Seeds Sown March

Already I'm having trouble keeping up with what seeds I've sown and which I haven't so here's a list....

March
Aubergine Apple Green
Aubergine Slim Jim
Broad Bean
Broccoli, Purple Sprouting
Brussel Sprouts Trafalgar
Cabbage Kalibos
Cabbage Red Sky
Cabbage Filderkraut
Cabbage Kilaxy
Cabbage Marner Lagerrot
Cabbage Marner Fuhrot
Cauliflower Snowball
Leek Oarsman
Leek Porvite
Leek Porbella
Mange Tout Beans
Parsnips
Tomatillo, Pineapple
Tomato Fantasia
Tomato Gartenperle
Tomato Climbing

To be hones most of these are a bit early but I keep looking at the seed box for April and thinking I really need to get some out of the way before then. Still more to sow though so tonight its trawling through the packets and seeing what I've missed.....

Construction Part 2

Part 2 of the construction project is a cold frame. I bought a load of old cold frame lights last summer . Each light is about 4' X 4' and made of Oak. They came from some botanic gardens in Oxford.

Matt has started building a cold frame which will house Aubergines I think. He has done a sterling job and once it has sides and a back, and a front then it will be great.

It will be even better if he builds another one to the left as we do have a stock of lights but I wont push it :-).

Garlic Overload

I think I may have gone overboard with the Garlic this year, the patch nearest in the picture is on our original plot, those on the other side of the path are on the new plot. In total there are 8 20' rows of garlic, hmmm.

Building Projects

Matt has been very busy on the new plot building things out of old bits and pieces. First up was a big manure holding pen with 2 compost bays attached. the whole construction is about 16 feet by 8 feet and is built out of old pallets and wooden stakes.

Its great building things out of old rubbish at the allotment - I guess its an original form of recycling and I find it hard driving past a skip without slowing down.

Matt did a great job with the bays, known by many other people at the allotment as the Coralles. It will come in so handy to have big bays for the compost as we dont throw anything green away and always have loads.

Back on Blog

The blog has had a bit of a gap during February as we went on holiday for a week and then spent the last 3 weeks trying to catch up. But we are there now.

We went to Norway on a ship up to the north to try and see the Northern Lights. In the event we didnt see them but the scenery and villages was fantastic. It was the third time we have been to Norway, it is a lovely lovely country but just too expensive!

Chips... part 2

One day after the potato day went to the allotment and saw a chap who we always refer to as ' the allotment master' partly because we dont know his name but more because his is the best looking plot, everything neat, everything healthy etc.

He was saying that he was getting fed up with all these seed companies selling old varieties of potatoes, his comment was that the old varieties were superceeded for a reason so why go back in time. I didnt mention the Home Guard potatoes ( circa 1942) that I'd bought the day before, bugger - I'll have to write cryptic labels.

Seriously though I guess there is a case for what he says but also a case for the fact that some varieties have gone because they dont suit modern agriculture and distribution. I wouldnt try this point on him though as knowing my luck the potatoes will get blight and I'll have egg on my face!

Second plot coming together well but I just know that once the weather warms up the weeds will return, bring em on!!

And another bag of seed potatoes arrived today, 20 Ulster Sceptre to add to my collection, need to check whether they are an old variety or not as they may need to be incognito as well!!

Chips with everything..

Today we went to the annual potato day in Hampshire, for anyone that doesnt know this is where you can buy potatoes by the tuber from a selection of around 150 different varieties. It is a great event completely misunderstood by a lot of people who think we are barmy going to a potato day, but I love it!

I had already bought a collection of blight resistant potatoes from Thompson & Morgan which consisted of 6 bags of 20 tubers. I therefore knew that I shouldnt buy too many more, but you can guess the rest!
This is what we have so far,

First Earlies
Royal Kidney, 9 Tubers.
Ulster Sceptre, 28 Tubers.
Home Guard, 8 Tubers.

Second Earlies
Markies, 20 Tubers.
Juliette, 10 Tubers.
Madelaines, 8 Tubers.
Marfona, 10 Tubers.

Maincrop
Valour, E. Maincrop 28 Tubers
Lady Balfour, E. maincrop 28 Tubers
Cara, L. Maincrop, 20 Tubers
Sarpo Mira, L Maincrop, 20 Tubers
Sarpo Axona, L. Maincrop, 20 Tubers.
Golden Wonder, Maincrop, 8 Tubers.
Isle of Jura, Maincrop, 8 Tubers.

In total 205 Tubers, which planted 15" apart will give us 13 20' rows of potatoes. I think this will fill one of the beds which is 30' X 20' and the earlies can make way for leeks and squashes later in the season.

The potato day was really well organised, the people working there and the volunteers were all lovely and I saw Wendy Ellicock there who had presented a course at West Dean Gardens which I went to in 2006. It was good to chat to her as she has disarming enthusiasm and enourmous knowledge.

I haven't got any 'Potato Fertiliser' this year but to be honest I have no idea as to its organicness and so may give it a miss, we still have a bit of cow manure so may just use that and some comfrey leaves instead.

Cant wait till we can get stuff in the ground but still loads more ground work first!!