April Week 2 Sunday 15th 2007
We arrived at the allotment on Sunday, in the blistering heat, not intending to stay long but mainly to water our crops and check the plot was ok. As you can see a glorious day but not the most ideal working conditions and so only light quick tasks were undertaken to ensure we didn't become over heated or dehydrated.
'In the Spring Sunshine'
Upon our arrival we assessed the plot, checking over everything and were very glad to see germination of some of the seeds we had sown in previous weeks. In particular, we had some lovely strong little radish seedlings up as well as finally the first showing of the parsnip seed we had sown almost a month ago now. We removed the cloches from the parsnips but will not be weeding around them for a few weeks yet until they mature. The radish seedlings we decided to protect with a layer of horticultural fleece, a lesson hard learned from last year when this crop was devastated by some variety of pest or another eating all the seedling leaves. We hope to prevent this by the use of
fleece.
'Now You See Them, Now You Don't'
The next task was to remove the remaining cabbages which had been over wintered and work over their plot, so that it can be used again. Most of the cabbages which remained had gone to seed, however, there were still a few which could prove useful in a culinary sense and so these were harvested. A crop which has just reached its fruiting period was the (thought to be purple) white sprouting broccoli, which had recovered significantly to produce a first good harvest of tasty spears.
'Very Spring Greens'
Recently we had picked up a bargain at a local garden centre consisting of fifty mixed variety sweet pea plants which had turned a bit 'leggy' and they were selling off for £1 a pack. We took advantage of this and purchased a pack of the plants. After hardening them off in our little greenhouse we planted them to grow up the chicken wire to the rear of our shed, to bring some summer colour and help encourage insects. They were planted behind our already well established tulips and we hope will make a nice show in the coming months
'Bloomin' Colour'
Finally, to the glee of my partner, we were able to pull our first lot of rhubarb, enough for ourselves, and for some family, and we will let you know how this tastes in our next update.
'It's A Jungle In There!'