Polytunnel progress

It's getting there, slowly, with a bed finished down one side, some odds and ends in the corners and another bed rotavated and manured ready for crops.

I'm probably going to try three beds - one down the middle for taller stuff this year, then a three-bed rotation of some sorts.

Conscious time's getting on, I'm hoping to have it all ready to rumble after the weekend.

Somewhere over the rainbow

There was a glorious rainbow in the sky as the sun started sinking on my way up to the allotments tonight. What cheered me up even more was remembering I've got a day earmarked for the plot tomorrow - despite the massive amount that needs doing.

The garlic's growing strongly and I've got a couple more bulbs to go in as a last planting to see if I can squeeze a few more out of the plot. Last year's crop did well and kept us going until a few weeks back, so we're hopefully on for another winner.

There was a little surprise in the greenhouse too - a couple of small module trays of Alpine strawberries sown last winter are slowly coming to life. Not sure what I'll do with these once they're big enough to pot on.

As a final sign spring's on the way, the pear tree's budding nicely. This was a maiden planted as a Christmas present for the OH in early 2015 - wonder if we'll get any pears off it this summer.

Greenhouse bump start

Some of the cuttings I bump started in the greenhouse a few weeks back are ticking over nicely, especially the mint. The temperature was 60C by 9am today - although there's a storm on the way.

Calabrese has also decided to make a go of it. I've thinned them out and they'll be potted on as soon as they've got their first proper leaves.

A few tomatoes have also decided to  see what all the fuss is about, but a lot more haven't put in an appearance yet.

Hanging basket strawberries #1

I'm trying some strawberries in hanging baskets this season. They'll start off in the polytunnel and might stay there, or move outside - depending how they do.

I guessed three in a 16" basket would be about right. Instead of cutting holes in the liner to plant them through, I filled them with a mixture of manure and compost and planted them on the flat, with the crowns just above soil level.

I had enough plants for a couple of baskets left over from a give-away with one of the magazines, which cost a fiver postage for 10 each of  Honeyoye and Florence. The Honeys went in the baskets, which were then hung from the crop bars.

Despite the weight, they were swinging on the draft coming through the ventilating mesh from the gale getting up outside as Storm Katie kicked in.

Hopefully they and the polytunnel will still be there tomorrow.

Pea corner

The peas I started off in some grow tubes a week or two back in the greenhouse are up, so I decided to make them my first planting in the polytunnel. I did a row of five to start with, with canes to tie them into once they grow.

Then I decided to try sowing a few between the canes. Then I put a few more canes in and decided to make pea corner on one of the first areas I've got dug and dunged in the 'tunnel.

It did feel like spring had sprung working in there today. One of the new potatoes I planted in buckets seems to like it in the tunnel too.

Help getting it up

With a return to work looming, today was my last chance to get it up so to speak. Thanks to Derek and James - and a warm and almost windless day, I finally got the cover on my polytunnel.

To say this was a bit of a struggle is an understatement. Regardless of Derek's exepertise, seemingly endless selection of tools and James's 17 stone to help trosh the base rails down.

There are things they omit to tell you in the instructions, ranging from what the diagonal measurement is actually meant to be when they tell you the diagonals have to be more or less equal; to you'll have to remove the clamps you've bolted on once the cover's tacked into the rebate between the battens on the base rail and then re-fit the bolts, so the rails will drop below the grub screws which hold the hoops to the base poles.

Leaving these minor dramas aside, we did get the cover more or less tight and once it was on and the doors were fitted, it felt good as the interior started warming up in the spring sunshine and I started thinking ahead to what we're going to grow in it.

There are first early spuds in the orange buckets which went in first to make some space in the greenhouse. I dropped a plastic cold frame on a pallet at the other end, with some early peas which have just started shooting.

I hung some hanging baskets on the crop rails, looked at all this undercover space we now have to grow in and cracked open a beer while I pondered different bed layouts.

I reckon one down the middle and one each side, but this might change as we start planting it.

++ Thanks to Derek and James, without whose help this wouldn't have happened.

+++ The tunnel came from First Tunnels.

One potato, two potatoes

That's milding up a bit - well, they give it to get warmer next week. So I thought I'd chance a spud or two, like you do.

The soil felt warm and dry-ish under the polythene sheet I stuck over half a bed last weekend. I wanged in five International Kidney (Jersey Royal) and five red Duke of York to see how they'd get on.

I dug holes with one of them hole digging bulb planting hole digging things, dropped an inch of compost in the bottom and set them taters, before covering them up with the poly sheet. Wonder how they'll get on...

Spud's up

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay...! A seed spud I chanced in a bucket of compost under the greenhouse staging's starting to show its first couple of green shoots.

Growing on...

Plants are kicking into growth in the greenhouse. I've potted on some coriander from seedlings raised in trays, which will be among the herbs for sale in a few months' time on our allotment open day.

I've also sown sage and a few other bits and pieces today. It hopefully won't be too long now before the weather starts getting a bit milder.

No chit, Sherlock

Spuds are chitting well, might plant some soon.

Dear diary....

Keeping a diary is a useful way of recording what works and what doesn't, crop-wise. It's also a handy reference, as the years go by, to things like the first and last frosts in your part of the world.

While I had potatoes in the ground in mild conditions in early February last year, there were sporadic frosty spells throughout March, with Jack last visiting my plot on April 20 - despite a spell beforehand when temperatures in the day hit 20C.

I had outdoor crops growing away by then, along with a log-jam of plants in the greenhouse which needed to go outside, so I could give the tomatoes and peppers a bit more elbow room.

You remember your successes. You dine out on them. What tends to get forgotten amid the excitement at a glut of something which did well are the things which went pear-shaped.

Looking back at last year's scribbled records, I tried at least half a dozen plantings of peas  - most of which sank without a trace. Carrots, parsinps..? Let's not go there.

Reading last year's entries, I'm doing a Vicky Pollard when it comes to whether to chance a few spuds this weekend, as the temperatures are forecast to lift a couple of degrees, but the wind's set to stay in the east.  Yeah but no but yeah but no but yeah but no but.

Mint condition

Don't get me wrong, I seriously love mint. Not the fancy purple this, variegated that but honest, good old-fashioned garden mint. Mentha corblastmethatgrewquick in Latin.

Mint sauce, sprigs of it rolled in a neck of lamb, bunches dropped in a Pimms - ahh, bliss. But it's got a darker side to its character to rival Attila the Hun if you don't keep your mincers pinned.

It likes nothing better than invading, sending roots far and wide like a tasty kind of twitch grass. So you need to keep it well-contained. This bad boy bed I've built (above) for it should do the trick.

It's going to struggle to get through inch-thick scaff boards which can support a 15 stone roofer. The rest of the bed's going to be devoted to better-behaved herbs I can trust not to start getting snarky and invade their neighbours.

The mint seemed to like it when I dug a clump out of a pot and wanged it slap bang in the middle. Despite the frosts, it kicked into life almost straight away. As in yeah, bring it on.

I pruned it back some more, just to show it who's boss, and new leaves appeared within days, as it started exploring its new home like it was already probing for possible escape routes.

Hooked on seeds

Can you have too many seeds..? Probably, if I look at the growing collection screaming "plant me, plant me" in the study. Then there are the ones in the greenhouse left over from last year. Oh, and the ones in the shed. Plus a few packets I got free from magazines. And the ones DC got with magazines he gave me, because he had too many seeds. I found Quite a few packets, in other words.

I must admit I'm like a kid in a sweetshop, where seeds are concerned. After poring over the Kings Seeds catalogue, I ordered enough for this season's campaign.

Then some of the bargain shops started selling some of Mr Fothergill's finest at two packs for a quid - even selection packs of courgettes and salad leaves, which were RRP £4.95.

One pack of the latter last year kept us in cut and come again tender leaves for what seemed like months for the sake of a tray or two in the greenhouse.

I went into a garden centre this very afternoon to get some greenhouse bolts and ended up with no bolts but six packets of tomato seed. So I now have 10. And that's before I find a couple of varieties we've been meaning to try, but haven't found on our forays yet.

Don't even mention peppers. Hot, cold, waxy, Hungarian, bell - it's a bull market.

Is there and end to this madness..? Maybe we'll organise a seed swop shop up the allotments. Maybe if we did, we'd just end up with even more seeds.

Bottling the spuds

I was debating whether to get some first earlies in yesterday, on a mild day as temperatures clawed their way above freezing, the sun came out and it got up to 60C in the greenhouse.

A single spud in a bucket inside has just popped its first green shoot above the surface. That reminded me I had a couple of rows of taters in by this time last year.

One of my neighbours was setting his well-chitted seed in drills, covering with soil and a layer of polythene to keep the frosts off emerging growth.

I decided to do same, getting as far as putting the sheet on part of a bed before realising how cold and damp the soil was and deciding to leave it for another week or two.