MY WEEK : 13 ( W/E 1ST APRIL )

Hello all, welcome to this week's update of my progress at My Allotments and the Kitchen Garden. The weather has been exceptional this week with temperatures well above average for the time of year, this is great for working in but can cause problems with seedlings growing too quickly and I have had to keep a close eye on the temperature gauge and timing the ventilation of the greenhouses to ensure that the plants do not over heat. The grounds around the hall are awash with Daffodils at the moment which is a spectacular sight, following on from all the Snowdrops that were there a month or so ago they will provide the Hotel's future guests with a glorious view.


During last week we completed the Rose Garden, they have all been pruned and fed with Rose fertiliser, the grass borders have been cut and edged, I think that come the Summer we will have a beautiful display once again. The Rose Garden was replanted in 1996 with approximately 380 bare rooted Hybrid Teas which with the help of an old colour photograph I have of the Rose Garden and a copy of the varieties purchased I will be able to label them accordingly so that future visitors will know which is which.


We thought that we had completed the preparation of the borders at the front of the hall but unfortunately this was not the case as the electricians needed to bury cables in them to provide lighting for the front of the hall so they had to be dug up. Some of the plants have been delivered for the front borders, the remaining ones will delivered next week so we will have to wait to plant the borders up. We have chosen a mixture of Shrubs and Herbaceous plants along with Lavendar Hidcote which will be used to edge the borders, all of these plants have been selected for their ability to grow well in the full Sun aspect of the borders we will have to wait to see how they do.


My Early Carrots have germinated under the cloches, although at this stage they are a bit difficult to see in the top-left photograph, also the Shallots are starting to shoot well now that they have established their roots and as you can see from their photograph the soil here at the Kitchen Garden is quite sandy which will provide the crops with good drainage but will mean that we will need to water well in hot and dry weather and also this will mean that we may need to feed more regularly as the soil will not hold onto the nutrients as well as a heavier soil type.

The Roscoff Rose Onion seeds that were sent by a website viewer for me to try have germinated well and are ready for pricking out into individual cells or pots now, they will then be grown on in the cold frames for a few weeks before being planted out into their final growing positions. Unfortunately the Banana Shallots are not doing so well with quite a poor germination rate, I have re-sown some of these and hopefuly they will do better I will keep you updated on their progress.

Well I'm afraid that is it for this week's update, I apologise for being late with it but the trials and tribulations that come with such a big project have taken their toll a bit and I have needed to have a bit of R & R to recharge my batteries so to speak, hopefuly this is only a short term blip and I will be back to my usual self soon, I have left you with a slideshow of others photographs from around the hall over the last week, see you next week regards Steve.