Carrots!

I had given up on the carrots. I've bought some more carrot seeds to have another go. Today the carrots have decided to show up. I will sow some more carrots as the new seeds are later season carrots so hopefully they will extend the season. It seems impatience and vegetables don't mix.

I have dug over some more of the plot in anticipation of planting out some of the things growing on, mostly still at home. The recent rain has left the soil lovely and crumbly but it has pushed up weeds like mad. I do wish weeds were edible and tasty, but they do make good compost in the long run.

I have sown some runner beans, and two sorts of manges touts. I have some prunings from the hazel trees and I think they will make great pea sticks. I do need to cover the plants this year, the peas especially. Partridges have been seen and already onions across the site have been nibbled. I expect to net over everything and surround stuff with wire netting too.

I have noticed that Ronnie has planted out sweetcorn. I'll see how it does before I plant mine out, which is still a bit small yet.

Cold again

The courgettes have survived their first night out, under fleece, but the wet, windy and chilly forecast for the weekend is ominous and then it is forecast to get colder!

I'm planning to sow some more seeds at home, I hope it warms up soon.

Asparagus glut, odd weather and courgettes

Today's asparagus

The asparagus is prolific at the moment. There are new spears every time I look and I can hardly keep up with it. It is lovely, especially the soft tips. I've tried it cooked by searing it on a griddle pad and steamed in a dribble of water, covered in a microwave. Both work well. it goes with fish, eggs and meat and now I'd like to try something else, just for a change.

I think the wet year last year will have helped the asparagus bulk up and it started to show nearly a month late this year, probably due to the very cold March winds, but what every is the cause the crop looks and tastes very good this year.

A poor photo of a great courgette

The cold start to the year has held up everything. I sowed seeds deliberately late this spring, but still there are come concerns about tender plants. My courgettes have grown fast at home and have main leaves and even flower buds, but I was concerned about frost so I haven't put them out, until today. The plants look really strong, but one nip of frost and they will be doomed, so after planting them out, I covered them with a fleece tunnel which I hope will protect them enough until the risk of frost has passed. I planted them quite deep and made a little well around them, so when they get watered it flows to the plant - they are very thirsty. I also planted them wide apart, they can be rampant and need a lot of elbow room.

The broccoli is still producing spears, though some are flowering now so I think it is nearly over. It has been really good and I'll certainly try growing it again, though protecting it from pests has been difficult and it is important, having lost two thirds of the plant in a couple of days to pests - probably rats.

The broad beans are beginning to show the first truss of flowers. They have all survived the wind and chill and are looking good plants. They are getting big enough to think about tying them in to another string support. Leeks in the greenhouse are all doing well, the failure rate so far has been almost zero. No sign of any carrots yet - I may have to sow some more.

Harvests and sowing

Some rhubarb was ready to take today. It looks lovely, but the real treat today was asparagus. The spears were finally big enough to take and many more showing so it could be a good harvest this year. The broccoli is still producing lots of small florets. I watered the asparagus, broad beans and fruit bushes.

I dug over, carefully weeded and finely raked out a bed for carrots. I sowed two rows of seeds with lots of room for more rows, but I need more seeds. I'd like to try some other varieties so I'll see what I can find.

It was another lovely day at the site, sunny, calm and warm. As I dug and weeded the ground it was great to feel that it was warm even well below the surface.

A house just across the street from me is having an extension built and Paul had a chunk of lawn to dig up. He asked if the earth would be useful at the allotments - it is. People now have extra raised beds and all those little sunken corners have been filled in. I fetched a few barrow loads of the rich, loamy soil which I will just use as a mulch to improve a few parts of the plot.

Late sowings

In previous years some of the seed sowing might have been a bit too early. This year the very cold, dry start has meant that I have held off sowing seeds for much longer. Today I sowed sweetcorn, cabbages and beetroot to add to the courgettes and spring onions I sowed earlier. All of these are in pots at home at the moment. I need to work on a carrot bed on the plot as I'd like to get a crop of carrots this year. I need well dug and finely raked soil to get carrots to grow and it needs to be in an area that can be surrounded by fleece later on to keep the carrot fly at bay. I'll pick a spot and make a start shortly.

Lovey place to be

I just spent a lovely couple of hours at the plot. The sun was out, with a gentle breeze nudging some bees and butterflies around. The bees were large bumblebees, but I couldn't see them well enough to be sure what they were. The butterflies were small tortoiseshells busy defending territories and attracting mates. A decent flock of linnets came and sat in a holly tree nearby and sang as hard as they could, but they were drowned out by a singe wren in the hedge. Wrens must be the loudest British bird for their size. At one point a blackbird was trading bursts of song with a song thrush. Gold finches twittered across the site and a very welcome greenfinch perched on the hedge for a couple of minutes. Greenfinches have had a hard time for the past few years with a parasite called Trichomonosis killing birds here and onto continental Europe too. I hope they are making a comeback.

I weeded some of the ground and planted out the broad beans. They have been waiting to go out for rather too long. They are too tall, although they were not yet pot bound. I decided to stake each plant to stop any breeze snapping them off. I also nipped off the tops of some of the taller ones to try to get them to bush up a bit. All of this took longer than you might expect as I lingered over watching butterflies, bees and birds. I hope there are more days like this for the rest of the spring.

Not the biggest harvest ...

... of broccoli, but it is the start of my long-awaited season. The spears are small and I'm not going to get fat on it, but it smells great and later I'll see how it tastes. There are other spears forming lower down the stem, so if I take the top ones that should encourage others to fill out too. If they all come to something there should be a decent harvest and one that I had given up on so rather unexpected.

I have rechecked the rabbit hole and it remains filled in, so it must by now be unoccupied. The photo is looking down at the back of a compost bin with the heavy iron bar holding down a large wooden block where the hole was, with a part brick also standing by make digging harder. I will keep checking and keep retaliating if there are any signs of digging or other activity. My aim is to persuade any pests that my allotment plot is not a pleasant place to be so they go elsewhere, sorry to my neighbouring plot-holders.

It seems we did not dig up all of the parsnips over the winter as a couple of them have sprouted new tops. I don't think they will be worth keeping so I'll dig them up as I turn that part of the plot over prior to planting.  Many of the plots are being prepared for planting, with onion sets being planted on a few plots. My broad beans in the greenhouse are romping away and I need to plant them out, but strong winds today and for the next couple of days are making me wait, they would just snap in the wind for now. I'll get them out at the end of the week and stake them I think.

I have potted on the first batch of sixty leeks and another batch is on the way. I've sown courgettes and spring onions at home too, but the parsnips chitting has been a complete flop. I'll try again - I do want some parsnips on the go.

The next job is to make a carefully prepared carrot bed ready for sowing carrot seeds direct - I might have to sow parsnips direct too at this rate.