Bank holidays do upset routines, Monday night is when I write this post normally as it is the time when I have most free time. When I get out of step with routine it takes some time to pull things back together.

The warm weather of the last couple of weeks has given a massive boost to growth in all places, outside in the ground and inside the tunnel every thing has jumped in size. The potatoes which only came through some three weeks ago are now all through and earthed up. The strawberries are setting fruit on the old plants and the new plants are setting their second set of flowers.

In the tunnel the carrots are showing their necks and getting a good head of leaf, the peas and beans are setting pods and the beetroot are now the size of golf balls. The salad crops are nearly ready for picking and the grapes will very soon need thinning.

On top of all this the weeds!, as ever, are growing even faster and time must be spent keeping on top of them. The stepover apples and pears are setting fruit as is the plum tree.

I am slowly finishing digging in the manure on the plot and I have cleared the last of the purple sprouting broccoli and removed the frame, ready to reassemble for this years crops. The cold frames are full of pots hardening off ready to plant out and as soon as I take some out there are others to fill the frames up.

JOBS FOR THE WEEK

1. Dig over the brassica area
2. Plant out sweetcorn
3. Erect frame for brassicas
4. Plant out brassicas
5. Fill comfrey bin
6. Weed round compost bins

WORK DONE THIS WEEK

Sunday ( work today)

1. Water
2. Erect frame for old strawberries

Monday

1. Water
2. transplant seedlings into pots
3. Take down frame and repair

Tuesday

1. weed carrots and parsnips
2. plant out lettuce

Wednesday

1. Transplant into pots
2. water

Thursday

1. Water
2. Sow rest of carrots in frame
3. Clear weeds from old brassica area
4. Prepare borders in tunnel 1

Friday and Saturday

1. Away for two days, Watered for me

CROPS PICKED THIS WEEK

1. Asparagus
2. Spinach
3. Spring onions
4. Lettuce

How time flies when you are busy, it doesn’t take much to eat into time set aside for jobs when something unexpected comes up. For the last two weeks I have managed to keep up with the allotment but only just, a death in the family certainly makes a difference.

What have I done on the plot in this time? The warmer weather has made a lot of improvement in the growth of plants, and weeds, so all the seeds I had sown have all germinated and grown and have made for a lot of transplanting from trays into modules. Then form modules into small pots and many of the earlier plants are in large pots.

The improved weather has meant that the potatoes are nearly all through and earthed up. The old strawberry plants have grown and are full of flower, while the new plants have trebled in size and started to flower - all the flowers have been removed from the new plants to give them time to make stronger plants before fruiting.

The remaining leeks are all out now because they had started to send up seed heads, not bad I was still picking leeks into the second week of May. The two garlic beds are looking good and the comfrey is ready for it’s first cutting. We have been eating asparagus for the past two weeks and it is sending up new spears every day.

Tunnel 2 is filling up with trays of pots on one side while the middle is full of broad beans,peas, beetroot and spring onions. The other side bed is filling up with letttuce ,spinach and french beans and the end bed is full of carrots. Tunnel 1 is nearly ready for the tomatoes and cucumbers.

I have managed to dig the manure in on several beds and have planted out the onion sets from the trays. I have also erected a frame for sprouts on the same bed and yesterday I filled it with four varieties of sprouts.

JOBS FOR THE WEEK

1. Sow more seeds in trays and the ground - done
2. Erect second frame
3. Dig leek beds - done
4. Cut comfrey-done
5. Transplant seedlings - done

WORK DONE THIS WEEK

Sunday

1. water
2. plant out sprouts
3. weed garlic beds
4. weed tunnel 2
5. weed strawberry bed
6. cut comfrey

Monday

1. water
2. cultivate beds weeded

Tuesday

1. Water
2. Dig leek bed
3. Plant lettuce out

Wednesday

1. Water

Thursday

1. Water
2. transplant seedlings from small pots to large ones

Friday

1. Transplant from modules into small pots
2. Water
3. Sow Peas

Saturday

1. Water
2. Prepare bed for brassica frame
3. Transplant from modules into small pots
4. Sow beetroot

CROPS PICKED THIS WEEK

1. Rhubarb
2. Asparagus