March has been a really productive month, and it feels like we’re on top of everything we’re trying to do even though the wet weather has made things feel a bit dragged out and made us impatient when we finally got out to get things done.
Most of our seeds are doing well (apart from red cabbage!) and the plots all feel like they’re slowly coming together.
We managed to plant out a few of things this month too. Peas, Broad Beans, Onions and all of our potatoes. We can now focus on April as we head up to the big month - May!
If you missed it you can have a read of last month's allotment diary here.
Click on images to enlarge.Sugar Snap Peas
Peas are a good one to plant in February depending on the weather, especially if you’ve got some guttering to sow them in to - you can then slide them out into a trench without disturbing their roots.
We didn’t have any guttering though, so we hadn’t sown any yet as we weren’t too sure on the weather (we’ve felt it’s been a bit wet) and didn’t want the seeds rotting. By chance we happened to find some abandoned guttering, so we planted about fifteen feet of seeds across two gutters, and have got them germinating in the greenhouse.
We direct sowed two rows as well and will sow some more a bit later so we’ve got a bit of a run on them.
Unfortunately the seeds in the guttering haven’t germinated. I think the guttering was too shallow (we’ve been given some deeper guttering now) and were planted a bit too deep, so it looks like all our peas will be direct sown now.
Pea Trellis
When we’d cleared the plot over Christmas there was some old plastic fencing laid on part of the ground. It was about six foot high and seemed something worth keeping for growing things up, and I’d had peas in mind for it.
The Sugar Snap Peas we’re growing only grow two foot tall, so we decided to cut the fencing in to two foot strips about eight foot long each as it was six foot high, This was enough for the three rows of trellis we’d need, with two rows of peas either side.
We tied the trellis to some canes that we pushed into the ground, and then added some supporting canes either side to give them a bit more support. They seem sturdy enough.
We’ve now sown two rows of peas directly into the ground here as the guttering hadn’t worked as well as we’d hoped.
Sowing More Seeds & Rotavating
We started all our tomatoes, courgettes, squashes, sweetcorn cucumbers (amongst other things) at the start of the month. Last year we were too keen and didn’t want to make the same mistake this year so we held off. This will give everything a couple of months growing until mid May when it’s safe to put most things out.
Vicky took care of planting all the seeds (sitting on her new stool - thanks to Cathy from our Cedars class for the donation!) whilst I got on with running the rotavator over the beds again on the new plot. There were still a few weeds coming up in places, and the soil was still quite compacted. I think this will take care of the weeds now for the most part, and leave the beds more or less ready for planting into.
Putting the Potatoes In
We wanted to get the potatoes in a little bit earlier than we did but the weather was never dry enough to do it but we managed to get them all in over the last week of March.
Eleven rows in all, with eight rows of Bambino, Sarpo Mira, Charlotte and King Edwards going in on the baby-sitting plot and three rows of Aaron Pilot, Charlotte and King Edwards going in on our new plot (our first plot is too small for potatoes really).
It took about three good days work to get them all in, 250 potatoes in the end, and I used our new potato ridger which worked really well and saved having to dig trenches for them. I think by the time I’d run the ridger over a good few times the trenches were really deep with the earth ready to rake back over to start our ridges. I’ll keep earthing them up every couple of weeks now…
I was really pleased with how the rows and ridges came out in the end. It’s very satisfying looking back at all the hard work that has gone into preparing the beds and potatoes.
Unfortunately for Vicky whilst I was sorting the potato beds in the fresh air, she spent far too long in what turns out to be a poorly ventilated greenhouse, which resulted in her having a bad chest and somewhat losing her voice - this led to a change of plan for a few classes while her voice slowly recovers. Note to ourselves, leave the door rolled up a bit more often on the greenhouse!!!
Broad Beans
We planted eighty broad bean seeds in small pots in the greenhouse in February with the intention of getting them outside a bit earlier (as always!) than we did but we were dodging the weather as usual…
Ideally we’d have liked deeper pots but having the right cell trays for every seed type can get a bit pricey, so we made do with what we had. One tray in particular had some of the seeds seem to jump out of the pots with their roots still in the soil below… We left them to their own devices and they still looked healthy enough. The other tray had about forty really healthy looking plants in.
Putting these out after our Cedars Park class was basically the last job we managed before the end of March. We marked out two double rows and Vicky put the seedlings in one, and I direct sowed the rest in the other row so we’ve got a bit of a succession going on. These all went in at the top end of the baby-sitting plot. They are looking very happy indeed. Let's see how they do over April...
Random Stuff
Our Garlic is doing really really well. Only two bulbs didn’t grow, and we quickly put a couple in in their place which have since started growing nicely. They’re up now in every place we planted them, so the main bed, a small raised bed and a large pot!
It’s hard not to be moved when the blossom starts coming out on the fruit trees. The Conference Pear tree is looking superb, and the main apple tree (we think it’s called Howgate Wonder but we’re not 100% sure) has beautiful pink blossom on it. The other two trees seem to blossom a little bit later.
We think we didn’t water the trees enough last year, so we’ll be making sure that doesn’t happen this year! They’ve been pruned, and had some really well rotted manure placed at the bottom of them. I’ll also put a bit of straw around the bottom of them too as a mulch those keep a bit of moisture in.
Lastly we put in over four hundred onions, mainly red. We had some left over which we will put on one of the other plots - we’re not sure which plot yet.
We've also been trying to get hold of some decent wood to use as stakes so I can rope off the beds and establish our paths as time goes by. It's good to know where to walk, especially when you've direct sown seeds (Vicky somehow has BIG feet at times).
Hopefully by next month the potatoes might be shooting through, the onions will be growing and there might be some early beetroot, chard and lettuces out to show you too with lots of nice photos of things beginning to come to life.
Again, we really hope these diaries make some of you feel like getting out the back garden and growing something of your own ready to eat in a few months time.
If it says more than "carrot" on the packaging then don't eat it...