Early Potatoes Appearing

An Early Potato Plant puts in an Appearance!

The early potatoes are beginning to push up through the soil and, as they appear, I cover them over with more soil. I am so looking forward to eating them come June. I've got six varieties of earlies to try and, later on, six varieties of main crop.

I've drawn a plan of the position of each variety but until all the earlies come up and I can see where they all are, it's hard to know which variety is in the photo. It might be Yukon Gold. I'd also forgotten where all the rhubarb was and plants are pushing up among the potatoes!

Strawberries

Potted up Strawberry runners from plants in my garden waiting to go into my allotment strawberry bed.

The few strawberry plants we planted on the allotment last year have multiplied.

Part of the new strawberry bed. I've left plenty of room between the plants for the runners they'll send out this year. 

Ten plants are Elsanta which I got through mail order. I have no idea what varieties the other plants are!

First Pea Shoots

The first Kelvedon Wonder pea shoots!

The other seedlings are 'gallant soldiers' preparing to fight this year's campaign. The heavy April showers (unlike last year's drought) are not just watering the crops.

Super Rhubarb

This is my...

...wonderfully massive...

...rhubarb.

This particular clump of rhubarb is producing enough long, thick stalks for us, family and friends. I have no idea what variety it is, having inherited it with the half allotment. How fortunate that I got the half with the super rhubarb growing in  it! It makes fab crumble - am going to try rhubarb fool next.

First Asparagus

If you look very carefully...

...you can just see a baby asparagus spear (pink).

The very first spear of the year!

I've protected it with stones and bricks so we don't trample on it.

Last year I planted four asparagus crowns (I think) so in this second year I'll only harvest a few spears. This is so that the plants can continue to develop and become strong and productive. From next year onwards the real harvesting will begin. 

I have no idea how many crowns are needed for a small, continuous crop for four people.

About Asparagus.

Cauliflowers!

What a wonderful...

...surprise!

Look what I found when I went to pull up my unsuccessful cauliflowers! Thanks to the recent rain I had two wonderful cauliflowers. One of the joys of tending my plot is surprises like this. 

Tonight we'll be having cauliflower cheese and for the first time in my life I'll be eating a cauliflower that I've grown myself!! I'm so happy!

The rain is pouring down now and so I'm leaving the other plants in the ground to see if any of the other flowers develop as well. This means that I've had to rethink the main crop potato plot as I intended to dig over the area where the cauliflowers are today...

With the help of my daughter the potato plot is now de-weeded and manured.

Weedy potato plot before...

...and after.

Another job done....

Spring Greens

An update...

...on my Spring Hero...

...cabbages.

The hearts are developing nicely in these cabbages but I'm not going to make the mistake I made with the Greyhound cabbages last Spring. I waited until they were fully grown but then we could not use them all before they 'went over' and split.

I've cut three Heroes already, even though they are not fully developed. They make lovely spring greens and hopefully none will be wasted this time. 

This purple sprouting broccoli cooks very quickly and is sweetly delicious. One of my five plants has been badly affected by whitefly but the other four have produced plenty of spears - enough to share.

This male blackbird was enjoying a puddle in the tarpaulin, while a female made visit after visit to my plot to fill her beak with grubs and caterpillars, before flying off to a nearby garden.

New Season's Rhubarb

New seasons rhubarb...

...it's colossal!

I've already pulled 8 stems from this clump of rhubarb - and given them away! Rhubarb crumble is going to be on my Easter Sunday menu. The stalks from this particular clump are enormous already, despite the lack of rainfall. Perhaps the application of manure in the autumn has helped. 

I'll be up at the allotment tomorrow to harvest some. I inherited the rhubarb plants from the previous tenant - it makes up in part for all the weeds I had to clear and the loss of topsoil. Other allotment holders have told me that the top soil on this allotment was removed twice as a quick way of weeding! Consequently my allotment is lower than the surrounding ones and, considering the massively overgrown weediness of it when I took it on, removing the topsoil was only a temporary quick-fix. 

Protecting Peas

A double row of peas (Kelvedon Wonder) sown...

...and protected from the pigeons.

My mesh cloche was not long enough for the row of peas so I protected the uncovered section with chicken wire - not very pretty but effective as a pigeon deterrent.  The wire is secured with tent pegs.