Twin Leeks

Plot Time: 11.00 to 14.00

Weather: Warm with blue skies and puffy couds. Heavy tropical showers on and off all afternoon.
We have been down each night this week to water the greenhouse vegetables and check on things. Our tomatoes are now starting to flower profusely and our cucumbers are getting ready to climb

Jobs completed:

Strimmed all of the grass and walkways in and around the plot

Dug out our old strawberry bed. It was over four years old and not performing as well as it should. Our other beds are now into their second year and producing sweet fruits so it’s time to let it go

Picked strawberries and a selection of salad leaves and vegetables for dinner - sorrel, little gem, lazio spinach, mixed leaf salad, tree spinach and spring onions

Plot Time: 18.00 - 20.00

Weather: Sunny and hot all day

Jobs completed:

Watered greenhouse seedlings, salad bed, newly planted flower plugs in the front and back flower beds and the celery we have just put in

Planted some marigolds in the vegetable bed

Potted up an Ailsa Craig tomato plant. We like to grow many different vareties of tomatoes as we are still yet to try them all and find which are our favourites

Sowed some autumn calabrese and basil genovese seeds about twenty of each

Cut asparagus for dinner. It has grown immeasurably in the last twenty four hours

Cut lettuce, tree spinach, chives, spinach and radish for dinner

Weather: Overcast and warm

Jobs comleted:

Dug over vegetable bed ready for celery

Planted White Lisbon spring onion seedlings in the salad bed from out of the greenhouse

Planted more Tree spinach seedlings into the salad bed

Planted more sweetpea seedlings into the front flower bed

Cut comfrey leaf and added to the comfrey feed in the barrel

Earthed up the potatoes

Plot Time: 11:30 am - 14:00pm

Weather: Sunny morning with hail storms in the afternoon, drying off later in the day

We have lost another pane of glass from our greenhouse in the bad weather this week. On further inspection, we have discovered that a bolt has perished at one of the corners which was key to holding that area together and the corner has eased apart slightly. So, we plan to fix and reglass tomorrow weather permitting.

Jobs completed:

Planted tree spinach outside in bed

Weeded onions

Dead-headed dandelions that have started to appear everywhere in our grass walkways. We are hoping to get to use the communal strimmer tomorrow

Watered greenhouse

Composted the end of the landcress

Weather: Cloudy with sunny spells. Quite chilly.

Jobs Completed: 
We are having to re-shuffle the greenhouse as we’ve been doing so much potting up of seedlings. Keeping the pots watered is now a daily ritual. 

Got forty tree spinach potted up from plugs. Tried a comfrey feed on a few to see how they respond.

Our asparagus bed is sprouting, we could do with a few days of sunshine to really get them going.  We have picked and eaten six spears so far (they were delicious) and it’s nearly time for some more. When cropping the spears, we wait for them to reach a hands length then cut them off right at the base with a sharp knife just underneath the soil.

Weather: Overcast with the odd drizzle. Bright patches in late afternoon.

Cropped huge amounts of purple broccoli as it had really shooted after the week of sunshine we have just had. Gave some away to neighbours too as there was such a glut.

Jobs Completed:

Watered greenhouse seedlings.

Watered all outside seedlings, asparagus, strawberries and the wildflower hill.

Planted  row of Lady Cristal potatoes.

Planted three sedge plants and a vinca on the back hill that we had dug up from our back garden.

Cut back any dead raspberry canes and tied in any stragglers. Chopped canes into small pieces to compost.

Straightened poles that had become bent in storms that support raspberries.

Planted orange cosmos and purple lantern flower seed from dad.

Found s-hooks and replaced final pane in greenhouse

Potted on Tree spinach into plugs.

Continued edging beds with half moon 

Potted on cucumbers into individual pots and put in propogators in greenhouse.

Put some extra onion sets into trays in greenhouse.

Red Onion Sets in Greenhouse

White Lisbon Spring Onion Seedlings. We love how the little black seeds crown the new shoots. In a week these have sprouted a few inches.

Potted on Tree spinach into plugs and yes, this spinach really is pink :D