MY WEEK 15: ( APRIL 10TH )

Hello all and HAPPY EASTER, I hope you have all had a good week weather wise it has been much more like Spring than of late.


As predicted last week I have had a very busy week with pricking out and potting on numerous seedlings and plants, every year I say to myself that the following year I will sow less of certain varieties of seeds and each year I end up with far too many plants. As you may be able to see in the photograph I have more Tomato and Sweet Pepper plants than I will ever need but I hate to throw any plant away that has germinated or grown, I'm sure I'm not alone!!.


The Broad Beans are ready for planting next week, I grow them this way as in the past I have had problems with mice eating the seeds, I noticed this week that they have had a meal on a few of my Pea and Mangetout seeds that I had direct sown at the allotment, there is an old tip that if you soak the seeds in Paraffin before you sow them it will discourage the mice from eating them, however where possible I try not to do this.


These are some of my Early Cauliflowers that I potted on a couple of weeks ago, I also have some Summer and Autumn Cabbages that I potted on this week and the Brussel Sprouts have germinated well but are not yet ready for pricking out, also this week the Kohl Rabi, Butternut Squash and Bulb Fennel have germinated in the greenhouse and the Leeks that I sowed in the nursery bed covered with Polythene are about 2" tall and growing well.


Next week I shall be planting the Broad Beans and my Maincrop Potatoes up at the allotment, I will also be sowing my Swede ( Best of all ), I have yet to have a successful crop of Swede so after reading up and taking advice from fellow plotholders I hope to overcome this, in the past my crop has suffered badly with whitefly damage and I believe that I have not given the crop enough water when it needs it most, so I will cover the crop with fleece or enviromesh and pay more attention to the watering so hopefuly fingers crossed I will succeed.


This week after a suggestion by one of my regular site visitors Old Herbaceous, I have introduced a link on this website to My Seasonal Recipes which will become a place where I will share some recipe suggestions using in season fruit and vegetables that you will have on your allotments, I shall be including recipes sent to me by my site visitors and fellow allotment forum members. I hope that you will enjoy this added feature to my website and of course anyone wishing to send me a recipe to include can do so by emailing me at stephenpartridge111@hotmail.com and if you wish I will credit it with your name.


Finally for this week I thought that it would be nice to share a photo of one of my Camelia's that I have at home in the garden, you may just be able to see the Double Pink Camelia in the background as well, they always give me a lift when I see them in flower at this time of year, the promise of the late Spring and Summer ahead.

Well that's all for this week, things are starting to grow in earnest now and before we know it we will all be starting to enjoy the fruits of our labours, have a good week all and thankyou for following me on my allotments, I can't believe how many of you are!!, thanks Steve.