Seed sowing and transplanting.

Spent most of today sowing seeds and transplanting seedlings.  I have put the Mammoth onions into large pots to grow on.  The Vision onions were put into smaller pots because they will be put into the allotment sooner.  Vision is a good storing onion and can last throughout the winter if they are treated correctly.  The large onions will have to be eaten quite quickly because they will not store very well.

I transplanted some turnips into sectioned trays.  This is the first time that I have done this because I usually plant straight into the allotment soil and thin out.  I am going to try to get some big turnips this year so that I can give one to my daughter when she is reading "The Enormous Turnip".

Apart from this, last year they were particularly well eaten by cabbage root flies so I want to see if I can grow some better ones this year.

I have sown both swede and kohlrabi into sectioned trays for similar reasons.  The celeriac seedlings have been  transplanted into sectioned trays as have the second sowing of celery.

More lettuce and All the Year Round cauliflowers were sown for succession. Regardless of the fact that I have far too many already.

Other brassicas sown today are calabrese and "Trafalgar" Brussel sprouts.  I still need to sow the winter cauliflowers and the broccoli.

I have sown some French climbing beans to see if I can get an early crop.  Most would say that it is far to early for French bean sowing but I collected my own seed last year and have a surfeit  I can experiment with.  Similarly, I have kept my own runner beans and can experiment with an early sowing of these.

I have also sown several different herbs including dill, marjoram, sage, basil, cumin, etc.  I am not too sure whether they will come very well because they were last years seed being sold off at half price in the garden center.

This has filled the greenhouse again.  However, the potatoes that are chitting will be planted soon and the early sowing of "Golden Acre" cabbages can be taken out to harden off.  I have some early Duke of York potatoes which I will plant tomorrow.  This will allow some room for new seedlings to be transplanted.  I will only plant more pea seeds when the present ones are planted in the allotment.  This should give me a good succession of peas.

 The parsnips will go in tomorrow.  So too will the sweet pea seedlings.

It is a busy time of the year.

Today I will be mostly weeding.

At this time of the year there is a bit of a lull in the things to do department on the allotment.  I have transplanted some red Brussel sprouts into 3 inch pots.  I am not too sure what name they go under because they were given to me.

The celeriac has grown quite a bit in the greenhouse.  I gave some to Mick.  Tony, who had given me them, said they were bigger than his.  I will leave mine in the greenhouse for a little bit longer and then plant them out next to the leeks in the onion bed.

I have finally got the French beans to germinate.  Why they were such hard work I don't know.

 I took up two trays of lettuce to the allotment but I did not plant them out.  I will do that tomorrow.  I pricked out the new sowing of lettuce into sectioned trays.  I have far too many but I will be able to give a lot away.  It is amazing the good will you generate when you give people little plants.  I am going to do this a lot more from now on.  I have planted some more brassicae seed just in case.  One or two plants have been eaten by slugs.  The Nematodes have not come yet.

I am not going to buy them from Unwins again.  They may be cheaper but I would rather pay more and get them delivered when I want them.  I am going to email them to see where they are. WHERE ARE MY NEMASLUG NEMATODES UNWINS???

I planted another line of Woden beetroot and then took the enviromesh off the carrots and weeded them.  I was going to thin the carrots but I don't think that they need to be thinned yet.  I did sow them quite thinly so they will not suffer from another week without being thinned.  I sowed a line of rainbow Swiss chard.  I will probably only use the 'baby' leaves in salad because I don't really like chard cooked.

I thinned and weeded the parsnips.  I have got them about 6 inches apart now and I might decide to thin them even more later.

Two potatoes were coming up in the parsnips so I dug down with a trowel but did not find them.  They will continue to irritate me.

The new line of spinach has germinated and is growing well.  This is another leaf I would rather eat raw than cooked.   Tony had given me a few Blue Lake climbing French beans and I used these to replace the ones that the slugs got because UNWINS HAVE NOT SENT ME THE NEMASLUG NEMATODES YET.  This is one place where I am definitely going to put them if they ever arrive.

Hoed and weeded the peas and the squashes.  The squashes are surviving even though there has been several very cold nights.  Went down to the brassicas and hoed all of these.  It is a bit of a chore because I had to take the nets off but it isn't that bad and the nets went back on really quickly.  While the nets were off I gave the cabbage, cauliflowers and the broad beans a good feed with comfrey liquid.

When I had finished all of this it was tea break time and I toddled off to make a cup of tea.  I had to walk over to the shop because I did not have any milk. Sat down and poured a cup of tea then had a snooze.  What is life if full of care there is no time to stand and stare?  No time to stand beneath the boughs and stare as long as sheep or cows. No time to see, when woods we pass where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.  No time to see, in broad daylight streams full of stars like skies at night.  No time to turn at Beauty's glance and watch her feet - how they can dance  No time to wait till her mouth can enrich that smile her eyes began.  A poor life this, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare - or at least have a snooze.  You and me both William Henry.

Really I should have gone home but I wanted to get at least one row of sweet peas tied up because they were in danger of flopping over.  Once I had started, I realised they were not as bad as I thought.  I did do one line but I left the others for tomorrow.  It started to rain .

Tomorrow, I will mainly finish the sweet peas, plant the lettuce and possibly hoe the potatoes up again.  The potatoes don't need hoeing up again but it is a good way of weeding them.  I have cut all the stolons off the strawberries so they put all their energy into making big fruit.  I hope that I get some big fruit now.

I have cropped two lettuces, some rocket and spinach leaves for dinner today.   Picked, washed and eaten within an hour.  Lovely jubbly...