Tuesday 17 May 2011

Bit of a washout...

I really wish I'd gone up to the allotment on Saturday now as Sunday proved to be a bit of a washout. Not heavy rain, just a lot of showers and there was only so long I wanted to be working in continual drizzle so only really did an hour or so of work up there in the end.

I did manage to get the sweetcorn planted out though, I'm half worried it may a be a little too early but they were getting pretty pot bound in the greenhouse so it was plant them or ruin them. fingers crossed they do ok.

I also picked the first spring cabbage of the year for Sunday dinner and it was a monster, the heart alone weighed in at five and half pounds! Despite this one success I'm generally painful bad at growing brasica, I either forget to plan them at all or plant them and then never tend to them very well. Last autumn I did manage get some spring plants in the ground but then kind of left them hiding under netting till recently and most stuff had been ruined. There are however four cabbages that seem to have survived despite my lack of care, so I'm claiming that as progress of sorts and I promise (honest) to be better at it this winter.

To go with the roast dinner I picked a few stalks of rhubarb to make a cheat'y rhubarb fool for pudding (basically just stewed rhubarb mixed with a pint of custard half milk and half single cream). Quick, easy and very yummy!

We've also got the first cherry tomatoes appearing in the greenhouse, thankfully way earlier than they did the last few years so the mega-early sowing seems to have worked. All being well we'll have salad crops all being ready to eat at a similar time this year. Yay!

Fingers crossed for some good weather this week so I can get the brasica bed cleared (bar the remaining cabbages of course) and dug over meaning I can then focus on clearing the space for the fruit cage. That's going to be a BIG job so need to get it started asap.

7 comments:

Nome said...

Wow, the cabbage looks amazing! I always struggle with brassicas too, but seem to get a little better each year... Must get ours in the ground soon!

Jo said...

I can't believe you've got tomatoes already, mine are way off. Your cabbage looks great, mine usually end up being eaten by the slugs, I'm debating using some pellets this year, though I don't really want to.

Sue Garrett said...

Not much rain here but we haven't been to the plot as it had been windy and not very warm - too unpleasant to work outside. Plants are being blown to ribbons.

Martin and Amy said...

That cabbage is a beast!!

I'm also part of the 'I can't grow brassicas' club. Never had ANY luck with them. Trying cabbage again this year, but I'm not holding my breath! :0)

The rhubarb fool looks delicious!!

Mart

np said...

looks well good how do you do it]

Paul and Melanie said...

Glad I'm not alone in struggling with brasicas! :)

Perhaps we should start a support group... lol ;)

melsanford said...

Wow! It looks like things are coming along really well! That cabbage is HUGE! My greenhouse toms are flowering so hopefully I'll see a few appearing myself in the not-to-distant future :-) Mel xx