Paper potters, seedlings and digging.

For Christmas I got a large version of the Paper Potter. I've had the original for years and it's brilliant, but sometimes I need a pot that's just a bit bigger. Now I have potters in 2 sizes, and this makes me happy. Armed with the large potter, a pile of newspaper, and some seedlings in need of potting on, I set to work. And the pots stuck on the potter, the wood was just a bit rough, unlike the original which was smooth and perfect straight out of the box. I dug out some furniture wax, and gave it a polish and that did the trick, the pots then slid off and stayed whole. I only made about a dozen, just enough for today, but they worked out well.

The gardener's delight tomatoes were ready to be split and potted on from the seed tray, so they went into paper pots. But the tigrella tomatoes aren't big enough to handle yet, they need another week or 2. The sprouts haven't germinated as well as I'd hoped but there were enough decent seedlings to pick 6 nice healthy looking ones to pot on.

The courgettes are in plastic pots, they need a much bigger pot! There are 3 long yellow, 4 long green and 3 round green, plants. I wasn't expecting them to do so well! I may still lose some to slugs and other things, but they're all looking well at the moment while they harden off outside.

They, and everything else, need to be much larger and more robust before they go into the allotment.The allotment site is quite exposed, a bit higher up than my house, and fairly windy. All this growing is happening at home for now, while we get the allotment ready and the plants bigger. Having said that, we have got 2 rows of potatoes, 2 rows of onions, a row of carrots and almost 2 rows of peas up there so far.
Rhubarb at the allotment isn't doing well, but the crowns in the garden here seem to be thriving, along with the other fruits. Pic below, rhubarb at the back, stick of a gooseberry hiding in the middle, tayberry at the front. Unlikely to see much, if any, fruit this year, but next year...

The other fruit bed at home has the black and red currant bushes and the raspberries - and that one is much greener! Should see some fruit from that this year, and even more next year.

It's getting there!

More seed sowing.

A bit of a grey day, overcast and threatening rain. Popped the courgettes outside for some fresh air, with the peas, sprouts, chard and tomatoes. Courgettes are looking good, as are the few peas that came up. One lot of tomatoes is looking good too, the other is lagging behind a bit but I think they'll be ok. The pumpkins are showing roots but no leaves yet. The chard and sprouts look a bit leggy and anaemic but I'm hoping some proper sun and weather will sort them out.
I braved the shed, navigated the assault course over 2 bikes, a mower and various chairs and tools, to find the rest of the pots and trays for more seed sowing! Can't beat a bit of seed sowing.
I now have a window sill filled with pots of carrot (purple haze), parsnip, beetroot, cosmos, echinacea, poppy, verbena, french and broad beans, and what I hope will be very pretty peppers.

The variety is Topepo Rosso, and they're a sweet pepper - just as I like them for cooking. They'll go wll with the red onions and mushrooms, I hope. 

It's all starting to happen, I can't wait until I can harvest things!

Sowing

Today the sun is shining, the sky is blue and the year is ticking away. This morning was grocery shopping and the cupboards are now full again. This afternoon was dog walking, and the sun was warm, the breeze not biting and the trees are bursting into green.
What else could I do but dive into the shed when I got back, pull out the seed trays and seeds and sow some!

• 3 varieties of courgette - round green, long green, and long yellow.
• Pumpkin - Jack O'Lantern: a smallish variety I've grown before. Not too big and does well, usually, not sure how it'll do here!
• 2 varieties of tomato - Tigrella (stripey!) and Gardener's Delight.
• Sprouts - a red variety.
• Chard - Bright Lights: Multi-coloured.
• Pea - Kelvedon Wonder - but it's an old pack so not sure how it'll do.
• Pepper - not sure what variety, it's a pack of seed I've acquired from somewhere, possibly seed saved at some point.

I've not set carrots to germinate yet, or potatoes, and I'm missing beans - broad and french, not sure if I want runners yet. Also need to find window space for parsnips, beetroot, leek and some herbs. And I need to make some paper pots.
It's feeling a bit Spring-like.

Digging Over

About a month ago, I got a share of a small allotment. A friend and I both want to grow some of our own veg and neither of us would put in the time to maintain a full allotment if left on our own. But together we might keep each other going. Since then the weather has been horrid. There were the storms, and torrential rain, and flooding, and we haven't been able to get up there to do anything with it.
Today the sun shone and we had an hour to spare so we took spade and fork and started to turn it over.
It's just one raised bed, but a decent size and there's a gravel space beside it where I can park my car. Handy! The small bed in front of it is ours too, and there's another to the side - not sure if that's ours as well but I can't see why not.Thinking of putting peas or beans in the smaller beds and other veg in the main one.

Someone's started clearing the bed, they'd got about half way before we took it on. The soil's a bit on the heavy side but it's dark and crumbly, and once it's all turned over it'll be lovely to work with. Right now, it's mostly weeds and roots and turning over in large clods.
There's plenty of space and there should be room for a few potato plants, a pumpkin or 2, some carrots, onions, leeks, beetroots, chard, courgette and sprouts. Not many of each, but it's the variety that's wanted.

It's a bit early for sowing seeds, and far too early to be planting in the ground. The allotment site is very exposed, cold and wet, so I'll be starting veg off at home and hardening plants off thoroughly before planting out up there.
Today was clearing and digging over, and between the 2 of us we dug for just under an hour and managed to clear and turn close to a half of the space. It will all need turning and breaking up again, probably a few times before we can plant anything, but we have time to get that done.
We should be able to clear the last section next time we go, and then start turning it all again.
Rain is forecast for tomorrow and Friday, I think I might find my seed trays and lids and give them a wash.

Allotment

I appear to have half a small allotment.
The garden here is a shallow layer of topsoil over what looks like landfill. It's going to take forever to sort out and will be back breaking to do. And it's semi-permanently swamp-like and flooded. I keep looking at it and planning to dig, clear, and get parts ready for planting, but it never gets done.
Meanwhile, in the next village the community garden has run out of funding and has to make ends meet and they have a set of large raised beds they are renting out as small allotment/veg plots, and a friend and I have one between us. It needs clearing and digging over, but it's big enough to produce some veg this year!
The plan, amongst requests from the kids, is for a few potato plants, lots of carrots, a pumpkin, some onions, sprouts, courgette, garlic, chard, beans, lettuce, and peas. At home we'll grow soft fruits in the garden; peppers and maybe tomatoes in pots. I already have a blackcurrant bush and a few raspberry canes in the ground from last year - need to trim and tie those; and a red gooseberry and tayberry in pots. We've had an offer of a few strawberry plants too.
I'm already looking forward to the sun on my back and fresh produce on the table.