First Week Back on the Plot

Last weekend I went to my local pound shop and picked up a few choice goodies for the allotment.

I got four bags of seed potatoes, 2 x Pentland Javelin (first earlies) and 2 x (second earlies), each with 8 tubers of each.

I also got two nets of onion sets, one Sturon and one Stuttgarter, both of which look to have about thirty bulbs in.

There were several packets of seeds including sweetcorn, chillis, mizuna, coriander, several peas and beans, little gem lettuce, cherry tomatoes and a pack of sunflowers.  I was also fortunate to pick up several fruit bushes from Aldi at £2.50 for three.

I managed to get a couple of different packs of grow at home mushrooms so I can compare how they both perform.

This year I have decided to keep detailed records on how well I do, financially, with my allotment.  The cost of anything I spend to use on the allotment is offset against the equivalent price I would have had to spend to purchase any produce that I can harvest.

At this point in time I have spent £34 in total, but I have harvested a few bits of the overwintering veg (including the cabbage pictured to the right) which would have cost me £4.75 if I had bought it, so my net cost is is £29.25.

This isn't a problem as I fully expect the majority of my costs to be incurred in the first part of the year, but when the main harvesting begins at the start of summer I hope that I get into a surplus quite quickly.

 The fruit bushes from Aldi were 3 x Red Goosebery Hinnomaki, 5 x Raspberry Tulameen (this should have been only 3, but there were five separate canes in the pack), 3 x Blackberry Thornlass Evergreen and 3 x Redcurrant Jonkheer Van Tets.

As the area designated for fruit bushes is still very waterlogged I have planted them into a temporary home in one of the raised beds along with the blackcurrant 'twigs' that Diane gave to me before Christmas.

When we had the heavy snow a couple of weeks back the netting over my brassicas in bed 1 was pretty much destroyed, so I needed to remake the entire frame and re-hang the netting. 








This time I covered the entire bed rather than just the bottom half as unfortunately the pigeons had got in and rather shredded the remaining two savoy cabbages.

These had been doing rather well when compared to the savoys in the other raised bed, so I am quite diasppointed as I had a bed with stepdad Ken about whose cabbages would grow the biggest - mine in a 'lasagne' bed, his in a traditional double dug bed.

Up until now mine were doing best - I just hope that now they are covered they will be able to recover as the weather starts to get better.

The Jumbo Garlic bought at the supermarket is really looking good, with shoots a good five inches tall, but the garlic purchased from a supplier has yet to show at all.

Not really sure why, but it's all a learning curve still.






The leeks which I brought from home very late last year have survived the snow and are doing well, and are now about 8 inches tall.




The bed full of onion sets is starting to look pretty good, with virtually all of them now showing strongly.

The two bags of onion sets I have just bought will be going into the ground later, after the chance of frost has passed.



I am going to my first ever seed swap tomorrow at the Peveril of the Peak pub in Manchester, so I am hoping to return loaded down with plenty of new and unusual seeds.