February 26

10 a day

With all the talk in the news recently about increasing our fruit and veg intake to 10 a day, a friend asked me if I could do that if I only had the veg on my plots.Well here goes:

There is spring cabbage, flat-leaf parsley, turnips, leeks, chard, flower sprouts, purple sprouting broccoli, sprouts and red Russian kale. I didn’t take photos of the cavalo nero and beetroot. So yes I do have 10 things I could eat now but I might end up looking like a brassica!

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February 18

Ready to go!

I always end up chomping at the bit around this time of year. I want to get going but it is often just a little bit too early. However, as usual I am going to sow some radishes in the polytunnel and sow some broad beans, peas and onion seeds in the greenhouse. First however, I have washed the greenhouse and polytunnel. I have learnt from experience that it is easier to do this before I sow my seeds.

Nothing in the garden pleases me more at this time of year than seeing seeds sprouting. I have some peas in a gutter for the polytunnel and the others are old pea seeds sown thickly for pea shoots.

My big task this year is to investigate and build a system that will water the polytunnel for as long as possible so that I can go away over the summer. My allotment neighbours will change this year and I won’t know anyone well enough to ask them to water. It is a fairly onerous task!  I am considering a water butt timed kit from Greenhouse Sensation and a self-build drip system made out of PVC piping.

I am also going to do a trial based on onions. I am going to plant some sets and some grown from seed to see if there is any difference in growing and storing. I will use red onions as they seem to bolt more easily than white and I never seem to grow them to a normal size.