Slip sliding away

here's a photo of some of my sweet potato slips


I need to seek advice on how and when to remove them from the potatoes. They will then need to go into water to develop roots. Once they've got roots I'll pot them up and keep them inside until they are planted out at the very end of May.

At the moment it looks as though I'll get 17 if they all survive - I think last year I planted out 15 and got quite a good crop. Unfortunately it's not just me and OH that find them irresistible - not sure if the holes are slugs or other creepies.

The bed they are going in this year has had manure stood on it for a while, so it should be nice and rich and will hopefully have the new greenhouse in front of it, so it should be toasty too. I'll plant them under black landscape material again (to keep the heat in and also let the rain in) and then leave them as long as I can resist.

Froggie Flash Gallery

Check out the new link to my new Froggie Chorus flash gallery ------>>>>>

I've got sunshine ..

Normal service is resumed

Finally life seems to be back to normal - I spent all day at the lottie in the beautiful sunshine and got loads done. Considering that very little has been done recently, it is looking pretty good. I'm behind with my digging, but hopefully will catch up at Easter - weather permitting of course !

Strawberries which will go in the new fruit bed, once the greenhouse has been done (OH actually started on the base today)
The parsley has overwintered extremely well

wallflowers still going strong

Garlic - looking a little windburnt, I also think it may need feeding as its going a little yellow



Foxglove - gorgous pink last year, hoping for the same this year (can you see the spider)

Globe artichoke - gawd, it's huge. Its just had a birthday - now one year old


One of the 13 broadbeans that the meeces decided to leave for me ... it annoys me everytime I look at the bed - huge gaps everywhere. I've filled the gaps with new beans, but the meeces just come for seconds. This time I've put beans into cells and I've taken them home to germinate in safety undiscovered peas

The rhubarb is making an appearance

This year I'm intending to introduce a lot more flowers into the allotment, especially around the pond to try and give a little protection / shelter to whatever decides to move in. I've sown some cyclamen,but nothing has happened, so I bought this plant a couple of weeks ago. It has the most gorgeous markings on its leaves - not sure whether I've missed the flowers.



Cowslips - one of my favourite flowers. Again I've sown some seeds, but nothing has happened with them yet. Got 6 plants for £1.50 to give some colour down the herb path.

Pink forget-me-knots ... I'm sure they were blue last year ....

this is the lottie next door to me, which has not been worked since I took on mine (over a year now) ... any takers ...

lottie on the other side:
and mine

Weeds !

If weed growing was an olympic sport, I would most definitely be the winner. Here's a selection of my worst: bindweed, thistle, bramble and a tiny bit of couch - managed to fill another wheelbarrow full this afternoon. Its quite difficult disposing of it - most of it has gone on bonfires recently, but I've nothing left to burn, so am piling it up on the old rat-barn base. Not ideal, but I'm hoping it'll dry in the sun and die. There has been some debate on one of the lottie forums recently about similar roots - the thistle and the bindweed are practically indistinguishable at the moment ...



Now this is a very strange weed - it has an enormous tap root and from memory has a pale lilac flower. It's coming through from the allotment at the bottom of mine. I'll sray it with round up, but as with all of my nasties, it usually makes a super recovery.

seedling progress ...

marigolds:

sweetcorn - really needs uncovering, but the meeces'll have 'em:

Tomatoes, Peppers & Aubergines:

Cabbages:

Leeks - bought, not sown:

Remains of pea bed - left had fleece, right had polythene tunnel:

... not so cute anymore ...

Remember my cute vole family from last year ? Well now I appear to have a mouse family. So far they have eaten: 120 marigolds, 20 sweetpeas,, one unopened packet of peas, 30 sunflowers, 5 peppers, 2 tomatoes, 2 aubergines, 8 cucumbers (@ £3.99 x 2 packets), 30 sweetcorn, 8 butternut squash (no seeds left now), row of peas planted direct (under fleece), one packet of broadbeans planted direct and a couple of seed potatoes. Strangely they don't want to know about the cabbages or cauliflowers - both of which I'd gladly sacrifice to save the above.



I say mouse family, in the hope that they are meeces and not ratties. The droppings are definitely mouse sized but today I saw the mousey - once I'd stopped shrieking I set about frightening it away - it was flippin' big for a mouse and looked more like a young rat ... eek, maybe we were a bit hasty burning down the rat-barn.