Monday 28 April 2014

Icy Blast Is Forecast

The greenhouse is absolutely bursting at the moment, with plants for the garden and veg and flowers for the allotment, but with an icy blast forecast for later this week with frost on wednesday, thursday and friday nights I can't risk planting things out just yet.

Bursting out of their pots are sunflowers, sweetcorn, statice, gypsophelia, onions and leeks.

Friday 25 April 2014

Wallflowers In All Their Glory

If you read my blog regularly you may remember back in September I transplanted wallflower plants that I grew on my allotment from seed into the garden ready for Spring.

Well they are at their best right now, and looking marvellous.

How did I grow them? Back in June I made a standard drill across the allotment and planted the seeds, lightly covering with soil. I sowed fairly thinly so they didn't need thinning, 1 packet of seeds did a 12m row. I then left them there until September when I transplanted them to the garden, after summer bedding had past it's best.

One word of warning, their success this year has been in part down to a snow free winter, in past years they've suffered from being under inches of snow which has crushed them. September is a little early to transplant to the garden, my thinking behind this is the longer they are in their final position, the more established they will be when/if the snow arrived, so they'll be better equipt to survive it. 

Will definitely grow some more this year and I'm going to give another biennial a try from seed, Sweet Williams.


Walled bed now. 

Walled bed in September.


Wallflowers, grown from seed on the allotment. 

Thursday 24 April 2014

Tatties are in

All my tatties are now planted for the summer, I always think this is one of the hardest tasks on the allotment, a great deal of heavy digging.

I've planted 4 different varieties this year. First earlies, Pentalnd Javelin and Maris Bard, and main crop, Desiree, because I grew them last year and they were very successful, and Rooster, because they are great as roast potatoes.

I dig a trench about 6 inches deep, put the seed potatoes in the bottom and then earth up to about 12" above ground level. Although I'm planting quite early it will be we'll into May before they pop their heads above ground and by then we should be well past the risk of frost. 

Don't forget, you can increase your crop by cutting large seed potatoes in two, just make sure you cut them so they are about the size of a golf ball and that you have a growing tip on both halves.