Burns Night

Today (Sunday) it is 250 years since the birth of Robert Burns and living fairly close to the Scottish border means we have had quite a lot of media coverage of his poetry and events planned to celebrate his birthday, it seemed appropriate that i raised the Scottish flag this weekend to mark the occasion and we will also be having Haggis for Tea tonight with the usual neeps and tatties to go with it. This year is being marketed as the home coming for all persons of Scottish decent so if you are coming home this year have a good time.

On a more regular level i took the chance this weekend to move some of the leeks i started early December out into the greenhouse so as to make room for the onions that are now starting to get growing , I just moved enough of the strongest plants out, they still have plenty of bottom heat as i sat them in the propagator, tho it will be a bit cooler air temperature i think they should be all right, if it starts to get realy cold again i will pop some flece over them. At the same time i set some canes in with clips as they were just starting to need a bit of support to keep them growing straight, it is the first time that i have done this and was suprised just how fiddly it was to do.

Can't think of a Title

It was our local NVS meeting on Tuesday night with a talk buy David Metcalfe on how he developed his Pendle and now Improved Pendle leek, the meeting was the most popular of the winter season so far with around 40 / 50 people coming along. He grows both Leeks and Onions in pots the Leek in 50 ltr and Onions in 30/ 35 ltr pots in a mixture of.

For Leeks 120 ltrs sterilised soil + 75ltrs sphagnum moss peat with 1/2 a jar of dried blood
1 jar of dolomite lime 1 jar calcified seaweed 1/2 jar humate 1 jar osmocote exact (15-9-9) and 2 handfuls of viresco dry. Then NO extra feeding. With that mix he hopes to grow blanched Leeks with a girth of 12 ins +.

For Onions 75 ltr sterilized soil +75 ltr sphagnum moss peat with 1 jar of Vitax organic grower 2-1-4 1/2 a jar dried blood 1/2 a jar calcified seaweed 1 handful of viresco dry 1/2 a jar dolomite lime. Then NO extra feeding. The jar he uses is a old 500g chicken tonight jar. Sounds easy growing them when he tells you but?
It did at least spur me on to try and get a few jobs done this weekend so as not have the usual mad spring rush, so i started to empty out all the sand from the drums that i grew long carrots in last season and set them up on the new base that i built last back end' it took an age as i had to barrow the sand about 80 yrd all up hill to refill them, i gave them a splash over with armillotox as i went along just in case anything nasty was lurking. With haveing the extra drums for this season i hope to get some decent Parsnips as well as Carrots next August, at least all this work keeps my mind of all the doom and glum that's around just at the moment i see tonight our dear leader Gordon is about to spend another 200 billion pound helping out the Banks yet again, i hope he knows what he's doing but i have my doubts, what is certain is theirs going to be a lot more pain before we are finished with this recession. Oh i nearly forgot to mention on a more cheerful note United gave MK Dons (the so called away win specialists ) a 2-0 first half lead then stuffed them 3-2 in the second half, great eh! moved us up the league 3 positions as well, as they say United all ways come strong second half of the season so watch this space.

How things stand so far

The weather has turned a lot milder today and hopefully my Shallots will appreciate the easier conditions as they seem to have done nothing since i planted them on the 21st December, i have had to keep a fleece over them almost all the time and had a 60 watt light bulb on under them to give of just enough heat so as to stop them freezing solid, the leeks have been growing well though in the warmer environment that i rigged up for them and are putting on a lot more leaf i put a good covering of Vermiculite around them this morning as one or two pots were starting to get some mossy growth on top of the compost, hopefully with gently lifting it of and covering them with Vermiculite it should inhibit the green mold from growing. I got some of my seed potatoes yesterday which is a bit sooner than usual but being about the first customer i was able to have a good sort through and pick out some nice specimens of Kestrel, i did think of trying Bonnie this year instead for the coloured potato classes but was slightly disappointed with the ones on offer so stuck with the old faithful. I will still need to get hold of some Winston though for the white potato classes as they didn't have any of them in stock yet. The Onions that i sowed last week have been in our airing cupboard all week keeping warm, but i have taken them out in to my propagator in the green house today as i expect them to strike soon and they will need some light, the lupins that were sowed at the same time are now starting to push through.

I said we were good

Leeds 0 United 2 The best result in the most important game of the season.

New year Onions

Is it just me or has anyone else lost track of what day it is with Christmas and now New Year i will be glad when we get to Monday and some sort of normality returns, with it being dry and bright in the main over the holiday period their does seem to have been a lot of visitors out and about and one or two look like they have treated themselves to some new walking gear for Christmas and are full of new year resolution spirit .

Still i decided to sow some onion seed today which is maybe a bit on the early side but i was eager to get started with my new propagator, it is the first time that i have tried growing onions from seed, other years having just bought starter plants ready for planting out come spring time, but the main drawback with that is you just tend to get mainstream varieties and i was looking to get something a bit better to put in for showing come August so i am having a go with Vento f1, not having seen onion seed before i was suprised that it was in a pelleted form being coated with a blue film, it certainly made it a lot easier to see them when sowing and i sowed them at a rate of 50 per tray, i just wonder if it takes them longer to germinate being pelleted, i also sowed a few lupin seeds that i saved from the plants i grew last year, hopefully if they get a good start they should flower by late June. The leeks that i potted on last weekend seemed to have taken it in their stride and are now growing more leaf though one or two seem a bit bent over still, but in the main they are growing well with a good deep green healthy colour to them i will try to keep them with plenty of light and warmth till the beginning of February then they might have to go in the greenhouse with just heating from underneath so as to make room for some large exhibition Onion seedlings that are due from Medwyns mid February.

This hard frost that we have been having should do a good job at killing of a few of pests that seem to have been able to over winter in the mild wet winters we have had in the past few years so that may be no bad thing even if it has meant i am unable to get on with the last of my digging for the time being but there's plenty of winter left for that.