First shoots and a new greenhouse

Let's have a bit of a catch up from the allotment shall we? Yeah! It's just over a month ago since I wrote that we'd gotten our spuds and onions in to the first two beds we'd managed to (mostly) rid of stones and detritus and transplanted some fruit bushes. Since then, despite time to spend at the plot being at an absolute premium (we've got a lot of weddings on this year), things have moved on a bit.

We dug over a small patch next to the sheds, and planted in sweet peas and nasturtiums. We're showing a distinct lack of adventure in our planting on this new plot. With it having been such a dump, I think we're going for tried and true options to check that everything works.

Nasturtiums in

Nasturtiums really are one of my favourite things, not least as they taste so great. Funny how a plant that is so humble and easy to grow turns up with such regularity on high-end modernist menus I always think.

Spud meet world

Just when I was worrying they were duds or something, our spuds have started to fight their way through the soil, which is always a welcome moment. A few that had done were dealt a bit of a blow by the freezing night-time temperatures last weekend. Hopefully not damaged too much, but I did the usual trench thing anyway to give the greenery on them some protection for a bit longer.

Onions, both red and yellow, have almost universally come up which doesn't always happen. I think we got these for a pittance in Lidl, so they you go. Still some way to go, obvs, but looking good so far.

Field of alliums

New greenhouse

The really big news is that the ever-brilliant Bob has followed through on his promise to convert one of the former pigeon sheds into a greenhouse. We bought some sheets of acrylic plastic off the internet and he did the rest. The timing is superb as we've got tomato seedlings just starting to turn into plants ready to go in here before too long. We've never had anything like this amount of space to grow hot-house type stuff before, which is pretty exciting. It's south-facing and will get the Sun pretty much all day long. Honestly, Bob: what a total legend!

This weekend coming is to be dedicated to turning some timbers we've bought into raised beds, and probably a lot more digging and sieving of the untamed sections. With the first shoots coming through it's starting to feel like an allotment, as opposed to a dump that we tidied up a bit, which is great.