6 weeks work, and no time for blogging!

With one of the oddest springs for a few years - warm sunshine, ferocious winds, cold snaps (overnight frosts in June!), downpours and more sunshine - there's been plenty of work to do and not much time to blog! Small disasters in the shape of a collapsing greenhouse tent and a second one demolished in the high winds have put back some of the seedlings, but most things continue to do well. By now, all the seeds planted directly out have sprouted, with the exception of some of the sweet peas. The echinacea is up and thriving, the Jerusalem artichokes are threatening to take over, and the sunflowers and beans are poking through.

Since the last post, I've added a few ready-grown plugs to the plot of cabbage, cauliflower, tomatoes and baby sweetcorn. It looks as though pigeons have been after the brassica, but the plants are strong and it is likely they'll survive.

Here's a selection of pictures showing what's been going on over the last few weeks.

Lots of lovely flowers...

 ...and luscious salad...

...and a promise of autumn fruit...

 

...signs of industry...

 

 ...and tidy sheds (er yes, this is AFTER I tidied the shed...)...

 ...and a very lovely evening to be out gardening!

Mostly planting

What with one thing and another, it's been a while since I could get down to Plot 129. The paths are desperately in need of strimming, and the dandelions are making the most of it, but the garden has really come on in the last few weeks. The lupins and red hot pokers have flower spikes zooming upwards, the herbs are bushing out, and later-developing plants such as the hyssop are coming into leaf.

The onions, garlic and shallots are continuing to look good, and in the raised beds some of the surviving beetroot and carrots are developing nicely. The mixed lettuce is also looking healthy (about three cm high) and we're having our first 'crop' of raddish thinnings in tonight's salad!

Today was mostly about planting, though. Seed went straight into the ground for:
Yellow courgette (Paradour)
Green courgette (Defender)
Squash (Sunshine)
Turnips (Snowball)
Parsnips (White Gem)
Runner beans
Borlotti Beans

The shed area is still a bit too messy after the high winds to sort the green houses out, but that is a job for next week.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from Plot 129!

Lupin

Today was such a lovely day to be out. The sky was black with clouds all afternoon but it didn't rain, and the evening was warm with bursts of golden sunshine. Perfect weather for getting on with spring jobs! Today was mostly a day for weeding - the flower garden, the shallotts, the onions, and the pots. I also got a bit of edging done, so the big bed is looking tidier, and I planted raddishes and mixed lettuce in the remaining raised bed.

Plum blossom

The birds were very active, rustling in the bushes. One particularly inquisitive wren took a good look at me in the shed, but I didn't manage to take its picture - hopefully next time!

In other wildlife news, mice have eaten nearly all of my broad bean sprouts, and made a start on the peas. I may have to give up on broad beans for this year as it is getting quite late to replant them, but I'm considering covering options for the peas.

Rhubarb

On a positive note - the beetroot and carrots are up, and the rhubarb is ready for picking!

Baby beetroot

Plot 129 in the evening spring sunshine

Rain stops play

With rain forecast for Sunday afternoon, I got down to plot 129 as soon as I could in the morning to make a start on tidying the flower garden. Two huge heaps of dried twigs (mostly brambles and michaelmas daisies cut last year) were ferried to the back of the plot ready for burning. Despite the fact that I really need to get on with weeding the flowers I ended up with a lovely bonfire - the piles were just irresistable! Fortunately I did have time to plant spring garlic (Cristo) and do some weeding before I started to feel the rain in the air...

Dwarf daffodils

Peas!

The weather is not so good this weekend, but I managed a couple of hours on the plot on Saturday, planting peas (Hurst Green Shaft). I'm trying a little experiment, with the first and third rows sown with mycorrhizal fungi at the base of the drill. I used the fungi last year, but have no idea whether it contributed anything or not, so this year I'm planning to half-and-half everything to see if there are any noticeable differences.

It's March - time to start planting in earnest :)

Yesterday was such a beautiful day! A perfect day for being out in the garden, the sunshine made even the hardest jobs feel a little bit magical.

Following the removal of the damson trees and clearance of the brambles behind the shed, I had to reposition the robin's nest box (no-one has started nesting in it this year, so it shouldn't be a problem). The robin was darting about whilst I worked, so I hope it took good note of its potential new address. I also had time to clear and refill one of the raised beds, which I planted up with beetroot (the old favourite, Boltardy) and Autumn King carrots on tapes, as well as dig over a new bed for peas. Burning through a pile of dead wood from the clearance took about an hour, and I think so far I've managed to get through about a fifth of it!

The garlic is all up now, and the onions and shallotts are doing well too. There's no sign of the broad beans yet, but it's still pretty early in the spring.

Jobs for next weekend:
Finish preparing the pea bed, and plant peas
Prune apple tree
Clear brambles and reposition compost bins
Clear out greenhouse and prepare seed trays

January

Well, January is supposed to be a time for new resolutions, and it looks as though one of Plot 129's should be to blog a bit more frequently! I seem to have missed the last nine months - I can only assume I was too busy planting, weeding and harvesting to write about it...

The 2014 growing year was mostly very good - kale, beetroot, potatoes, chillies, rhubarb and the soft fruit all did very well, as did the carrots and courgettes. We had one wonderfully large and tasty squash, but no others, and the onions and garlic weren't a success. Mostly the onions were spring planted after the floods, or left in from the year before, and they stayed very small. Sadly, the tent greenhouse suffered in the weather - once blowing entirely into my neighbour's garden, and many times being overwhelmed by the weight of collected rain. By the end of the season the metal supporting rods were buckled, and I don't think it will be usable again.

But 2015 is a new year! So far the ground hasn't flooded, and the onions and shallotts I planted in November are coming up well. The rhubarb looks great, and most of the herbs seem to be surviving, including a lovely parsley plant which had a rough start last summer. In December I planted about thirty cloves of garlic - Marco, Thermidorme and Germidour - and they are all showing signs of life. Today was my first day of proper work down on the plot, not just popping down to pick beetroot and kale, which I'm chuffed to say we can still do!

Here's  a shot showing the beds of garlic and onions in the distance, as well as, in estate-agent speak, areas with a lot of potential :)

Today's highlight was planting the broad beans - three rows of Aquadulce Claudia.

More resolutions for 2015:
1) Plant more squash!
2) Don't get seduced by new varieties of thyme - there's only so much you can eat...