Sunday 1st June 2008 - weather: dull but warm

As promised, I arrived back at the allotment just after lunch time today. Again, so many people working away. I suppose as I tend to me a weekday allotmenteer I don't see as many people, but with my increasing workload, I am going to have to spend more weekends on the plot so I guess I will see more of the same faces.

After the mammoth plant out yesterday, everything was looking lovely and perky and those pesky slugs hadn't eaten anything...yet! Today I planned to spend on plot one sowing seeds so first job was to complete the weeding of the parsnip/spring onion/beetroot/etc area. So far only 10 'snips have germinated so I sowed along the row again. I also sowed a row of little gem lettuce next to the 'snips as they will be long gone by the time the 'snips are getting big. I also 'beefed up' the beetroot row as that was patchy. Everyone is moaning about seeds not germinating or whole rows of seedlings being there one day and gone the next, and I am certain the slugs are to blame. The ground is silver with slug trails and as I was sowing I could see them everywhere. Anyhow, along with the 'snips, beetroot and little gems, I also sowed some lollo bianco lettuce, more beetroot and plenty of carrots. I feared that my parsley had not germinated, but as I looked down the row, sure enough there are a scattering of plants, enough for our needs. The flat leaf parsley though I fear is a no show. I might so some in a tray in the greenhouse and transplant at a later date. I then weeded through my row of peas - these were sown direct, a petit pois variety whose name escapes me. The meeces seemed to have totally ignored them so I have a good thick row of plants up. I planted a row of peas the otherside of their netting, a variety called misty, so hopefully as one lot finishes, the next will kick in. The last job of the afternoon was to plant some of the dwarf beans I had started in a pot. The variety was purple queen and there was probably only 24 plants, but I will sow some directly for later picking and as I have lots of different beans planted this year, I think that will be ample.

So, the old allotment is shaping up well. Fingers crossed I will squeeze a couple of hours in again on Friday where I will weed around my gladioli and dahlias and get the rest of the dwarf bean plantlets out.