Chilly and misty on the Allotment
Thursday was a chilly day on the allotment and the top of Arthur’s Seat had disappeared in the mist. The cold weather is holding things back, though all the blossom is now fully out.
More vegetable sowing was done with two rows of beetroot – ‘Chioggia’ and ‘Boltardy’ – and also a row of parsnips – ‘Sabre’. They were covered with fleece to give them a little protection until the weather warms up. Peas seeds were put in to give succession and more will be sown next month. The oca tubers stayed at home until the weather improves. The shoots of the early potatoes are just showing so they were earthed up to protect them.
Weeding the strawberries
Weeding carries on, as ever, and taking the fleece off the strawberries showed how much the plants have benefited. Unfortunately, so have the weeds. The plants were new last year and struggled to get established but are now strong growing and with promising flowering.
The Saskatoon is doing well and throwing up shoots so these were layered to give new plants which can go into the replacement windbreak in due course – ornamental, fruitful and need little maintenance!
Some heavy work to keep us warm – the open compost heap was moved into the green bins to speed up the composting process.
Autumn planted onion sets – ‘Shenshyu Yellow’ – growing well,
The asparagus kale is almost over but some of the shoots will be left to go to seed as is done in the Orkneys where it came from.
A picking today of spring cabbage, rhubarb and asparagus kale.
Jobs for next week
- Prepare the ground for another two rows of carrots
- Feed the fruit
- Dig in manure to the sweetcorn bed
- Keep the hoe going
- Check if potatoes need earthed up again
- Carry on with wiring up of soft fruit
