It,s British Summer Time ( Thats Official)

And the sun has been shining! I remembered to put the clocks forward 1 hour went to bed early sunday night and forgot to set the alarm and woke up exactly !hour later then I should have, cuz my body clock remained unchanged!!!
Have been to plot 2 days running the Kelsae and Lydl onions that were planted last week,look good. have put in Red Fuego cabbage,Cauli Nessie and Savoy King with All Year Round Lettuce in between as a catch crop


Also put a row of Mangetout Pea Oregon SugarPod and covered them with chicken wire.not sure about putting them straight in the ground as there are mice around, time will tell
I have noticed the amount of worms in the soil all down to it being well manured this year I think! it feels good that things are begining to happen and I cannot help thinking back to last year when my ankle was in plaster all through a very hot April and every thing had to be put on hold. Makes being able to dig and plant feel very good

Tidy up To Find Things?

But not if you tidy up Photobucket!! It seemed a good idea to tidy up my pics,putting them in separate albums, then HORROR all pics in this blog vanished!!!
2 hours later I have replaced them with a bit of guesswork lol another lesson learned
Today is easter saturday, it is far too cold to plant anything because it is too early We continue to dig the to be potatoe patch hoping it will put off the small slugs that seem to eat every crop of potatoes in our heavy clay soil.
meanwhile the greenhouse is getting fuller then ever. Here are the Parsnips that were chitted a few weeks ago

My front garden taken through the window

And how this young greyhound cabbage makes sure it,s roots are watered

It,s Raining Again

I suppose that it is the rain that makes our land so green and that we should feel lucky that every thing isn,t covered in snow but I want to PLANT THINGSI went to the allotment this morning hoping to get Kelsea onions injust got in the gate and down it came. We did manage to get some more manure from the stables yesterdayand spread it on the potatoe patch I picked some PSB while I was there and dug up the last of the leeks. these are the onions they will need to go in soon


The catnip which I grew in a old bucket last year is coming back up Bob my fat moggy
found it!! he has been a bit spaced out recently, now I know why. It has to be covered with a old hanging basket or bob will roll in it and love it to death

he definitely looks like he is on something, doesn,t he?

The Greenhouse is Filling Up

Have been busy since my last post,we fetched a dozon bags of manure from some stables
and spread over the soon to be potatoe patch. I have dug up the last of the sprouts and kale, just the PSB there now. potatoes are chitting well but think I will wait a couple more weeks or so Good Friday is the traditional time but it is really early this year. The frogs have been busy,took this from the window

they are quiet now but the pond is full of spawn!!!Have tried prechitting parsnips this year and putting them into root-trainers. these are just about to be put into R/T with small tweezers

Sowing at the moment Leek prizetaker and mussleburgh. Tomatoe beefsteak and golden sunrise, Tigerella came up well and have been thinned. Only Cepa onions took from thelast sowing of onions, all were old seed so not surprised. the poppies, V bonariensis,petunia,wild flowers and godetia are all doing well so I am fast running out of space in my 8'by6' greenhouse

Frosty Nights But Sunny Days

It,s hard to remember it is only feburary,we have much needed sunshine! at last the lane to the allotment is passable. I went there yesterdayand pruned the autumn raspberries, abit of guesswork was needed as they are mixed with summer ones which don,t have to be cut right down. I have dug over the potatoe patch again,it has rained such a lot this winter it is quite compacted,I hope to discourage the small slugs which like potatoes. another bare earth pic(nothing so satisfying as dug earth)

also been busy in the G/H greyhound cabbage are doing well but earliest of all seemed to have blanked(old seed?)sowed onion ailsa craig,cepa and golden bear also 5 pots of red poppy and 3 of wild flowers.these are to grow on to put in the garden just before they flower( they don,t stand a chance otherwise) have put a lot of old flower seeds into modules to see if they come up it reduces my stash, I cannot bear to throw them without giving them a chance.also verbena B and eryngium (sea holly)
these were cheap seed so might not happen (fingers crossed)still eating sprouts,parsnips,last of the kale. just starting purple sprouting broccoli (PSB)

Yesterday Was The First Day Of Spring

All I can say is Brrrrrr!! we had a scattering of snow yesterday, the road up to the allotment is still under water,but yesterday was Imbolc a celtic festival of life stirring again after winter, and it is!!

and hellibore




the cauli and red cabbages are sprouting and I have sown greyhound and earliest of all cabbage for the summer. the onion seedling are doing OK not 100 germination but enough

First Sowing of 2008

Took a deep breath ,wrapped up warm and spent a hour in the greenhouse!
I hade sown some kelsae onion seeds on January 1st in root-trainers which I put in a electric propagator so I was pleased to see the little green hooks appearing

my potatoes arrived from thompson and morgan last week so I set the accent (1sts) to chit. I am keeping them in a cool spare bedroom

also sowed Red FuegoF1 cabbage and Cauliflower F1 Nessie in moduls. have decided to sow seeds in small batches instead of en-block,so if one lot goes wrong another might succeed