Clochetastic

This weekend I took delivery of two new cloches for the suburban veg plot. They're not brand new and seem to be more 'vintage style' than actual 'vintage' (the strip along the top is plastic). But they're very lovely and came from a nice man in Derbyshire via Ebay. Also via my mother (who lives 20 minutes from the nice man) and then via my sister, who brought them with her on a flying visit to us. And I still owe my mother £20 for them.
So, all in all a pretty good deal - free cloches with free delivery.... (though I promise I'll settle up next time I see my mother). They're now in place warming the soil where the parsnips will go.

how heavy...?

is too heavy, in terms of eggs?
There was a lot of squawking from the nest box while this one was being produced and Snowflake is only a little chicken...

Protestant potatoes...

So the new seed potatoes arrived the week before last - after a small delay due to the weather...

This year I've ordered a first early variety called Ulster Classic - in honour of the hubby's Belfast roots. We grew some towards the end of the season last year - planted them in early August with the intention of getting Christmas potatoes but got late blight in October so had to harvest them. The yield was surprisingly high, though there were lots of mini ones. But they tasted lovely and so I decided to order the same ones for this year. 

They've been chitting in the cool spare bedroom for about a week now and have started putting out little green and purple shoots. 

The bed they're going in still has baby leeks and savoy cabbages in it, but I'll be harvesting the last of those shortly. 

First earlies should be planted between Feb and April, for harvest May to July. I'll start warming up the soil in the raised bed with a cloche and plant them within the next 4 weeks.

Let love blossom...

Next week sees the staging of the 2-day RHS London Plant and Design Show and as one of the days coincides with Valentine's Day, the RHS are putting on an evening speed dating event among the exhibits at Lawrence Hall. Thirty participants will be meeting and mingling around the displays to see if Cupid's arrow is set to strike. There's still time to sign up (details here) and entry is covered by the main event ticket (so free, if you're an RHS member). Will you meet a hunk by the heucharas? a vamp by the verbenas? a geek near a galanthus? or a wallflower hiding among the...um....wallflowers?

Itchy fingers

I just knew I wouldn't be able to resist sowing at least some seeds in January. I tried distracting myself with horticultural revision, I tried sitting on my hands, but to no avail. I could literally hear the seeds crying out from their packets (in the seed tin, in the cupboard - they're quite loud these seeds...).
I justified it to myself by deciding only to sow seeds that take ages to germinate, like lemon drop chillies, or those that are really hardy, like leeks. But then blew that by including tomatoes and sweet peppers as well.
I explained to my other half that I'd definitely started to sow seeds as early as January last year - and then looked at my nerdy gardening diary book and saw that it was actually the middle of Feb before I'd done anything. Well at least I can say I've improved on last year...
Anyway, it may be too early, and I may live to regret this rash seed sowing, but it's just lovely to see the propagators sitting in their usual places on the heated kitchen floor. It feels like the growing year is within reach.
Anyone else want to 'fess up to any premature sowing?

January greenery

Given the mild weather we've had the last 2 or 3 months (ignoring the 3 days of freezing temps just last week) it's not surprising that some crops are much further on they they usually would be this time of year. The Aquadulce Claudia and Sutton broad beans, which were sown in late October germinated rather rapidly. Usually they get a bit of a growth check in Dec/Jan with a freezy spell and occasionally a blanket of snow. But not this year, at least not yet. These photos were taken in early Jan - some of the bean plants are already 40-50cm tall and flopping about. I really need to get out and create my usual 'boxing ring' style support with twine and pruned branches from elsewhere in the garden. I'll just add that to my to-do list...

Sharing the blogging love

I was delighted recently to be given this blog award by Caro at Urban Veg Patch. The Suburban Veg Plot blog was originally started just for my own interest and veg garden records rather than to gain any wider readership (yes, I am relatively shy in real life!).  However, as I've started to read and enjoy gardening and chicken blogs by others, it's nice to know that in some small way people out there are getting some pleasure and/or amusement from mine. So, thank you Caro and I'm very happy to accept!

Acceptance of the award is conditional on the following:

Copy and paste the award on your blog
Thank the giver and link back to them
Choose five blogs (with less than 200 followers) that you'd like to pass the award on to and leave a comment for them on their blog.

So, my 5 chosen blogs to pass this award on to are:

My Little Garden 

Digging For Victory

Self-Sufficient Dreams

Life with the Ex-Batts

Veggiegobbler

These blogs cover the full range of growing exotics in Malaysia, growing veg according to 1940s advice, making plans for a smallholding dream, ex-batt chicken antics and veggie growing Down Under. Some of them I've been reading longer than others but all have given me a smile and a chuckle along the way.