March Madness

Spring is definitely here, and I can't stop thinking about my plans for the garden this year. I know I've called the blog 'Allotment', but that's how I treat the garden really - I've not got much patience with purely decorative plants, I just want to grow stuff I can eat! Fruit and veg and herbs are usually quite decorative anyway, even without taking into account edible flowers, and the few non-useful plants that have crept in to my garden.

We started gardening last year. We have a long strip along the right-hand side which is more or less filled up with annuals, with some gaps. I've got Jerusalem artichokes, a dwarf apple tree, a blue honeyberry, a small asparagus bed, a Japanese wineberry, an edible fuchsia (which I hope survived the winter, it's looking fairly dead at the moment), gooseberry and red- and white-currant bushes, rhubarb, and a rambling rose. Slotted in-between are going to be a cucumber and a 'Fat Baby' achocha, and, hope of hopes, a melon, all growing up some trellis/netting.

We have a herb bed, which currently has a very healthy rosemary bush, some tired-looking thyme, a flourishing Egyptian walking onion, and a scrubby winter savory. This weekend I sowed dill, pot marigold, and some Viola Heartsease. I've got basil seedlings inside, which might come outside when they've grown more than a millimetre, plus I sowed some chervil in my strawberry planter, which is in a shadier location, which it should prefer.

Next we have what is going to be the brassica bed, and the roots and onions bed. Completely empty right now and badly in need of some manure/compost being dug in. Fairly weed-free so far though. I'm planning sprouting broccoli, two kinds of sprouts (green and red, festive!), oriental leaves, and rat-tailed radishes for the brassica bed; carrots, beetroot and salsify and spring onions for the roots and onions bed.

Further down we've got the patch of overgrown lawn which is going to be transformed into a raspberry bed, and a legumes bed. I've got a huge variety of seed peas (mostly donated to me), and am going to have about 6 different kinds of legumes - I don't believe seed peas last too long, so I'll be growing some indoors like cress for delicious pea tops to use in salad, which I've not done before, and am excited about.

Down at the end we're having sweetcorn and  tall peas growing up a trellis, plus a climbing courgette (Tromboncino) and climbing squash in pots going up the wall. Right by the house I'm going to have four kinds of tomato in pots benefitting from the South-facing wall. I also have a nectarine tree on order (!!!!) which I am thrilled about. I'd like to grow chillis again, but they seem quite a faff, so I thought I'd just ask for a nice chilli plant for my birthday in June. It's been great having a bagfull in the freezer from last year's plants that I can just grab a couple from as and when, I'll definitely do that again instead of messing about trying to preserve or dry the chillis.

On the patio I've got pots of blueberry bushes, Chilean guava and a blackcurrant. I've got a few hanging baskets that I'm going to put flowers and alpine strawberries in.

So far I've got some oriental leaves and radishes just sprouting, and some carrots (companion-planted with Garlic Chives) and lettuces that I'm waiting to germinate. Indoors I've got cress, micro leaves (rocket and coriander), alpine strawberries, nasturtiums and lovage seeds germinating.

I love planning the garden. There are so many things that are going to be new to me this year, and some that I tried last year but didn't work, so I'm hoping for better things this time around, such as the edible fuchsia which had loads of gorgeous flowers, but no fruit, and the sweetcorn which grew about 8inches and then changed its mind.

There's plenty of digging to do, the lawn needs mowing (badly) and the left-hand bed, which is North-facing and so a bit neglected (it has an ivy and a honeysuckle, and that's kind of it) has been really badly encroached upon by the lawn. In time I'm going to grow Sweet Cicely and Angelica over there, and I'm also hoping for a dwarf Morello Cherry, but I have to wait for winter for the first two, and more money for the last one!

My plan for the rest of March is to dig in the manure and compost to the brassica and roots beds, dig over the raspberry and legume beds and carry on sowing! I should have my first crop of the year in about a week - good old cress - to buck me up.