The potatoes are all out of the egg boxes in the utility room where they were chitting and into the ground at last. I dug out trenches to a spade’s depth and added plenty of rotted compost to the base, with a dressing of fish blood and bone over the top of this. I have left the earth in low mounds on top of the rows and will ‘earth up’ later on. For now, I am checking for potato shoots and covering them with soil if the forecast looks like frost. The first shoots on my early variety appeared yesterday – three weeks after planting.
Broad beans, early peas and Mange Tout have all been sown in long rows and have come up after two weeks in the ground. The soil surface is now quite dry, so I have watered well after sowing the rows and a couple of times since. Now that the seedlings are growing away, they should manage by themselves as the soil further down is still nice and moist.
The Radish germinated a week after sowing and are always one of the first to emerge. They are a good indicator, along with weed seedlings, that the soil is warm enough to start sowing more crops. Beetroot and spring onions were sown last week and have yet to surface but my carrots are also germinating, two weeks after sowing. This is good news as carrots do not like wet, cold conditions and I worried that I had put them in too soon! I have sown the carrots between two rows of peas in the hope that the dreaded Carrot Fly (that makes the roots maggoty) will fly over the peas and not be able to get down to the carrots. I do not thin my rows either, preferring to use the roots as tasty baby carrots. The smell of the thinnings can also attract the fly. I will keep you posted on the progress of the crop!
The onion sets were planted three weeks ago and are beginning to shoot and grow away. I have made the rows further apart this year to make hoeing easier – weeding onions is not my favorite job but it is important not to strike the bulbs with the hoe as this can damage them and stop them growing.
My salad leaves in containers by the house are in use and very tasty they are too! I am going to sow another follow on box today. My experimental containers of Broad beans, peas and Mange Tout are also growing and will need staking soon.
Mrs McGregor thought that the utility room would be free of plants by now, but with the cold nights, I am still bringing in my young lettuce plants. Sprouting broccoli and Brussels Sprouts have been sown into modules and are beginning to germinate after a week. They too are in the utility room at night and outside during the day and will shortly be joined by pots of Coriander and Chervil – tasty additions for many dishes!
Next week I will need to sow my Parsnips and more peas and broad beans......