One of the main tasks at the allotment last week was to plant potatoes.

Firstly, Martyn tilled some of the beds whilst I weeded and cleared more beds.

Three long beds were tilled, two of which – or rather one and a half – were earmarked for potatoes.

In these beds, we went on to plant four more varieties of potatoes. We couldn’t find two of our favourite varieties – Elfe and Osprey – for sale anywhere so we decided to plant some of our last year’s crop. The potatoes were not affected by blight last year and had not shown any signs of disease so we thought it was worth the risk. These have been planted in our old strawberry bed which regular readers may remember was rock hard and had deep cracks last year.

The remaining half of the second bed which was planted with potatoes is intended to house our parsnips. Last year, we had very poor germination with regard to parsnips so this year we are trying to pre-germinate some seeds on damp kitchen roll. These are currently at home on a window sill where we can keep an eye on them. 

We are also trying this method with radishes, spring onions, beetroot and coriander, for no other reason than to see what happens, all of which have germinated and been planted in module trays. It will be interesting to compare our results with seeds sown more conventionally. Martyn has posted more details of this experiment here including a video.

Details of all the seeds that have been sown the usual way are posted here.

We have covered the third bed with weed control fabric in order to prevent weeds from regrowing before we are ready to plant brassicas in this bed.

Another aim for last week was to renovate our allotment shed. As far as the front and sides were concerned, they just needed a coat of stain.

The back of the shed, however, was in need of far more extensive work. Lots of the wood had rotted creating large holes. The decision was made to recover the back with another layer of tongue and grooved planks.

For some reason the ‘before’ photo that I took of the front of the shed has disappeared. It looked worse than the side view but below is how it looked after I’d stained it.

 After one plot visit we gathered a helping of purple sprouting broccoli.

On Sunday I dug up another batch of leeks which have been frozen. The remaining leeks will need lifting soon as the flower stems are starting to grow.

In the garden, I planted out some lily of the valley. I bought them last year and they had been growing on in pots. All had started to shoot so they have now been planted out in the garden.

We managed our weekly visit to Nostell where bluebell flowers are increasing in number. It’s really difficult to do them justice in a photo as the blue of the flowers tends to merge with the green foliage. Martyn, posted a video on our vlog here which, as well as showing bluebells,  also shows one of the swans becoming rather feisty when I was feeding them. It wouldn’t tolerate a Canada goose trying to get in on the act and also wasn’t too happy when I stopped throwing food as the wind was blowing it back at me. Its mate was still sitting on the nest.

Onto some of last week’s meals.

I made a  turkey cottage pie that used some of our potatoes, onion and our frozen peas. the topping was a mixture of potato and carrot.

I also made a vegetable Thai red curry that used some of our onion, potato and frozen cauliflower.

Prompted by a comment from Debbie, a couple of weeks ago, I pickled some thin slices of our red onions with thin slices of cucumber.

That is all from me for this week, until next time stay safe and well.

This week I am linking to Harvest Monday at Dave’s Our Happy Acres blog.