It's beginning to look a lot like spring...

Everywhere you go........

Blue skies, daffodils everywhere, i've even seen a couple of trees in blossom.

I dont think nature, plants, or trees have any idea what month it is.....

Crazy to think it is March in a few days, and we havent really even had a frost. 

Anyway, enough musings from me......

Sunday 23rd February 2014

Evening All,

I spent a couple of hours at the allotment this morning. I'd recently bought a grow bag from a local Garden Centre for about £2, and thought I'd make some potting compost out of it with a riddle/sieve.

After spending about 15 minutes riddling the bag, I was left with this at the bottom of each batch.

 

 I thought there would be a lot more left at the bottom, but out of a 20-30 litre bag of compost, I only ended up with about a tenth of the bag being rubbish. 

More importantly, this is what I was left with as the final result.

It's light crumbly, and perfect for potting compost for small seeds, seedlings and potting on etc... 

If you wanted to use this for parsnips/carrots you could, but it might be worth adding a little bit of sand to the mix.

I also added a little bit of Blood, Fish & Bone, and it's organic, and slow releasing.

I used one whole box (I got three boxes worth out of one growbag) of potting compost for sowing Beetroot, Viola's, Begonia's & Asters in modular trays. 

As they are in the poly tunnel, I have protected the flower seeds with a mini propagator to keep the temperatures up. 

I've left the Beetroot to fend for itself.

I was going to add the odds and sods that were leftover from the compost (the twiggy bits) and put them on the compost heap, or dig in somewhere, but instead, I threw the whole lot in to a piece of guttering, and sowed a load of early Sugar-Snap Pea's to see if they would tolerate it.

It's only a trial, but I thought I'd give it a go, and I'll let you know how I get on.

(I don't know why some of these photo's keep coming out upside down!!)

The reason I sow my peas this way, is because they hate being moved. So if you sow them in a piece of guttering, you can dig a shallow trench, and just slide the whole thing in, and the peas will not know that they have been moved, and will continue growing without any setbacks.

Anyway, that's all from me today, thanks for reading, and don't forget to follow me on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFmpg8u18HOZ085wfnyjd4A

Mark's Sussex Allotment

Saturday 22nd February 2014

Evening All,

So, I spent two hours at the allotment this morning and spent some time turning over my two compost bins on my second plot today, they look pretty good. I added some manure to the pile as an activator, so it should be ready by April.

I finally have signs of growth from the carrots I sowed about two weeks ago. You can just about make out a seedling in the middle of the photo is you look hard enough. I think the picture is upside down too. :)

The Rhubarb is progressing nicely, seems to have ignored the horrendous weather we've had of late, and seem to be carrying on business as usual. These should fly along with some decent weather, and I should get a decent pick in the spring.

The Broad Beans that I transplanted last weekend have taken really well, some of them have put on an inch or two in growth, and are almost ready to flower.

The chard that I cut back last week has recovered brilliantly, is looking lush, green with lots of new healthy growth.

I had a look at the overwintering onions that I planted back in November 2013, and they are good, they havent done much, but they have all taken, and they look healthy.

I also planted another Swift Potato in the polytunnel in a 10 litre pot for an early crop. The others I sowed (You can see on YouTube) are yet to show, but the soil is cracking around the potatoes, and I hope that is an indication of something is happening underneath.

That's all from me today. Take Care and Thanks for Reading, Mark.

About Me & The New Season

Hi All,

My name is Mark Allen, and I have an allotment in Littlehampton in West Sussex.

I am a 31 year old married man with a beatiful wife, son, and another little one due in May 2014.

I've decided to do an online gardening blog, and a YouTube blog as I have been a huge fan of other on YouTube for quite a while.

I will update it as frequently as I can, and it should be a minimum of once a week.

I have been a huge fan of other allotment bloggers on YouTube for many years, and it feels right to start my own.

Many Thanks Mark