Bolting onions

The winter onion bulbs are beginning to swell but unfortunately a couple have developed flower bulbs, known as bolting. We know that as soon as the flower starts to grow the bulb suffers, so I pulled them up and we will eat the small bulbs in a salad. A couple of years ago we grew both white and Japanese winter onions and the Japanese ones didn't bolt. This autumn I will try to get Japanese ones (the current ones are white) to see if that really makes any difference. Maybe we'll grow both again.

The long promised and awaited rain shows no sign at all of appearing. Today is bright and sunny. There was a sharp frost last night, with some potato tops on other plots getting nipped. We have continued to water, especially the tender stuff. The beetroot we put out is really not doing well, but we have another batch in the greenhouse and more seeds to sow. There is no sign yet of the carrots sprouting.  One thing that has become abundant is the wood pigeon. They seem to be everywhere and in great numbers. We will need to protect things that go out from the pigeons. This can be either by netting them (the plants not the pigeons) or hanging CDs over them on strings as a scarer which seems to help keep butterflies off too.

Courgettes and French beans are both doing well in the greenhouse. I hope that our timing is right, so that as they as big enough to plant out the frosts should be over - neither will stand any frost at all.

It really has been dry

A quick visit to water and harvest. We took our first spinach of the year and cut some more asparagus, this time to give away. We watered most things again. Still no sign of any carrots.

The new month means the weather statistics are being published for April. it seems that it has been the warmest April since 1659 and the driest month (not just April) on record. The recording station at Leeming only received 2mm of rail all month. This is following a record-breaking dry March, so all of the watering really has been necessary. The temperature extremes are most marked given that December was one of the coldest on record too. Climate change really is happening, though predicting the details is almost impossible. 

The last time we had a hot, dry spring (2007) it was followed by such torrential rainfall that Hull and surrounding areas were very badly flooded, even leading to loss of life. I would like some rain (lots of rain) but not that much.

Many people have told me not to water the allotment, with stories of how it will encourage only surface roots or how the plants will be dependant on me watering. I don't know if any of this is true, but I do know that last year when we didn't water we got poor crops. I'm still not sure why watering is any different from rainfall. It's not as if rain somehow fills the ground from below. Water is vital to all plant growth, leaves need the water to combine with carbon dioxide (and a few trace nutrients) to make all of the sugars the plant needs to grow, light being the energy source to drive it. Plants are largely carbon from the CO2 and hydrogen from the water. Without water they cannot grow. I'll see what happens, but our plants will be watered if it doesn't rain.

Busy day

A fine, warm Easter Monday tempted out a lot of people up to their allotments, including a few new faces. Roz seems to have persuaded a bit of turn over so plots get properly used which I agree with, especially since there is a waiting list.

We planted out some beetroot which is getting too tall and leggy in the rather-too-warm greenhouse. We watered things that looked dry, especially the newly sown carrots and the planted out beetroot. The broad beans have flowers, so they got some extra water. The strawberries are covered with flowers, so they got some water.  The spinach is looking lovely so that got some water. The asparagus is sending up even more shoots, so that got some water. The sweet peas are beginning to reach up their sticks so they got some water. The winter onions are beginning to swell so they got some water. The garlic is throwing out extra leaves so it got some water. The raspberries are looking stronger than I expected given they were moved, so they got some water. All of the seedlings in the greenhouse looked dry so they got some water.

The tanks are getting emptier again, so rain is needed or a huge topping up session. 

Winter Onions

Broad bean flowers

Strawberry flowers

Spinach

French beans

Every year we have tried to grow something new to us. This year it is dwarf french beans. The consensus seems to be that they are prolific, so you don't need many plants and that they are not hardy so they need protecting from frost. We sowed our first batch today and that may be the only batch we need. We also sowed the next batch of beetroot and some courgettes. All of these are in the greenhouse to germinate to ensure they stay frost-free. We will grow more courgettes than we need because the process of transplanting them from pot to ground doesn't always work. We have sown more french beans than I think we need, just because I don't know how they will perform. Unused plants are easy to give away.

The ground is thoroughly warm and very, very dry. Without rain soon we will have to soak the ground just as preparation for planting.

We took some more asparagus today; it will probably get used at lunch time. The spinach is looking very strong and is responding well to watering. Our strawberries look good, with lots of flowers already. The blackcurrants and gooseberries have lots of flowers and hold the promise of a bumper harvest. The warm weather has brought things on quite quickly, I just need to keep up with watering to swell the fruit.

Spring onions

The first batch of spring onions got potted on today, three to a pot. They then went up to the greenhouse to harden off, although the temperature is so warm (21°C today) they will probably wilt rather than harden. The asparagus is getting into its stride. We took some more with some rhubarb. There will need to be some more watering soon since there is no rain in the offing.

Asparagus and weeds

A leisurely visit to the plot with a couple of jobs in mind turned into a watering session. The ground is dry as dust and newly planted things were very dry. Jean planted out the spinach - which looks very promising, I harvested some asparagus - our first this year - and transplanted a strong looking raspberry plant. It had grown up close to where the raspberries used to be so I moved it to where they are now, filling a gap where a plant hadn't survived the winter. I weeded the strawberries, which are filling out nicely and have a few flowers showing. Jean weeded the winter onions and planted the last few sweet peas. I added a few more canes for them to climb.

We then watered the freshly planted spinach and sweet peas and after checking the rest of the plot we watered the asparagus, broad beans, summer onions, parsnips and raspberries. I would have liked to water the other fruit bushes which have flowers on them, but our water tanks are nearly empty. I estimate we have used about three hundred litres of water in the last few weeks, and the thirsty plants are not sown yet. A few very wet days would be welcome to water the plot properly and refill the water tanks, but nothing is in sight.

Sickly beetroot

We start our beetroot in pots, a couple of seeds in each pot and then they go out as soon as they look big enough. We sow them in batches so the beets are ready through the season. Our first batch of beetroot started off well, but much of the young plants have keeled over an died. We have taken the remaining ones to the greenhouse in the hope that they will like the cooler space. We have sown a lot more to try to catch up.