Parsnips pushing on

The parsnip tubes are flourishing as they usually do.

I've sown some spinach and radishes in pots to stay at home. I'll sow some more on the allotment plot in a few weeks.

There has been a frost most nights for the past week. This should have polished off a few pests. The ground is still wet and cold, so I'll wait before turning most of it, but I need to get on with sowing broad beans soon, so I'll be turning the patch for that in a day or two hopefully.

Flowers too

The parsnips sprouts have started, I've now got a dozen in paper tubes with little parsnips in them in compost with more seeds on damp paper to encourage them to sprout. I sowed some spinach in pots today to keep at home and hopefully produce enough young leaves for a treat in a few weeks. I'll sow some more after the first batch show for another early crop.

I also sowed some flower seeds. Some stripy gazanias, some pillar box red salvias and some yellow african marigolds to go with the antirhinums I sowed a few days ago. The flowers are for the garden which looks a bit better now snowdrops, hellebores and aconites are all in flower. There's lots of daffodils to come and few other bulbs like grape hyacinths growing too.

This is a great time of year.

Mini dig

The cabbages are finished. they have been small but very nice. A chunk of crisp cabbage has brightened up many of my winter meals.

I went up to the plot to dig over the space where the cabbages had been, which only took a few minutes. Weeds are beginning to grow and the lack of any really cold weather has left slugs and snails untouched - this year could be a another bad year for slug damage. The thermometer said 5°C, but with not much wind and a glimmer of sun it felt quite pleasant. The ground is still quite wet and easily becomes mud when it gets walked on. I'm glad I put some boards down where I usually walk. I need to hand-weed the asparagus patch and pick out a few of the worst weeds elsewhere, but most will wait until I turn the ground for planting, which won't be for a few weeks yet.