The wind changes

A slight silver lining to this cold spring:  the flowers have lasted a lot longer than usual.  One apple tree (Laxton Fortune variety) has had a profusion of beautiful pink/white blossoms for two weeks now.  The other tree (Sparta variety) is less fulsome, but I'm hoping that means it might break its biennial tendencies;  ever since these two trees started fruiting, they've produced only every other year.  I've even tried thinning fruits, forcing them to bear less so they would flower/fruit every year, but no luck.  However, if Sparta only has a few fruits this year, maybe it will fruit next year too--and then if it goes biennial again, it will be in the alternate year from Laxton Fortune instead of both going fruitless at the same time.

This week however does seem to have a change in the wind, going from north easterly to south westerly;  it's gone a bit warmer.  Hopefully it won't change back until the growing season is done.  My allotment in particular is looking very bare;  I feel like I should have several rows of beets and peas at least, but have not a single one yet--the seedlings are still too small to transplant, despite sowing about a month ago.  I sow my trays outdoors for these cool weather plants as I don't really have the room for them indoors--maybe I should have made the room this year to get some growth on them.  But too late now;  just need to get on with sowing more.

At least my transplanted broad beans at the allotment are looking healthy and strong;  only one or two have been lost to pests and the rest are great.  The garlic too, planted out last September, looks very vigorous and healthy.  In fact, it almost looks like it's ready to pull now, but probably not actually ready for another month.  In past years I've harvested in July, but over the most recent years it's been ready in June.  I'm down to the last couple of heads from last summer's harvest--and using them very sparingly!--so I might pull up one or two during May.

Something else growing in this cold spring are fresh herbs;  I've recently cut back on my caffeine intake and have replaced my daily black tea with herbal tea, harvested from my garden.  This has included nettle leaves most days, adding one or two other herbs such as mint, lemon balm, fennel, rosemary, dandelion petals, sage, lavender, alfalfa, comfrey.  There have been a couple I did not like at all--blackberry leaves were too bitter for instance (though raspberry leaves weren't).  I quite like the nettle tea on its own;  hard to describe the taste, but it reminds me of the smell of new hay. 

Thinking big this year

After my hopes of 150 broad bean plants, I ended up with about half actually sprouting;  of the 40 or so that went into the paper tubes, only one emerged.  And I finally gave up on the remaining 30ish small pots too, resowing them with snap peas over the weekend.  The broad beans I transplanted at the allotment look good and are growing well.  The woolly sowing method (a wad of fluffed up sheep's wool in the bottom of each pot, a seed on top, a bit of potting soil to cover), ensured little to no transplant shock.

Now instead of a stack of eight trays of little pots of broad beans, I have eight trays of snap peas;  the first tray has begun to come up (sown 31 March) and I'll start transplanting them out when I can see a little root at the bottom of the pots.  It's still been cold, not really getting past 10C during the day.  I thought broad beans and snap peas would grow regardless, but the broad beans were incredibly slow to sprout, and the snap peas aren't much better.  Hopefully I get more than 50% sprout rate (though 50% is much preferable to the 30% I sometimes get).

I do want the snap peas to hurry up so I can start on the climbing beans next.  Same woolly sowing method as the other two.  Up until this year I thought I had more than enough trays and pots, but actually I don't!  100+ small pots is insufficient to my needs this year:  this year I'm thinking big.  On my garden plan (the first time I've ever really written one), I've got the ideal number of each type of plant I want to grow.  For instance, 150 broad bean and 350 snap pea plants (which is how many seeds I bought).  20 tomato plants--I sowed more seed than this to be sure I'd get 20 good ones--100 climbing bean plants, 50 corn plants, 40 squash plants (none of these sown yet).  I didn't take into account my stock of pots and trays.

Lovely flowers, cold weather

Now spring is really going, there are new flowers out daily it seems.  Suddenly all of my fruit trees and shrubs are in bloom or, in the case of the almond, already finished.  And my eclectic collection of ornamentals are also having a good show too, including the flowering currant, flowering quince and gorse, pictured.  I've got bulbs flowering, herbaceous perennials, shrubs, trees, even a vine.  What a lovely time of year.

Pinks and yellows and greens, March 2024

But it's still not consistently warm--yesterday for instance we didn't make it to 10C, which in my book is pretty cold for spring.  Not a bad temp for winter mind you, but not the kind of weather for encouraging my little vegetable seedlings to grow.

We call it the burning bush, March 2024

Over the weekend we had one cold day and one warm day, so I did what I could while I could;  I transplanted some kohl rabi seedlings from pots to ground in the kitchen garden and extended the insect mesh to protect them from pigeons and ducks (the first several rows have the other end of the mesh, put in place last week).  I also planted out a few more late-emerging broad beans at the allotment, and used the newly emptied trays and pots to start some more snap pea seeds;  the first tray of these from about two weeks ago are now just sprouting up.  I also sowed a few more packets of older seed into large pots en masse, hoping at least some will sprout;  these I will prick out individually.  As I did with a pot of lettuce seedlings at the weekend.  

And as a fun aside, we are down to five squashes from 2023's harvest of 21.  Plus about a 2 pound wedge from the sixth squash still in the fridge, hoping to finish within the next day.  Those squashes take a lot of eating, but to have them hanging out in the living room for six months and still be just as good as when we picked them really is something.

The Big Push (of seeds)

Wool underneath, crushed eggshells on top, March 2024

I've had two weeks of mostly uninterrupted garden and allotment access, due to our Easter break from work and school.  The weather has not been nice, up until the last few days!  But that didn't really stop me from doing the Big Push for seeds.  In fact, I pushed so hard I ran out of trays and pots before I ran out of seeds.  

Luckily I can sow direct with most seeds in my kitchen garden at home (not possible at the allotment because of intense pest pressure).  I've got a specific list of which vegetables I will grow at home (mainly parsnips, kohl rabi, cabbages, zuc, with a few intermediate/late season things like lettuce and radish), and at the allotment (beets, beans/peas, squash, corn, cucumbers, tomatoes).  So far I have direct seeded all the parsnips (though there were fewer seeds than I thought), some kohl rabi, and some cabbage. 

Cauliflower fortress against marauding pigeons, March 2024

I'm also gradually transplanting the still-emerging broad beans, sown back in February in individual pots and paper tubes.  Only one paper tube has sprouted, and I'm beginning to lose hope for those other 35 or so.  But I'm still holding out for the 50ish little pots that may still pop up, as I've been finding one or two from each tray every other day or so.  The first ones to transplant at the allotment have continued growing with no evidence of transplant shock: they look green and healthy and a little taller every day.  As I mentioned previously, I put a little fluffy wad of sheep wool in the bottom third of each pot, put a bean on top, then covered it over with a layer of soil.  As they grow, the roots go into the wool so when I plant out they have a good firm grip on it;  they can keep growing in the wool as they find their way into the new soil--thus preventing transplant shock.

We're back at school and work now, but the sowing of seeds is not done--as mentioned I'm out of pots (until stuff grows big enough to transplant), and also it's still just a little early for the warm season things like squash and zucchini.  I'll get to them nearer the end of the month.  However, the clocks have gone forward so there's more light in the evening, and it's a little warmer (though maybe not drier);  I will hopefully be able to get them all sown in good time.

Chickens and eggs

A bit of free range, March 2024

In the days leading up to the weekend, I let the chickens and ducks have regular free range but that has now stopped as I've begun sowing seeds in the kitchen garden.  The ducks have been locked back in their large yard and the chickens have been taken to the allotment until further notice.

However, I do plan on planting up their yard at the allotment with vegetables later this spring so they probably won't be there too long.  But we'll see;  plans are still a bit fluid.  The yard at the allotment is full of grass and weeds and bugs, so the chickens have had an upgrade from their yard at home at least.

The kitchen garden has gone through periods of being fenced with temporary fencing over the years;  fencing plus supervised free range is my preference for our feathery friends.  I may try to rig something up later on;  the two ducks in particular are pretty easily foiled by fencing (unlike chickens who can jump).  Or I may fire up the chicken tractor once more, focusing on the lawn rather than the veg beds.

Action shot! March 2024

It's definitely spring if the chickens are laying this much--even two of the oldtimers are making an effort.  Not the other two though;  however those two venerable hens celebrated their seventh birthdays yesterday.  For the sake of mathematical ease, we mark all our hens' birthdays on the first of April, but for Rock and Cookie, it's their actual birthday/hatchday--I can hardly believe they actually made it to seven years old!