Time to start sowing and planting

We've spent a lot of time on the allotment over the last few weeks, with all the good weather that's been around it was best to make the most of it.

The winter jobs are now done and beds are ready for sowing and planting. The first things to plant were the onion sets and it was so good to see veg growing at last. 

The first early potatoes (Rocket) were planted in bags and soon I will be planting the second earlies (Charlotte). Broad beans which I had started off indoors in cardboard tubes were planted last week followed by a double row sowed straight into the ground.

There are a lot of weed seedlings from the sycamore tree all over the allotment and what a nuisance they are. I am constantly pulling them out. I've been taking the weed membrane off the beds which I covered in the winter and what did I find underneath? More of these weeds! So much for weed membrane. 

As I've taken off the membrane I've been gradually hoeing off these weeds. Last week after clearing what is going to be the salad bed I sowed lettuce, radish and spring onion.

The greenhouse is filling up with trays of seedlings. I cleaned out the two cold frames so they are now ready for hardening off plants. 

We bought some wood chippings a few weeks ago from a local log supplier for a very reasonable price. We often get them dumped at the allotment site for everyone to help themselves to, but there hadn't been any for a while, of course after we had bought some they started being dumped again! Never mind at least we didn't have to share ours and they were good quality. So we have managed to cover most of the areas on our plot which needed them with chippings and it looks really tidy now. 

Richard has been busy dismantling the little greenhouse which we decided to move to our garden. It's quite small and will fit in a small corner of the patio. It will make it easier for me having a greenhouse at home as well as the allotment so I can pop out to water seedlings without having to keep going down to the allotment. I will also be able to grow two or three tomato plants there.

There's a nice big space left where it was which we have covered with wood chippings. I think it will become a storage area and perhaps a place for pots of flowers and potato bags.

This rusty old wheelbarrow was on the allotment when we took over and I've been wanting to use it as a planter but never had enough room. It's been propped up under the hedge for years. I think I will be able to use it at last. I'm going to grow flowers in it.

After the rain, the harvesting

We've continued to be busy with allotment jobs. I've kept wondering when will we ever get to the end of them. The answer if course is that you never do, there will always be plenty if work to do. 

We have at last got everything in the ground for now which needs to be planted and sown. I am doing successional sowing with salad crops, lettuce, radish, spring onions, beetroot. I have sown bulb fennel again, although I keep saying I won't. It doesn't grow well for me. After planting  kale, purple sprouting broccoli and more cabbage the beds are full. I am looking for space to plant some more leeks in a couple of weeks.

The tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and aubergines in the greenhouses are doing well. There are plenty of tomatoes to ripen and we are already picking cucumbers. I offered a new plot holder down the lane my spare tomato plants but she didn't need any. It was nice to get to know her and her friend and I came away with two melon plants.  With two already very full greenhouses I didn't know how I was going to squeeze them in, but I did and I hope they will be ok. I've never grown melons before, so that will be interesting.

After a really long dry spell we finally got the rain we wanted. The water butts got filled up and it was good though to have a break from allotment jobs while it was raining. Now we are harvesting a lot of our produce, potatoes, lettuce, cucumber, spring onions, kale, courgettes, peas and broad beans. Lovely!