Good Friday

Spent a fab afternoon at the plot on Friday, catching up with weeding and planting.

I've been a bit nervous about planting my potatoes, since last year's crop was so disappointing after late frosts bit it in May. But with all this warm weather and with May just a week away now I thought it was time. Even if we do have early-May frosts, the potato shoots will probably still be safe underground! We've planted all Kestrel - 54 of 'em. Every year I try other varieties and they never seem to do as well as Kestrel do, and after a couple of serious disappointments I felt like playing it safe this year. They've been chitting on the bathroom windowsill so long now, they were raring to go!

We also weeded the strawberries, which are flowering busily now...

...the onions, shallots and garlic...

...and the salad beds, which I'm very proud of. Apart from a couple of little gaps, they look almost professional!

And check out the giant radishes starting to swell down there:

We gave everything a good soaking too of course - much needed in this lovely sunny weather! And we cleared the last of the leeks and a few old carrots, cut a big bagful of asparagus, and picked this small and slightly-sprouting cauliflower - the first from our 'everlasting cauliflower' plants - much of which we nibbled raw right there at the allotment!

I also took the opportunity over the weekend to pot-on some peppers. Like the tomatoes, they were previously two-to-a-pot, but now they're all in their own pots. And despite a very slow start, they seem to be doing okay.

We've ended up with just one Jalapeno (the only chilli I dare eat), two 'Kaibi Round No 2' (very early sweet red peppers which hail from Bulgaria, bought from Real Seeds), two sweet 'Doux tres long des Landes' (long, thin, sweet red peppers recommended from Mr Fothergill's 'Vegetable Explorer' range), four 'Dedo de Mocha Sweet Aji' (rare smoky-flavoured variety from Real Seeds) and five 'King of the North' (early green peppers, also from Real Seeds). Now I just have to figure out where I'm going to plant them all!