Early April

We have now got the broad beans that have been grown from seed, into the ground and areprogressing nicely. The raspberry plants that went in are now beginning to form shoots and new stems are growing. We have flowers appearing on the strawberry plants which areall looking healthy. We plantes some extra shallots which a growing quickly and several pea plants have started to appear with the addition of some extra plants grown from seed. The potatoes are starting to grow and we now have 25 plants showing. We are currently still growing tomato, sweetcorn, cabbage and courgette seedlings.
All is progressing nicely. The borders and beds now need excess grass and weeds removing and the shed needs guttering for the water butt and repainting. All is progressing nicely.

Marching through March

So far, over the last two weekends has involved addition of two more raised beds.  We have planted tomato and cabbage seeds into seed trays which have successfully started to grow. Into the ground we have planted shallots and garlic along with peas and extra strawberry plants. The ground has been turned again and the shed is ready for painting. The broad bean seeds we planted into seed pots have taken well and will be able to go into the ground soon. We are successfully marching through March.

This weekend

This weekend we aquired a shed for £20 which was an absolute bargain!! So that was constructed by my assistants.
Planting: in one of the beds this weekend we have planted (in the pouring rain), 2 rows of charlotte potatoes and 2 rows of maris piper potatoes. I have also today planted 2 raspberry bushes.
Two of the beds have been turned over and I have weeded the strawberry bed to reveal just the new leaves on the strawberry plants.
The broad bean seeds we have started are beginning to grow and should be able to be planted out soon.
All in all its been a successful weekend, except for the rain!!

The allotment in January

I visited the allotment in January, but unfortunately there was not much we could do at this time as the ground was hard and the frosts were still occurring.

My allotment

Last year I aquired an allotment locally.  My plan is to hopefully become self sufficient in vegetables this season. I have never done anything like this before, but with the help of my sister we shall see what we can create and grow.

When I took over the allotment it was overgrown with long grass and weeds. We cut this back to reveal a bed of strawberries, from which we had a few fruit at the end of last season.

At the end of last season we made several raised beds and planted some onions, leeks and garlic. We hope to harvest these in early summer. As we spend more time up there, as the weather becomes clearer, I hope to keep updating posts like this as a record of our progress and share any problems or triumphs we have over the forthcoming year.

I will keep you posted :)