Allotment Tales 23rd April 2026

At last – sun without the chill – the kind of day to keep finding jobs to do, rather that heading home for indoor tasks.
Oca and red-veined sorrel plants joined the polyculture bed. We constructed a frame for the peas (Hurst Greenshaft) before planting, watering and tucking them up inside a vertical fleece blanket. Flat-leaf parsley and dill went in next door, boosting our range of herbs. The roots bed (where last year’s tatties were) was cleared and finely raked. Compost was added and we did our first direct sowing – beetroot (Bolthardy) and carrots (Chantenay)
We also activated the tubs. More carrots were sown in the smaller blue tubs (Flyaway and Nantes) protected with a covering of fleece and parsnips were sown in the larger grey compost bin tubs, where they did well last year.
This year’s brassicas bed was dug over and raked, ready for cabbages, broccoli and sprouts – all sown several weeks ago and growing into healthy young plants. This week, we sowed runner and climbing beans in the Caley Saughton greenhouse along with some mangetout peas.

We watered young crops, as the soil seemed quite dry. Broad beans planted last week are already looking quite at home – though we realised today that we’d slipped up and planted them where the sweetcorn is due to go. But they should make fine neighbours though.

The glove!

The raspberry bed was weeded and watered, and whilst doing this, we dug up a gardening glove/daisy hybrid!

Jobs for next week: sow more root crops; add leafmould to the sweet pea trench; plant more peas; keep harvesting the perpetual spinach; check for alkanet around the plot; water as require