down at the allotment and in the garden what are you up to

[Masco&Bongo]

Garden and paddock like a rice-field... so am confined to the greenhouse

My strawberry root-ttype bits are twice the size they were 2 days ago

My peas have started to sprout as well

[red]

sown a row of parsnips - with radish catch crop - new to growing parsnips - see hwo they do compared to the ones in toilet roll tubes in the propagator

[charlie]

Had a really good day today.
Planted 2 rows of carrots, 1 row of parsnips, 2 rows of broad beans, a row of latvian peas (don't know how they will come out!),
a row of purple podded peas, 1 row of black coco dry bush peas, and had some help making a raised bed for when i put my spuds in.
So glad it was a lovely sunny day!

[Christine]

So, so impressed with all this planting. I have just put in the four broad beans that came up of the six I put in (toilet roll innards on the radiator) and even then they are under cloche! Nothing else is ready to go - potato seeds only arrived at the lottie shop last week and are in the outside loo to chit. Tomatoes are just up in modules, caulis are pathetically small and weak, no show from parsnips. Courgettes are coming along really well but it's still too early to let them out on their own.

Are broad beans usually so unreliable in germination? I planted another six of a different variety and only four of those are so far coming up.

[ohareward]

Hi Christine, if you want to know more about broad beans go to the postings in Tips, Hints and Problems on the 27 Feb and you can see what other posters have to say.
Robin

[ohareward]

Hi from downunder, it is raining today, the first for a couple of weeks. Very welcome. Picked a pear tree yesterday of its fruit. Conference. We will have to get a swag of preserving jars as we have two more trees coming on soon. Also picked a small apple tree, Pacific Rose, 2nd year for fruit. We have a big problem with blackbirds and wasps, as they eat the fruit before it is ready. Florence fennel is ready for harvest, we are having one tonight with chicken. Beeyooootiful.
The fruit on our quince tree are so large that a branch broke and I had to prop it up and put a bandage around the trunk until harvest and then I can do a proper job on it.
Robin.

[Millymollymandy]

I got a load of seed sown of things like sweetcorn, melon, courgette and cucumber etc, which are now sitting on my living room windowsill. Some I seem to have sown a month early! but if they don't germinate, plenty of time to sow some more!

[Lincolnshirelass]

Finally realised that attempting to dig *entire* overgrown allotment before planting anything will only result in being very hungry this year. Even a little bit is better than nothing.

So today, in celebration of the fact that I have claimed 3 good sized beds out of a wilderness, I planted some first early spuds, some asparagus (are they *meant* to look like dessicated squid?) and some garlic.

My propagator (best valentine present ever...) is full of tomatoes, lettuce, leeks and peppers which need potting on as soon as I get some more compost.

Yay!

I think the peas and beans are next...

[the.fee.fairy]

I put the pond in at last!!

And reshaped the flower beds.
The veg patch is ready for planting, but i haven't decided what to put in it, or got off my arse and plante stuff yet, so it'll have to wait a bit longer.

Pics of the pond to come in a separate thread.

[red]

got PP to put in our greenhouse, and started building the foundations. I ache in muscles i did not know I had before....

the toilet roll parsnip sowings are up - no sign of the row planted the ordinary way.

[Wombat]

I put the pond in at last!!

Pics of the pond to come in a separate thread.

Cool!

[the.fee.fairy]

Nev - was it you who did the baby bath pond article?
Cos i used your idea for my lovely pond. I put bits of log round the outside instead of stones, so hopefully, i should be able to sow mushrooms on the logs, and grow things in between them so that it covers the edge of the bath. They'll also proved some nice shelter for some minibeasts. I've put sme old land drainage pipe in the bottom of the bath so that if piggywinkle (the hedgehog) falls in he can get himself out again.

I'll try to take pics tomorrow. Should have done it as i was going along really.

[Wombat]

Not me Fee ...Andy I think

Nev

[Andy Hamilton]

Aye, that be me. I moved from that allotment before I got a real chance to appreciate the pond. Would like to see the photos of yours though fee!

Brings me nicely into what I am doing on my plot at the moment as I have just put in a pond. I did not ask for permission and then got a bit worried as to what the allotment rep would say. But...... - the fence had been damaged by the council and we were all worried that it meant people could come onto the allotment and steal things, in fact a spade and fork went missing off someones plot. After we had all had a go at the council nothing happened. Then the rep phones them and said that it was now a health and safety issue as kids who play on the lane next to the allotments could drown. The fence was fixed the next day. (after 6 months of waiting).

I have also put in a small path made from someones patio and made a load of beds around my plot instead of the traditional rows. I am hoping that they will be a lot easier to manage.

Right off there now actually to check on everything.

[Cheezy]

Like Andy I'm in the raised bed mode on the lottie I've taken on. Mainly because we're on silty/clay soil that gets water logged ever since the local old peoples home was built and the spoil from the founds we're dumped in the local pond! YOu'd have thought the name of the street was a give away...Ponds Field Close!. Now the old peoples home also floods, so apparently the council will be redigging the pond

I'm digging a fork and a half down and 2m across breaking it all up taking out the masses of couch grass root and mares tail, then putting down weed suppressant (the only thing I've bought so far,and got a deal on a whole roll 2m by 50m for £50), hopefully this will weaken any remaining root.
Then on top of that 2m wide section I'm making a raised bed, out of stuff I can get from work 3m long and 1.5 m wide.

So far I've made 3 beds since December, about to finish the digging of the fourth, so will have the membrane down and the bed made by Sunday.
First bed I've got garlic, onions broad beans (apparently your not meant to mix bean/peas and garlic, I think the extra nitogen can make it flower?.) Second bed a line of early carrots under a cloche, and I will be putting in red cabbage and broccoli which I've got growing as seedlings.

Third bed is full of my extra early potatoes (Swift) , under fleece (also bought.)

This fourth bed will be peas ,leeks. etc.

It's bloody hard work but at least if I get 1 bed done a month, it means there's a new bed for the next stuff that needs to go in.

I've planted under cover my leeks, broccolli,red cabbage,tommies,chillies