Springing into action (well, stumbling really)

I have just planted my parsnip seeds. Germination is usually not very good, and you have to use fresh seed - more than a year old and there will be zero germination. In order to get decent sized roots, I push the end of a crowbar into the soil - the deeper, the better, but a foot is enough, unless you are showing them - and then wiggle it around to give a tapering hole, with the top as large as the top of the parsnip. Then fill the hole with good compost, and put 3 or 4 seeds on top. Cover with an inch of compost, water well and cover with a plank for 3 weeks as they are very slow to germinate. Then remove the plank, and when the seedlings show, thin to 1 parsnip per hole

I have also started off my hot bed. (You may remember that after digging it out, it filled with water. That has now drained away.) I put 4 big bags of fresh manure in the hole, then trampled it down and topped it off with a couple of bags of compost. Then a sheet of glass on top to keep it warm, and in a couple of days I will plant lettuces, beetroot and carrots, hopefully for an early crop.

Too much rain!

It's been 4 months since I wrote a blog - 4 months with LOTS of rain. I have only been to my plot a few times, but have just started resurrecting it for the coming season. So far, I have put chippings on all my paths (when it was too wet to get on my plots!), and put manure and compost on two of the plots. Now I must dig everything.
This is my 'hot-bed', ha ha! I dug it out a little while ago and it immediately filled up with water. When (if!) it drains, I will put in about a foot of horse manure, tread it down, and top it with a few bags of compost. Hopefully it will then warm up (especially with the glass lid on) so I can get some early crops.


This is one of my plots, with manure and compost, but not yet dug of course. It should have all been dug in the autumn, but it was too wet. I started digging it this afternoon, although it was still too wet really - very squelchy underneath. There will be broad beans in here soon - they are planted in pots in my greenhouse - then will come peas, runner beans and sweetcorn. I have also planted some leek seeds, but these will be planted out much later. My potatoes are chitting on a bright windowsill at home, and will go in the next plot, with beetroot, lettuce, French beans and carrots. Then in plot 3 there will be onions (some planted over winter, some a few weeks ago in my greenhouse), garlic, leeks and parsnips. To complete the rotation, plot 4 will have all the brassicas - cabbages, swedes etc. This will be covered with a fine mesh net, to keep the butterflies off. Plot 1 (half of which I dug today) will be covered with a coarse mesh net, to keep off the birds but to allow in the pollinators.