Spuds, leeks and cabbage

I put in a row of new potatoes today. The soil was warm. The surface is drying out, but lower down it was moist and crumbly. I dug a trench a spade-spit deep and planted the tubers into the soil at the bottom. A quick fill in and dragged some surrounding soil up over the row to start the banking up process.

At home I potted 60 leeks into pots. That may be a few more than I want, but few might not make it. I looked at both the autumn and purple-sprouting broccoli and both are not yet ready to pot on as they still only have their seed leaves.

I sowed some savoy cabbage seeds. I'm expecting more than I want, but that's the way it needs to be.

Yum

Every year there are firsts that mark the passage of the year. First rhubarb, first buds opening, first flowers on the gooseberries, in the early summer there are the first broad beans ready to eat, later in the year the first sweet corn to take home, and at this time of year it is the asparagus spears. I have taken my first asparagus of the year today and look forward to eating it later.

Onion sets

A couple of days ago I planted the onion sets at the prescribed spacing. I know Gary likes to increase the spacing which makes for bigger onions but I like smaller onions as they are more useful to me. I was just about to go when the rain started, so when it had stopped and the ground had dried a bit I pushed the sets into the freshly dug ground with the very top of their little bulbs just showing. I didn't cover them. That evening, and since, there has been spells of rain, sometimes heavy. That should hopefully kick them off into growing. A warmer, drier spell is forecast later this week which should help the onions and help me do some more tidying and digging.

Early progress

More digging and weeding to get things ready for planting, but still more to do. The murky air that has created air-quality warnings has spread to the plot today. The cool east wind did nothing to clear the murk.

At home the leeks are through and the hairpins are all straightening out. Autumn broccoli and purple-sprouting broccoli are both through and looking good. All of these will need potting up soon. The next round of seed-sowing should start next week.

The seed potatoes are chitting and I'm thinking of planting them in the next few days - their spot has been dug over.