MY WEEK 17 : ( APRIL 24TH )

Hello all, hope you have all had a good week on your plots and in your greenhouses, the weather has been much better however we have not had as much rain as the ground needs on my allotments, I have had to do plenty of watering to get the seeds to germinate and grow. Us gardeners are never satisfied with the weather!

As you can see this was my first harvest from the Rhubarb, it's amazing how quickly it grows when watered and a bit of warm sunshine comes along. There will be plenty for Rhubarb Crumble, Rhubarb Fool, Rhubarb & Custard and if you have too much then it freezes really well, all you have to do is top and tail the sticks, you can add the leaves to your compost bin, then wash it well and cut into 1" pieces and place into freezer bags and freeze until you need it.


This week I erected my supports for the Runner beans, I have placed them about 8" apart with 2ft between the rows and I have 80 in total which will provide me with a plentiful supply of beans and also I will be able to stop cropping some of the plants early enough for them to produce my seeds for next years crop which will save me a small fortune.






The coldframes at the allotment are filling up now with Early Cauliflowers, Summer Cabbage, Autumn Cabbage and the Chrysanthemum cuttings which are now ready for 'stopping' next week, which will encourage them to produce extra sprays per plant.







Back at home I have received 1200 Busy Lizzie and 1100 Lobelia plug plants which will keep me busy for a few hours next week, these are just some of the plants for my hanging baskets, pots, towers and borders that I fill every year, which with the plants that I produce for the allotments makes this time of year very busy.



This week I have sown some Spinach ( Lazio ) and Corriander up at the allotment, at home I have sown Ridge Cucumber ( Burpless ), Courgette ( Kojac), Sweetcorn ( Earlibird ), Pumpkin ( Jack 'o' Lantern ), French beans ( Climbing Blue Lake ) and my Runner Beans ( Scarlet Emperor ).
Today I noticed that the first early Potatoes were shooting so next week I will have to earth them up incase of a frost and to encourage a higher yield. Also next week I will be sowing my maincrop of Carrots, Calabrese, Purple Sprouting and Winter Cabbage and hopefuly planting the first Lettuce plants out.

Well that's it for another week, I hope you all enjoy your Bank Holiday and any time that you spend on your plots, thankyou for following my progress, Steve.