Busy day on the plot

Wow - a whole day of sunshine! I made the most of it by spending almost the whole day at the allotment. I cleared out the shed and took the wire shelving that wasn't being used to the plastic planthouse to be my new staging. A few tent pegs and it was fine. After that, I got my old bath out of the junkpile and took it to the plot. I chiselled out some drainage holes and wedged it so it would be stable.



I sowed:
beans french
broad beans aquadulce
chives
coriander
brussels sprouts can't remember variety
leaf beet (perpetual spinach)
leek Autumn giant
lettuce cos
stock
night scented stock
french marigold
poached egg plant
sunflower
dwarf sunflower
delphinium
nasturtium
hollyhock
convolvulus
sweet pea

I also planted up two hanging baskets for the front door with plug plants (impulse buy from the Garden Centre) and left them in the planthouse to get a head start then repotted a clematis for the archway to the back garden. Now the plastic planthouse is getting rather full.



I used leftover bamboo slat edging to make plant labels.



A very nice bloke from freecycle brought me some bags of topsoil, carried it to the allotment and tipped it into my old bath. I gave him a bucket full of leeks in exchange. Then I scrounged some sharp sand from a neighbour to add to the soil for better drainage. A good mix up and the carrots & salad onions can go in with a perspex cover on to keep the cats out and the heat in.

New Plastic Planthouse

I planted some grasses and bulbs around the tree.


Not quite visible but the lillies I planted last year are coming up again.


I have a new plastic planthouse - bigger than the old one and with tent pegs & guy ropes. Due to limited staging space it will hold fewer trays than the wardrobe-style one, but that is easily fixed!


I'm trying a successional sowing approach this year so that (hopefully) I'll always have a choice of what to crop - unlike last year's glut of greyhound cabbage. You can have too much of a good thing...

Today's sowing session for the allotment:
Cabbage copenhagen market
Cabbage greyhound
calabrese marathon
cauliflower grafitti
cauliflower snowball
cauliflower sunset
chili anaheim
courgette Zuboda
florence fennel zefa fino
lettuce ice king
lettuce lollo rossa
lettuce red salad leaves
peas meteor
squash winter festival
tomato Gardener's Delight
tomato Sub Arctic Plenty
basil
parsley


and for the garden:
3 different kinds of dahlia (5 tubers)
6 montbretia "lucifer"
10 pastel trailing begonias


I'm always watched when I'm in the allotment - probably because I've got into the habit of feeding the chickens with leftover leaves through the fence.


Still to sow:
Potatoes and onions - the ground is still too wet
leeks
carrots
salad onions
parsnips
PSB
beans - broad, French and borlotti
kohlrabi
sprouts
leaf beet
chives
coriander
lots of flowers!

It must be Spring again!

The pond has been full of Very Busy Frogs since Friday. I counted over two dozen at one point.





Can we eat these?


I found a pretty purple Christmas Rose hiding under the leaf pile so I planted a white one next to it.


Still alive!