First thing on the agenda is to get the seed potatoes and start them chitting in egg boxes on the window ledge. I am sticking to earlies only again this year and planting them all in bags. My favourites from last season were Vivaldi, grown from potatoes bought from Sainsburys and Sharps Express, bought as seed potatoes from Focus. I am just growing those again this season.

The second task is to get the parsnip seeds in in February if we have a fine dry day.

I intend to have another go at onions from seed as I have good seed left. Last years were not too good and got neck rot and went soggy before we could harvest them. I am not sure what I did wrong but will have another go.  I have Onion Ishikura, Ailsa Craig and a Sweet Spanish Onion. My instructions say sow very thinly in February under cloches or March to April out in the open. Ishikuri are salad onions and are meant to be harvested as spring onions, when they are about six inches high and pencil thick.  Ailsa Craig and the Spanish Onion are mild cooking onions which stay in the ground longer and are harvested when they have formed a large bulb. I have just read that the Ailsa Craig are known as Winter Onions and so should have been sown in the winter ready to grow on and harvest the following Autumn.

Because of Christmas, very bad weather and flu I haven’t been to the allotments for a few weeks so I am looking forward to my first visit of the year. I am sure there will be lots of tidying up to do but hopefully a few nice surprises too.

Happy Birthday Sean. 40 today!!!!!!!!!

These are the parsnips that I chitted at home. They were a devil to transplant but look worth the effort now.

The curds are forming in our first caulis of the season.

The flower bed is quite overcrowded and has been left more or less to its own devices but is doing its job in attracting the beneficial insects to the plot.

The first of the Tomato plants is also in there. It is a Black Cherry, one of our favourites from last year.

After getting the ground to a fine tilth with the rotavator Rob sowed the Swede seeds, Champion Purple Top and Parsnips, Hollow Crown.

We fished out the tent greenhouse which was virtually destroyed last year by gale force winds. Rob managed to get it back into shape and we planted some crisphead lettuce plants and sowed Raddish, French Breakfast and Spring Onion, Lisbon. We have secured it well and hope that it will be safe this year as it also has the protection of the tunnel at the side of it too.

All the beds are now clear of weeds and both plots are looking good. Weeding is an ongoing task but we have definitely broken the back of it now.

Heirloom tomato seed Roma is an outstanding and disease resistant variety that produces red plum tomatoes of medium size.

On the window sill in the kitchen I have placed seeds of Parsnip White Gem on damp kitchen towel to sprout before they go into their cardboard tubes.

White Gem produces broad shouldered, smooth skinned roots and features superb resistance to canker. A great flavoured parsnip which goes well with all roasts and other hot dishes.

Last year we had a good crop of peas from Fortune and I have put about 40 in a bowl and shall swish them in some water every day then drain them until they sprout when they will be transferred to a tray of compost to grow on a little before they go out on to the allotment. Rob plans to sow a few directly into the ground along with some swede Best Of All. Both will be protected with a new cloche/ mini greenhouse we got from Lidl.

I wish I could afford an incubator. I ordered more hatching eggs last night and feel very nervous about trusting my broody after what happened last time. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained they say. My potential broody this time is a large black Araucana and I have gone for Bantam Wyandotte eggs, in silver laced, buff laced and silver pencilled. We only have one Wyandotte at present and that is Toyah. She is a partridge coloured bantam and has been blind from birth so lives separately from the flock, gets very special treatment and has a lovely gentle temperament so we are hoping the new chicks will be like her.

These pictures aren’t my birds but have been sourced from the internet