29/03/26 - Move About and Create Space
Good day to you, reader. BIG NEWS! We had an hour less sleep last night and are suffering from a mild form of jet lag thanks to the clocks changing. BOOOO! But, that does mean an hour more of daylight at the end of the day that could be spent on the allotment. HOORAY!!!! But that doesn't bode well for my other passion, Astronomy. BOOOO! Anyway, we take the rough with the smooth.
This week hasn't been particularly warm, wet, dry or anything for that matter. It's just been, meh. But that doesn't reduce the amount of jobs that can be done. We're still some weeks away from our last frost date yet, but some things have had to get moved out into the polytunnel, just to create some additional indoor space in the grow tent. Meanwhile, on the allotment itself, it's been time to turn thoughts to what will be going into the ground during the month of April and making the necessary ground adjustments. In the polytunnels (big and small), similar work is also underway to start undercover planting.
I've had 3 visits to the plot over the weekend. The first was Friday evening. More of a quick check than anything significant. Because it hadn't been especially warm, I was quite happy to just leave things be on the watering front, so I just wanted a quick wander to decide what should be on the agenda for the weekend. Saturday on the other hand was pretty full on in a race against the incoming weather. I really enjoy doing my bit for the allotment society by doing much of the mowing on the communal pathways, and so a couple of hours on Saturday was spent running the mower around. It's also a great chance to have a nose about other peoples plots as I walk up and down the different paths 😉.
Back to our own plot though, and no sooner had I switched the mower off, the first of the rain and hail storms come through. Good job there was plenty to do in the polytunnel! The carrots sown in the tunnel have germinated well, and come up with the exception of a few spaces, and they needed thinning out.
Still needing to take cover out of the rain, I'd taken some squash and aubergine plants with me up to the tunnel. They were the first of the things to be moved over the weekend to create more room. Always time for a selfie too!
This week, the onions that have been grown away quite happily in the large polytunnel seem to have come on a another step. They were getting tall enough on the staging, that they were hitting the bottom of the strawberry baskets, so it was time to move them out to the small tunnel, and check on the peas and leeks both of which are doing very well. I still have some back up onion seedlings which I'll continue to grown on for the time being, but I don't know if I'll need them yet or not.
In between showers, I also removed some hoops and mesh from a couple of beds that are due to have potatoes and cucumber grown in. Trying to dig potatoes was going to be really awkward if I left the hoops in place, and for the cucumbers, I will be putting up the same trellis as last year that was made from some old herras fencing.
Back inside the large tunnel, I decided to start working on one of the two beds that will be used for direct growing this season. Last year, I had membrane on each of the beds and then the quadgrow pots on top for the peppers and aubergines. This year, I want to try growing direct in the ground. I's already added some manure and other organic material, so lightly raked that in before watering with a couple of cans of water. If the planting plan is to be followed, I should be starting to put crops in there in a couple of weeks time.
That pretty much brought Saturdays visit to an end. On Sunday, it was back up for another hour or two, moving more plants up to the polytunnel. This time a couple of trays of germinated beetroot seeds, some more squash plants and some germinated back up sowings of sweetcorn. Thanks to the move around made on Saturday, I had some room to put these onto the staging. The forecast for the coming week isn't too cold. We shouldn't see any frost, but neither will we see much in the way of sun either. I uncovered a second bed while there, ready for more potatoes. It was originally a spare bed that had some failed sprouts in. Generally though, the plot as looking good. Some bits are still under their winter duvets, but there is some colour coming through thanks to the plants and bulbs as well.
One last job before leaving the allotment for the weekend was to set out the main crop potatoes for chitting. This year, I've received a mix of different size seed potatoes, and only when I opened up some of the mesh bags did I realise how small some of them are. We're growing Sarpo Mira again because they were brilliant this year. I'm not too sure if I will order on-line again next year though. We have two very good garden centres near by, and several other further afield, that sell seed potatoes loose. One to bare in mind.
One last job for the weekend, and it's one that I have been wanting to do for a couple of weeks, was to pot on the tomato plants. We're growing two varieties. A beefsteak variety called Steak Sandwich, and another variety called Tomate Ananas. The Steak Sandwich variety have been grown from saved seed from last year, and while they started very well, when compared to the Ananas, they have become very tall and leggy, and have also suffered a bit from leaf curly. The plants were getting too tall for the grow house under lights, so have spent the last week indoors by the back patio doors. The Ananas variety though have proved to be much healthier. I only need 10 plants, but have potted on a few more. I still have 3 or 4 Steak Sandwich plants, and I also have some seedlings of the same variety, just in case I loose the first sowing plants before I get chance to move them outside. All the potted on plants are now inside. Ananas are on the left, and Steak Sandwich on the right.
