29th April

Last week we were lucky and the weather stayed dry, and we got started planting out in the field, we got all the red onions planted, and made a start on the white onions, so we managed to get sixty thousand plants planted before the rain arrived.

We have forty thousand white onions left to plant, so hopefully if the weather stays dry we will get them planted.

Another job for this week, is to take the Leeks out of the tunnel, to get them hardened of for planting, there are one hundred and twenty thousand of them, and again like they Onions they will all need weeded.

Last week we blocked more seeds for the tunnels, these seeds were two thousand white Turnip, four thousand Milan turnips, four thousand Rubi Chard, two thousand flat Parsley and two thousand curly Parsley.

Hopefully this week we will also get some of the tunnels weeded, and I will need to get more ground bedformed for planting out in the field.

And May is just round the corner, so I’ll need to bedform some ground for direct sowing the Swede and Beetroot seeds, these seeds always get direct sown in the ground, because they germinate really well, and don’t need the heat of the tunnels, but never sow them before May, they do like the soil temperature to be up a wee bit.

The French beans, Courgettes and Cucumbers that have been in the greenhouse, now have a new home in the blocking tunnel, we need to get them used to a cooler home, because I’ll be looking at planting them over the next week or two, that will be a full month ahead of when I would usually plant them, all thanks to having the heated greenhouse this year.

The whole growing season this year is a bit earlier than last year, we have planted the onions three weeks earlier than last year, but that could be a result of the beast from the east that hit us last year slowing everything down.