With April, come the showers.

With the country in the throes of a drought, you’d think that April showers were something of a God send. Finally, the arid earth of the hobbitland allotment would be quenched. The easter weekend passed with the lotment being left to it’s own devices; I was elsewhere, but it was most definitely at the fore of mind. The plan had been to use Easter Monday to sink potatos. Alas, the April showers suggested other things ought to be done.

It was grim this morning, when the curtains were twitched. The heavens had opened, there was a lot of precipitation. We were being rained upon, from a great height. The precipitation had put paid to the potatos. Sat with their chits a-twitching are the Maris Pipers from the tattieman. Along side them, six or so King Edwards. I have resisted, in buying more. Especially as there are space constraints, and I have never grown potatos before. I have been meaning to also look into Christmas potatoes. That will have to be a summer job.

In the last few weeks, a number of valuable lessons have been learned.

The cold kills, for one.

Even more brutally, when things are sown early.

One would have thought that the four tier blowaway was a fairly safe place. However, since it is unheated, that doesn’t necessarily mean a thing. Today, there was a close inspection of the beans and peas that were sown at the start of March. With the exception f the Cascadia sugarsnap, a few of the borlotto fire tongue bean, there were a few that were decimated. White lady, and the suttons prizewinner, had all but keeled over. Gone black in places. I have actually made a second sowing of runners, as there is now a frame built to accommodate them. Built today, in the spitting rain. Slightly wonky, but serviceable.

I hasten to add, that the legumes are all very experimental. I have yet to get my head around sowing them properly. There have already been lotment transplantings of shiraz mange tout and also Bijou mangetout. The aquadulce broadies have recently started to flower, since we have had a lot of mild weather. I will be double checking these, they are very small!

Standing sentry on the plot is the garlic and onion crop. Mulched at the base, I do hope that will help with watering. I was getting rather annoyed in having to water so frequently with the unseasonably warm weather. Now, there is a wonderful alpine and allieum smell from that bed. A bed that may see a few decapitated shallots and onions, as weeding before the mulch was a monstrous job.

Before Christmas, I had sown a great number of blooms. Hyacinths, tulips, anemones. The anemones, are as good as gone. I’ve not seen a single one push through and bloom. I assume they have all rotted down in the clay. What has come through, are the hyacinths and tulips. Lots of pretty pinks and purples. A nice splash of spring colour. The plan is to now add some summer colour too. Marigolds have been sown, as well as poppies and are sat in the 4TB as babies. These will be then transplanted when the time comes. In adition, there are some summer flowering bulbs that will be put in once the late may frosts have gone. By which time the squashes and things should be ready.

The squashes and things, that whilst sown; the first batch of babies keeled over when being moved from the heated propagator to the wendy house. This was despite being covered in fleece. Second resowings have been made, and more care will be taken of these. The aubergines, for the moment, seem to be okay. However, with the growing season still in it’s infancy, everything is still woefully precarious.

I don’t want to see another baby onion. There are easily a couple of hundred, dotted around the plot. And shallots. There is a fair few there. From observation, I can see that the over wintering one’s are okay. In fact, most of the overwintering garlic, shallots and onions has got foliage. Only a few of the recent sowings of onion and shallots have. The recently planted garlic, is probably a write off. Nothing is happening there at all.

Chillies, are biding their time as per usual. Less than half the class of thirty has germinated, but this the umpteenth sowing due to cold killing them. I think we are on twelve babies, with two sweet peppers only just starting to germinate. I have had more success with these in the unheated propagator compared to the heated one.

Sprouts have been sown in the wendy house, some purple sprouting autumnal broccoli. As well as lettuce. Some bubbles and Claremont. The cabbages will need potting on, some are quite big. Not quite to the six leave stage yet, though.

Parsnips are sown, but nothing appears to have germinated. Thought it is hard to distinguish between a weed and a parsnip baby. Carrots are germinating beneath a fleece. A fleece that needs to become a cloch type thing soon. There are baby turnips also. The cabbage bed has been dug over, I just need to stamp on it now before i transplant. Though I will also need to sink slug traps. Tomatos are splint into two groups. Those that are growing, look lovely, are very much tomato plants. And those that are taking their time, and will be tomato plants but haven’t got thereyet.

Stay tuned, and thank you in anticipation

Horticultural_Hobbit