Seed sowing fest

Got up ridiculously early today thanks to OH who took someone to the airport at 05.45 and was not at all quiet when he was getting ready. Cleaned kitchen, cleaned fridge out & hung washing out, then hot footed it to recycling centre to pick up another load of council compost. Got halfway through unloading it & the rain came - retreated into the greenhouse & potted on the rest of the tomatoes. Also sowed some more lettuce (Webb's Wonder), leeks (Pandora & Musselburgh), sweetcorn (Sundance), poached egg plant, butternut squash & courgettes (Zuchini, All Green Bush & Romanesco). By the time I had done all this, the greenhouse looked like a seedling factory & the rain had stopped.

So ventured outside and watered the raspberries - these are the ones I dug up from under the shed & they are nearly all sprouting. I am not exactly sure that they are actually raspberries & might be blackberries - time will tell.....

The strawberries have started to flower & I am looking forward to eating some with cream..... Mmmmmm

The Apple tree I recently planted has just started to flower & what a lovely colour!

The last thing I did today was build the bean frame. I have put enough canes in for 10 runner beans & 10 climbing french beans. We all love beans so if I think I need more I can always put a wigwam up for them.

Of course Buddy had to make sure he was in the photo!

Done digging bed 5!

At last I have finished digging bed 5 - Hoorah!!

I am hoping to see Mike (3 plots along from mine) who has a tiller, as he said I could borrow it. I want to put a load of council compost on & till it to create a finer tilth ready for sowing. The trouble with our soil is that the clay, once you dig it turns into small, rock hard boulders, which are rubbish for sowing into. The frosts do break down the soil but unfortunately I can't wait that long. However it does have it's good points though in that it very fertile.

I again did some digging then some painting to rest my back, so also got the fruit cage completely painted. It now looks much better, rather than a load of old wood cobbled together.

Buddy, master of all he surveys....only thing is, he is surveying Wayne's plot not ours!

The carrot (Paris Market) seedlings that I sowed into the crate int he greenhouse are finally showing their first true leaves.

My lovely daughter Chloe visited me at the allotment after school and 'helped' with the watering - she got more water on the dog & herself than on the plants!

Plotting on

These are the leeks and onions I sowed and germinated on the windowsill at home. They need potting up so that is what I got on with today.

In the picture above they look quite perky, however once I had transplanted them they looked decidedly bedraggled - hopefully they will perk up a bit!

I

I planted up the rhubarb that I bought a few weeks ago. One of the plants was looking a bit dodgy in that it was a bit slimy on top, pulled off the slimy bits & found a decent bud so hopefully it will be ok.

Sweet peas - all a bit leggy but I have pinched out the tops and apparently if you do that then they bush out a bit more.

These are the fruit bushes I bought from homebase - 3 for 10 pounds

one red gooseberry, 1 redcurrant and one blackcurrant. I potted them up because I will not be able to plant them out for a while as I need to get the ground rotorvated first.