Vinny's Allotment Plot

'The toms can wait a while yet though as I sowed mine far too early last year. Once bitten, twice shy as the saying goes! '

If that's the case why oh why do I continue to sow toms too early???  You would think I would learn from my mistakes, but no.  I think it's being an optimist, I tend to hope that the weather will be kinder this year than previous, I'm always wrong

Its a while since I posted on this thread and rather than post on the 'What I did today' thread,  as it was all allotment based I thought I would post on here!

Today I boiught 5 bags of peat free compost to use at the plot.

I also took my chrysanthemum cuttings to the plot to harden off in the greenhouse. They have been on the bedroom windowsill since I 'sruck' them and I am pleased that I had 100% take on the main batch without any heat ot rooting hormone!  Thats 18 plants in the main batch and another 5 plants in a 6 inch pot. I also tended the leeks which were already in the greenhouse hardening off. While there I grabbed another tray of onions from greenhouuse for use at home.


I dumped each of the compost bags round the plot close to where I intend using them. The plan was to sow some parsnips, but on checking through my seeds I didn't have any!  I definately bought some parsnip seed but gawd knows where I put them!
Because it was bright I did a bit of hand weeding on the onion beds. For the first time ever my Japanese onions have been a real dissapointment? A lot of the bulbs have just rotted in situ leaving big gaps in rows. Luckily I have loads of spring sown sets ready to go in so I will just plant them in the misses.
Even though I have put stuff to harden off in the greenhouse I need to try and replace some of the panes of glass or plastic that have been blown out as the hardeing off plants aren't getting  lot of protection.
Anyway, it was nice to make a start on the plot and hopefully the weather will improve giving me more motivation to get there more often.

Today, I spent another couple of happy hours at the plot. I risked shorts and even took my jumper off at one time. Dug some of my diagonal beds (must confess, it was mainly for worms for a fishing trip on Tuesday.)
I also re-dug the area I will be planting my Gigantes  beans in. I have  bought another 10 X 8 foot canes that I spotted in B&Q.The beans wee quite expensive so I wanted to give them the best start in life by making sure the ground was free of weeds.
At least when I find the parsnip seeds I bought, or worst case scenario have to buy some more (shock /horror) I have some cultivated land ready to sow them into!

Completely different day today from yesterdays sunshine. Non the less even though it was damp it was reasonably mild. Took my Austurin tree cabbage to harden off in greenhouse.
Pulled up seeded turnips,cauli's,sprouts and spring cabbage. Sowed parsnips and dug up some parsnips which got used for dinner. Even though the packet said sow from May, I decided to sow some swedes to see if they would grow a bit bigger than last years which ae still in the ground and puny. 
Hoed between onions and dug over a particularily hard bit of ground. I was hitting large rocks with every spadeful so didn't get a lot dug. This could account for the poor ctops I got from this area?
It was just nice to have a bit of a session on the plot and as an added bonus I managed to collect some worms for a fishing trip.

Did a bit of work at the allotment today. I went with the intention of tidying up my Japanese onion beds by weeding and tickling soil around plants to help aerate the soil. Quite a few of the Autumn planted sets had damped off or just died off. I have three types of spring planted onion sets to plant so utilised these in the gaps.
Utilised all the white onion sets I had (about 40) just filling in the gaps.

The Centurion and Sturon sets I had were planted in a bed I prepared. To prepare the bed I just hand weeded,hoed it then spread woodash on it followed by half a bag of peat free compost. My soil is on the acid side to the woodash should hopefully sweeten it (and I had a bucket of woodash from the woodburner to dispose of anyway) the rest went on the compost heap for the same purpose.
I still have some red onions and Centurion onions to plant yet.
I need to start harvesting leeks more frequently before they start running to seed as they are a decent size now.

A couple of happy hours on the plot again today.

Firstly planted my half price shallots in a small bed. I then tackled two 'Jungley' beds that had last years sweetcorn still in (left purposely for the bugs, at least that's my story)  and the other bed had Kohl Rabi which had seeded.
After clearing each bed of old plants and weeds I gave them a quick tickle over with the hoe and rake. I then planted 15 chrysanthemum cuttings I had taken earlier in the year and a couple of dozen leeklets
If nowt else it makes the place a bit tidier but still loads of weeding to do.

I should have photographed left side of plot which is looking a bit tidier after last visit...........but I forgot.

Any way, here's a fe iccies of before and after on the beds I worked on.

Managed to get 20 Desiree potato tubers planted. They were planted in a bed I prepared last year with cardboard and grass cuttings and also some woodash on top. I took out a few perennial weed before planting them with a bulb planter.

I also managd to weed another smaller bed and sow 35 The Sutton broad beans in situ.  As soon as I took my shirt off it clouded over, but when the sun was out it was unbelievably warm.

It was nice to get done what I actually planned to get done for once! I came home with some sprouts and a nice boiling of PSB for my supper!

Getting good at this getting done what l planned to do lark!  Kestrel tatties and Sharpes Express tatties planted. Quite a bit of weeding and ground preparation was required but achieved what I set out to do. Even weeded the elephant garlic as well.

When I try to attach a piccie I get 'Site can't be reached just now'

Please ignore the glove giving you the 'finger', it wasn't intentional.

Just testing ...........    

Seems to work, Vinny. 

Just testing ...........

Seems to work, Vinny. 

Tried twice Veggie, at 1 hour intervals.  I'll give it another go later.

Way hay...............success!!!!!!