The chubblies@19G

Well there’s still no improvement in the weather, although I suppose you can’t expect a Bank Holiday weekend to have nice weather can you? Made the most of yesterday though, Leeks, Courgette Zucchini, Greyhound Cabbage, Uchiki Kuri (Red onion Squash), Celeriac and Tomato Ailsa Craig sowed, or is it sown. The twelve Tomato Shirley potted on and 12 each of Habanero, Scotch Bonnet and Jalapeno all potted on. Just checked my schedule and looks like we’ll be sowing some Red Drumhead Cabbage, Christmas Drumhead and Florence Fennel today…….looks like the heated propagator is going to be hard stretched for a week or two.

It seems to have stopped raining at the moment and we might just pop down to the Lotti to see how it’s doing and if possible harvest some of the Rhubarb that was coming alone really well, so Rhubarb crumble might be on the cards for tonight or tomorrow.

Well what a washout April was. We get a hosepipe ban imposed on us on the 5th and it has hardly stopped raining since! We did manage to dodge the “showers” however and get to the Lotti a few times, we also misread the dark clouds on the horizon a couple of times and got absolutely soaked whilst putting everything away, don’t they move fast!!!

Despite the inclement conditions we did manage to finish all the digging necessary for the new season. We have emptied the second compost bin, completely filled the first and are well on our way filling the second, where does it all come from?

Our first early spuds have popped their heads up above the ground, so they were promptly earthed up again. The early peas have made good progress under the cloche, (so did the weeds), they have now been opened up and given some netting to climb, next job is to cover them completely with netting so that we get the peas and the birds don’t. Our early sowing of carrot, parsnip and beetroot have done nothing and as soon as the ground is dry enough to walk on and work we must make another sowing.

Strawberries are doing well with flowers beginning to appear and the sight of them makes all the hard work of creating the new bed seem really worthwhile. The newly planted Gooseberries and Raspberries are also showing good signs of growth. We now have blossom on the Apple trees and I think we shall have to get down there with a small paintbrush soon to make sure they set this year.

Onions are starting to fatten up as is the Garlic…..not long now Warren, soon be harvesting the early purple .

Look at this, our latest acquisition, got it on eBay for £4.22 what a snip. The kettle was another snip at £ 1.67 but frankly we were somewhat surprised how small it was when it turned up. Still it holds one litre which is more than enough for two mugs of tea/coffee and it doesn’t take too long to come to the boil either.

Can’t beat a fresh brew can you?  So much nicer than those thermos flasks!!

Because the weather has been so awful we have had to move the tomatoes out of the unheated greenhouse and back into the heated conservatory, they were beginning to really suffer. Unfortunately they are now growing like the clappers and starting to get leggy. One good thing though, the ones that got frosted have now burst out at the lowest leaf nods where they were hardened off and didn’t suffer from the frost. I am nurturing them and we are now back to twelve plants.

What a glorious weekend we have just had down south, yesterday could have been a little warmer but it wasn’t that bad really and today…well !!

Another productive weekend under our belts. We managed to get 34 Raspberry canes planted thanks to a very kind friend donating them to us. Hopefully we will have fruit this year but if not….we are sure next year is going to be great. Our Peach tree is in fine fettle, loads of bloom just like last year and hopefully this year we will have some fruit. Sadly last year started off just as good but all the fruit fell off, this might be it’s last year on our Lotti if it doesn’t produce at least one fruit !!

What a pleasant surprise we had today when we arrived at the Lotti…as if like magic over night four Asparagus spears from the recently planted crowns of which this is the best have appeared. What a shame we have got to wait three years before we can start savouring them…never mind we can wait.

Bitter disappointment awaited us though in the newly planted Strawberry patch. This very warm and dry weather is no good for our newly transplanted runners and it looks as though we might have lost quite a few. We wont give up, we still have some left from the originals and if the ones in the new patch don’t pick up we can replace them and hopefully save the day.

What a productive time we have had at the Lotti over the last few days. The twelve new Asparagus crowns that arrived a few days ago have now been planted, what a shame we have got to wait three years before they are in full flight.

We finished turning over and muck spreading on the new Strawberry bed, so on Sunday we planted 30 new Strawberry plants from the runners on the old bed. We are trying planting them through weed suppressing membrane to see if this makes them easier to manage, although to be honest it doesn’t make them easier to plant I have to say. We still have loads left but apart from giving them away I guess we will have no choice but to put them on the compost, what a waste. We didn’t realise Strawberries were so prolific. We have planted our first early spuds this weekend, we think we are early but frankly everyone around us seems to have theirs in already! A half row of parsnip and a half row of carrot sown as well as the first half a row of Beetroot sown. The early Peas sown a few weeks ago are just beginning to pop their heads above the soil, these are under cloches so we are going to have to be very careful with timing their uncovering, don’t want to lose them now! The recently transplanted Gooseberry plants do not seem to have noticed they were moved and already they are showing signs of new growth. Looks like we will be having a picking from the Rhubarb soon as well, we can’t believe how much it has grown and finally another picking from the sprouts for Sunday dinner.

This warm weather is really nice but it is causing us a problem, our Tomato seedlings are growing like the clappers. We shouldn’t be disappointed at growth I know but it is too rapid and they are starting to get leggy already and will need potting on again soon. I have now moved them to the unheated greenhouse, (sounds grand that, it’s a small plastic “blow-away” actually but it serves us well), to slow them down a bit, although it does get quite warm in there during the day but at least the temperature will drop at night….must remember to watch out for sub-zero temperatures, don’t want to loose them now do we? The Chillies continue to make good progress and are obviously well suited to the warm conservatory. Our Asparagus crowns arrived yesterday so they will be going in in the next couple of days, can’t get there today so hopefully the weather will hold out until tomorrow. Strawberry plot coming along well got some very well priced weed suppressing membrane from Wilkinsons so I guess that will be finished at the weekend and with a bit of luck we might try and get our first early spuds in then as well.

Already half way through March, doesn’t time fly when you are enjoying yourself, and we are!

We have had quite a few good days on the Lotti just lately. We have increased the size of our Gooseberry plot and now have six plants transplanted to it from a friends plot, thank you Sandie. They  are old plants but I’m sure as a result of a little “hard” pruning to stimulate them they will be thriving and producing some good fruit later this year. Twelve more Asparagus crowns on their way and they too will soon be settling their feet in. Back down the Lotti later today or tomorrow to sow some more Parsnip, carrot, Beetroot and Pea seeds. We were all set to sow them yeterday afternoon when the weather decided to turn pretty awful and we had to retreat.

Number twelve seed decided to germinate after all, so we had twelve out of twelve successful sowings of our tomato seeds. All down to the heated propergator no doubt.

The chillies are all doing well and we have quite a few seedlings of Habanero, Scotch Bonnet and Jalapeno. These are starting to get a bit leggy but they havn’t all grown their first proper leaves yet so we are hanging on before we pot them on.

Well that was time well spent, twelve Tomato Shirley potted on and rearing to go. Don’t think it’s going to be long before they need moving on again.

Tomato Shirley, seeds sown last Thursday and 11 out of the 12 sown already germinated.

We also have at least two Scotch Bonnets germinated and they were sown at the same time.

What a worthwhile expense the heated propergator was.

Well what a wonderful weekend that was. Two full days of sun and warmth, and didn’t we get a lot done.

Buddy made his first visit to the Lotti on Saturday and had a wonderful time.

Is this pile of Horse manure edible I wonder? Perhaps I’ll give it a try when no one’s looking.

And he did!!

We haven’t been able to get to the Lotti for some time because of the weather but we were pleasantly surprised to see that the Garlic and Onions continue to put on growth.

No these are not Leeks, these are our Early Purple Wight Garlic and we can’t wait until May to start harvesting them. The rest of the Garlic is doing very well but these look great.

Our Brussel Sprouts are still providing good yields. After removing the lower leaves we were amazed at how well they are doing, and another pound of sprouts were picked for Sunday dinner.

Two days of solid work, well sort of solid interspersed with a few tea breaks and sit downs just to enjoy the fine weather, and we have prepared the area for the potatoes, moved one of the compost bins, made a start on the Gooseberry patch and transplanted our two Gooseberries to their final position, (we’ll be over in the week to get some more Sandie) and mulched the Asparagus, Rhubarb and Apple Trees.

And sowed a line of Parsnips under the cloche.

Really got the bug now, want to get back down there and do some more.

Last weekend we had to visit our local fruit and veg shop to buy Potatoes, I have just looked in our store under the stairs and find we now have no Onions left either!

I suppose we have done well to have provided basic vegetables from the Lotti that have lasted through the winter until now but, it is going to come hard to have to start buying veg like that.

Frankly the potatoes we bought were nowhere near as good quality as the ones we have just finished off from our store, and they have been stored for 5 months in the little cupboard under the stairs!

Roll on the first earlies!!!

Check out our update to The Chubblies@19G under This is us.