Soilman's Allotment Blog

To your marks

Time to get this allotment blog back on track. Enough buggering around. Let's grow vegetables.

I've been dead productive this morning. Got the potatoes out to chit and sowed a tray of celeriac. This isn't as daft as it sounds; celeriac needs a long growing season, and the sooner you start, the bigger they get.

These should germinate in about 10 days. I'll transplant them to individual pots in late Feb. Then it's a small matter of keeping them thoroughly watered until October.

Which won't be a problem if 2008 is anything like 2007.

Light at the end of the tunnel

All is not lost. I took this photo at the plot just after 7.30am today. Even a week ago, this would have been impossible.

For me, Spring arrives the day I can shower in the morning without the bathroom light. Tried it today and wished I hadn't. Stubbed my toe, fell on my arse twice and found myself trying to work up a lather with the soap dish.

Gone fishing

The weather is crap... again. It's January, so I can't grow vegetables. And the UK is back under water, with more rain on the way.

Looks like that stuff about Britain freezing as the Gulf Stream slows down is all so much horse shit. Predictably, global warming works backwards here. While everyone else is getting a Baywatch sun tan, we'll be watching TV on a dinghy in the living room.

Great.

I have nothing positive to add, so I'll just post a flower picture. This is my standard response to crisis.

Oops, I did it again

Couldn't resist the unusual seeds. This happens every year. As I'm scanning the online seed catalogues, I'm telling myself: "Cool your jets, Soilman. Don't choose the weird ones. You know they never work.

"Stop now. Just stop. Are you listening?

"HEY! DON'T CHOOSE THE WEIRD..."

And then it's done. 'Make payment' is clicked. And more temperamental/ungrowable seeds arrive in the mail.

Maybe I'm being unfair. It could be me; perhaps I just don't know how to make the exotics work. God knows, they never do.

Anyone out there tried any of these and succeeded?

The scores on the stores

Midwinter storage check: To my surprise, the blighty potatoes haven't rotted in store. Sure, they're sprouting a bit. But that's normal, and no big deal.

A word on storing potatoes. They must be stored in the dark, or they sprout within weeks.

And whatever you do, DON'T keep them in sub-zero temperatures. Like parsnips, their starch turns to sugar and you'll get a sweet taste – which isn't very nice. Too-cold storage also ruins their chipping quality.

Astoundingly, the mildewed onions have also done OK. I've had to chuck away a few, but that's a breathtaking result given their lousy condition at harvest.

Apparently the gods didn't entirely abandon me in 2007.