Saturday, April 22, 2006

Its the weekend after Easter

With a fair wind this will be the first of a double update this weekend - hopefully the second will be mostly pictures so you can see what I've been upto.
No update last week because I was away on my other project - http://www.wychurst.co.uk if you're curious.
Anyway things are now progressing. The potatoes I planted in Feb in the bins are now growing out the top - that's nearly 18" of growth in 2 weeks. I'm now desperately trying to get them earthed up. I moved the runnerbeans outside to harden off on Tuesday and since they're now nearly 12" tall I need to get them in the ground this weekend. I'll keep an eye on the weather and cover them with a fleece if it looks like we'll get a frost.
From the other plantings, all the sweetcorn is up with about 85% germination, I've had 90% on the sunflower seeds, and 80% on the rye. The second batch of lettuce and brussels are growing nicely, and the strawberry's that went in in early March are at last showing signs of doing something. I've still not got any peppers, and the second batch of Alicante are doing as badly as the first - although I've had three more from the first batch come up. I'll get a couple of Roma, a plum tomato, from the garden center in a couple of weeks.
The beetroot sown in the window boxes is putting on good growth, but why when you sow in neat rows do they come up all over the shop - I'm going to have to re-organize them over the weekend. I've also got good growth from the rocket, but the American Salad is refusing to do anything.
Outdoors, the onions are growing although a little slow compared to others at my mother-in-laws allotment. The first batch of peas are also starting to show through although its a little early to tell how good a germination I've got. As to the other outdoor sowings - still no sign of anything.
On the allotment front I'm 2/3 of the way through the potatoe bed. I need to get that finished this weekend so that I can get the rest of the potatoes in. It's going to be a bit of a squash but I need to get three rows in, so I may end up trenching them rather than digging holes and dropping them in.
Apart from that I want to get some more sowing done. I'm going to sow Purple Teepee (French Beans) in the rootrainers released by planting the runner beans, and split a seed tray, sowing One Kilo (Chinease Cabbage), Purple Sprouting, and Webbs Wonderful, each to a third of the tray. If I can find room I'd like to get in another couple of rows of carrots, and of course I've still to sow the old wheel barrow that worked so well last year.
I think thats about it - if all goes to plan I'll see you Sunday for another update.

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