The weather has really warmed up this week and so the windowsill sowings in the heated propagator had all sprouted swiftly and some were even ready to be taken to the greenhouse. I think we had our most successful germination, but maybe I had that thought too quickly as the chillis, aubergines and peppers which weren’t quite ready to go to the plot suddenly all died! They looked like they had burnt almost so I wonder if it was too hot for them. So we would have to sow them again. At least we have only lost a week or so.
The garlic and the onions have green tops over a couple of inches already which is great. The onions are in seed trays in the greenhouse and the white onions have definitely sprouted more and better than the red. We planted the shallots (Longor) that had been delivered during the week. We decided to put them on plot 118 so this will be the first year that they haven’t been grown in beds. I’m hoping that they are not going to be adversely affected, for example by slugs, so fingers crossed! The other planting we did was of some crocus and daffodil bulbs that have been in the shed for too many months! I suspect it is too late for them to do much this year, but it will be a nice surprise when they pop up next Spring.
We wanted to do some more clearing up so we are ready for the next few weeks when things will explode into action. We had some tubs of soil still in the greenhouse on plot 97 that we’d grown tomatoes and chillies in, so we got rid of the large root balls and spread the rest of it over one side of plot 118.
The herb beds had gone a bit crazy and were showing signs of growing again and so now was the time to do some pruning back or we would have missed our chance. It is always satisfying doing a before and after shot of a job like this! And it was a very pleasantly fragrant job too-certainly better smelling than digging the manure that we put on top!
Speaking of manure we put about another ten barrows of manure on plot 118, joining up all the gaps so now it has all had a thick layer. Neil also did some digging over, of which there will be a lot more to do before too long!
We harvested some cavolo nero, purple sprouting broccoli, horseradish and our first picking of the forced rhubarb. The rhubarb was a revelation, so pink and tender with a lovely delicate flavour with much less tartness. I just simply poached it and served it with some creme fraiche with some orange stirred through, delicious! Think we will be picking more next week…
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