March Update

It has been a while since I got my act together and posted information here, but I have been keeping a diary, so here is what happened in March.

We have got a host of seeds going. Sweet peas and little round parmex carrots were first - both are now out in the plot after a spell in the cold frame (if you can call a window frame leant up against a shed that). Next the potatoes went into the top left bed - pink fir and arran pilot. The potatoes went in the first bed we laid out in the top left corner of the plot.



We built another bed below that - left middle. Then the beans and onion sets went in - we have broad beans, red onions and shollots. We put a brick path between these two as we uncovered another pile of brick.



Radish seeds, beetroot seeds and carrot seedlings went in the top middle bed. This one is a raised one with a brick wall at the front and also, we discovered as we started to dig in it, a wall in the middle under the soil. We took that one out with the help of a sledge hammer.



By this time a rhubarb plant that had been hiding in the grass under where we had put the windows as a cold frame had responded to its nice new warn envirnment and shot up. We now have a freezer full of rhubarb - good job I like it.



Our spicy salad seedlings came out and into the bath we have set into the ground in front of the shed, along with some more of the carrot seedlings and some dill and parsely seeds.



The only thing that seems to have survived from the previous plot holder is some purple sprouting broccoli (apart form the rhubarb and I don't think that counts - rhubarb just exists). It was looking a bit sad, falling over and with yellowing leaves, so we put supporting canes in, weeded round them and pinched out the growing tips to see if it would do anything.

Aubergine, tomato and chilli seeds went into the greenhouse, along with lobelia, aquilegia, marogold, chive and basil seeds.

They all started to germinate (apart from the tomoatoes), although there was only one chilli and one aubergine.

We went crazy in the garden centre and bought strawberries, 3 different tomato plants, a chilli plant, and an aubergine plant. I'm not convinced I'll get anywhere with the tom and chilli seeds so I have relegated them to the staus of an extra bonus on top of the bought plants.

Gert, the longest serving plot holder (40+ years), collared us and gave us some of his cabbage seedlings, he had done well with them and didn't want to discard the thinnings so is sharing the wealth with anyone who wants some. He is 80odd years old and has 4 plots all joined together and about 5 sizable greenhouses, I'm sure we will be able to pick his brains when needed. So we now have: late, early, and red cabbages, and some cauliflowers too.

Michael the allotment secretary had been growing on some gooseberry bushes for someone who no longer needed them, so he gave us one of those. We could have had all 6 but we didn't really have the room. He tried to give us red currants too, but again no space. Shame really. The fruit cage is quite full now.

After all that we left for a week to go and demolish my Mum's shed over Easter and build the new one she has bought. We didn't know what to expect on our return - hopefully not a wilted dead plot. We fashioned makeshift drip watering systems for greehouse stuff, and sat the tomatoes in trays of water. We had some shade fabric from a project we had done, so that went on the greenhouse windows in the hope that things wouldn't wilt in the promised hot weather.

Below is a plan of what we have so far, the big bed on the right was there, so was the compost heap and shed. Most other stuff we have done ourselves. If you clcik on it you get a big version where you can see the text: