We both spent the morning down the allotment. Lin transplanted some lettuce and cabbage plants, plus the usual weeding. I turned the compost from the medium bin to the smallest one and found hundreds of snails living there, all of which have been removed to a far away place! Then the rain came and called a halt to things, but at least it saved us from having to water.
Two visits this week so far. Firstly on Tuesday afternoon, I planted a third row of peas, the other two are just starting to come up. We were given half a dozen globe artichoke plants by a friend and they were put in next to the peas. Lin thinned out the first row of mixed salad leaves. I planted some runner bean seeds straight in to the ground. I planted some spares as we've not had a good success rate with the ones in the propagator at home. It will be interesting to see how they compare to the ones we are starting off at home.
Today was mainly weeding and watering. The beetroot are looking good as you can see, the cabbages are starting to get eaten so I covered them with a some chicken wire. The Charlotte potatoes are now starting to flower as are the broad beans (which are still being eaten, but much less, I've treated them a couple of times with a mild water/washing up liquid mix).
The asparagus is not doing very well this year, our only consolation is that other people on the site are having the same problem. Overall since planting them they have not given us many spears, I was hoping that this year would be better, not worse. But we do have one strawberry that is starting to turn red!
The broad beans are still suffering from something eating them. I've sprayed the beans with watered down washing up liquid and that seems to of helped.
Now that the onions and shallots are a decent size we have covered the beds with leaf mulch. This should make it harder for the weeds to grow and when watered it will help keep the moister in.
Most of the seeds that Lin planted recently have started growing. The mixed lettuce (above), spring onions, beetroot, carrots and cabbage are all coming up. Only the parsnips haven't, they always take a long time to germinate.
I planted more seeds today, carrots (Artemis F1), red lettuce, parsnip (Place F1), beetroot (Alto F1), Romana lettuce, spring onions (Long White Tokyo) and rocket.
The potatoes are all doing very well, these are the early Charlottes. The strawberries are getting more and more flowers on and it shouldn't be too long before we start getting fruits.
