It looks like it will be another weekend with very little work done on the plot. The weather continues in an unpleasant mode with a mixture of sunshine and showers accompanied by some strong to gale-force winds. It’s not that we’ve had a tremendous amount of rain through the week but we don’t seem to be able to manage more than a dry day at a time. We haven’t done any work on preparing beds for planting since last September.

At least on one afternoon last week we managed a bonfire to clear away lots of pruning debris that had been hanging about since last October and I managed to dig over some very wet soil as part of our raspberry bed refurbishment.

However, we haven’t planted any new season crops. Certainly, some plotters have put in their potatoes for this year but I reckon our ground is far too wet and cold so I’m leaving them chitting in the greenhouse.

The potatoes are left covered by fleece to protect them from frosty nights.

All the early growing action is in the greenhouse at homewhere we now have a few other crops coming along

Our early brassicas have been potted into suitable sized containers to grow in until they are ready for planting out in the allotment.

Finally, our sweet peas sown last autumn are ready for planting out.

I’m not sure whether to pinch out the growing tips or not. They are ready for moving to the allotment but I need to sort out a bed for them and erect a frame for them to grow up. I hope they will be okay for a week or so until we get some better weather.

I’ll leave the propagator covers on until the seedlings begin to grow away. Alongside them in the greenhouse are our onion seedlings Red Baron and shallot seedlings Zebrune.

I’ve sown some broad beans, De Monica, in modules. These normally take a few weeks to germinate so hopefully we’ll have some better weather by the time they need transplanting into the allotment. This year we’ve attempted to keep our dahlia tubers from last year in the greenhouse at home. Left in the plot greenhouse there is a tendency for them to get neglected and they dry out too much.

They are covered in wood chippings. I’m not too sure how many have survived winter and if they have exactly what to do with them next. I’d like to move them into their final positions at the allotment without moving them into pots first. I’m not sure they’ll hang on where they are for that long.

Providing we get an improvement in the weather soon I don’t think we’ll be behind at getting our allotment season underway. However, the forecast for the week ahead is for more unsettled weather.

You can find a list of all our sowing and planting activities by following this link