Getting sowing

Finally finished digging out the last of the four beds. Have been raking over the beds to create a 'fine tilth' for seeds (above). I started sowing Parsnips on the allotment a few weeks ago using radishes as markers. Also put in first bit of Spinach Beet (below).

Lush green shoots and blossom

Well I got back from Nottingham on Sunday to find everything still very much alive. My new seeds have all appeared with the warm weather, so now there are tiny rocket and lettuce leaves as well as the toms on the windowsill. (above) The big surprise though, was the spuds, which seem to have shot up out of nowhere to a fair size already. (below)

Meanwhile the existing radishes, onions, garlic and tomato seedlings have got even bigger. I'm regretting not planting the toms in individual pots! The biggest are a good 4" now and getting sturdier. (below) I'm concerned that the radishes are going to get too big for the onions they're planted with so tried to move a couple. they seeem to have wilted though. The ground is very dry (like the water butt still!) so I've been watering almost daily.

I've been impressed by the speed with which everything's grown over the weekend actually. My walk to work is now much greener, with all kind of dark greens bursting out the hedges, hundreds of flowers out - including bluebells and violets, the cherry trees in full pink and white blossom and oak, birch and chestnut sporting bright green baby leaves. All very lush. Looking forward to a walk at the weekend.

Chitting spuds and radish shoots!

Found my first shoots coming up on wednesday night after work! Went out with Rosie and to find them just poking through in the torchlight. By Saturday they were this big and loads more had also shown up! Don't they look happy? :)


I used the morning to sow more parsnips and onions, as well as plant bits of garlic at the end of the patch. I'm sowing parsnips and onions every two weeks so they hopefully don't all come at once.


I also had a look at my potatoes which I got from Henry and have been 'chitting' in my shed since feb. Everyone looks at me funny when I tell them this, but all it means is that they're growing roots before I plant them. They look pretty happy too, but still need another few weeks.


We've got some frost forecast for early this week, I hope it doesn't kill everything....

Sowing

Had the day off work on Friday, so I took the opportunity to take some photos in the morning and sow my first seeds in the afternoon. Did a row of parsnips (white gem), a row of onions (half hystar, half red baron) and half a row of salad onions. I mixed radish seeds in with the parsnips and onions to act as row markers, because both take a long time to germinate and the radishes will be pulled before they're ready.


I used some seaweed fertiliser to prepare the seed bed, which I had raked over last weekend in preperation. For each row i used two sticks linked with string to mark it out and a trowel to make a 'drill' to plant in. I spaced the seeds out as it says in the book, using a tape measure to get the distances (maybe a bit odd, but I've worked as a surveyor and old habbits die hard!).

Can't wait to see my first shoots!

Seeds and Poo

This Saturday, I walked round to my friend Henry's house to see his plot, which he has been using for the last few years. We then hooked a trailer onto the back of his car and set off into the sunny countryside round Cobham to go hunting for manure.

The first place we stopped was a stables who didn't have any going spare, but the second farm we went too couldn't get rid of it quick enough. "How much can you take?" the guy asked, "Ten ton?"

He wasn't kidding. We followed him over to Wisley airfield in his landrover, where he had huge piles of shit the size of small houses. Given the choice of animals and maturity, we settled on some well rotted cow manure and set to forking it into the trailer. The farmer was so nice he even mucked in with us.

Now, while it's not the kind of thing I'd usually get excited about, we were pretty chuffed with our trailer full of shit. Just a little bit worried we were going to lose it over the front of someone's nice new Porsche on the way home. Not for his sake, but because we'd have to do all that work again!

Once we got rid of some of the poo and had washed our hands, we went down to the farmer's market on the Leg'o'Mutton field, to get some tasty food. Then we spent a long time choosing our seeds at the local garden centre. Because you get so many in a packet we decided to share the ones we're both growing, so went home and split them up between us.

Finally we went back to our respective plots to dig in our glorious bounty of dark brown goodness before it got dark. The veg is gonna love it! :)