A Hint of Spring...

Spring is finally happening! 

We spent some time at the allotment today, mainly to dig in some compost to get the beds ready, but I also did some planting - broad beans, some peas and some parsnip went in the ground. I can't believe it's that time already! 

Right now the allotment is still looking barren, but it won't be long until those beds are filled with vegetables once more. 

When we got home I did some serious planning...

The boys were helping me dig in the compost plant seeds, but they weren't too fussed about the planning and the sorting of seed packets. Boy #1 got his PJs on, wrapped up in a blanket and read his book. :)  

I, however, was completely absorbed in allotment planning for a good couple of hours this afternoon. Seed packets were sorted according to the time the seeds need to go in the ground, potatoes were set out for chitting, lists were drawn up...

Which reminds me, did I show you that second seed packet delivery I got? I'm pretty sure I forgot, but when I opened the box again today it reminded me and since it was such a nice surprise I think it deserves to be shown. I ordered quite a few packets of vegetable and flower seeds, but this is what arrived: 

These were the seed packets that I ordered. See those little labels? They peel off so you can stick them on the little wooden markers you can just see at the top:

 

And this is what I got as a freebie with the delivery:

Isn't that lovely?

Spring can arrive now - I'm ready! :)

Allotmenting - a flurry of seed packets...

Look what arrived - the first lot of the many vegetable and cut-flower seeds I ordered for the allotment! 

It actually looks quite pretty, doesn't it? The individual packets are all cut-flower seeds and the big box contains vegetable seeds. This is what was in it:

Not bad, isn't it? I costed it up. It was quite a bit cheaper to go for a pack than to buy the seeds individually, and I think I'll try to grow all of them this year. 

This lot came from Sow Seeds. I've ordered quite a few vegetable and flower seeds from Vegetable Seeds and some additional seed potatos, onions and garlic from Suttons. Can't wait to get planting! 

Allotmenting...

... or rather, thinking about allotmenting.

It's come to the point in winter, just past Christmas and with the boys back at school, where my thoughts turn to the upcoming allotment season. I've been perusing seed catalogues and websites and deciding on what to plant this coming spring.

There are a few things that worked well, that I want to extend:

1) cut flowers

I so loved the luxury of having cut flowers in the house all summer long. It was easy and fun and the bunches of flowers made me smile every time I passed them. Definitely worth it. 

Last summer I grew Cosmos and Dahlias and some Sunflowers. They were great, but this year I'm planning to extend my range a bit. I'm thinking of adding some Cornflowers and Sweetpeas for sure, but possibly also some Larkspur, Calendula, Anethum, Antirrhinum, and Verbena. 

2) Vegetables

There were some definite successes and fails. Our beans were spectacular. In fact, we had so many beans we still have bags and  bags of frozen ones to get through. So runner beans and bush beans are a definite!

On the other hand, our sweetcorn and our carrots (despite what you see in the basket - they were inedible) were nothing short of pitiful. I don't think we ate a single cob of corn or carrot, lol. That said, I'm probably going to try again. After a few years of persistent failure to grow sweetcorn I seem to have developed a slightly unhealthy and misplaced fixation on successfully growing corn. I'm determined that this year we'll eat corn on the cob, grown in our own allotment!

I also want to increase our berry produce. Last summer we made some delicious blackcurrant jam and our strawberries were amazing! This year we'll devote even more space to strawberries, and I'm planning on planting a few more raspberry plants and possibly also another blackcurrant bush.

Other than that I'm planning on planting potatoes again (also not a raging success last summer), as well as pumpkins and courgettes, some cucumbers, brassicas, peas and mangetout, parsnip and onions, definitely onions. We were so unlucky with those because when we planted them we didn't have netting yet and they were all eaten before they even had a chance to establish. 

So there you go, my plans are made! :) 

I'm kind of enjoying this period - when you can't actually plant yet (all I'm planning on doing this winter is weed and dig in muck), but have to prepare for the growing season.

In case you are based in the UK and interested in such matters, I'm getting most of my cut flower seeds Sow Seeds - not the cheapest, alas, but they have a pretty extensive selection of cut flower varieties and give information about how long flowers last when cut, etc. All very useful. :) 

Most of my vegetable seeds and some additional cut flowers seeds will be purchased from Vegetable Seeds, which is great, especially if you have an allotment and purchase lots of vegetable seeds. The prices are reasonable and at the moment they have a 50% sale on, so all their seed packets are under £1! I really wish they had a better flower selection so I could order everything from them, but their vegetable selection is superb. I'm adding the link to their website:

Vegetable Seeds

VegetableSeeds.net offers fantastic value for the highest quality vegetable seeds in the UK. Over 400 varieties with next day shipping and free P&P on all UK orders over £15.00.