Nearly April already!

A lot has happened since my last post but unfortunately I've been too busy at work and home to keep you all up to speed. My Cedrico tomatoes were sown on 16th March and were up within days and are now pricked out into 2" cells. I have several pots of peppers and aubergines to prick out also. I shall be taking care of my tomato seedlings from now on as if they were my very own bollocks, such was my disappointment at not being able to stage a decent set of tomatoes at all last season due to my incompetence.

I still haven't managed to get my parsnip holes bored yet although I should have that job nailed this weekend. They will soon catch up with anything that might have been sown earlier. Then it will be long carrots and not long after that the potatoes will need to be bagged up. It's non-stop from now on.

I have all my composts to hand now. Just before TEGS I went up to Codnor Horticultural Supplies in Ripley, Derbyshire and stocked up on M3 and F2, with a few bags of peat, sterilised topsoil and vermiculite to boot. I didn't think I was going to get it all into my car but thanks to the two guys in the yard they managed to load me up so that I could still see PC Plodfart of the M1 up my arse if I had to. They really were a helpful company, and despite advertising themselves as 'trade only' they don't turn away anyone with hard cash, and I shall be visiting them more often from now on for my composts and feeds. I've never bothered with Levingtons before, preferring to buy cheap and cheerful from B&Q and adding my own nutrients (very haphazardly!) but I'm now prepared to pay extra for better quality material. I hope it makes a difference.

M3 is a high nutrient compost which I'll be using in my pots for growing my onions on, and F2 is a lower nutrient seed and potting compost which I shall be using for my parsnip and carrot mixes.

My shallots are giving me many concerns yet again. Despite a spraying with Folicur quite a few of them have still developed white tip. Once they get it then the affected leaves can grow no more as they extend from the ends. I think I have it relatively controlled and have plenty of bulbs to plant out so hopefully they'll be ok, but they just won't get as big as I'd like. With a planting date of mid-April in mind i've given the beds where they'll grow a generous dusting of Tev04 fertiliser, and will follow that with some dried blood this weekend for extra nitrogen.

I have also pricked out 30 or so celery 'Evening Star' which needs an awful lot of care taking in order not to damage the tiny little seedlings. Whilst celery are a bog plant and you don't want to allow them to dry out I'm still watering these very carefully with a small watering can so as not to get excess water on the foliage. As these are currently residing in my conservatory I don't want them getting scorched during the afternoon when the sun is strongest.

So, whilst I'm behind on some tasks all in all i'm quite happy with progress thus far. And talking of progress, Oscar has started nursery and even has his very own schoolbag! And he's already nearly as tall as me!