February allotment update

Well my goodness, where did February go?  Even with an extra day, it just seemed to flash past without touching the sides.

Despite that, and despite lots more rain and quite a lot of wind, things are going well on the allotment.

The broad beans and peas sown (rather late) in the autumn are still doing well, and I did finally manage to get out there and plant out the peas.

The onion sets and garlic I planted in the autumn are looking great, and I have added some red onion sets and some shallots.  I still need to decide where to put the rest of the red onions, as my 3 onion beds are now full up.  Some time this month I think.

The seed potatoes are chitting, so they’ll be ready to plant out by the end of this month (weather permitting) – the 3 potato beds are ready and waiting.

I finally gave up on the tomatoes ever germinating in the (cold) greenhouse, and brought them into the kitchen to see if that would help.  It did, they germinated, and today I took them back out to the greenhouse and potted some of them on.  I’m just hoping the shock of going back out into the cold doesn’t do for them.

We had a pruning session with an expert last weekend on the community orchard, and before I forgot everything I’d learnt, I went out to my own orchard plot and pruned my apple trees.  And with some sadness, bit the bullet and cut down my poor ailing Victoria plum tree.  I hope to plant another couple of either apples or maybe pears up there in the winter.

Cutting down the plum tree freed up an old car tyre I had around the base, and I reused this by putting it on top of the one I already have around the rhubarb.  Then I added the lid from an old split water butt that I’ve had lying around for ages waiting for a use, and hey presto! a free rhubarb forcer.

I’ve shifted some more raspberry canes down to the new row by the hens (started but not finished last year, but they did brilliantly so clearly it was a good plan), and this week I covered the bed with a good layer of muck.  I just have one more fruit bush (gooseberry) to move up to the orchard plot, and then I will be able to extend the strawberry bed to twice the size it was before.

So.  That was February.  And as every gardener knows, March will be a busy month out there.

As predicted, we’re still eating last year’s onions and potatoes and garlic, though all of them are starting to sprout so need to be used sooner rather than later.  We also have several boxes of soft fruit left in the freezer to enjoy before the next lot comes, and eggs galore.

More pancakes anyone?