It's March

1st March already today, how time flies when you are having fun, and it's almost time to put in those long awaited potatoes. Last night it was so stormy, the windows were rattling and I could hear the swirling of the leaves, I haven't had a minute to go and check everything is ok today but I'm hoping it will be.

My tomatoes are coming up a treat on the draining board. My husband thinks that 20 plants is too many but we'll see, 10 are a bush type giving cherry toms and 10 are moneymaker a traditional type of tomato, we'll see how we go on, I love tomatoes in salads and we eat a lot of tomato based sauces with pasta, I also have a great recipe for tomato chutney so chances are there won't be many left even if we do keep the 20 plants and we have a large extended family who will welcome any that we can't eat.

That's one thing I am wondering about, because this is our first year it's hard to know just what sort of yield we will get, I suppose some things will be successful and others not, it's just a case of trial and error.

Am hoping to get to the plot tomorrow after church, it's my 2nd Mother's Day and I am hoping my husband has remembered to get at least a card. Then later in the day we have to go and visit our own Mum's, will have to find 10 minutes though just to check over the wind damage.

Making progress

This was part of the plot before we started today, (we've done more now) it's really making progress and just from cultivating some of the land the drainage has improved massively. The nice weather has also helped and my drainage trench at the back of the plot. We've been making small steps forward the last couple of weeks but looking at the photographs really helps illustrate just how much progress we have made. Mini is loving going down to the plot now and getting muddy, last week I had to stop her from eating mud off her spade, aren't kids lovely!?

So far we have broad beans and early peas in the ground and some new raspberry canes. I have parsnips and tomatos coming up in trays and the potatoes are spread out in trays to chit. I have prepared a large pot with peat so I can have a bash at growing some blueberries a much rated superfood so it would be good if we could grow some and I've also made up some large terracotta pots with compost ready to grow herbs.

I'm really keen to grow the things that we like to eat, it's pointless growing stuff we don't enjoy because the likliehood is that it will get wasted. I'm really getting into my cooking these days too and I'm really looking forward to when I can make things with our own home grown produce.

Our wider family has grown this month too with the safe arrival of our nephew, baby Ole James. Perhaps when he is a little bigger he will be able to come gardening with us but certainly by the time he starts weaning we are hoping to have some fresh delicious fruit and veg to serve up to him yum!

Planted our first seeds

Our broad beans went out in the ground today and it was quite momentous to put our first thing in. I completed building one side of the fence and have put the stakes and fence frame on the other side just need the mesh now to finish it off. The fence really defines the plot and I am secretly quite proud of my first attempt at fence building. The sun shone today and it was lovely and warm a really great day to spend outside. The roots bed is now also dug and work has begun on digging over the potato bed. The ground is atill quite wet but if we have a few more days like today then I am confident that it will soon dry up. Mini was good today, the waterproof suits are absolutely fab and I am so glad I managed to bag a bargain in the sales with them. My wellies are also a top buy, they were so comfy and practical today so I'm really pleased I bought them.

Potato seed

The potato tubers have arrived and it was with great excitement that I received the box from Thomson and Morgan, the new potatoes are one of the key motivators for me in growing vegetables because I just love them, I am so excited now about putting them in.
The weather here has been atrocious lately so we have hardly got down to the plot but we have a weekend off together coming up and I am on half term next week so can do a bit. I can't believe it is February already, work is really busy for both of us plus we have a little one to entertain, so time management, as I suspected, is going to be a real issue for us all and I'm very aware that we will need the longer spring evenings to get on top of things if we are actually going to grow much this year. Never mind as long as I get some yummy new potatoes that just melt in the mouth I will be happy, now that's not too much to hope for is it?

Not amused

It wasn't the positive start we'd hoped for today, an unhelpful member of staff at the council did not follow through on what she had promised in a phone conversation with my husband yesterday so although he signed the contract there was no copy for us, which is required before we access our plot and no access key. The poor receptionist who the papers had been left with seemed to know very little about it and we couldn't get hold of the designated by phone all day. It is so frustrating as while we have time off work it would have been good to go up there and start doing a bit and today was a lovely sunny day too which made it even more frustrating.

On the up side I have just placed my first order for potato seed, onions and garlic from Thomson and Morgan. This year we are going to try growing Red Duke of York as an early and then Charlotte potatoes because I just love them and use them a lot in salads and also Nadine as a general purpose potato. I have also ordered Red Baron onion sets and some garlic bulbs to plant. I am still going through the kitchen garden site to select those things that I will be growing from seed but at least I have made a start. It is confusing to a beginner the way that everything is grouped but I think I am starting to get to grips with it. I get so excited when I see all the things we could grow that it is hard not to get carried away, I need to remember that it is our first year and we must pace ourselves.

Hoping for a response from the council tomorrow so we can actually go down there and make a start but in the meantime I am sourcing things to help, I have advertised on freecycle for bits and bobs and this evening we are going to raid the sheds and garages at our parents houses to see what we can find to get our allotment going, scrap wood, chicken wire, netting, canes etc. We have loads of tools which my husband has cleaned and sharpened and we're hoping that the wheelbarrow left on site might be usuable enough to at least get us started.

In January and February we are going to struggle to get down to the plot that often because of poor weather and dark evenings, come the spring when the evenings lengthen we expect to be able to go 4/5 times a week which should be enough to keep everything going, I hope so anyway.