Over the past few days we have noticed that the peas are being nibbled by something.  The netting has not been moved suggesting that it is not rabbits, so we wondered if it was slugs or snails.  We set off down to the allotment today to find that with only a few slug trails around the peas it is unlikely that they are the culprits.  Our neighbour suggested mice, so we will get some prickly material from pruning holly, pyracantha and berberis at home to provide a barrier.  He also recommended a place to get rabbit fencing at a reasonable price and explained to Lynn that he has horses and therefore a ready supply of muck, which he is happy to share.  One of the nice things about gardeners is their willingness to share, both ideas and materials.  Our onion sets came from our swimming teacher (http://www.swim-club.co.uk/).

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We had a trip down to the allotment today, having not been down for a couple of weeks and there was much excitement as stuff is now growing.  There are signs of the potatoes coming through, the onion sets have taken and the peas are sprouting.  Gardening gives many opportunities for childlike wonder, the best is at harvesting time, but it is closely followed by the emergence of life from seeds, tubers or sets.

Onion set sprouting – unknown variety

Pea seedling – Kelvedon Wonder

We continued preparation of the sweet corn beds and expect to be planting out the first of the smaller ones (mini pop) next week.  They have overtaken the larger ones, which were slowed down by the potting on process.

We are not organic gardeners, there are times when a bit of assistance is required to keep the bugs and weeds at bay.  We had noticed that despite the site clearing and the membrane that weeds were emerging on the bed that will take the squashes, so we put weed killer on these and re-covered them.

Lynn admiring progress

There was more planting going on today as Lynn got the last of the spuds in. We have been given some onion sets and bought some pea seeds (Kelvedon Wonder), so we prepared a short bed for both of these and built a support frame for the peas and got both the peas and onion sets planted. Continue reading →

The big news today was that we finally got planting.  Lynn got the first and second early potatoes in along with a row of second early/main crop and then prepped a row for main crop. Continue reading →

This weekend’s trip saw more preparatory work.  We prepared another potato row, having decided that the chitting progress didn’t quite justify planting yet.  We also prepared and covered the courgette/squash patch with weed suppressant membrane so that it is now ready for planting.  We also rough dug the two sweet corn patches. Continue reading →

We spent a reasonable amount of time on a sunny morning at the allotment.  We rough dug the area that will be cucurbits (squashes, courgettes and gherkins) and finely prepared the first two rows for potatoes (once the chits are big enough for planting out). Continue reading →