Time flies!

  Well, I do not know where the time has gone. I just noticed today that I had not updated my blog for over two weeks. Shame on me. 
  The weather has not been particularly kind. There has been more rain but there have been one or two really nice days and I have managed to get on.

Violet Garlic

 The field beans and garlic are looking good. I am really pleased with the garlic.
Winter leeks are standing well but the parsnips and swede are now done. I have left a couple of parsnips to hopefully go to seed.
   The narcissus are growing well and the crocus are a nice splash of colour. On the warmer days the bees have be active.

Crocus pot

    Since the beginning of February seeds have germinated and grown. I have just transplanted fifty Roma tomato plants into pots and placed them in the poly tunnel fleece cloche. More tomato seed has been sown, Latah, Ethel Watkins Best, Millefluer (home produced!) Irish Gardeners delight, Stupice, Galina and Champeau Yellow Giant to name some. This year I will plant grape tomato's in the poly tunnel and all else outside. I continue to try to find a cabbage that will grow reasonably well. So far little success, however, I have sown early Louvier cabbage sown which have now germinated. This variety looks promising so maybe I will have cabbage! It looks a bit like a primo.  I have some I over wintered in the poly tunnel and they look good. Some spring cabbage in the outside garden also looks good so fingers crossed there maybe some cabbage from the garden this spring!  Cauliflower, aubergine and celeriac are growing and the cauliflower will soon need to transplanted to pots. Spring onions have been a hit and miss crop with last year the only success was with ones sown in the autumn. It was too wet to do that last autumn and so this year I sowed them outside under a cloche. Yes! Success! They have germinated under the cloche. I have dared to sow parsnips. Two varieties. Tender and True and de Guernesey (french seed). I have put some fleece over these to keep the chickens off and I am sure the fleece will also help warm up the soil a little.
   I dug up my Jerusalem artichokes and got a large amount of tubers. Not so sure as to whether or not we like these. 
   I have also been splitting up the felled oak tree and moving the wood to the wood hanger. One barrow full a day is as much as I want to shift from the river to the house! What I need now is more dry days to enable me to get on with preparing the vegetable beds.