New year

So the obligatory forgetting to post thing again. We're into March now and preparation at least, if not work in earnest, has begun on the allotment.

The ground has been pretty frosty so digging time has been a struggle, but I did manage to get a potato bed dug over and manured. I also grabbed some seed potatoes from Beanies in Crookesmoor and have them in trays in the spare room chitting.

Daz has spent some time adding additional glass to the greenhouse, and between us we've built a very Heath Robinson water collection system. We've got guttering round the greenhouse to collect the water and a water tank stood up on a set of plastic greenhouse shelves perched on a pallet with legs attached. It actually may give us the opportunity to grow some tumbling fruit like a strawberry or tumbling tomato. Also there is an overflow on the water tank, so we may be able to get another water butt attached. I ordered a micro irrigation kit for about 7 quid from ebay. Next visit we should be able to roughly assemble it and test flow rates, etc. The aim is that the greenhouse, now using built wooden planters, will be automatically watered, and that if we all go on holiday we can just top up the tank and have it drain out gradually over  a week or so.

I grabbed some el-cheapo propagators and have some seeds started off - a couple of cabbage varieties and some peppers for now. Germination from the cabbages (one has gone nuts), but not yet from the peppers.