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April Week One Friday 6th and Monday 9th 2007 Hello again everyone, get ready for a bumper edition of lottibelogs with our Easter Holiday update. We’ve been clocking some serious time down the plot and got it pretty much ready for the new season. Friday 6th April. The first job after arriving today was to place weed-proof membrane over the pumpkin patch to protect it from weeds forming whilst it lays dormant. The membrane we had purchased was quite thin so we had to double it over so that it would definitely be effective and laid it out in strips to cover the patch weighted down with some tiles, salvaged from the plot when we had initially taken it on.
The Majority of the day was then taken up with final soil preparations for the seeds which are to be sown towards the back of the plot, as we had noticed that the beds there were still actually quite stony. So we hoes all over the soil to turn over the first few inches and remove weed roots and shoots, then went over by hand and removed as many of the stones as we could find. Several hours later we had a mainly much more stone free section of the plot and a large pile of stones at the side of the shed.
Hoe Hoe Hoe As Northamptonshire is built on sandstone this is not a battle by any means we have hopes of winning this year, but we were encouraged by a neighbouring plot-holder who came over when he saw us toiling to console us that it is an achievement to be able to move a barrowful of stones off you plot every year, which is something we will endeavour to do.  Afterwards we added a basil plant to our herb bed and protected it with some plastic in case of a few colder nights over the next few weeks and then set about the most satisfying job of the day, sowing seeds in the back beds. New Life These were sown in rows according to species but we are trying a lot of varieties this year and so had a great deal to sow, please see the seed and cultivation diary for exact varieties but we planted Carrots of 3 types, spring onions, pickling onions, beetroot (4 types), mixed brassicas, cabbages and salads as well additional sowings of two types of parsnip. 
After this long hot process there was barely enough time to water in all of our new seeds, some already planted crops like the spuds and broad beans (as well as older ones like the purple sprouting broccoli) and have a sit and admire the site. Whilst we were sitting we were honoured by a visit from a resident Weasel who bounded along the plot next to us and into a compost bit at the bottom of it. Unfortunately he was too quick for us to be able to get a picture of him but it was a nice end to a productive day and a reminder of how many animals can return to an area when it is preserved and accessible for wildlife, we look forward to him deterring as many rabbits from the site as he can. We returned home later that evening and noticed we had caught the sun quite profoundly, a little reminder to use the suncream we already have in the shed during future visits. We checked on the plants we are raising indoors and proceeded to place some in the outside greenhouse for hardening off and pricked out a few particularly healthy tomato plants for potting on, as well as some sickly looking cauliflowers which have since picked up tremendously. We were also able to sow some more varieties which were due for indoor germination such as sweetcorn, sprouts, purple sprouting broccoli, pumpkins, melons, runner beans, celery, dwarf stringless bean and butternut squashes - please see seed and cultivation diary for exact varieties. 
'Stacks of Seedlings' Monday 9th April. Today we returned to the plot with some hard graft in mind, now the pleasant work of sowing seeds had been completed our minds, we turned to more mundane maintenance tasks which included the extensive repair of our shed roof, which although magnificent, was not in the most brilliant shape anymore. First however we had a quick look around the plot - luckily it didn’t look like we had been visited by the Easter bunny or any kind of bunny for that matter (hopefully this will be the case for most of the summer thanks to our rabbit proof fence). At the rear, the onion sets we planted at the beginning of March were already well established with substantial leaves. This bed was quickly weeded and the small sprouting sets earthed up to keep them well below surface level and away from the prying eyes of pigeons and other birds which enjoy tugging at their leaves and dislodging the whole plant for some reason. 
'Onion, onions, everywhere We also noticed during this time that our purple sprouting broccoli (we have been so carefully protecting after its attack by the pigeons) was not in fact purple at all!! We had noticed the sprouts seemed "whitish" a few weeks ago but never having grown this before ourselves expected them to turn purple soon after, this has not yet happened and the sprigs seem almost full grown and remain their blanched colour. These plants had been kindly donated to us by a neighbouring plot holder following the ravaging of our own specimens by the rabbits during the summer last year. Following some discussion it was decided that they must be a variety of white sprouting or some seed gathered from last year which had reverted to type. However the ultimate reason we are growing these plants is to eat them and so, we tried them and they were still incredibly tasty, so never mind about their colour, if they do ever turn purple we will let you know! After this initial inspection we mowed all the grass and then set to work on the main task of repairing the shed roof - luckily there were lots of slates we had managed to salvage from our plot in the early months which were ideal for this purpose and after a few hours all the cracked tiles were replaced, holes were filled and some protection for the apex of the structure added. This did, unfortunately, take a lot longer than expected and by the time it was finished most of our party were pretty exhausted.  
'Shed Fixing and Shed Painting Whilst several of our party were repairing the shed roof, another of us was giving the woodwork of the shed a nice protective coat of green wood stain, to help it endure the seasons to come and to spruce it up for the spring time. The few final job of the day was to try and salvage the very broken and distorted Monolith into something which will prove useful for our hot crops this summer. Keep reading in the weeks to come for our exact plans about this. On a final note, what a difference a month makes - what we thought was 'dead rhubarb' as you can see it is thriving on the bucket loads of manure we had given it for winter and will soon be ready for its first cropping. .JPG)
Raging Rhubarb 2007' |
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