Strawberries And Rain

I popped to the allotment this morning just to pick some strawberries. I got half way through the bed and the rain came, and didn't stop. I took shelter in the shed where I transplanted the basil into bigger pots. After what seemed like hours, but was probably about 40 minutes Lin came to my rescue.

Planting Out

I planted out the runner beans, butternut squashes and courgettes today. Also transferred the sweetcorn, chillies, aubergines and basil to the allotment shed.

Lin planted some leeks (Autumn Mammoth) for next winter, they're a bit late, but we may be lucky. Most of the seeds are coming up nicely as you can see from the beetroot picture. The exception are the peas, which are not doing very much at all. The only reason for this that I can think of is that the seeds are old.

Whilst having lunch I sat and watched the bees collect the pollen from the comfrey flowers on the next plot. It's obviously a good plant to grow to encourage bees, plus it has many uses on the allotment.

Potting On

Today I potted on my chillies, aubergines, basil, rocket and mixed salad leaves seedlings. I also planted some more sweetcorn and runner beans. As the last lot of beans didn't do too well I planted two seeds in each pot. If they both grow I can just keep the stronger one.

Now Seedlings!

Just four days after sowing them, the mixed salad leaves are popping their heads up above the compost. It seems as though the heated propagator was money well spent. The basil is starting too, but no sign of the aubergines which take longer to germinate.

Seeds

We recently bought a heated propagator and today I planted the first seeds in it. Some mixed salad leaves, basil (Sweet Genovese) and aubergine (Black Beauty). Last year we didn't have any luck with the aubergines, they got as far as flowering and that was it. We are hoping that the heated propagator will give them a bit of a head start this year.