Spring is here.

It has been glorious weather for gardening this weekend and as if the plum tree in our back garden knew it was coming, it has burst into full bloom. Unfortunately I didn't manage to take full advantage of the weather, only spending three hours at the allotment. But any time is better than no time.

I think it is safe to say that we have good drainage on our plot. We have had the wettest winter for decades and with only a few days of sun the soil was not boggy at all. It did need loosening a bit, especially under the Crystal Palace, glad to see my contraption is working. My 'Garden Connect' plot is now off the starting blocks. All of the front row has been sown. Parsnips, spinach, cos lettuce, purple carrots, onions and beetroot. The parsnips I had already started a few weeks ago in the Tupperware tub, they are quite easy to handle, as to were the spinach and beetroot seeds, they all have about nine seeds evenly spaced out in each square foot, I have used onion sets rather than seeds because it is what I'm used to, five onions there, but the the cos lettuce and purple carrots seeds, they are so small and fiddly, where they fell is where they stay. Everything else is in the greenhouse back at home. Talking to my good friend Phill who is also taking part in 'Garden Connect', regarding the plum tomatoes and sweet peppers. They have shown no sign of germination, so a back up is required we think. Well it would do any harm.

The rest of the parsnips are mostly in these three rows. I say mostly because I had so many and it was starting to get dark.I would like to think that up to this point of the experiment, things have gone well. It remains to be seen how well it all goes.

I have been reading lots of tip and tricks. One more I have learnt is that for courgettes, if you dig a small trench put in some kitchen scraps that would normally end up in the compost bin, cover it with soil and when you are ready plant you courgettes there, you should get a very good crop than you normally normally would. So I'm going to try some with and some without.

A little while ago I mentioned that I had bought some peas from a pound shop. The long and the short of it is that you get what you pay for. Hardly any are germinating. I don't want to leave it too late, so I may end up buying some at a reasonable price. Till next time and thanks for reading.