BeetrootandSpuds

We are pleased to report that the number of Spuds' devoted followers is growing by the day. Let's hope this picture doesn't make them go weak at the knees

Today's the day. The goal that Spuds and I set ourselves at the end of last year was to get our fruit bushes into their new, and permanent, home before the end of February; and By Jingo, we've done it. But it was a damned close run thing. This photo does not show very well that while three of the bushes (red, and black currants and a small gooseberry), were settled into neatly cut square holes in the black cover, when it came to cutting the hole for our largest gooseberry (generously provided by Old Sprout, our neighbour) Spuds went bonkers: so now we have 3 of Spades and 1 of Diamonds. Oh well...

Keen followers of this blog (or Blig) will know that between Beds 1 and 2 we have built a small herb garden. And today we began planting it up with garlic chives, thyme, organo, lavender and rosemary. We've room for a few more yet, so if anybody has any suggestions, please do let us have 'em. The planted bed can be seen by clicking "Read More," but I could not resist starting with this picture. We may not have silver bells and cockleshells, but Beds 1-5 are now all-in-a-row, which is very satisfying

As winter recedes and the days get longer, Spuds is itching to get planting. The realignment of our beds this week gave us the opportunity to move some onions that we had planted in Bed 1 at the end of last year (they're now in Bed 5). Then Spuds went mad, and decided to put in some shallots too; and added, "so, that's-your-lot" for today's post.

Yesterday Spuds and I set to and prepared our fruit bed ready to transpant the bushes early next week. It's not a huge bed, 1.8m x 2.5m, but that should be plenty for the 4 bushes we've got so far (a blackcurrant, a redcurrant and 2 gooseberries) and when two currently on order arrive we can expand it a little, if necessary. Even though it is quite small it took us the best part of a morning to remove the worst of the roots and dig in horsemanure and a layer of compost, before covering it all with black sheeting left behind by a previous tenant. So here it is and for those interested, if you click "read more" you will open a sideways view showing most of our plot.

We thought readers might be interested to see the layout of our plot including the new beds we have added this year, so here is a schematic. Hopefully it is pretty self explanatory, but I may just add that the cross-hatched black circles represent our compost bins. In coming weeks we will be beginning to plant up and we will will let you know what goes where, once we've decided.

As regular readers will know, Spuds and I keep a max-min thermometer in our polytunnel and amazingly the temperature has already reached a maximum of 30.7º C

The title of today's entry was suggested by one of our many readers, Cauliflower, and we like it: we feel it calls to mind sore arms and muddy knees. So here goes, The Big Blig: Spuds and I have been working hard today, as hard as...as... well, as hard as vegetables can. When we inherited our plot the west side contained a wonky row of 5 small raised beds.We've rationlaised (and straightened them) and managed to increase the number to 6, so far (there may be "developments" to come). The east side had 2 square frames, intended to be raised beds, but they were not only badly made, but did not use more than about half the space available. We have now extended these and this year they will be used for our potatoes (Spuds begged me not to use the S-word) and squash. We have also allocated the manure and compost we will be adding to each bed over the next few days, hence the sacks in the attached photos.

I've bust my fork. It's such a shame. There I was digging away, preparing the ground for a new raised bed and snap, the handle broke in two. It was an old fashioned fork with a wooden handle and the break happened just at the point of maximum vulnerability, where the shaft divides into two to form the hand piece. It had a long and happy life, but I was fond of it, and the chance of finding anybody capable of putting a new handle in place seems remote. I'll just have to face it, I don't know my own strength.

Spuds and I have chosen the potatoes that we will be planting this year: Maris Piper, Swift and Pentland Javelin. The former is a "main crop" tuber (meaning it will be planted in mid-late April and take around 15-20 weeks to mature) and the latter two are "first earlies" (planted mid-March, maturing from August). As readers will remember, last year we planted Desirée (purple skinned, main crop) and Charlotte (salad potato, early) much later than is normally recommended and we picked them, successfully, at the end of October. On the subject of Spuds, the fan club is growing and a number of readers have asked for a photo, so here it is.

Spuds and I have installed a second compost bin, and here it is. It is astonishing just how much compostable material is produced by even a small site, and we are anxious to use it to improve our soil rather than throwing it on the communcal tip from which we would never see it again.

The other day I was lucky enough to receive some packs of seeds, but not just any packs. They're magic packs, because each one contains 6 different types of seeds, sorted into groups, including Vibrant Veg, Spicy and Aromatic, & Christmas Dinner. Several are new to me. I can't wait to try Rainbow Beetroot, Stripy Tomato and Chocolate Pepper. Last year I more or less blew French Bean's head off with the power of the Jalapeño peppers I grew, so I was pleased to see that my new packs include Serrano Chilli, Chilli Cayenne and Foot Long Chilli, which sounds as if it, too, might land a bit of a kick

The days are getting longer, the ground is drying out after our cold wet winter, and Spuds and I are in the mood for spring cleaning. Over the rest of this month we will be tidying up our plot, getting the beds we inherited laid out more efficiently (we reckon we can squeeze in one more small raised veg bed). We will also be adding a new compost bin as we've found that one just isn't enough. But first of all we are digging out a new bed to take our soft fruit (of which more later).

I'll let you into a little secret, it's not just two of us contributing to Beetroot and Spuds, we have a third member, an undercover agent, who answers to the name of "Bean," French Bean. And one of the jobs that Bean undertook last year was clearing our raised beds of bulbs that our predecessor had planted. We re-planted the bulbs in our wheelbarrow and are now waiting to see what comes up. But in the meantime the allotment struck back with an undercover agent of its own: this dwarf iris. It may not be edible, but we think it's rather pretty.

After a month away from our allotment Spuds and I went along this week and gathered our final few carrots and leeks, so that is the end of last year's produce