Tomatoes are planted up

There is so much to be done on the allotment now. I go down there to do certain jobs and then find there are so many other jobs also need doing.

The tomato plants have been growing well and I have been potting them on into larger pots until it was time to plant them up into their final planting positions.

This year I have grown five varieties-- Moneymaker, Ailsa Craig, Shirley, Gardeners' Delight and Red Cherry.  Last weekend I potted them up into big pots in the greenhouse.  We have had to move out some of the staging in order to make room for them and as I gradually move seedlings to the cold frame I will be able to move out more of the staging to make room for more pots.

I used a mix of home made compost and multipurpose compost to pot them up into big pots.

They are looking really good and strong and I am so looking forward to picking the first tomatoes. Eating them straight from the plant is probably the best way of enjoying them, but I love to make chutneys and soup too.

Rushing around

There's lots going on at home at the moment as we continue with the house moving process.  And when the days are busy with sorting and packing, getting stressed over why things aren't proceeding quicker than we want, it's good to get down to the allotment for a break. This is where we find peace and quiet. It's our retreat place, a place where we can take ourselves away from the stresses and strains that are getting to us at the moment.

We haven't been able to get down to the plot as much as we would like, but I don't want to let things go and miss out on all the lovely veg which we look forward to. So it's a busy time trying to keep up with all the jobs. The allotment is looking good though. The second lot of peas and broad beans are now showing through. The French beans I sowed in the greenhouse have germinated and will soon be ready to plant out.

The greenhouse is a busy place. The tomatoes are ready for planting into their final big pots or growbags, I must do that soon. There are also flower seedlings to be transplanted. I love to grow flowers on the allotment, I am behind with that job but I have at least got the sweet peas planted.

At the weekend I planted out brassicas into the borders, cabbages, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kohl rabi, calabrese. As I was planting, Richard was setting up frames with netting to protect against the cabbage white butterflies and pigeons.

We  have had what seems like  weeks of dry weather, the ground has been so dry, but this week the rain came and hopefully, the newly sown seeds of radish, carrot and spring onion will have the moisture that they need to germinate.

As I rush around trying to do jobs, although some things may not get done, I know that the allotment is looking good and if things get bad it is still a place where I can get some time out to relax and enjoy.

Through the garden gate--April

April is such a lovely month in the garden, there is so much fresh bright green foliage about and the borders are starting to fill out with new growth. The colours in my garden at the moment seem to be blue and yellow. Brunnera, forget-me-nots and bluebells contrast well with the lime green euphorbia and primroses. The aquilegia are just starting to flower, the hostas are unfurling their bright green and yellow leaves and the apple tree has blossom. There is so much to look forward to as we move further into Spring.

Hostas

The herb bed which I planted up last year is filling out now

Moving forward is what we are doing ourselves as we prepare to move house, so this may be my last blog about this garden. We are moving at a time when the garden is looking its best, so there is some sadness. Perhaps it would be better to move in the winter when the garden doesn't look as good.

So I am busy now taking cuttings of plants I want to take with me and  decluttering the shed. But as our daughter and family are moving in to our house we will be able to return, take more cuttings, sit in the garden and still enjoy it. We are not moving far, just up the road to a smaller house with a smaller garden. We are at that time in our lives when we need to downsize. Our new garden will be a challenge and it 's a chance to design another garden so we are looking forward to that. I'm not sure how Holly will enjoy moving to another garden.

I am joining with Sarah at 'Down by the sea ' for this monthly post 'Through the garden gate'

Planting time

After what seemed like weeks of continuous rain, the weather finally perked up and it was so good to get down to the allotment at last to get important jobs done. April is a busy time on the allotment and it's important to get seeds started off and plants in the ground.

The first job I wanted to do was get the early peas and broad beans planted. I had started these off in the greenhouse weeks ago. The broad beans were grown in cardboard tubes and the peas in lengths of guttering. They were both looking really healthy and strong. Last year when I did the peas in gutters I had quite a poor germination. So this year I sowed  more seeds in the guttering. The variety is Douce Provence, one I have not grown before. As you might expect, this year it looked like 100% germination, so there were an awful lot of pea seedlings!  They were sown in three short lengths of guttering which fitted easily in the greenhouse. 

The pea and bean bed had been well prepared in the autumn with a layer of manure. A few weeks ago I weeded and hoed the bed and applied some blood, fish and bone fertiliser.  So I was all ready to start. I made a trench about a couple of inches deep and six inches wide, slid the pea seedlings out of the guttering directly into the trench, then tucked them in carefully. In past years I used long lengths of gutter and found it difficult to slide them out, but using the shorter lengths was much easier and because I had sown so many peas they had rooted well together.

Next was the broad beans which I planted about four inches apart still in the cardboard tubes which will rot down in time. I had enough to plant a double row, about ten inches apart. There are two  varieties, The Sutton and Express, which I also grew last year. The peas and beans will need some support and I will do that soon before they start growing properly.

That was enough work for one afternoon and there's still plenty to do, but it's good to see things growing in the ground again.

Through the garden gate--March

I can't believe we are now at the end of March, where did it go?  There has been a lot of wet weather around, in fact I often wondered if it would ever stop raining. But now at the end of the month we are finally seeing sunshine.  So I have been hard at work getting the garden borders tidied up of debris and weeds. There is so much to do now.

It's a lovely time of year as things start to grow and the garden becomes more colourful. The green of the new growth is a sharp contrast to the blues and yellows of the flowers. The mini daffodils are going over now and the big daffodils are out. There are a lot of blue flowers emerging--chionodoxa, saponaria, brunnera, vinca which are looking really well with the lime green euphorbia. My tulip pots are not flowering yet but won't be long I'm sure.

I had a lovely surprise when I opened the cold frame last week. I found several auricula plants which I had forgotten about.  I had put in there in the autumn. I don't know if they really need to be protected overwinter, but I think I was just having a big tidy up session at the time. The auriculas were starting to flower so I have now taken them out of the cold frame and put them on the garden tables where I can enjoy them.

This month I am linking with Sarah at Down by the Sea for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate ' slot.

Growing pea shoots

I remember a few years ago talking to a fellow allotmenteer about growing pea shoots. He couldn't get his head round the concept of sowing pea seeds and eating the shoots but not the peas. Much as I tried to explain that they make a very tasty salad he thought it was a waste of pea seeds. Pea seeds are grown for peas not leaves was his thinking.  But then he wasn't a salad person. He was a big guy who could lift a paving slab onto his shoulder and carry it without any effort from one end of his plot to the other and the top of his plot was up a steep mound. He was a steak or beefburger man and salad was just a thing that went on the side of the plate for decoration.

However, I love pea shoots in a salad, the intensity of flavour from those little shoots is amazing. Grown in the winter time, to munch on a pea shoot takes you back to the summer when you pick the first young peas and eat them straight from the pod.  They can be grown throughout the year are so easy to grow.

I started some off at the end of February on my kitchen windowsill using supermarket bought dried marrowfat peas. You can also use the seeds that get left over in the packets from your garden sowings. I grew them in recycled plastic food containers and added some multipurpose compost. Then I sowed the seeds quite thickly and covered with more compost. I was amazed at how quickly they grew.

Within a few days they had germinated and now into the second week they are ready for cutting. I cut just above a leaf about halfway down the stem. They will continue to grow and then I will get another cutting from them.

I think I probably sowed too many and just one container would have been enough. They grow so quickly that you can sow another lot a couple of weeks after the first to get a succession of them.

Muddy work in the pond

This is our allotment pond as it looked last summer, but it has been neglected over the last few months. It has been on my job list to 'sort it out' for a while now.  It had got into a mess, full of mud, in fact there was more mud than water, so I decided it was time for a good clean out. This job had been put off many times because of the weather. I didn't fancy putting my hands into a cold muddy pond in freezing cold temperatures. Although the pond is only an old tin bath, so not very big, the job was still unappealing. However on a fine day when it was dry and not too cold, with rubber gloves and wellies I set to work.

First job was to get the pond plants out and these were well and truly stuck in the mud. They were in pond baskets and they had grown so much the roots were poking out of the baskets and had got embedded in the mud. Well I managed that with a bit of help and they were placed on the side of the pond to be dealt with later.

The next job was scooping out the mud.  I used a plastic jug for this and it took ages.  The mud had to be got rid of--there were two or three bucket loads. Also in the pond was an underwater plant.  I can't remember it's name but I realised soon after I had planted it that it was not meant for small ponds.  It had almost taken over with roots all over the place. So all the roots were pulled out. I decided not to put any of it back in the pond, but to look out for something more suitable for small ponds.

Once the pond had been cleaned out it was refilled with rainwater from the water butts and the stones were put back in. I left the pond plants at the side of the pond for a few days to enable any little pond creatures to crawl out.  On another day I took the plants out of their baskets and split them up.

Some of these went back into the pond. They are plants which I am quite fond of. There's a lovely marsh marigold, an iris with variegated leaves, an Acorus grass which has green and yellow foliage, a water forget-me-not and a Geum Rivale. It was looking much better by the time I had finished. The plants will soon grow again and provide shelter for the wildlife.

We've had quite a bit of rain recently and the pond has overflowed into the surrounding area. But as this is a  bog garden, that's OK. The bog garden is another area which now needs a bit of a sort out. Having split up some of the pond plants I would like to replant some of the spare plants in the bog garden, especially the marsh marigold which I love. At the moment though, the plants in this area are only just starting to come through again so I don't want to start digging and planting  as I might disturb something which is yet to emerge from the ground.  Every time we go down to the plot there are more shoots appearing so I'm sure it won't be long before I can start work.

 The good news is that since I cleaned out the pond, in the last week the frogs have visited us and there is a big clump of frog spawn clustered around the marsh marigold.