Up at 4 am.

I went back to work yesterday even though I was still at the tail end of being ill. I managed to get through the day but it has taken a bit of a toll on me. I'm back in again at 8am and due to stomach issues I've been up since 4am.
I managed to do a bit of pottering in the garden while I was ill. I sowed some flower seeds into some cell trays. I've run out of labels so I'll just have to plant them and hope for the best. I know I planted iris so they'll probably take two years to germinate. And I'm serious they do take that long. Some climbing glory lilies, French marigolds, Aquilegia. Sunflower 'teddy', more candy tuft. And I can't remember if I put any others in.

Brief allotment visit.

Right. I've sown five different types of squash at home. Potimarron sown two, rouge vif d'etampes sown one, crown prince sown one, golden hubbard sown one and marina di chioggia sown one. I've also sown some greyhound cabbage and some savoy cabbage.
I actually got home from a nice few hours out of the house to one of our chickens running free. She'd gotten into the greenhouse and has destroyed a fair few of my brassicas. I'm not happy with her.

Today is also the day that I finally got all of my potatoes in the ground at the allotment. I thought I had 30 but its actually 29. I'm quite pleased, it should keep me in tatoes for a while. I'm not happy with the soil though. I'm really going to have to add a lot of compost when I've been paid.
I also added some marigold and nasturtium seeds to some of the beds.

Well, they've murdered their tent. :(

I suppose it lasted longer than I thought it would. Its annoying though, they really loved their tent. 

I gave them a big sod of grass to cheer them up. I think its worked. 

My new sourdough. :)

Yey! And only an 8 day old starter. 

I made the chickens some oat porridge with sweet corn and dates. It went down very well. :) 

New sourdough.

This is my new week old sourdough starter. Its organic white flour and a bit of dark swiss flour. It smells amazing. Like a cross between butter and cheese. Much nicer than my old one. I wonder if its better because its much more hydrated?

I'm attempting my first loaf with the starter. lets hope it works out.

My germination test sweetcorn has done the job. I'll sow some very soon.

As you can see spring has really sprung near me. I took these photos on the way to the shop. 

I don't think my back is my friend anymore.

Well, that's 20 of my 30 potatoes planted. The soil took some smashing just to get to that sort of state. I can not get the dirt from out of the winkles in my hands. my hands look like they belong to a coal miner! 

Butter wouldn't melt right? Wrong! She is a pain in the arse! Lol.

I had to give her my bag to stop her howling. I was only 5 feet away. 

She settled down eventually. And ate all of my remaining Jerusalem artichoke tubers. I'm pretty sure they were beyond reviving so i'm not upset. It might be an idea for me to bring her a chew toy or something the next time we go up.  

Progress in the home garden.

Well I've spent the morning in the home garden, I've moved the frost tender stuff to its day time position in the greenhouse, planted two rows of salad leaves, a kale, a spinach and some snapdragons. I've mown the lawn, strimmed and swept.
I need to go to the allotment as well as its meant to rain all tomorrow, I wish that Trouble behaved well enough to go with me as I've also got to take them for a walk. I'm going to sleep well tonight I think.

progress at the allotment.

completed broad bean bed with sown broad beans. Just waiting for them to show themselves now.

you can really see a difference between my compost and the shop bought stuff. My compost is the stuff closest to me. 

This is the potato bed. The soil is still very wet and heavy. I'm hoping turning it will dry it quicker and I'll try and get the soil raked flat tomorrow and hopefully put the tatoes in tomorrow.

This is the brassica bed. You can see how the soil is like cement. It needs a lot of compost and maybe some sand adding to it. The potato bed will be first on the list for the soil improvements though. They need to go in now while my brassicas aren't going in until May. 

Its getting there. I just wish I had a bit more money for compost as I've used up all of my well rotted stuff at home. 

Thinking about bees.

I've been thinking about bees a lot today. It might have been brought on by Niches somewhat insane attempts to eat them. Don't worry, I didn't let her.

I've sown many seeds of bee friendly plants this spring. Some of them are starting to make an appearance.

The achillea have germinated although I did have a bit of a heavy watering can incident with them so they've been flooded a bit. D:

My snap dragons and candy tuft have germinated both are liked by bees.

I have one Geranium pretense growing. One out of four isn't bad I suppose, although I'm hoping for more.

Loads of rudbeckia are up. I'm actually a bit worried about where all of these are going to go but right now I'm just going to grow stuff and find places for them later.

I've sown more globe artichokes.

divided some Echinacea.

the sunflowers have germinated.

I've chucked Nasturtium seeds everywhere, marigold seeds everywhere.

I must, must, must get my soil PH tested. I have a feeling that my soil is very acid. Not much seems to enjoy being in it. Hopefully loads and loads of compost with help everything out.

Getting used to my desk top PC.

The chickens have well and truly made their tent theirs. Whenever is rains they run into it. >_<

PEAS! The first peas have finally made an appearance. I hope those little birds don't get them. The little buggers. 

Not sure if my gooseberry has died. Hopefully not, but you'd think there'd be more signs of life. 

At least the rhubarb has made an appearance. 

And this greenhouse volunteer. Broccoli perhaps? 

Lots of seedlings that need potting up.

Might just put these straight in the raised bed. 

First sunflowers of the year. :)

Snapdragons and candy tuft. 

  Purple artichoke. 

Sweet peas. 

Things are coming along. 

My laptop has died.

Yes, my laptop has died a death and I've had to move onto using my big desktop computer.
It means I've lost some of my most favourite blogs but I'm hopeful I will find them again.

I've been struggling with the weather for the last week or so. Every time I leave the house I get rained on or hailed on. This morning when I was walking the dogs, the heavens opened, and I got soaked and then pelted with hail. I'm sure April showers aren't normally quite as bad as they have been this year.

I really need the weather to dry out some though. I need to dig the potato bed at the allotment and put my potatoes in the ground. I would love to get lots of compost up there too but I have no money and I don't think I have more than a couple of trugs worth that's rotted enough right now. I guess anything is better than nothing though when the ground is as sad as the ground at my allotment.

I've made another change with my veg beds at home. I'm not putting any tatoes in the ground at home now. They're all going up to the allotment. Instead of tatoes I'll put beetroot, turnip and maybe a row of swede.

So far.

Bed one:
Two lots of kale
Two lots of chard
Two/three lots of spinach
 a row of pak choi.

Bed two:
Row of beetroot
Row of turnip
Row of swede

Bed three:
block of carrot Nelly
block of carrot sugarsnax
radish in the gaps.

Bed four:
Parsnips gladiator.

Bed five:
Garlic

Bed six:
Three rows of peas
two/three rows lettuce.

Bed seven:
Courgette Goldrush
patti pan squash.
dwarf and regular French beans.

Fifteen tomatoes potted up.

4 sweet baby, 5 sweet aperitif, 6 Gardeners delight. Can't imagine I'll be able to use all of them but I think my dad wants some Gardeners delight.

I've also done something I've never done before. I've sown six Dwarf French beans and six blue lake climbing French beans already! It'll be interesting to see if they make it.  

I've also sown a couple of cucumbers 'telepathy' too. Uhhhhh, spring is getting along some now. :D

What the?...

Ok. I just got back from the town hall after attempting to pay my allotments yearly rent (also shopping and pet shop perusing) I finally get to my destination which is all uphill, I try to pay my yearly rate which is due April 1st (yeah I thought I was late) and it tells me on my allotment contract that I should go to the town hall to pay. They tell me that I can't pay them... Excuse me, what? Because I don't have an invoice.
I can safely say I do not understand what just happened. An invoice? Am I a shop? Why isn't any of this mentioned in my contract? Why say it has to be paid April 1st if they don't actually want the money on April 1st?

What the hell just happened?
They say they probably won't want the money until sometime in June!

Germination rate test.

I'm doing a germination test with ten, three year old sweetcorn seeds.

           I'm hopeful that they will germinate and I'll be able to use them for planting this year.

Japanese anemone.

Or at least I hope so... I've never grown this before and it does look a little like a cabbage.

I'm hoping to get a couple of these. They're good in a bit of shade, and I have a lot of that in this garden.

April first and past 12, so I should be safe now.

I really don't like April fools day. I know that makes me a misery. I just don't like the idea that I have to be on my guard against people playing tricks on me.

Anyway.
I've sown my courgettes "gold rush" today and some patty pan. Its always an exciting time for me as it means it won't be long until we can start sowing our pumpkins and beans! :)

I've got something in a pot on my windowsill that has germinated, but it seems I didn't label it, and I've now forgotten what it is. (happens every year) I'm hoping it will be obvious when I see a true leaf. It must be obvious or I would have labelled it, right?...
It must be something exciting though or I wouldn't have used up valuable windowsill space on it. We shall see.