Dig for victory...

I just need Heather to knit me a pullover to wear down at the allotment.

I do think that a shirt and tie adds a certain style !

Come on Chaps, don't let sartorial standards slip.

Allotment Wars

From The Sunday Times, March 29, 2009

Allotment wars flare up as gardening gets competitive.

read on here

Spuds we like...

We were down on the patch extra early this morning as we put the clocks forward a week too soon !

Signs of life showing from the onion sets and the nursery bed where leeks and brassica seeds have been sown.

Heather planted two rows of early potatoes... International Kidney, which are better known as Jersey Royals but can only be called Jersey Royals when they are grown in Jersey !

We have decided to turn very 'new age' and plant the potatoes to a biodynamic cycle which uses the signs of the zodiac to position the phases of the moon. So today the moon in Capricorn which is an Earth sign. It is a good time to sow root plants like asparagus, beetroot, carrots, chives, early potatoes, horseradish, Jerusalem artichokes, leeks, onions, parsnips, radish, shallots and spring onions.

This information can be found in The Guide to Planting by the Moon which can be found here in The Gardeners Calender.co.uk


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So sow !

We took advantage of a beautiful sunny afternoon to get some seeds sown.

It is the first time we have ever sown Onion seed, but it is more cost effective than growing from sets... you can even use the thinnings as 'Spring' Onions. We have sown Bedfordshire Champion which has been a popular variety for the past 100 years.

Another variety we have sown is the Japanese Bunching Onion Ishikuro. This has a very long harvesting period and can be pulled when pencil-thin or left until they are like mini-leeks.

Our Autumn sown Shallots are coming along nicely, but the sets were expensive and I wanted to try to grow some from seed.

I was looking for a seed to produce the long, French style Shallots, but most of the seed on offer was for the 'pickling' variety.

I finally found a variety called Banana from Thompson & Morgan.

Better still, the same seeds were on offer at Capital Gardens with 25% discount and free postage !

You can see their website here.

We also sowed brassica seed in the nursery bed to establish plants that we can move to permanent beds in June.

We have sown the following :

• Savoy Cabbage Tarvoy F1
• Kale Nero di Toscana
• Cabbage Red Drumhead
• Cabbage Offenham 2
• Cauliflower Candid Charm F1
• Calabrese Aquiles F1

We are also growing the same varieties in modules as a comparative trial.

Spring in the air...

It was quite chilly this morning down at the patch, but a bit of digging soon warmed us up !

Heather was busy planting Onion sets... 50 Red Baron and 50 Setton .

Heather then sowed a row of Beetroot in the plot where we will be planting Leeks. The idea being that we can harvest the Beetroot (for pickling in jars) before we plant the Leeks in early summer.

We have sown a variety called Moneta which has single (monogerm) seeds as opposed to the more usual varieties which have seed clusters. This will, hopefully, mean that there will be less thinning and less waste.