March 2015

1st March 2015
Went to the lotty, cut the raspberry canes down (a month late really but can't be helped!).

Stuff to do in March according to the Trap Ground Allotment society:

March

• It should be safe to plant parsnip seeds
• Start successional sowing of chard, beetroot and spinach
• Plant strawberries and raspberries
• If you've sown early lettuce, they probably need thinning now
• Lift all remaining leeks from last year to give you time to dig over the land for new planting
• Plant sunflower seeds in pots in your cold frame
• Cover rhubarb crowns to "force" them
• Cut back autumn raspberries to the ground
• Plant out onion sets
• Sow cauliflower, summer cabbage and sprouts for summer transplanting
• If warm enough, sow leeks in a seed bed or in pots
• Dig, dig, dig to get your plot ready for spring planting

Homemade clock.

Canes cut to the ground

The plot all looking a bit empty!

Weekend of 7th March 2015
At DCFC vs Birmingham so no time on Saturday and crappy weather on Sunday put paid to anything on the plot.  Going to go down next weekend and get started got a load of stuff going in the greenhouse.

Tuesday 10th March 2015
Heated propogator started to do some business.

Dwarf french beans to the left, Tomato Plum Rosa to the right...

Sat 14^th March 2015

Greenhouse – sowed some broadbeans (Bunyards Exhibiton)in loo roll tubes.    Very environmentally sound way to do it.  Sowed some Little Gem lettuces  - will need to do another dozen in about three weeks’ time I reckon.  Also did the missus’ hanging baskets with Dizzy Lizzies. Have put some chillis and some minibel tomatoes into the heated propagator too.  Not much happening  in the greenhouse.  I can see the sunflowers beginning to poke their heads through and also the Cornflowers are making an appearance but think it’s perhaps still a little bit too cool.

Allotment – tidied up plot some more, dug over about a quarter to a third.   Have got a plan for a new layout that should work a treat. It will result in shorter rows but I see it working as follows. As you come in through the gate you have a row to your left.  The path then turns at a right-angle just before the raspberries and goes all the way down to the bottom of the plot.  Where the metre squared frame is at the end of the rapsberries there will be a load of additional metre squareds all the way to the bottom of the plot.   

Some digging done

Plan is to have path go down to bottom of the plot after you turn right at the raspberries!

Grey is where path will go, metre squared frames down to bottom on the left of the path.

Sun 15^th March 2015

Mum and Dad over for mum’s day lunch at Ketch.  Very nice.  Brought me some seeds as well – admittedly they should have been used by 2009 but will give em a try anyway!  Some coloured Sunflowers that look interesting.

Tuesday 17th March 2015
Planted some coloured eclipse sunflowers in the Greenhouse as had a bit of time free and some American Giant Sunflowers - can't remember if I put a seed label in the pot for them.

Wednesday 18th March 2015
After work I put a tray of Ailsa Craig tomatoes into the heated propogator.  For some reason the Alicante tomatoes are not doing a darned thing.  Wierd. Put the Alicantes on the window.

Saturday 21st March 2015
Hard to believe it's a month since we were in that London.  Went and did a bit at the lotty.  Dug a bit more.  Did some measuring.  Have also got a load of duct and water piping ready for doing some class netting this next year.