First post!

Here goes...

I will post some photos of the allotment later this weekend if I can but at the moment there are:

• onions (1 row of red sets, 1 row of white/brown sets, 1 row of white/brown raised from seed);
• garlic (some from the Isle of Wight - Solent Wight I think and about 3 elephant),
• broad beans (Aquaclaudia Dulce - just covered them with fleece given the cold snap we are experiencing - there was a frost warning last Monday);
• raspberries (bought from Homebase and planted in Feb);
• blackcurrants (same as above);
• blackberries (already on the plot when I arrived)
• strawberries (planted last Spring);
• some leafy stuff (chard, kale and perpetual spinach - rabbits keep nibbling at this despite netting).

Last week, moved the chard, kale and spinach plants to one end of the bed they were in and bored some 60 holes (about 8 ins deep) into the freed up half of the bed with a crowbar and sowed some parsnips seeds. 30 were White Gem but these may not do anything as they were actually out-of-date. The other 30 were Avonresister which I brought fresh that day. The bored holes were filled with peat-free compost which was great to handle (less sticky than other stuff I have been using) but I am aware that some seeds take longer to germinate in it. I covered the parsnip half of the bed with polythene tunnel cloches so need to water underneath asap.

At home, I have some brassica seedlings (Cabbage - Greyhound, Cabbage - Savoy King, Kale - Cavelo Nero, Brussel Sprouts) in the mini-greenhouse. The Brussels may need repotting or restarting as they are a tad leggy. I have only recently learnt to move seedlings into the greenhouse from the windowsill soon after emergence to avoid legginess.

On the windowsills, I have four types of chilli which I sowed 2 weeks ago. These emerged on Weds/Thurs which made me very happy. At the same time as the chilli, I sowed some peppers. Unfortunately, my cat knocked these over later that day so I tried to find the seeds amongst the soil to resow. I can see 1 or 2 emerging right now. I just need a couple of plants so this shouldn't be too much of a problem.