Its all go go go..

  A fine week weather wise! Lots of sunshine and of course longer days. Cool nights but not much in the way of frost. That means everything continues to grow. Many more seeds have germinated in the poly tunnel and the peach, pear and cherry blossom has flowered at last. The apple blossom is not fair behind. Last of the parsnips have been pulled and turned into spicy parsnip soup. There are now a few bedraggled leeks left in the garden and some curly kale. For some reason no one likes curly kale! Radishes, chives and parsly are being  harvested.
 I have started to overhaul my compost heaps. This is a major earth moving exercise and will take some time. I have also started to clear the nettles from another border and that too is a large project that will take some time to complete.
 I am fated never to grow peas. Despite my precautions the chickens have managed to nip off the tops of the peas. Roast chicken is currently on my menu! They have also made dust baths amongst the shallots and they continue to reduce my borders to flat beds. Funnily enough though there is not much damage to the plants. One good thing is that when they see me they run!
  The rhubarb is looking very good and the shallots and onion sets are starting to grow.
  Lots of potatoes planted this week. It seemed to took forever to plant them. 10kgs of Rosebelle, 5kgs of Blue Auvergne, 5 kgs of Desiree.
  I have dug a melon bed. The bed is a trench filled with manure, covered  with soil and black plastic sheeting on top.You leave that for a few weeks to allow the manure to start to rot so producing heat. You then plant the melon plants on top of the bed. Melons it would seem like to have warm roots and lots of food!
  I have planted some lettuce in the tomb. The tomb is what we have nick named the construction that used to be used to cover a french grave. It is a solid construction of metal and glass and serves as a glass house of sorts. The small beds in there tend to dry out so require regular watering.
   In the poly tunnel the transplanted tomatoes are establishing themselves well. Many seeds have now germinated and are growing away - sweet peppers, gourds, various flower seeds to mention a few. I have sown 98 sweet corn seeds (supposed to be 100 but the packets contained 45 and 53 seeds respectively!) in pots to get them off to a good start. My over winter cauliflowers are small but least I have cauliflowers! The asparagus has sprouted and will more than likely be left alone this year. Outside it has yet to show. Brassicas are growing well. I have pulled the first radishes of the year and the second sowing has been made. Chives have been trimmed and put in salads! Red Salad bowl lettuce is growing fast along with Latitude and Batavia Reine Glace lettuce. No sign of the spring onions yet! As a boy I used to grow spring onions and used to get very good results. Not any more but I persist. Had some rogue ones grow outside over the winter where I had sown them with some carrots and forgot they were there. Maybe that is the way to proceed. The row of carrots is showing signs of germinating.
  Here in La Creuse we do get some good weather in March. I have made a note to try to get some lettuce started in the poly tunnel in January next year so that we have some salad in March.
 All in all the season is well underway.

  It has been a busy week. Lots of forking and weeding of the vegetable beds, tidying up the front garden of the house and lots and lots of seed sowing and transplanting. Over 130 tomato plants transplanted with still more to do. They are Golden Sunrise, Moneymaker, Roma and Couer de Beef. The slow coaches are a bush variety call Vilma. Finally planted out the peas in loo rolls and also sowed a some Early Onward pea seed. Fingers crossed, chickens and mice willing I might get some peas this year! The rhubarb has thrust it way through and is noticeably growing every day. I dumped a load of manure on it last autumn and am hopeful for an improved crop this year. Leaf buds on the black currants and gooseberry's are breaking. Apple and cherry buds are swollen but no signs of bud burst yet. It cannot be long for the cherries.

Transplanted tomato plants

  First lawn mowing of the year done. This task has been made a lot easier by having had the lawn mower serviced and the blade sharpened. I created a new compost heap after reading an article on the internet (where else?) of layered leaves and grass cuttings. It would seem the leaves help to compost the grass. We will see!


  The weather has been very good this week. Warm and sunny only to be broken on Saturday by clouds and then rain overnight.


Poly Tunnel update
Broad beans have germinated and are growing daily.
Transplanted Parsly Mossed Curled - I happened to have some plants in a pot that I had sowed at the back end of the autumn and had survived the freeze.
Sowed leeks, corriander and spring onions.
All other plants continue to grow, grow, grow! The celeriac and purple sprouting have now been removed. It was unfortunate that most of the celeriac was frost damaged. I will be growing these outdoors this year.


  On the sheep front our two lambs turned out to be twins after all. Mrs Sheep gave birth to a male lamb and rejected it. My daughter has been bottle feeding it and busy working out how to hand rear it, however, the lamb is thriving on her care and attention. 

The pace does not slacken!

 Poly tunnel update
SIDE 1 which is one long bed
Asparagus - no sign
Broad beans - no sign
Early Nantes carrot - no sign
Last of the Rudolph purple sprouting - handful of shoots to pick
Kohl Rabi - static
Celtic cabbage - static
Celeriac - needs eating!
Brussels sprout seeds - growing
Radish - growing
Salad bowl lettuce - not moving very fast!
Limousin turnips - heads above the soil.
Lettuce - two plants survived the deep freeze and are now showing signs of growing.
Late planted purple sprouting - alive but not moving much.


SIDE 2 which is split into 4 beds
1of4 
Curly Kale - no one wants to eat this. Looking very good to my mind.
Chives - growing
Curly Parsley - just about surviving
Most of the bed is covered in black plastic. I am trying to warm up the soil to see I can improve on seed germination.
2of4
One red cabbage waiting to be eaten
Two kohl Rabi looking sad 
Celtic cabbage - looking strong and growing
3of4
Purple carrots - need pulling
Cauliflower - 4 out of 6 survived the deep freeze and are now growing away. Looking good. 1 is producing two heads! I will leave it to see whether it does or not.
Sage cuttings - (2011) established and growing 
Thyme cutting - (2011) well established and growing
4of4
Fleece cloche
Today's news is that the tomatoes have germinated! YES!
Leeks growing on, peas in loo rolls (yes, I have not planted them out yet!) growing.


Cabbage/cauliflower/lettuce moved out of the fleece cloche to within the poly tunnel.
Onion seedlings transplanted from their seed tray to an outside bed and covered with fleece. They were just getting too big!


Outside all is ominously quiet. The soil is still a little cold and very damp but is drying and warming fast. Those weeds. They are growing faster than anything. The over winter garlic really loved the cold and is looking really good. Autumn sown broad beans have not really moved since the milder days returned. Still some parsnips and turnips left to pull and a few bedraggled leeks. Another couple of weeks and I will be planting the early potatoes which are chitting well. 


Other news is that two of our sheep have had their lambs. One black and one white lamb. Congratulations to Mrs. Sheep and Wonkey. We eagerly await for the other ewes to produce.

Wonkey and her lamb 110312

Mrs Sheep and her lamb 110312