Sunday 13th April 2014

Woke up just after 6:00, breakfast and out of the door by 7:00 - I was alone down on the allotment for the first few hours this morning, I decided to get the strawberries in as they are already developing flowers that will turn to fruit and they have been there a very long time waiting.

Next I turned my attention to uncovering beds 7, 8 & 9 as the potatoes are showing and pushing up the fleece. So I've used soft milk bottle bricks to make a tent type structure, not sure it will last long but looking at the weather forecast we shall need a little frost protection next week during the night.

Then I used what I could of the blow a way tube and fitting to make a cage to go over a bed and decided on placing that on bed 10 where my late potatoes are and currently they are not showing but they did go in the ground a week of two later than the early potatoes. Hopefully Basil Brush will think its a trap and keep away from the bed.

The plants in the greenhouse got watered and looking at the bottom of the vending machine cups and seeing the roots to the beetroots I decided they should go in so they are now living in bed 1

I weeded bed 2 and there are not many onions actually left from the overwintering experiment and those in the greenhouse look better than those that I over wintered, so if I do try again they will be overwintered in the greenhouse and not outside where the slugs can live off them.



Here is an update on the numbers of tomatoes now showing their little heads, previous figures from 3 days ago on the 10th April in brackets

35 (27) - 100s & 1000s
  9 (2) - Beef Steak
  9 (3) - Gardeners Delight
10 (7) - Harbinger
  3 (3) - Money Makers  <<<< Really not sure what's going on with these ?
  6 (4) - Lizzano
  7 (4) - Sweet Baby
  9 (3) - Sweet Mullion

I got rid of a lot of the cardboard that was covering bed 4 and that I had been saving and have now decided it's just junk that I could really do with dumping. A new sack of sand has been opened and the wet contents has been emptied out on the metal trays and they have gone in the grow house inside the green house and I have a vast quantity of empty plastic milk bottles that need turning into soft bricks. The half a sack of sand has gone into the greenhouse so that hopefully it can start drying out as well. 

I filled a tray of loo rolls with compost and found that cutting the bottom of a 500ml plastic milk bottle and using it as a funnel was the best way of filling the loo roll tubes without filling up the spaces in between. I've compacted the compost and left the top 10-15mm down from the top ready for the runner beans.

The comfrey I chopped up and put in a plastic milk bottle is rotting down well and that gets a shake up each time I visit the plot. Next visit will see a second comfrey milk bottle stared off, as I'm sure its the comfrey tea watering that I give the spring onions that is bringing them on so well.

I cut some 1.2m lengths of the plastic edging ready for replacing the lawn edging on beds 3 and 4 and weeding on the next visit. So I still didn't get any more of Bed 11 dug and weeded but the sun is doing a good job of drying out what I have broken up with the pick axe.





Paul from Plot 6A & 7A came watered and left. Bob on Plot 3 arrived with daughter and son-in-law who have been rotovating his plot for him this year. Brian was next then Andy and finally Michelle and Lee. I came away about 12:45 after a whirl wind of a tidy up of all to tools and repacking the greenhouse with the crates of empty plastic milk bottles.

I have masses and masses of plastic pop bottles but now I have the greenhouse there is no urgency to make up panels apart from the fact that I'm drowning in them, the shed is full of sacks with pop bottles in!! 

Home Afternoon Sowed 5 Cucumber (Marketmore) Seed and 10 Plum Roma Toms