Sunshine on the Allotment

So nice to wake up to a calm, sunny day yesterday with blue sky. I packed a flask and lunch and headed down to my allotment to catch up on some digging.

The soil drains pretty quickly on my plot which made the digging and weeding easier.

 

These daffodils on a plot at the far end of the allotment have been in flower for about 3 weeks now. So pretty.

 
I had my usual stroll around to take some photos and have a chat.

Lovely to see the beautiful pink stems of Rhubarb pushing through the ground. I'm hoping to make a Rhubarb meringue pie soon with my first pickings! I made a lemon meringue pie for the first time last year using a Bramley apple lemon curd made from apples I had been given. It was scrumptious and didn't last long. 

An old grass roller that sits on the allotment.

I introduced myself to this chap (below) yesterday but he didn't reply. Some people like to keep to themselves. I thought he was a tad over-dressed though!

I visited the allotment shop which opens for a couple of hours on a Sunday and bought some potatoes (Estima, Nicola & Albert Bartlett Vivaldi), onion sets (Red Baron) and shallots. I shall also be growing Charlotte potatoes again as they are one of my favourites and Desiree which are good for storing.

 An experienced plot holder told me you can feed the potato tubers while they are chitting by spray misting a few times a week with a diluted feed! This helps the potatoes grow larger once they're in the ground. I've never heard of this before but bought some liquid organic seaweed fertiliser to give it a try. I've since researched this online and have read that you should only start spraying once the potatoes have chitted  and the stumpy shoots start to throw out small air shoots. I suppose the danger is not to dampen the potatoes too much so they end up rotting.

Hope everyone has a lovely week and we all see a little more sunshine to cheer us up.