Tuesday 8th April 2008 - Weather: freezing cold but beautiful

Not an allotment visit, just checking in as I am planning to spend the whole of Sunday on the plot...oo, should check the weather so I might swap to Saturday. Anyhow, I have been sowing like crazy over the last few weeks, determined to be organised this year, and have a host of brassica's up, along with a selection of squashes, tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, chillies and flowers. Broadbeans and sweetpeas are a good 8 inches tall now and growing fast, so they will go to the plot at the weekend to be planted out. They are hardening up in a shelter against the conservatory. Not sure of the best way to do the sweet peas this year....last year I grew them up netting, but they collapsed everywhere and I lost a lot of flowers. I don't want to grow them tall for showing, although that might be an idea for the summer show.....okay, me thinks I will do some investigating and I might grow some up canes to try and get show flowers, and the rest up a wigwam with netting wrapped around it.

This year I am determined to have a better go with melons, so have selected where I am going to grow them and they are off to plot number 2 at the top end which gets drenched in sun all day through. Brassica's are going at the bottom end of plot 2 in dappled shade. Beans and toms are along the centre of plot 2 in the growing tunnel - not a polytunnel, I should be so lucky, but I have a structure with a corregated roof on which serves several purposes. Firstly, the roof provides a huge surface to collect rainwater into my 3 butts, secondly, keeping the rain off the tomato plants helps slow down the risk of blight - mine are normally the only ones producing in the autumn, and thirdly, it does raise the temperature a little, keeping the toms warm for an earlier crop. Plot number one has spuds at the bottom damp end in dappled shade, apple trees and fruit cage along the middle then the top end will have the directly sown stuff and 'others'. The strawbs, globe artichokes and cardoon are also up that end, along with a row of glads at the very end.

I shall get up to the greenhouse over the next couple of days with the camera and take some truly exciting photos of my veggie babies and post.