Mangetout and Fennel

I shall be interested to see if the fennel seedlings bolt again like last year. I found they did much better at the mid to end of the growing season and I was harvesting them up until Christmas. But despite that I have tried a few again at the beginning of the vegetable year. Along side them are about twenty mangetout pea seedlings all brought on in modules in the glass house until ready to plant out. I've put long canes in for them to grow up.
I have also put in Meraviglia di Venezia - a yellow butter climbing bean - good dressed with umeboshi vinegar and some french beans which did well last year - they're both in modules and will be planted out when they are strong enough to fend off the slugs.

Some parsley (flat leaf) has germinated but my celery is very poor - I'm still waiting for them.
Today I hoed onions and garlic - some I did earlier in the week have benefited hugely from the experience and seem to have double in size in a very short time. They like the air and as well as the removal of the weeds.
The rapsberry bed had a good airing too! It was terribly weedy and the new raspberry shoots (Autumn Bliss variety) were competing with nettle, thistle creeping buttercup and dandelion as well as other baddies!
I will hoe the broad beans tomorrow and give them a boost. My routine is always to fit in at least twenty minutes to half an hour of weeding every time I go up to the allotment - Otherwise it gets ridiculous and they take over. Little and often really is a good adage.
And when it rains, which we're hoping it will in the next couple of days, the water won't run off the clay pan but will be absorbed much more by the broken-up top layer of soil and penetrate more deeply.




This year will be a good year for fruit I'm told. The late frosts have held off so far and the blossom has remained unblemished and should produce good apples,tayberries, raspberries (not sure about quince! I had to water the tree today as the leaves looked as if they were droopy and lacking in vitality!).

The rhubarb is now vigorous and growing well without any need for forcing.

My strawbs are a bit sorry for themselves. Some of them have died and others have spread. I planted them through plastic to keep perennial weeds under control on ridges. But it doesn't seem to have worked. Oh Well.

In the picture you can kind of see the beautiful pink and white apple blossom on my striped biffin.
Maybe this will be the first year it fruits.