10. MAY

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Another hot day and as it was a bit cooler in the back garden I used the morning to tidy it up a bit. It didn’t take long,  I just gave my  round privet bush a trim and pulled up some weeds, the rest of  the time I admired the colours. The orange poppies are grown from seeds from Mike. He thought he was giving me some knapweed seeds but instead of that I grew these beauties.

I am glad the very pale bearded irises are flowering, they are new so from  now on they’ll get better and better.

The clematis  montana is an old and established one,

so is the rosemary bush. That one is over around 45 years old, it was a cutting I was given by a lady on the way to school when I was walking with Mike and Tom when they were small.

9. MAY

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The weather has gone quite mad – blue skies and hot, compared with a few days ago. I have been suffering with a reaction after my latest Covid booster, very much as if I had flu. Nearly three weeks now, I thought I was getting better but not today, sneezing, head full of cold and feeling groggy. One sure remedy is to go and have some quality plant time on the allotment. While I was walking there I had an idea how to sort out my long greenhouse. Very simple. I moved the strawberry plants from the pots and planted them under the bench and planted tomatoes in the pots.

The strawberries are under one bench and there will be lettuce under the other, I’m just waiting for my new seeds to arrive in the post.

Outside this greenhouse I created a narrow border and now there are some  more tomato plants in there. They should be fine, they’ll be sheltered.

5. MAY

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In the past few weeks the weather was just awful, cold and wet, I couldn’t do anything on the allotment. The ground was so saturated I would have done more damage than good. Instead  of that I was working in the greenhouse – in the back garden and on the allotment. One benefit of that was I was dry and quite warm.

What a change in the last few days. Blue skies in the morning and it was warm, I almost forgot what it felt like.

Some plants were going to be put out,  like kohl rabi.  I had these in little pots, they were very sturdy and they are now in one of the long beds protected with a net – has to be like that otherwise the pigeons would have a lovely feast. Another few I planted in the large net cage, together with a group of tomatoes. I had tomatoes there in the past and they did well.

All the greenhouses there are full – we have tomatoes, peppers and pepino so with a bit of luck and a lot of fussing over them I should have a decent harvest.

 

I also put some more tomatoes in large flower pots beside one greenhouse, they should be sheltered from the wind there.

To finish today’s activities I hoed another piece of ground, ready for sowing some carrots and parsnips there. I dug the ground early in the spring but all the rain we had completely flattened it and it just needed freshening up.

19. APRIL

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I am a forever optimist so I decided it is time to plant out  my kohl rabi seedlings. They were getting bigger and as I had them outside they were tough already to survive on the allotment. I prepared the bed for them, it is one of the two I covered with the netting stretched over the plastic hoops. There were carrots and beetroot here last year so I swapped it, carrots and beetroot will go to the other one. I wanted to put some of my new chaff fertiliser around them but it was so windy it made the job impossible.

I also checked the greenhouses and watered everything, the tomatoes, peppers and aubergines are looking good. Some have the chaff around them, Next time I’ll finish putting it around the rest of them.

17. APRIL

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A few weeks ago I watched the Gardener’s world program on TV where they mentioned chaff from roasting coffee, using it as fertiliser.

It is an excellent addition to the garden because coffee chaff is a hydrophobic brown material that not only helps to aerate the soil but also degrades quickly in garden beds. This allows for the use of mulch for composting as well as for mulching. It adds nitrogen to the soil.

I did some research in my area and found a coffee roaster called Monsoon Estates Coffee Company. I have soon found out that others thought the same and I was a bit late to get some chaff. However they told me that they’ll let me know when they have some more. I had an email from them today and in the afternoon drove there to get it.

They are on an estate in what looks like a converted stable block. What a lovely place to work I thought. They were very nice and I got a cup of coffee into the bargain. I had a chat with Will and we both agreed that their place of work is very nice – what a lovely office to work in!

16. APRIL

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I was hoping the weather was improving but I was wrong. Yes, it was nice and quite warm for a couple of days but it turned cold, very windy and rain, hail stones and then a very slow drizzle. Nothing was possible to do outside so I went quickly to the allotment to work inside the greenhouses. I have got one already full  of tomatoes, another one with peppers and the very small one again with tomatoes. When Frank came to help a few days ago he carried some sacks of the compost from the bins in my polycarbon greenhouse, I filled up the pots there ready for planting. 

 

I decided to grow globe artichockes again, they germinated well and were outside at home so I was able to take them  there and plant outside. I think they could do well in their new home.

I decided that the three miniature fruit trees I inherited from Stewart are apples, one of them has got some lovely blossom.

When I was there a few days ago and planted some tomatoes in one greenhouse I had one plant left over. I thought I would try and plant it in a pot outside. So far so good, it is quite happy. I won’t put any more of them outside, I’ll wait till I’m happy that the weather will stay warm.

13. APRIL

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I think spring might be here – I’d better say it softly, just in case. Today was a lovely day and I managed to do quite a lot on the allotment. I had to cut the grass on the path – after all this rain it certainly needed doing. Dave was there as well and he came to my rescue after the battery on my strimmer gave up. Not at all surprising.

Last weekend Jay helped  me to plant our first tomato plants in one of the greenhouses and today I continued.

These are just one kind – Rozov, the seeds were given to me and this year is the first time I’m trying to grow them.

In the next greenhouse I have got sweet peppers, this is the first time I have got enough of them to fill one greenhouse.

In the last little plastic greenhouse I have more tomatoes and the rest of them will have to wait and see where I manage to squeeze them in, either in large pots or even outside. If I wait till the summer they’ll be fine in the large net cage, they always were.

My flowers are looking good as well, the bees love the rosemary.

2. APRIL

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After yesterday’s session on the allotment I was encouraged to find that the soil wasn’t too wet so it was the turn of the potatoes today. I don’t want to grow too many, I have got six large pots with some very early ones in the back garden and we don’t have potatoes for every meal so four rows is just about right. I knew where I wanted to plant them but I didn’t realise that this piece of land is so heavy. 

 

I only had a little strength left, enough to top up the pots ready in one greenhouse for the tomato plants. The compost is from the numerous composter bins, another example of recycling.

The weather is quite unpredictable so I have to play it by ear, decide and go, morning or afternoon. It was a nice morning today, even the afternoon started well but soon after I returned home it started raining – again.

1. APRIL

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The new month started quite well, a lovely sunny morning and I could go to the allotment at last and plant the last of my onion sets. I found some white onion sets, never grew them before so I’ll be interested in how they perform. The soil was not at all waterlogged, it was just nice and crumbly. Everything else there is done, I had to water the strawberry plants in the long greenhouse – they are flowering – and hope to plant my potatoes next time I go there.

In the afternoon there was some more transplanting in the greenhouse at home but I’m very quickly running out of space. Not only space but I have got no more of  my little flowerpots. Amazingly I have used every single one. I’ll have to have a look in my shed on the farm, I might have a few more there. My propagator upstairs is slowly finishing, I have got just one little tray there with some pepino seedlings. I have never grown these but I’m curious as to how they’ll do. A few people have them in a facebook gardening group I follow.

The tulips in front of the greenhouse add a touch of colour, otherwise everything inside is green and seriously organised. At least I remembered to label everything carefully, I hope I’m not going to have any mix-ups.

Some of my tomato seedlings are getting quite big, all I need now is heat and warmth. I have a few varieties of tomatoes, some of them can grow outside – just as well because I don’t think I could find space for all of them in the greenhouses. I need to put my aubergines and peppers there first.

It will be a relief to be able to start taking some of the pots to the greenhouses on the farm – after all, I need the space to start sweetcorn and beans when the time comes.

22. MARCH

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I know spring is here but the weather forecast for the weekend is not at all good – very windy and much colder. Oh well, I’ll be in the greenhouse transplanting my seedlings into bigger pots. I’m very pleased with them all, it was worth getting the propagator, they sprout much faster. But not only that, I have started some large flower pots with potatoes and they are coming up.

 

Everything else is coming on well, the kohl rabi seedlings are much bigger and so are leeks. The onion sets need to be planted out, I’m hoping we’ll have a dry weekend, I don’t mind it being a bit colder.

Best of all are the strawberry plants in the big pots. They look very healthy and one of them is already flowering. With a  bit of luck the other plants will follow and we’ll have some early strawberries.