A new year, another new month, it’s March already and it’s finally stopped raining, maybe. After September’s debacle, I managed to get back on the plot early November, albeit in a limited fashion, only for the rain to set in around mid-month and for those interested in that sort of thing the latter part of November and then December brought 156mm of rain whilst in January we had 112mm. So a total of 268mm or roughly 10½ inches in two and a half months. That’s wet!
Anyway, I managed to get a few jobs done between the downpours. I pruned, tied-in and mulched the blackberries, cut down and mulched the autumn raspberries, prepared both of the greenhouses and I’ve now weeded out and mulched all of the raised beds repairing/replacing where necessary. The plot is largely laid out to 4ft x 6ft beds and there’s around forty-four of them plus other bits and pieces, so I’m glad to get them all done and things are not looking too bad.
Still in the ground, I’ve got swede, celeriac and parsnips. The leeks were disappointing even those that didn’t get crushed by falling humans, so they are long gone and we’ve just finished using the stored potatoes and onions. We’re into the hungry gap with just some purple sprouting to help us out.
In the meantime, I have my seed potatoes chitting and the onion & shallot sets are waiting to be planted hopefully in a couple of weeks. I’ve never had much luck with early, early potatoes in bags in the greenhouse, so this year I’ve planted them in my small cold frames to see if I can get ahead of the game. Next up will be onion & shallot seed at the end of the month and then, as we move into April, I can really get cracking with the potatoes, carrots & beetroots etc.
In the propagators, I’ve seeded some tomatoes, aubergines, sweet peppers and chillies. I’ve already got some tomatoes up and I’m planning to plant them out early in one of the greenhouses with cucumbers. I’ll plant the other greenhouse and the polytunnel a couple of months later to try and extend the season well into autumn.
Still need to prune that flipping damson tree and the plum – onward and upward!
