Roses and beans.

The broad beans that I sowed into some of my newspaper pots have developed really well. The above picture is about a fortnight old so they are now well established little plants and probably ready to go into the plot just as soon as I can get there! When they do go into the ground the entire pot will be planted and the newspaper will just rot away leaving the plant to romp away without any transplant shock. I went mad the other day and spent £2 on a new rose from Woolworths, I love allotments that have a mixture of ornamental and veg and places like Wilkos or woolies are great for these sorts of bargains, I'm going to take regular pics of this rose throughout the year to show how it does and see if cheap roses like this do any good. I have a large bed at the front of the plot which already has one rose in it (from a cutting I did last year) and a Globe artichoke which I love for it's architectural leaves. so I threw 'Woolie rose' in there (with lots of manure and TLC!)
You can also see in the above pic the autumn sown broad beans in the 2nd bed back. They're doing well despite a couple of casualties either from slugs or pigeons. Once I get up to the plot with my bean plants from home I'll fill in the gaps.

Behind that bed is the remains of my leeks, these were a smaller crop than I wanted but due to me not potting on the seedlings earlier than I should have, I'm thinking of starting them in a seed bed at home this year rather than seed trays and then moving them up to the plot once they're tall enough.

We haven't manage a trip up to the plot for a few weeks now, a combination of appalling weather and us spending time decorating at home. D's parents are coming to us for Easter and we stupidly told them that we would have a nicely decorated bedroom for them to stay in so we've been slogging our guts out to try and finish it. One of the joys of living in a house built in the 1800's is wonky walls and crumbling plaster, so normal decorating takes twice as long to do. I mustn't grumble really, this will be our third year in this house and we've been very lazy in our restoration approach, gardening just seems to get in the way!!

Anyway, Easter is the BIG weekend for working at the allotment, last year was amazing weather at Easter but then this year it falls much earlier, so fingers crossed for a bit of sun. We plan to do lots there anyway and the first potatoes have GOT to be put in on Good Friday (it's gardening law!!)