VegetableBen: Weed it and Reap!: March 2010

31 March 2010

26 March 2010

Equinox!

Some photos for you:

Peas (right)
Plot Views (down & up)
Rhubarb
Flowers
Onions & Leeks
Gooseberries / Blueberries
Garlic
Flower Pots
Onion Sets
Parsnip & Carrot
Leek Walk
Cosmos Flowers
Leeks
Broccoli
Broad Beans
Beetroot

21 March 2010

Had a practical weekend. I decided to move the entrance to my plot nearer to the fence - should confuse any would be vandals. I filled the old gap with a door I was using for the compost bins. Where the door was, I made a bay using some old planks.

Rebuilding the paths

I lifted the old bricks and relaid them - makes it less muddy walking about.

Planting, Poundland and Plotting

Planted the onions and garlic I had sprouting in the greenhouse. Got some cheap cloches from Poundland, so put them in the middle row - this will be where the beans will be.

Happy Equinox!

19 March 2010

Weather Update: A Warm Spike in March

Since Tues we had been enjoying a warm spike to temps. For example, the last 24 hours temp's ranged between 7 and 14.5 degrees. That's important as 10 degrees is the approx. zone of good germination. Looks like it will not last and slip back to a range between 5 and 10 degrees next week.

Despite this, it looks like March will come under the long term ave. for March (6.3C) by about -0.5 to -1.0 C - so a range between 5.3C and 5.8C is likely. To put his into context, this is a run of 4 months all below ave. (Dec = -1.5C, Jan = -2.4C, Feb = -1.0C & Mar = -0.5 to -1.0).

Let's see what April 2010 will bring. More below ave. temps like the 1980s?

Rain & Spring Showers

After a long spell of high pressure giving us settled, dry and cold temps - looks like the jet stream is back and will be associated with low pressure systems, rain and warmish air.

Here's to spring!!!

Extra Sowings

To take advantage of this new weather regime I have sowed some sweetcorn - will see if this comes up strongly in the next few weeks.

£1 Pound Bargains

Am off to £1 land to go on the hunt for cheap bargains for lotty - have had a look online and it looks like I can get a plastic bench cover which is a good enough size that I could use as a poly-tunnel-cloche...will update on this later.....

13 March 2010

Good Day Down Lotty - Erected An Arch Too!

Today was a barmy + 6 degrees, not bad since last weekend loads of places broke overnight record lows (minus 7 to 9 was common).

The temps have not caused too much of an issue for my seedlings - had a look in the greenhouse to find the following have sprouted:

Perpetual Spinach
Beetroot
Cabbage
Kale

Arch Erection

Sounds rude - but this was a gift from my parents - am using it to grow beans (Runners & Berlotti), should look lovely.

New Paths

Decided to revamp the paths and bed borders. I made the main path a bit thinner and took the extra bricks to make 1-brick width paths to separate the beds. This should make getting about the plot much easier and less muddy.

With the top bed, I made a new middle path ad erected the arch to mark the new entrance.

Planted Globe Artichokes & Flowers

I finally planted the globe artichoke 'bulbs' - put them either side of the arch, to make a nice feature. Also, put one more at the end of a middle bed. The flowers were planted mid access path to break up the look. Have planted Lupins and Delphiniums.

More Poo & Compost

Went out on a spending spree and bought 3 x 75 litre bags of compost and 4 x 25 litre bags of rotted horse poo. Oh and some organic slug pellets.

More Tomatoes

Sowed some more varieties of tomatoes: