Thursday, March 10, 2011
Spring work starts
I had a full work session down the allotment on Sunday - sore legs afterwards though! But the weather was just gorgeous, although pretty cold still. Irresistible.
I got all the onions planted! Brown and red, so pretty pleased with myself. This week has been lovely and warm so that will encourage them on no end. I also gave the herb bed a good tidy up, digging out a lot of chickweed and some dock and groundsel, and turning over the soil, which had a good dressing of manure over the winter. The soil is just a treat right now, full of organic matter and worms. I planted a lemon thyme and oregano plant that I had picked up cheap and finally planted out my poor Christmas Rose that was suffering indoors. I can see that parsley is already coming up from self seeding and the thyme and rosemary are looking well.
My rhubarb and artichokes seem to have taken well! Which is a relief. So now I have 4 rhubarb plants and 4 artichokes. Which is probably too many... oh well. The rhubarb is still small but it has survived this cold winter, which is one thing, and it had a good dressing of manure all winter, so hopefully I will get a good crop from the 2 older plants. Love love love rhubarb.
I had some broad bean seeds left. Now I told myself I would not plant broad beans again but I just didn't know what to do with these seeds...so I ended up putting them in along the edges of the pea patch and the spring cabbages, and another small patch near the irises. I admit that I do like them in a spring veg medley... OK, you can say I told you so when they get blackfly :-(
I also gave the strawberries a tidy, sowed some radishes YES YES I say every spring I won't do it again as they never come good, but I did have some free seeds.... SO I stuck a trowel full of manure in a little row and whacked them in.
There is still a lot of work to do, as usual - the seed beds are completely delapidated so I need to mend them and fill them with compost and start some seedlings of beetroot, leeks and broccoli. I need to prepare the carrot bed - I had an idea and bought some fleece. I will dig over several rows and sow carrots interspersed with spring spinach and spring onions and fleece it. Maybe that way I will get a better crop (OK, get A crop since usually my carrots don't work at all).
Oh and plant ALL my potatoes... I think I need a few days off work !!!! ;-)
I got all the onions planted! Brown and red, so pretty pleased with myself. This week has been lovely and warm so that will encourage them on no end. I also gave the herb bed a good tidy up, digging out a lot of chickweed and some dock and groundsel, and turning over the soil, which had a good dressing of manure over the winter. The soil is just a treat right now, full of organic matter and worms. I planted a lemon thyme and oregano plant that I had picked up cheap and finally planted out my poor Christmas Rose that was suffering indoors. I can see that parsley is already coming up from self seeding and the thyme and rosemary are looking well.
My rhubarb and artichokes seem to have taken well! Which is a relief. So now I have 4 rhubarb plants and 4 artichokes. Which is probably too many... oh well. The rhubarb is still small but it has survived this cold winter, which is one thing, and it had a good dressing of manure all winter, so hopefully I will get a good crop from the 2 older plants. Love love love rhubarb.
I had some broad bean seeds left. Now I told myself I would not plant broad beans again but I just didn't know what to do with these seeds...so I ended up putting them in along the edges of the pea patch and the spring cabbages, and another small patch near the irises. I admit that I do like them in a spring veg medley... OK, you can say I told you so when they get blackfly :-(
I also gave the strawberries a tidy, sowed some radishes YES YES I say every spring I won't do it again as they never come good, but I did have some free seeds.... SO I stuck a trowel full of manure in a little row and whacked them in.
There is still a lot of work to do, as usual - the seed beds are completely delapidated so I need to mend them and fill them with compost and start some seedlings of beetroot, leeks and broccoli. I need to prepare the carrot bed - I had an idea and bought some fleece. I will dig over several rows and sow carrots interspersed with spring spinach and spring onions and fleece it. Maybe that way I will get a better crop (OK, get A crop since usually my carrots don't work at all).
Oh and plant ALL my potatoes... I think I need a few days off work !!!! ;-)
Labels: artichoke, herbs, onions, red onion, rhubarb, winter
# posted by antipodesgirl @ 10:53 AM 
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
