Two weekends to catch up on. 21/22 March was busy and so was 28/29 March too. No slacking, no sirree. Due to technical issues we were not able to take photos except the one on the left, which is of the new carrot seedlings in the Rolls Royce carrot bed.Bed 1 - Shallots are now springing into life. They look like anenomes and are rather exotic looking. Chard is looking good and strong and the spinach is also looking better. Chicken manure pellets scattered to refresh the overwintering onions as they have had a hard time over the winter (predictably). They also got a drink of Magic Juice which hopefully hasn't fermented into some toxic brew since we last used it in September.Bed 2 - Garlic looking good, no onions as yet.Bed 3 - Nasturtiums and french marigold sown round the edge. This is supposed to divert the nasties from our lovely cabbages etc.Bed 4 - Great news. The purple sprouting broccoli is now actually sprouting as it should and is very tasty. We had the first harvest with our neighbours for our Earth Hour celebration - very primeval.Bed 5 - Kale hanging on in there and we planted two rows of peas in the bit that had previously been prepared for beans. We are flexible and dug the other side of the bed into trenches with kitchen waste for the beans, though there is still an on-going debate as to the sort of beans (french and/or runner) we are planting. Runner beans will definitely feature in the Pagoda though. Sowed radish and rocket in between the kale on the first weekend, and radish, as ever, has won the race to appear.Bed 6 - We sowed two rows of peas and a row of mangetout.Bed 7 - Carrots are finally showing their little feathery heads (see above). Pagoda - Sticky wrappers were applied to the fruit trees. This is the organic way of preventing ant infestation. It traps the little sods. We forgot to mention that we have added a loganberry to our little orchard. So - raspberries, strawberries, apples, blueberries and loganberries will be ours for the munching.Seedbed - Various seedlings are bursting forth and we sowed another row of leeks. The red cabbage and summer sprouting broccoli are the latest to be displayed. Some are in plastic bottles, others not. They seem to grow nonetheless, though the very first we sowed are definitely looking larger.Bank - Rhubarb has grown exponentially and is clearly happy. No sign of the asparagus.We were somewhat diverted by another security incident which necessitated the creation of a working party on Sunday to repair the torn fence and to plant hawthorn whips inside the boundary. We will add holly and there is the prospect of free fence panelling. Interesting that this time we decided to do something practical fairly quickly, although details remain to be sorted out. We have to protect our plots, not just from the wrigglies but from other vermin too.
Weather note: fairly unpredictable - warm sunny spells but windy and cold patches too. And some rain, which is good.
Lots to report on the plot. We made an early start on Sunday as it was so beautiful and spring-like which makes all the difference. We were so busy that we forgot to take pictures, apart from this one which Jan took for us.
Firstly, the bank. N continued to prepare the right hand side of the bank for the following: asparagus, rhubarb and first early potatoes (Arran Pilot which were so good last year). Asparagus and rhubarb both need permanent beds which we prepared with lots of good compost. Asparagus needs a trench which you then splay the little asparagus crowns on (already each producing a spear) then you slowly earth it up as the crowns grow. Unfortunately we cannot eat anything from either of these two crops in their first year. Hopefully they won't be inundated by weeds. At the moment it is the calm before the storm on the Western Front.
The 20 first earlies were planted into two parallel trenches with nice mounds put on afterwards, with only the original potato fertiliser. We didn't manure or compost the trenches otherwise but we are hopeful. We put a cover over them in case of frost. And there will be plenty of space for the second earlies to go in too.
Pagoda - signs of leeklings and broccoli seedlings - first lot sown doing well under bottles. No sign yet of the red cabbage or summer sprouting broccoli. Signs of life too with the summer raspberries which of course were dormant last year.
Bed 7 (new raised carrot bed) - N sowed two more lots of carrots, different sorts (will add names) and added more glass.
Bed 1 - shallots are beginning to do their thing and overwintering onions have survived so far. No sign of parsnips or other onins yet. Harvested some chard and spinach.
Bed 3 - purple sprouting stuff looking like something is continue to happen as reported last week. When does it start to sprout? When does it look like it does on the packet?? Are we mad to continue to hope?
Bed 2 - garlic continuing to thrive, no sign yet of onions.
There was a skip available on site (2 weeks a year now) so we dragged all our old decaying carpet up there as there is now a ban on using it.
Jan and Pat kindly donated us some lovely logs which will be next winter's firewood. The purchase of a chainsaw was mentioned. We may soon be taking delivery of a greenhouse which could go on the patch recently vacated by J & P - but of course will have to check with the authorities.
We pondered whether to sow the peas and mangetout but in the end felt it might be a little too early and covered their intended home instead, to warm the soil. Back at the ranch, much sowing was done - 4 types of tomatoes (I continue to hope that I will manage to crack the Tomato Code), aubergine, chilli and sweet peppers, marigolds and basil. In our garden salad bed, we sowed radish, lettuce, spinach and more chard.
It is exciting to think that we have expanded our repertoire this year with parsnips, mangetout, asparagus and rhubarb. The only thing that worries us is whether Bunny likes asparagus in which case a little fort will have to be made on the bank (where there is of course no protection from Bunny). Potatoes are safe. And possibly rhubarb as well (the leaves are poisonous). We also harvested some kale which is still going strong and even going into extra production. Soon however it will have to go to make room for the next lot of crops in Bed 5. Plus la change, plus la meme chose.
Dear readers, it is a mercy that I am here to tell the tale at all. We have been sabotaged by Chunder (and worse). It has afflicted the two of us most pitifully but thankfully at separate times, otherwise the bathroom situation would have been unbearable. Happily there was a day between the two onslaughts, yesterday, where we got a tolerable amount achieved on the plot.
N continued to dig up the bank for potatoes. It is looking fab, and much better than hitherto. I pulled the dead dry vegetation and used it to make a rudimentary footpath along the side of the dug bank. He appears to be getting better at digging without incurring after-pain which is good.
The carrot bed is now complete and N proudly sowed a row or two of carrots (Amsterdam Forcing) (see above) "under glass" (see right). I plea-bargained for a row of parsnips at the end.
Bed 1 - the last few leeks were dug up. Some came home with us and others have been fashionably "heeled" (where they are stuck into a bit of earth for safe-keeping). In their place, we sowed a small row of Red Baron onions and a few small rows of Ailsa Craig. We also sowed a few spinach plants for fun. The chard, though moth eaten, is still going and perhaps will be rejuvenated by the spring. No sign of life from the shallots.
Bed 2 - the garlic is looking terrific. It has grown very fast. We 
uncovered the other bit and sowed rows of Napoleon F1, Brunswick (red) and Ailsa Craig onions. This year we have not started any inside.
Bed 4 - the plants purporting to be purple sprouting broccoli are really weird. It does look as though something purple is happening to some of them. I continue to have faith.
Pagoda/seed bed - sowed sweet pea seeds saved from last year around the netting as it was so lovely before. Also sowed Summer 
Purple Sprouting Broccoli (seriously) and Red Drumhead (cabbage). The earlier broccoli seedlings have appeared, no sign of the leeks yet.
Bed 5 - last January King cabbage harvested and all green manure finally dug in except for the kale bit, and chicken manure pellets scattered to give the soil some zip. In between the kale I sneakily sow some radishes (free from a magazine) and rocket (ditto). This is how we'll beat the credit crunch.
Meantime at home we have had a slight setback with our plastic greenhouse collapsing nearly destroying every single lettuce seedling. But this is as nothing to The Chunder.
Happy Birthday to K! Here are birthday visitors to the plot.
At long last the weather is feeling less inclement. As we had a busy weekend, we only had time to go to the plot long enough to sow parsnip seeds (3 per station, 5 inch apart) in Bed 1. We had to remove the final 4 leeks from that quadrant. Apparently parsnips are slow to germinate and erratic, so we have to sow other catchcrops to mark the spot as it were. We also sowed some more broccoli and leeks in the seedbed (succession sowing, people).
The lettuce seedlings sown at home in the greenhouse have germinated. This is very pleasing.
Also the garlic on the plot is making strong and sturdy progress. Garlic is quite an amazing plant. It grows quickly and strong and is easy to spot and requires no tending apart from weeding. The broccoli seeds planted a couple of weeks ago now have begun to appear but no leeks as yet. The shallots are keeping their counsel so we hope all is well underground.
The previous weekend we spent a good few hours on the plot, mainly starting to dig up the bank in readiness for the potatoes. This was very hard work especially at the other (stony) end where we chose to repatriate the comfrey. They look a little forlorn but they are phenomenally strong and we anticipate that they will adapt after the shock has worn off.
The carrot bed is almost full with soil from another plot and compost and sand. N hopes that we have got near to the ideal "loam" quality required. I remind him that loam is just a posh word for soil and that all we need to do is to remove stones and add some sand for drainage.
We also tidied up the summer raspberries though they look sorry for themselves at the moment.
The purple sprouting broccoli has been comprehensively mauled by something - we suspect pigeons - so the protective cover is put back on (removed because of the snow). There do appear to be some purple bits at the top but it is very hard to see how it will eventually "sprout" like it does on the pictures. Maybe the pigeons have won this one.
To dig up the bank, we had to remove the various ethnic coverings we had put on. Imagine our surprise when the daffodills planted last year emerged, a little bowed but very willing. Today they look as though nothing traumatic had occurred in their first few weeks. Very good. We also had our favourite - an allotment lunch. Listening to the birds and contemplating the growing garlic, we are optimistic for our second year on the plot.
Two weekends to catch up on. 21/22 March was busy and so was 28/29 March too. No slacking, no sirree. Due to technical issues we were not able to take photos except the one on the left, which is of the new carrot seedlings in the Rolls Royce carrot bed.
