Pod's Plot: April 2011

Spring Onions

May

From now on I am going to follow the advice of Klaus Laitenberger in his very
informative book "Vegetables for the Irish Garden" and sow the Spring Onions in large Plug trays in
blocks of 10 and then plant them out.
Up to now I was planting in plug trays individually and then transplanting.
With Klaus's method you get to grow and harvest in bunches which is much more efficient.

I am growing 4 varieties in total:

White Lisbon
Lilia
Purplette
Apache

I will be posting photos of their progress throughout the year

Broad Beans

Broad Beans

May

Aquaulce in bloom

This variety are known as Aquaulce and are a hardy variety. I bought them from the seedaholic website. All 10 I planted in pots came up so they have been planted out in the allotment now.

More pictures to follow as they grow

Shallots

Parsnip

I am growing 1 variety this year that I bought from seedaholics.
Its called "Tender and True".
I started them off in plug trays and planted them out in April into the Allotment.
I covered them in Plastic bottle tops to protect them.

Photos on its progress to follow throughout the year

Corn

Corn raised bed in May

None of my seeds that I kept from last year germinated.

I also planted variety's called Lark and Earlybird.

These did ok started off in plastic pots in the Greenhouse.

However I was a little short on plants so decided to start off a few more in the Greenhouse in April.

None of the Lark variety germinated. I think this may be due to the unusual high temperatures

we have been getting for April. Maybe I should have started them outside.

Fennel

Sweet Pepper

Colour Spectrum

French Bean

The variety I'm growing is Cobra which is a climbing french variety.

I bought the packet of Johnsons seeds 2 years ago for 4.15 euros.
There were 75 in the packet and according to the back must be sown by 2010 so they are a year out of date but the 8 I have sown in pots this year have all come up.

I grew 3 plants last year and had more than we could eat and ended up freezing loads. I saved 4 seeds from a pod I let grow to full size and planted them this year as well. As you can see from the photo they are doing well. There is a small 3 ft by 3ft plot in the allotment I am going to use to grow them on complete with wigwam supports. Have to wait till May to plant them out.