Seeds and slow worms

I uncovered another bit of ground today, and found a slow worm that I thought must be dead; but after a few minutes in the light it began to move, so I helped it under another piece of carpet.  I must find out how to give it an appropriate home once all the carpet is gone.

Last week the seed potatoes - maincrop and Pink Fir Apple new potatoes - went in as a pioneer crop on a patch that has grown only nettles in the recent past.  I also sowed salad leaves and radishes, weeded the strawberry bed, and kept on with the project of clearing the last third of the plot.

This week I cleared a space that will house annual flowers for cutting, and sowed mizuna, garden cress, the endive (Bianca Riccia da Taglio) that was such a success last year, and kailaan or Chinese stem broccoli, which promises a quick crop.  It has not rained significantly since before Easter, although there were showers overnight, so seeds have been slow to germinate, but seedlings are now showing for rocket, lollo rosso, radishes and cavolo nero.  The Sciabola Verde broad beans have also popped up.

At home, I've sown bushy sunflowers, cosmos, dianthus and globe thistle to go in the cutting flowers patch (too titchy to merit the title cutting garden) and courgettes, squash and sweetcorn for planting out later.  The marigolds have been pricked out and put into paper pots.  The tomato seedlings are doing OK, and a tray of mixed salad is gracing the garden table for emergency greens supplies.  If it all grows, the plot will be full to bursting come June.

If winter comes, can spring be far behind?

At least for a while.  Shameful lack of posts, mainly because I have barely been near the allotment for months.  First there was the cold weather, which I was fairly certain would kill the broad bean seedlings and the garlic and shallots.   The leeks and PSB were the only things showing above the snow for a good while.  Thankfully I thought to shake the snow off the PSB tops, which probably stopped them snapping off altogether.

When the snow melted, however, the broad beans and alliums had made it, and some of the turnips and winter radish were still edible, although it killed off the last of the chard and appears to have done for the Timperley Early rhubarb as well; the rhubarb crown is now doing an uncanny impression of a lump of wood.  The other crown has some tiny leaves, though, so is hopefully doing OK.  I managed to get some fleece over the cavolo nero and purple mustard before the cold snap, and have just picked the last of these before digging the bed over for carrots and beetroot.  The texel greens didn't make it, but frankly they were no loss and I won't bother with them again, however high they are in Vitamin C.

After the snow melted a sprained ankle and revolting cold conspired to keep me away from the plot, but now I'm back and hopefully making up for lost time.

Over the last couple of weeks I've cleared a few beds, dug in compost, sown more broad beans (the marvellously-named Sciabola Verde), spring onions, chantenay carrots, beetroot and cavolo nero.  Today I got to work with my spade on a patch that has been under carpet and black plastic for about 18 months, and was pleased to find that the nettle roots were spongy and soft.  Hopefully that means they are dying off.  I also found four long rusty iron poles and am wondering what sort of Alys Fowler-type sculptural effect I can achieve with those.  The newly-cleared patch is for potatoes, which will hopefully continue to help break up the soil and resist weeds.  I've also dug in the green manure in the proposed asparagus bed; the asparagus crowns are on their way and may find themselves in another bed, as I imagine the green manure will need a little time to rot down.