Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments

This week has been a very mixed bag weather-wise, windy, rainy, sunny and cold. Sunday morning and we were back to waking to a keen frost. Despite all of this the countryside is taking on the fresh green look of early spring with hawthorns, which tend to dominate the hedgerows, breaking into leaf. A new addition to the verges is the daisies.

Now is a good time to look out for bargains from nurseries and online plants-men. Many are selling off plants that remain after gardeners have completed their first main shop of the season. I have been on the look-out for some different varieties of hellebore and have just found the ideal collection at a bargain price which has been duly ordered. Many plants-men will send online newsletters to subscribers and many of these contain bargains that are not available to others.

Seed sowing has become a major activity this week. All so far have been sown in the garden greenhouse where we can keep a close eye on them. We have sown:

• Sweet peas – Perfume delight and Kings Special Mixture, both reputedly have a good scent and long stems which I think is the main attraction of sweet peas.


• Tomatoes – Moneymaker, Roma VF, Gardeners’ Delight Brandywine and Shirley. Just four seeds have been sown of each variety.


• Strawberry – Alpine Mignonette, this is a second variety to add to the alpine strawberries already growing on the plot.


• Leek – Autumn Giant and Giant Winter


• Broad bean – Witkiem Manita (no idea of how this is pronounced)

For the last of the entries in the March diary click here to read the full update for this week