I have never really taken much notice of the weather forecast. I would wake up in the morning open the curtains and decide what I was going to wear. If it was a nonwork day and miserable I would just stay in. Now I find I check BBC Weather two or three times a day, once to look at what the forecast will be in a few days' time, and the rest to see what is happening in the new few hours. We’ve been fortunate enough to have beautiful weather, but it was soon about to change.
This forced me to prioritise what was to be done this week. I wanted to get seeds in the ground, but my main focus was to empty the 1-ton bag of soil I still had at the allotment.
We built the remaining 2 beds. One double height for the parsnips and the other was two-tiered using a large bed and a small bed. (Insert Photo to show)
Then I sowed some seeds, firstly, carrot seeds. The carrot seeds came in the post free from Farmacy. I saw a post on their Instagram saying that they were offering free seeds to the first 30 people to send them a direct message with their name and address. It was a lovely surprise 5 days later when they arrived, on Earth Day.
The soil on my plot is full of clay and stones, so I planted the carrot seeds in a double-height raised bed which I had filled with the mix of topsoil and compost. This should give them plenty of space to grow well, straight, and long. I molded out some lines, known as drills, and planted the seeds.
After chatting to my dad, I realised there was no need for me to sow the seeds in rows, and scattering would have been sufficient. Drills are useful if you’re sowing straight to the ground and you're more likely to have to filter out weeds. Hopefully, my beds will be weed-free, but if not at least now it’ll be easy to pick them out.
I spent the rest of the day direct sowing everything else I wanted in the beds.
Parsnips
Spring Onions
Chicory
Radishes
Tasti Cabbage
Chard
Spinach
This left one bed towards the front of the plot empty, I’m not sure what I’ll put in there yet.
I planted some peas down one side of the exterior of the green houses. I have laid some canes out and ordered some netting for them to grow up.
Then the weather, as predicted, turned. On a few days where the rain held off for an hour I would spend a bit of time in the greenhouse sowing a few more seeds:
Pumpkins
Squash
Chickpeas
Artichokes
Brussel Sprouts
I really need to start planning where I am going to put things, that will be a job for next week.
