{"id":3362,"date":"2022-03-26T17:11:02","date_gmt":"2022-03-26T17:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/?p=3362"},"modified":"2022-03-28T10:30:44","modified_gmt":"2022-03-28T09:30:44","slug":"a-busy-week-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/susan\/a-busy-week-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A busy week"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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I think that we may have been lulled into thinking that we can discard some layers of clothing as the weather last week was warm and sunny. I have the feeling, however, that we could soon be reaching again for our fleeces\u00a0 as the warm spell is forecast to end this week. We enjoyed it while it lasted and managed to get quite a lot done outdoors both on the allotment and in the garden.<\/p>

On our first afternoon on the plot, Martyn strimmed the rest of the grass paths whilst I continued doing some tidying.<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

Once our soil dries\u00a0 on the surface, after being pounded by heavy rain, it develops a crust and so one of my jobs was to hoe between the autumn planted onions and garlic.\"\"<\/p>

Then I moved on to the strawberry bed and\u00a0 cut off all the old leaves. The photo above, on the left, was taken half way through the task. Two rows of plants had been tidied and two\u00a0 hadn’t. I hope that you can tell which is which. I hoed between the plant to loosen the soil and added some fertiliser.\u00a0 I found some baby plantlets that had managed to root, in spite of me trying to keep on top of cutting off any runners, As we had some space at one end of the bed I planted the babies. You may be able to spot them in the photo above on the right.<\/p>

Our second visit to the plot was short but not at all sweet. When we arrived we found that a nearby industrial unit had a fire and noxious smoke was drifting across the site exactly where we had planned to work. It males a mockery of our site ruling that fires can only be lit an hour before dusk. Needless to say we left and decided instead to work in the garden.<\/p>

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Earlier in the week I had been busy tidying up the greenhouse The pots on the right are planted up with summer flowering plants, that have over wintered in the greenhouse. I’ve cut them back and now we must wait to see how many have survived.<\/p>

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The recently sown broad beans are growing well and will soon need to be planted out. The new brassica plants have also perked up.<\/p>

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Whist I was busy in the greenhouse, Martyn was mulching and fertilising the perennial beds.<\/p>

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We planted more Casablanca potatoes, this time in four crates.<\/p>

We also did a lot of general tidying especially in our cold frame area.<\/p>

We returned to the allotment on the following day. There was no smoke but the after smell from the fire wasn’t pleasant but we needed to plant our first two rows of Casablanca potatoes.<\/p>

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I also cut all last year\u2019s\u00a0growth from our autumn fruiting All Gold raspberries.<\/p>

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Before we came home, I gathered a small harvest of leeks and daffodils. All very Welsh.<\/p>

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Once the outer leaves were removed, the leeks brushed up nicely. These showed no sign of pest damage.<\/p>

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Back in the house our hippeastrum\/amaryllis buds have burst open .\u00a0<\/p>

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We made our usual visit to Nostell. The spell of dry weather means that the winter ponds are quickly disappearing. I wonder – will they soon come back?<\/p>

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Last week, we actually managed to walk our complete route. This takes us along the cycle track where we were treated to our first sighting, this season, of celandines.<\/p>

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The birds are now pairing up. A couple of Canada geese have arrived and the ducks are swimming around in pairs. Mrs. Swan appears to be sitting on a nest. Apologies for the blurry photo but she was at the far side of the lake and partly hidden amongst the reeds.<\/p>

The male pheasants were calling to advertise their availability.<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

It was pleasant enough to sit outside in the courtyard and enjoy a cappuchino and flapjack for us and a dog biscuit and dish of water for Ruby, She was kept busy watching everything that was going on.<\/p>

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Last week’s meals included a vegetable tagine<\/a> into which went our Crown Prince squash, onion and garlic. I used ras el hanout rather than the separate spices.<\/p>

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I made a turkey stew and used\u00a0 some of our leeks, potato and onion. It was very loosely based on this recipe<\/a> but cooked in one pan and not arranged as prettily. I cooked pieces of turkey in the stew rather than cooking in separately and serving sliced.<\/p>

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I used one of the freshly harvested leeks in a chicken, leek and mushroom risotto<\/a>, along with our garlic and frozen peas . \u00a0I used the same ingredients as in the recipe but used my own method of cooking.<\/p>

As always stay safe and well<\/p>

This week, I am linking to Dave\u2019s Harvest Monday<\/a> post over at Our Happy Acres.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think that we may have been lulled into thinking that we can discard some layers of clothing as the weather last week was warm and sunny. I have the feeling, however, that we could soon be reaching again for our fleeces\u00a0 as the warm spell is forecast to end this week. We enjoyed it 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