27/4/26 - Waaahhhh! So Behind!

I leave the allotment for one single weekend, and then leave the country for 4 days and before I know it, I'm so far behind!  At least, that's the way it feels at the moment anyway.  So, let's get to it.

The last time I saw the allotment, I had quite a few things sown in terms of different flower seeds etc. and a few things veg wise were well on the way to being ready to transplant out.  And then the weather happened.  But not in the way you might think.  Despite best efforts of watering the seed trays, and protecting them from the cold, I've actually managed to cook them quite severely.  So severely in fact, that the plastic cell tray they were sown in has melted quite nicely.  All is not lost though.  There is still plenty of time to re-sow those in the coming weeks.

Anyway, on to the main work.  After a mow and strim, the first big job of the weekend was to transplant out the peas that have, up until then, been quite happily growing in their gutters in the polytunnel.  Germination hasn't been brilliant, but there are enough plants to get going.  This year, I used a mix of two different types of guttering.  One type being a bit shallower than the other.  The effect this has had is clearly visible in how big the plants have grown, given that they were all sown at the same time.  The plants in the shallower gutters are certainly smaller.

The next thing on the agenda was a bit more ground work on another bed, and prepare it for the seasons cucumber and cucamelon plants.  This system worked really well last year, and so I pulled out the trellis I made for the last season from a section of heras fencing, and installed it in this years chosen bed.  We're all ready for the off on that bed too now.

On a break from planting out and digging holes, this years strawberry crop has also arrived.  The last time I saw the strawberry baskets, small green strawberries were just starting to form.  They have come on a long way in two weeks, and provided half a punnet during the first picking, and a couple of days later, a second half punnet.  Got to love early season strawberries!

The sweetcorn seedlings were next on the agenda.  They have really come on well, and the second sowing I did have just about caught up.  I still have more sowings in the polytunnel, just in case I lose any plants to ants or slugs, but so far so good.  3 Rows of 5 plants for the sweetcorn bed this year, nicely spaced.  There is also a possibility that I will put a squash plant or two in there as well.  That will need to wait a bit longer though.

This year, I am also trying to make more use of complimentary planting with the use of flowers as a way of deterring bugs and pests from different crops.  My other motive is to add as much colour as possible to the plot too.  So to try and achieve that, I have added two rows of calendula down each side of the onions which were planted out a few weeks ago.

Staying on that theme, I have also added a row of marigolds along the front of the bed which will be home to the cucumber and cucamelon.  I also added a couple of nasturtium plants to the pea bed.

Inside the polytunnel, we are getting close to the point where I can think about removing at least one part of the staging for the season.  Most things have now been moved out to the mini polytunnel, waiting to be transplanted out into their final locations, so there is not much left.  This year, I'm trying to grow more in the ground of the polytunnel, instead of the quad grows.  I want to see how best I can use the space in there, and if the quality of the crop is any better.  I started with a few lettuce plants, followed by a sowing of spring onions and then some shallots.  To finish the bed off, I have also added a couple of rows of beetroot, along with two tomato plants.  It was never really my intention to grow tomatoes indoors this year, but I have 12 plants, planning on using 8 of them, so there were always going to be 4 spare.  I've put one ananas and one steak sandwich variety into the tomato watering collars to see how they go.

One more piece of groundwork to round the weekends activity off, and that was to put the finishing touches to the main squash bed, by partially burying 3 tubes for watering the squash plants.  I've used this technique every time I have grown squash, and it is an excellent way to get water down to the roots of the plants, where they need it, rather than relying on top watering.

There we have it.  That about covers the work done this weekend, making up for the lack of time last weekend.  Generally elsewhere, there are a number of things to report on progress wise.

• Early potatoes are pushed through and the foliage is developing well.  I don't think I will bother earthing these up this year though so I will leave them grow on.
• The carrot bath is a tail of two stories.  The first half that was sown is doing OK, but there is a lot of weed in the compost which has meant that only about half of the sowings are doing well.  The other half of the bath has had very poor germination so far.  I will leave it for another couple of weeks before considering re-sowing.
• Both varieties of leeks are ready to transplant.  The ground is ready and so I will be looking to plant those out over the next weekend.
• Broad beans are doing well and will soon start developing pods while in the other half of that bed, the parsnip has germinated in some instances, although it's tricky to tell the difference between new parsnip plants, and weeds.  Also, the local cats have also been scratching around in that bed, so we will need to see how that comes.
• Garlic is really going well, although there is signs of rust.  Nevertheless, the stems for most of them are thick.  One stem appears to have split into two, but there is also mole activity present next to one bulb too.  Hopefully there isn't too much going on under the surface.
• Both varieties of onions appear to have survived the transplanting process well and have continued to grow nicely.
• There's no sign of any growth on the main crop potato beds, but it is still a little early for those.  I expect I might see something in the coming couple of weeks.
• Bed 1, which is this years random bed is also doing OK.  I am using this bed to put in any spare plants, or crops that I am only growing in limited numbers of.  So far we have a few spare onions, some lettuces and as of this weekend 4 kohlrabi plants.  There are also some beetroot plants that will go in there during the next week.
• The remaining plants and seedlings need some more attention though.  The hungry plants like squash and cucumber are showing signs of losing their colour.  I expect they are need of a feed or potting on, and they have already taken the goodness out of the compost they were sown in.  They will need potting on into fresh compost and bigger pots, or moving into the ground very soon.

That's it for now.  Until next time, thanks for reading :-)