Here we go Bits and Bobs - 2016.

[Primrose]

Well harvesting the first asparagus of the season is probably worth a little hardship.
Hope the wet feet were worth it.

[Westi]

Yes Primrose - definitely worth it! A quick blanch, a few drops of balsamic vinegar & wrapped in some Serrano ham & roasted with parmesan flakes on top to serve!

Just knew I should have changed into lottie clothes before going down there, but sunny day today so clothes dried & mud came out of socks, but work shoes a wee bit damp!

Westi

[PLUMPUDDING]

That sounds delicious Westi. I had my first picking today and it was lovely.

I've just come in tonight from putting fleece over the potatoes as frost is forecast but it took ages as the cat thought it was a game and kept going under it and trying to ambush me.

[peter]

Manure delivery this evening, onto a tarpaulin on the track by my plot, barrowed all bar three barrowfuls onto my soft fruit. One trailer load equals forty builders barrows full, so it worked out at £1 a barrow.
Pretty good compared to multi purpose compost prices.

Knackered.

[peter]

Finally I have something planted!

Only four thirty foot rows of potatoes, but I'm feeling much happier now.

[Ricard with an H]

Four 30 foot rows of potatoes ? Out of interest rather than criticism, that's a lot of potatoes to get through. Presumably they stay in the ground until you need them, I hadn't realised you could leave them in the ground Peter. But how long ?

I had thought of preparing some ground for potatoes when I realised I didn't have to eat them all within a couple of weeks.

I have one 8 foot row, hardly worth it.

[Shallot Man]

Four 30 foot rows of potatoes ? Out of interest rather than criticism, that's a lot of potatoes to get through. Presumably they stay in the ground until you need them, I hadn't realised you could leave them in the ground Peter. But how long ?

I had thought of preparing some ground for potatoes when I realised I didn't have to eat them all within a couple of weeks.

I have one 8 foot row, hardly worth it.

Just dug-up some that I had overlooked when harvesting last year.They look in great condition, shooting superb, makes one wonder if I planted a row at the end of this season ?

[peter]

Brown paper potato sacks and a cool frost free dark place.

[oldherbaceous]

The weeds seem to be growing away nicely....

[PLUMPUDDING]

Wasn't yesterday a beautiful morning. Blossom, spring flowers, wafting scents and birdsong.

I followed this up by managing to throw a cell tray full of lettuce seedlings all over other seedlings when the corner broke off as I picked it up. Managed to rescue about 40, so not too bad

I was feeling quite upset the other day when I found a dead baby Robin at the door, present from the cat, then a baby blackbird broke it's neck crashing into the window escaping from the cat, and all day a pair of jackdaws and two magpies were pursuing birds with fledglings and raiding nests all around the neighbourhood. Anyhow, the robins have brought two more young to the feeders this morning and there are more young blackbirds so they haven't all been massacred.

[Johnboy]

Yesterday we finished off planting our Fodder-Maize and within an hour it was raining dead on cue. We grow this for a neighbouring dairy unit and it also gives us a wildlife break and the odd cob. It is amazing what shelters in the Maize and 6ft of the margin on the hedge side is left uncut. We do not shoot game birds much to the dismay of many locals where an awful lot of their reared bids manage to hide. We control the Magpies and occaisionly Rooks when they get to very large numbers we do shoot Rabbits but not Hares.
We do not allow the local hunt access to our holdings even when they say they are not allowed to hunt. We have no livestock other than a few chooks around and these are in a large netted compound. We do allow horseriding without dogs.
My late broad beans will be planted tomorrow depending upon the weather.
I have decided to sow my runner beans directly after a pregemination period. Once germination has progessed to the radicle showing they are going in. The beans were in soak overnight and I have laid them out to germinate laid on four layers of kithen paper and four over the top and will keep checking that they are just moist. If watering is needed I mist spray the top sheets of kitchen paper.
With luck germination may begin from Sunday morning onward.
JB.

[peter]

Starting to catch up a bit now!

Helped out at the allotment society shop ten to eleven, nipped to a diy shed for some seeds I'd noticed I didn't have yesterday, then...

Re-errected the brassica cage, this time, for the first time, with a liner of weed membrane, through which I've planted, Curly green kale, purple sprouting and savoy cabbages, six of each, so about half full, I'm restraining myself form my worst habit, planting too close.

Spread manure out, added chicken manure pellets and some groove, then moved one of my two squash bed weed membrane sheets over to cover it, finishing the edge with old carpet. I've amassed a weird collection of stuff I use to stop the membrane taking flight.

Greenhouse staging is now full, mostly done Saturday, squash, leeks, broad beans, sweetcorn, French climbing beans, cucumbers, various brassica, pak choi, Bought three tomatoes for the bed in the greenhouse, first drop of water it'll do its usual trick and explode with weeds.

Feeling a bit tired, early start Monday as wife now opens a petrol station at 6am Mondays, plus I have two meetings away from the office to bookend my day, so cold cider, supper and an early night beckon.

[oldherbaceous]

A bit fresh out there this morning, not far of being a frost, i would think....

[PLUMPUDDING]

Good morning OH. I've just checked the weather station data in the front garden and it has been down to 5.4°c but is rising again.

I put the beans and sweetcorn out yesterday and was thinking that I should have covered them up. The potato tops are well up too especially after all that rain so are vulnerable too. Wouldn't it be handy if we could press a button and a big dome slid over the garden

[Pa Snip]

When discussing weather in conjunction with planting out with other plot holders recently I have been consistently saying that I thought we might get a late frost.

So today I ask myself why did I succumb over the weekend.

Probably because in our area we did not have the rain and possible storms that were predicted by the weather service (is it still referred to as the 'Met Office')

The weather was brilliant, T shirt job, so in went all the brassica's, the runner beans went out, the sweetcorn went out, even the pumpkins and courgettes as well.

The potatoes are romping away, don't think I can mound up much more.

The tomatoes may go out today

At least the plot now looks as it is meant to look, not just bare earth as it has been for months.

New tenants to my left, new tenants to my right. Allegedly even the plot behind me has been let for some weeks, although no sign of it being worked yet.

Thus is the time you can do a days work (or part day even) on the plot and stand back at the end of it and say to yourself
"Life is Good !!!"

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