Once again allotment time has been difficult this week, life seems rather busy at the moment, but hopefully things will calm down soon. I did manage 3 hours on Friday after work and the plot is starting to look like things are finally on the move.
Last year we left everything covered up, having spread it with manure and run the tiller over it. Friday one of those covers finally came off. It was spud planting time!
The soil was lovely and so easy to work with, a good temperature, nice and damp and not a weed in sight. Just dig a trench, sprinkle some potato fertiliser and pop the spuds in. The digging was easy and the soil just crumbled when raked. This year should start a little more calmly.
We've planted 4 rows of Rocket earlies and 3 rows of King Edward mains. The mains may be a little close together but as the spud bed also has the asparagus this year there wasn't a lot I could do. The spuds must have liked being under the bed, good short stocky chits with side shoots, not the usual white leggy ones. Lets see what happens. Everyone posts a pic of the spud bed so here's ours.
The rest of the time was spent spreading 3 builders buckets of manure onto the areas vacated by the leeks and parsnips ready for sweetcorn and squashes, planting more radishes, spring onions and beetroot under more cloches.
The overwintering onion and garlic bed is looking a bit overrun with weeds so I made a start on weeding it. One of my good intentions for this year was to use mulch and as I'd given the grass at home its first cut of the year I made use of the clippings. There is also a hand mower on order to provide more farm grown cuttings.
At home everything I planted last week is up except the peas. I swear twice as many cabbages as I sowed have come up and the lettuces seem to prefer the new compost.
I moved on some leeks from the seed tray to a tub, hopefully these will grow on nicely, I 've kept the spares in case any don't make it. I'll probably end up giving some away. Next year a smaller seed tray me thinks.
2 comments:
Hopefully we will get some potatoes in today. Covers are on in the greenhouse to try and keep slugs and mice at bay,
Ah the slug battle... not seen any so far but sure it won't be long.
Good luck with the spuds!!
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