Potato day

On Saturday we had intended to make an overdue visit to the plot but instead we filled our day with other garden related activities.

The morning was spent at a local garden centre's mini potato day. Martyn has posted a video here.

Each year we choose half a dozen varieties of potatoes that we haven't grown before as a trial. To be honest we didn't expect there to be many new varieties to try out but we were wrong.

The six new varieties that we chose were Jazzy, Elfe, Carlingford, Mayan Gold, Carolus and Apache. We bought four seed potatoes of each.

We then added bags of the potatoes that we wanted to grow in larger quantities. These were based on varieties that had impressed us in previous years, some of which were from last year's trial. We chose seven varieties for our main potato crop Casablanca, Rooster, Vivaldi, Osprey, Cara, Kestrel and Nadine. 

Martyn has posted more about each variety here.

In the afternoon Martyn tidied up and cleaned out the summer house and set out the potatoes to chit.

I tidied up a couple of perennial borders in the back garden.

 It was mainly a case of cutting back the dead growth from the perennials.

We now have several bags of debris to transport to the compost bins at the allotment.

We were intended a plot visit today but guess what - it's raining!

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

New beginnings

Once that first seed order appears at the doorway it seems that the new growing season is steadily starting to nudge its way to the forefront of our minds.

That event occurred last week when our main seed order was delivered.

A few more seeds are likely to follow as we always seem to think of something else at a later date, in fact there are already things on my subsidiary list.

This weekend one of our local garden centres will be holding their mini potato day which we hope to visit. It's an opportunity to buy individual seed potatoes which we can trial as potential new varieties.

We were intending to head for the plot on Tuesday but instead we decided to do some work in the garden.

Martyn headed into the greenhouse to start on some general tidying up.

He posted a video here.

My job was to cut back the perennials in the front garden bed.

I always wait until the are signs of the bulbs pushing through before doing this. 

I had noticed plenty of emerging shoots and so the time was right to give them some breathing space.

The previous weekend I had cut back the leaves of the hellebores in our shady bed .

The leaves from the magnolia will be left to decay naturally.

Not only have the hellebores started to flower but clumps of snowdrops were starting to show buds and would have been lost beneath the leaf cover.

In other parts of the garden there is lots more evidence that the plants are itching to grow. In addition to the above, I spotted Dutch and miniature irises, crocuses and anemone de caen

Bulbs are not the only things to start to be impatient to shine. The sarcococca in a tub on the patio is in full flower.

We now need a still and sunny day so we can appreciate its perfume.

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

Visit to RSPB Old Moor

More photos here

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett