Allotment Diary (February – Week 4)

I think I will be starting this diary with “what a difference a week makes” fairly frequently now, but it’s so true. After months of hardly any change on the allotment, suddenly everything is growing, leafy quality is improving and the whole feel of the place is transformed, in fact it’s hard for me to keep away from the plot right now.

I’ve spent a few hours a day there, every day this week and it’s paid off. Every bed is weeded, the paths are clear, all dead leaves removed, the paths brushed and almost everything planted. I have 5 beds empty and they will all be filled over the next two weeks. Attention then turns to the back garden, but to be honest there’s not much to do there as I’ve kept on top of it over winter.

I’ve not had to do much sowing this week, but the few things I have sown have been in large quantities: 4 tubs of carrots and 6 trays of peas have kept me ‘busy’. The peppers that I pricked out last week are doing well and showing their true leaves and most of the seedlings from last month are up.

Also up are the early tomatoes and cucumbers. I’ve given the lawn it’s first cut and fed it will blood fish and bone, with seaweed for a micro-nutrient boost.

Harvest wise everything is looking great, the spinach is especially plentiful, which is great news because the field bean shoots are in short supply after the big freeze. The range of veg is still a little on the light side, mainly: kale, cabbage, kale florets, kallets, artichokes, leeks, Brussels, carrots, new potatoes, spinach, spring onions and salad leaves. From the store: dried fruit, fresh apples, garlic, potatoes, beetroot, onions, shallots, winter squash and preserves. We’ve run out of oca now and the radish isn’t quite ready, so our salads lack a bit of crunch.

Just a little sowing this week, I’m finished now for the month, plenty to get started with in March though, here’s what I sowed this week:

Here’s what we planted this week although I also filled all the gaps in the salad beds with spare calabrese, cauliflowers and new lettuces.

Here’s our harvests for the year so far, with the most recent at the top.  We hit our target for last year and harvested over £12,000.

Here’s a list of the preserves for last year.

I always like to keep a track of or first harvest dates and you can find a summary of those here:

YouTube videos for the week can be found here: