Friday, 15 February 2007
First part of the week was spent recovering from the free veg event held last Saturday - lots of visitors and enthusiasm for veg growing, and a really hectic, busy day. It
was the worst possible weather - icy rain on top of the snow, and
freezing cold, but everyone I think had a good time, and hopefully went
away with some ideas to get them started with veg. The 3x3m plot seems to have really struck a chord with people.
Escaped
the heavy rain to do some seed sowing in the glasshouse - onion, leek
and shallot seed, and some early peas and broadbeans in rootrainers. We're growing crimsonflowered broadbeans - as well as looking
gorgeous, the compact beans are a lovely shiny green, and the inside of
the pods less fluffy than some of the other varieties.
Planted shallots in the new 3x3m plot - a variety called Golden Gourmet. Onions
don't really earn their place in such a small area cos they are widely
available and cheap, but shallots are definitely worth having - they
have a mild, delicate flavour, and are lovely roasted.
Its
worth checking the soil temperature before you go mad with the planting
and sowing - it is really tempting to get out when the weather is so
warm and sunny on some days, but not worth sowing seed into cold wet
soil. Our 3x3m plot soil measured today was at 6.5 degrees C, and still free-draining despite the rain of the last few days.
Hooray!