Last Years Brassicas and Beans

This is last years beans and brassica area. At the rear left corner was a compost heap which has now been leveled out and to the rear right are the remains of the purple sprouting broccoli. There is one remaining cauliflower and a couple of celery like plants left in the bed, the celery will get fed to the guinea pigs as they are a bit scrappy. About half a dozen rows have been sown with beetroot (Boltardy), carrot (Nantes Early), Parsnip (Hollow Crown) and for the first time this year Hamburg Parsley which has a root like parsnip but has a flavour slightly reminiscent of Kohl Rabi.

Another New Plot Holder

Toward the end of last year Brian decided he did not need a full plot and gave up half of his plot. Jan Alice has put in a lot of work and put in fruit beds and a sturdy fruit cage creating a nice tidy plot.

New Plots

Amongst the new plot holders this one of Sam's is one that stands out as having had a fair amount of work done on it to make it look tidy and is looking ready to go this year.

Kale Finishing

The Kale which has provided greens over the winter has now started to flower and will have to be pulled up, maybe sort through and get some tender leaves for one last meal, good calcium and magnesium source for healthy bones. After that it will be a case of chopping up and onto the compost heap with the plants before they can set and drop seed. all last year's plants came from self sown seedlings from previous years plants that were not caught in time. There were one or two plants in odd places around the plot last year.

Overwintering Onions

Good progress is being made by the overwintering onions that were planted at the end of October last year and they are just showing signs of starting to form bulbs. They are usually ready towards the end of July where spring planted sets usually mature in the middle of August.

Portakabin Progress and Spring Flowering

Work on the Portakabin is progressing with a coat of green paint having been applied on Friday by a bunch from Community Services. Amazing how a coat of paint can transform the appearance. The community plot is now reasonably clear and a large pile of scrubwood and rubbish has been created in the car park and a space cleared next to the pile for a delivery of compost.

One broad bean plant on Brian's allotment has sprouted flowers despite only being a couple of inches high and the magnolia is just starting to bud whilst the Berberis Darwinii is in full flame flower.

Looks like Terry has decided not to bother with careful digging and weeding of his plot and taken the pragmatic approach of spraying it with Glyphosate and will be digging in the dead weeds.

Spring in the air for a few days

With a few warm days but the forecast is for snow at the weekend it made sense to get down to the allotment and get some work done. The first early potatoes are in, Maris Bard, and a lot of spring flowers are blooming like the spurge in the photo.

The plum tree is just flowering in time to get frosted off with the snow at the weekend so this year may not be as good a crop as last year. We still have plenty of plum chutney and plum jam from last year though. I have made some really good dishes using the plum chutney as a plum sauce. It goes really well with lamb.

The broccoli plants did really well last year and we are now cropping them. They are producing substantial florets with a rich purple head that turns almost black when you cook it.

Garlic and the overwintering onions got off to a good start last autumn and are looking substantial now after the few days of sunshine we have just had.

A Portakabin and composting toilet have been delivered to the site and the the Portakbin will be rewired and used for plot holder meetings.

Many of the new plots taken on by tenants last year have made good progress like this one of Sian and Marty's where some crops were grown last year whilst the other half of the plot was sheeted over to be got into use this coming year. The broccoli was some of my left over seedlings last year that were pushed into a patch that had been cleared and is ready for picking now.

On my own allotment the globe artichoke plants are next to the broccoli and have started to produce fresh foliage for this year. Unfortunately one plant looks as though it failed to get through the winter.

It has been a great day to be out working in the fresh air, even the bees have been active looking for nectar in the rocket that has flowered. All in all a grand day.