MY WEEKS : 17 & 18 ( W/E 4TH MAY )



    

Welcome to my latest update from my two allotments here in Stourbridge, UK.
Well at long last I'm back, as many of you know I have been moving house over the last week or two which has been quite stressful sorting out all the change of utility suppliers etc and the numerous changes of address notifications that I have had to do, then sorting out my broadband service so that I could continue with my website, anyway I am sorted now and all that remains is to get some time in at my allotments to catch up on all the weeding, sowing and planting. The weather has been very unsettled with a great deal of rain, too much for many of us but it does look like most of us are going to have a sunny, hot and mainly dry week this week which is great for me to catch up.



    

One of the first jobs that I tackled was to weed and prepare the beds ready for the Potatoes. I had intended to plant the seed Potatoes into a trench however due to how wet the ground was I decided to use a bulb planter to make individual planting holes at a depth of 6" and then placed the seed Potatoes into these with the chitted sprouts facing upwards, I had recently rotavated the ground and so it was still quite soft although very wet which made it easier to use the bulb planter, if your ground is too heavy to use one then you may need to use either a hand trowel or even a spade to plant them. Last year I was asked to trial a variety of Potato called Sarpo Mira which I'm glad that I grew as it is Blight resistant which was a major problem for our Potato and Tomato crops last year, so this year I am growing this Maincrop variety again along with Nadine which is a Second Early variety.



    

Next on my list was to plant the Gladioli bulbs which had begun to shoot in storage. First of all I prepared the ground by raking in some Growmore which is an all round balanced fertiliser, then using the bulb planter again I planted them 6" deep with a spacing of 9" in the row, if you are going to stake your Gladioli then this is the best time to do it as if you try to insert a stake just before flowering time then you could damage the roots, I tend to leave mine to their own devices as I only use a few of them as cut flowers the rest are for my enjoyment whilst at my plots.



    

Then I erected the sticks for supporting my Sweet Peas that I grow using the cordon method which will produce blooms with nice straight stems for me which are ideal for cut flowers. I decided to use half of my double row for the Sweet Peas and the other half I will use for my Early Runner Beans which I am about to sow into individual pots at home before transplanting at the end of May as we may still get frosts yet. The Sweet Peas are not too bad but have suffered as a result of their delayed planting which I had intended to do a couple of weeks ago.



    

The Little Gem lettuce plants have come on really well with all the showers and warm sunshine that we have had over the last week and also the 1st early Potatoes that I planted have now broken through the soil surface and will need earthing up once they have reached 6" in height, before this if we do get a frost forecast which does seem unlikely now with the warm weather we are currently experiencing.



    

The Shallots whose leaves were yellowing which showed me that they were short of Nitrogen have responded well to my feed of Sulphate of Ammonia which is very high in Nitrogen and their leaves as you can see have returned to a healthy green, the Asparagus Spears are emerging very well now and I'm sure they are laughing at me as they know that I can't harvest them until next Spring as they were only planted last year but I will have the last laugh!! only kidding.



    

The Strawberry plants are already producing flowers and as long as the frosts keep away then I should be enjoying some early Strawberries in June. The Gooseberry flowers have started to give way to their fruits now and hopefuly I will be rewarded with a good crop of their delicious berries which I love making into jam.



    

The Blackcurrants are starting to form on their bushes now and as with all the soft fruit they will need protection from the birds who will if given the chance strip your plants bare, the Apple Trees are full of blossom this year and with no frosts to damage the blossom we may well get another excellent crop as we did last year.



    

    

Back at home in the greenhouses things have almost doubled in size during the last week and I have had to ventilate the greenhouses well to keep the temperatures from soaring into the high 30C's which would do more harm than good to the young plants.



    

The Dicentra's are stunningly beautiful when they come into bloom at this time of the year and help fill the gap between the display of bulbs such as Daffodils and Tulips and then the Summer bedding flowers, the Hosta's which I showed you a couple of weeks ago just breaking through the soil surface have developed into beautiful plants with stunning leaves.


Well folks, thanks for your patience whilst I have been going through the stressful process of moving house and without any internet connection for several weeks, I am happy to be back on my plots and all that remains for me to do is catch up with my sowing and planting schedule which I will be doing over the coming weeks, I would like to mention to anyone who has sent me emails over the last couple of weeks that I will be replying to all of them in due course but i have dozens to work my way through so please bear with me, and finally i have been asked to write once again in a feature that first appeared in last year's Kitchen garden magazine called Plot Watch staring in June.
I hope you all have a good week and I will be back on Sunday night with my live chat and shortly after that with this week's update, take care all, regards Steve.