Spring is upon us at last, but the work is piling up and I was very busy over the last few days.

• Weeding mostly as the weeds are growing very fast again.

• I planted my first early potatoes, including some Pink Fir apple that a friend gave to me.
• I put some more Broad beans in, another friend Barry gave me from some seed that he had saved from the year before.
• I removed some of the Winter Brassicas and put the on the compost heap.
• I then replanted some self seeded Spinach that I had allowed to grow, by leaving one plant in the bed and allowing it to go to seed. I gave the balance of the young plants away to a new Allotment holder who was very glad of them.

A Busy Day

I managed to mow the front lawn today for the first time this year. The grass on front lawn doesn't seem to grow as fast as the back lawn. I guess this is because it is in shade for most of the day. I trimmed the edges of the lawn and gave the shrubs along the border a light feed of Growmore.

I spent 3 hours on the allotment in the afternoon.

I managed to plant some more onion sets in the top bed next to the shed.

I then weeded the strawberry beds and used up some high nitrogen liquid feed that I had left over from last year. This should help to give the plants a bit of a start.

I also weeded around my Rhubarb plants and used the last of the feed on those plants. I was a little peeved to see that my rhubarb is not growing as fast as some of the other rhubarb plants on the allotments.

I also harvested some lovely Sprouting Broccoli, these have been growing all winter and it is really nice to crop the results of my hard work. Margaret was very pleased with those!

Purchases and gifts

Shopping in Wroxham on Sunday 13th March, in Roys the largest village in the UK .

I purchased

• 4 bags of 60 litre size potting compost. (A bargain @£10)
• 3 large size carnation plants
• 2 patio size carnation plants
• 1 small trailing Petunia

Robin, a friend from church has arranged for me to collect some really useful top-soil which I can use for the allotment. Apparently it is the tops of molehills. I will make use of it and I picked up 5 bags and stored them at the allotment.

Shopping in Morrisons on Monday 14th March

I purchased

• Some plug Petunia plants which I will pot on.

The First Cut of the Back Lawn

Today I gave the back lawn the first cut of the year. There is nothing quite like taking the lawn mower from the shed after it has been in store for a year applying some oil and hearing the motor purr into action.

I also found the time to give the patio a good hosing down and a scrub. I used a chemical cleaning solution. I don't like using chemicals of any description in the garden, but I must say the patio looks good, and reasonably clean.

Replacing Broad-Beans

I managed to fit in three very constructive hours on the allotment today.

• I had sown some over-winter broad beans way back in December and they were showing signs of some enthusiastic growth before the Winter came along and decimated them. I filled the gaps with some new seed and I should have some consecutive crops of beans now. Provided the black-fly leave the later sown plants alone.
• I weeded my onion beds and removed some celery plants that were left over and some beetroot that would have been too woody too eat. I plan to plant onion sets in the celery bed

Must do-:

1. Sow early seeds.
2. Dig bean trench.
3. Weed, weed, weed.

Allotment, Weeding and feeding

I had a busy day today,

1. I laid out and set the first early potatoes in a tray to chit. I will set the later varieties out next week.
2. I fed the fruit bushes with some fish/blood/ bone fertiliser that I had not used for about 5 years.
3. I removed and used a couple of the last celeriac roots. I composted the rest.
4. The weeds are growing fast and I hoed around the fruit bushes as I was feeding them.

Jobs to do.

• Fill in the gaps on the Broad bean bed as I have lost a few plants over the Winter to the bad weather.
• Take out the last of the finished cabbages and brassicas, unfortunately some of the cabbages bolted very quickly and are now only good for compost.
• Plant onion sets.
• Dig a bean trench.

A very cold overcast day. OK for working, but plenty of layers of clothes were needed.

Allotment thought

Allotment link

http://gu.com/p/25k4q

Filling borders

FILLING THE FRONT BORDERS

I was the first customer to visit the plant stall at Sheringham market today. I got there at 6-30 am and I was able to have first pick of the plants for the front border. This is a good time of the day to get there for future reference. I bought some Alpine plants. Violas, Primulas etc. These should give a nice colourful display and last a long time. I spent £8.50 on plants, I consider this money well-spent as we will get a lot of pleasure out of watching them grow.

We had quite a lot of overnight rain and it was really nice to put the plants in the damp soil to give them a good start.

A light feed of "Growmore"

This is a picture of the back garden taken From the upstairs bathroom window.

The borders look quite neat at the moment, I managed to get

some weeding done this

week and I am really pleased.

I gave all the borders a light dressing of Growmore today, this is a

slow release fertilizer and will feed the plants for at least a couple of months. Growmore has leapt up in price to about £20 a

large bag now so I was very light with the feeding.

I top-dressed the small front beds with a bag of potting compost and I will buy some small bedding plants to bring some colour to the front. Watch this space for more photographs.

Borders in the back garden

THURSDAY, 24 FEBRUARY 2011

Borders in the back garden

The first really nice day to get on with tidying up the garden. The snowdrops are out in the hundreds on the borders and the signs of Spring are evident everywhere. I managed to fill a couple of wheelbarrow loads of weeds from the borders. I was particularly pleased with the way the front border is looking as the weeds there were getting out of control. I now want to buy some small bedding plants to put in to provide some colour there. The patio could do with a jet wash, I wonder if I can hire or borrow a washer.

I also plan to give a couple of wooden planters a coat of paint, and I want to give the garden furniture a coat of wood preservative.

Spring is in the air at last!