Saturday 5 March 2011

Time to get started

Yes, it is getting lighter out but let's not rush shall we?
There is still the danger of frost until possibly as late as May. So don't rush out with your half hardy bedding or your greenhouse raised veg yet. If they haven't been completely hardened off, leave it a little longer.
My Broad Beans (Vicia faba) have been sitting outside overnight for a little over a week and have a good rootball so it's time to get them out in the soil before they start to suffer from confined quarters.
Started in a module tray, the germination was a bit poor, only three quarters of the seeds came up, although one was breaking through the surface as I planted out yesterday. I have a small bed with soil that was manured last Autumn so was full of enough nutrition for these early starters.

These beans will give an early start to the season and will hopefully be early enough to avoid the dreaded blackfly. 
Elsewhere on the plot, the long awaited and much anticipated Purple Sprouting Broccoli was showing some colour at last. I adore this vegetable either as an accompaniment or as a soup. Even the small heads covered in a cheese sauce, like a variation on cauliflower cheese works well. Any recipe really!



It was time to do some housekeeping too. With the Autumn Rasperries starting to show new growth, it was time to cut the old canes down and clear some ground for the this seasons fruiting canes.




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