Away at the weekend so not back on the allotment until 5:30 on Monday evening after two hours shredding the vines removed from the trellis. I did manage to get in two 3ft rows of beetroot. Last years worked so well I am trying them again – Detroit 6 Rubidus - but I also spotted an RHS variety – Wodin – that looks interesting. The books suggest soaking the multigerm seeds before sowing but it became impossible to deal with them so I did it the old way. I did soak them well afterwards
I realised that without some seeds growing I would have nothing to plant later so got to work.
Allowing for slugs and other losses I put 40 sweetcorn – Honeydew, 4 pumpkin – Hundredweight and 10 cucumber – Marketmore – into the propagator.
I also sowed 17 (the whole packet) courgette – Gold Rush, 10 squash – Hunter, 8 runner bean – White Lady, half a tray of leeks – Prizetaker and half a tray of a second parsnip – Hollow Crown.
In the picture above, the Cromwell and Montgomery sprouts are coming along nicely even with the snail attacks and the Panache parsnips are nearly ready to move from their root-training pots into the nicely prepared bed. (Thanks to Hugh for the mini rotovator that makes the final stages so much easier). The end two rows in the root trainers are the newly planted runner beans.
