Sweetcorn

This morning we planted out our first sweetcorn. Seven plants looked big enough to go out, with as many again to plant out at a later date. The ground is damp, there's only a light breeze and the sun is out.  This is the forecast state for the next few days, so the corn should get established.

We replaced two of our courgettes with spares. That doesn't leave us with any more spares, but the warmer weather should do them some good.

We took some asparagus and some rhubarb both looked very good. The rain yesterday seems to have released some pent up urge to grow, but especially in the weeds and the grass around the edge of the plot, so they need dealing with quite soon.

More, soon.

The promised rain for yesterday arrived and fizzled out. Today the ground was dry with no real sign that there had been any rain. We took some asparagus, which continues to be delicious. We watered the stuff in the greenhouse and the newly planted courgettes, which need a lot of water to do well.

Some more beetroot will be ready to go out soon, as will some spring onions. Leeks will follow soon after, and everything will need watering again very soon.

First asparagus

We had our first asparagus today. There wasn't much - I took the first spears maybe a bit too soon but I have been waiting for over a year. It was very tasty. I look forward to much more.

Jean potted up the first batch of spring onions. They have germinated very well so we have over 70 little plants, far more than we expected. We planned to sow them in stages to keep having a crop, so there are more to come after this. Jean also potted some tomatoes six each of plum tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. This is more than we need, but we might give some away.

Growing

The first signs of growth are appearing. We sowed some seeds directly into the ground for radishes and they are sprouting. They are supposed to quick growing so we may have some crunchy additions to our salads and stir-fries in a few week's time. We're still waiting for the carrots and lettuce.

The next thing to appear was the first few spears of asparagus. They are still too small to cut, but the spears look thick and strong. I think they have responded to the watering they have received. I'm really looking forward to eating these, which have been a long time in coming. We planted the crowns more than a year ago and these will be our first crop. Hopefully we will be gathering asparagus for very many years to come. I'll be taking about half a crop this year to help the crowns grow to full size.

I finished the strawberry bed frames. They are now covered with a plastic mesh, which we actually inherited from the previous tenant. It was buried under the tangle of bindweed and nettles - I'm not sure what it was covering but it's finding a use now. The strawberries are getting a good cover of flowers and these frames are easy to move to weed and harvest. Last year we put wood chips down to keep the berries off the ground and it seemed to work well. Some of the chips are still there, so I'll just top them up again.

Bricks, digging and slabs

The bricks have been laid on the concrete footing. The line is fairly level, but if the front of the new greenhouse follows the line of the bricks we will have a bow-window front.

Over the last few days all of the empty parts of the plot have been weeded and dug over. I cut down the asparagus to the ground, then turned my attention to laying paving stones into the new extension of the greenhouse. I had to cut a paver, which smashed into many pieces, but two of them fit the space so that will do.

The winter onions are doing well, the rhubarb has all died back so everything looks good for the start of the winter. No sign of the garlic yet, but that's not an issue.

Stinging strawberries

We've done some more weeding and tidying up. As I type this my fingers are tingling from the nettle stings. I weeded the asparagus and strawberries by hand and some nettles had sneaked in amongst them. It's surprising how much a tiny nettle stings.

The strawberries had loads of runners, which I pulled up and cut off. I was going to plant some on, but we don't have the space at the moment and since the plants are only one year old (from Norman's runners) they don't really need replacing next year, so I'll pot some runners next year.

We dug a parsnip. It is fat but very short. It doesn't look as though our idea has worked too well. Our leeks were a great success, they tasted great.

There is due to be a national cycle race in our area tomorrow so we will probably do some more at the allotment to stay off the roads. I think I'll check out the new manure heap at the village riding school.

Do beans go with fennel?

Our sweet peas have finally finished after a great show. We've had loads of cut flowers from them and given loads away. We've had a good tidy up over the last few days, and things look good. There have been even more spears on the asparagus, they grow really quickly. The runner beans are now ripening increasingly quickly. It's a bit of a game hunting down the bean pods as they hide behind the huge leaves. There are loads of small pods growing fast and loads of new flowers too.

Our cabbages are filling out nicely too. We've pulled a couple to try and they were very good. We've had mixed messages about freezing cabbage so Jean tried freezing some, and it worked well. Fresh is better, but frozen is pretty good too and certainly not the mush some people predicted.

We took a couple of spring onions to try. They look pretty good, but there are not many of them so I'm not sure they were worth the trouble.

We have been growing Florence fennel as an experiment. The bulbs are beginning to fill out, so we took one home to try. It ended up much too small and very green, rather than the white bulb I was expecting. It tasted good in a salad, so when they are bigger we'll try some more. Gary on the next plot grows herb fennel for its root. I'll give him some of ours to see what he thinks of it. I wonder if it freezes?

And now, the pictures

We had a really good tidy up. Jean trimmed the edges of the grass surrounding the plot. I nipped the tops off the broad beans which had black-fly on them and tied a string either side of the rows to support them.

The newly planted very young beans are doing well, so they should provide much later crops.

There were a few ladybirds patrolling the beans, hopefully laying eggs so their nymphs can eat the remaining black-fly. You can't beat a bit of biological control.

I hand-weeded around the asparagus and added extra earth around it. Extra spears are still growing. I'm really keen to see this do well.

I added some blood fish and bonemeal to various places, it looks like it will rain again tomorrow so it should get washed in. Included in this were the strawberries. I got some of the bonemeal on the leaves and as I knocked it off I noticed just how many berries there are. They are covered in them.

Now the edges are cut I can see the trees we planted. The whitebeam is doing very well, but it will be years before its ready to take its place in the hedge where I really want it. All of the trees have taken so we have little oaks, hazel and rowan.

Phew

The extra water has encouraged the last asparagus crown to send up a spear, so now we have a full house.

Watering

We've been up to water in the greenhouse - things were ready for water it's been warm and sunny. I watered the asparagus and checked how it's getting on - there are now eleven out of the twelve plants showing, with the first shoots about 30cm long. Some are a bit spindly but they've got a year to fatten up. I watered the parsnips in the bed. They're a bit puny, but they are growing.

I've done a bit of work on the auto watering system, my embryonic timing system seems to work, so now I need to test the motor switching, the timing control system and the indicators, then it needs testing, then ruggedising and installing. Then it might work.

Asparagus

The last couple of days have been a lot warmer and this has helped the asparagus to send up shoots. They're skinny little purple spikes and there's only two of them, but I'm delighted. I have seen conflicting ideas about whether to get any crop this year. Some say no stems should be cut this year, some say cut one stem per crown to encourage more stems to grow, some say even two stems per crowns. I have decided to not cut any stems this year because the instructions that came with the crowns suggest so - I think I can wait that long.

And a partridge on the shed roof

The asparagus crowns arrived today. What great timing. It snowed again overnight and is set to be frosty again tonight. The planting leaflet says plant without delay, so we set off to plant it.

The snow had all melted and the ground was wet but not too sticky. The patch set aside for the asparagus had loads of manure dug in few weeks ago. A pit was dug, about one metre by one and a half and about twenty centimetres deep. Then three ridges were built up along the bottom. The crowns were laid out four to each ridge, with the roots spread out on either side of it. Then they were carefully covered over. There is enough soil left to bank them up if needed.

I now have to wait a whole year before I can cut my first shoot, but if all goes well I could be cutting about 90 shoots each year for twenty years. I do hope so.

The sweet peas we planted have been eaten to the ground. We kept some back just in case, but I don't know what ate them so I don't know how to protect the next batch.

And the partridge ... it was sitting on the shed roof when we arrived. A lovely red-legged partridge. Hey, I hope he's not the sweet pea eater.