley and beetroot.  The celeriac and celery plants need to be put out but they can stay in the greenhouse until the weather becomes more clement.

Two rows of early peas and  a row of broad beans has been planted in the pea and bean bed.  The climbing French beans have germinated in the greenhouse but it is far too early to plant them out.  Four trays of peas have germinated in the greenhouse and these will have to be planted out soon.  I still have two rows of winter cauliflowers and two rows of purple sprouting broccoli in this bed and will not take them out until I am forced to. We are eating the purple sprouting broccoli and the winter cauliflowers have not headed up yet.

Two rows of cauliflower, All the Year Round and Clapton, have been planted in the brassica bed together with one line of Golden Acre Primo cabbage.  I also have two rows of turnips as well.

There is something wrong with my sweet peas and they are not developing as quickly as I would have expected.  I have tied them up and weeded between them.   Hopefully they will perk up a little as the weather warms.  I am still eating the late leeks but I will need to clear this ground soon so that I can put up the runner bean canes.

On the onion bed I found a little room for the herbs.  They should be quite snug here because they are in full sun.  Two rows of Bedforshire Champion; two rows of Alisa Craig; and two rows of Mammoth onions have been planted on the onion bed. One row of shallots Jermore have also been planted alongside the garlic.  All these have been covered in enviromesh supported by blue water pipe.  I have taken out the American land cress and the rocket before they could set seed because I needed the space.

I will be constructing another hot bed to put the early tomatoes on.  I have some really good farmyard manure and this will be put along a shallow trench.  I will take out the trench because I need to soil to fill the ring culture pots that I will plant the tomatoes in.  The ring culture pots will be spaced along the hot bed on top of the farmyard manure.