Week seventeen April 22nd - April 29th
2006
Thursday 27th April 2006 The greengage tree outside my window has been flowering for some days now and is being constantly visited by a variety of bees. There is every indication that we should get a reasonable plum crop this year although I think the overall number of honey bees must be low this as the cold weather during the long winter has taken it's toll on the number of colonies that have survived.
Sold first nuc of the year today.
Wednesday 26th April 2006 Planted potatoes
Tuesday 25th April weeded onions on Geoff’s plot. Gave garlic compost and put bin back together. Potted on cabbages
Tuesday 24th April Opened up compost near the bee hives in Geoff’s allotment and prepared site for climbing French beans with it. Geoff is going to put up the posts this year as he likes them sited precisely.
Saturday 23rd planted a new row of asparagus
Sunk pots with germinated snowdrop seedlings in under the other large apple tree. Will cover tops of pots with leaf mould when the plants have died down and leave them until next year.
2005
Tuesday 26th April 2005 I put a feeder on the the hive with the new swarm in it. The long promised rain has arrived - well what is left of it - most of it has fallen on Britain to the west of us.
Monday 25th April 2005 We have had a run of warm sunny days now and I was called out to pick up the first swarm of the year.
Sunday 24th April 2005 I removed a queen from one of the hives and put it in a new brood box with a few bees and a couple of frames of honey to put on the students allotment.
2004
29th We have had a considerable amount of rain in the last few days as was evident by a wheel barrow half full of water in the apiary allotment. I spent some time this evening sorting out and transplanting my bluebells. I have several sorts of bluebells (click for an explanation) the English wild bluebell that has the flower bells down one side of the stem, the Spanish bluebell that has flowers all around the stem and hybrids of the two have a random arrangement. So I am separating the original English bluebell from the others and growing them apart in an attempt to prevent them interbreeding. They are sharing a space under an apple tree with the Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum) that I have been growing for many years now and have built up quite a stock of bulbs. They disappear after flowering and have a habit of cropping up somewhere else in subsequent years as the smaller bulbs can get dug up and re-planted without being noticed.
If you are interested in bluebells Bluebells for Britain have an online survey that they would like your help with
April 24/25 Sowed first French beans and planted out red onion seedlings grown by John. Split up one of the bee hives in the other allotment apiary.
April 23rd 2004 The queen is dead – long live the queen.
I hate doing it – killing a queen bee. Especially when she has given her best in several years good service and in her turn been the mother of other good queens. But it has to be done. When a queen bee gets old and starts to run out of eggs the worker bees will make a queen cell for her to lay an egg in where they will feed the hatching grub with royal jelly and as a result produce a new young queen. All of which is fine except that having two queens in a beehive is rarely successful and one of the two has to go and the old queen is likely to swarm. In order to prevent this event the old queen has to be removed from the hive.
As I removed the queen before she had dropped an egg in her selected cell several other cells are likely to be made into queen cells. In a weeks time I will open the hive again and select the best looking completed cell and remove the others. I won’t then open the hive again for a month by which time the new young queen will have hatched, left the hive for a maiden flight, mated, returned to the hive and started laying eggs – that’s if all goes to plan.
2003
25th April Rain at last. Used up a complete bag of blood fish and bone feeding potatoes, onions shallots and garlic.
2002
Sunday 28th 2002 We had substantial rain during the night and early morning that added to that of the day before and has now made a real difference to the allotment. When I sowed the last French beans just a few days ago it was like sowing them into sand it was so dry and dusty. Now the soil is in perfect condition for planting out cabbages and lettuces and for sowing more seed. The day was bright with patches of warm sunshine and scudding clouds brought over with a strong wind from the west. The showers held off until evening allowing time to finish planting potatoes and planting out. As the wind was blowing I weeded the carrots (sown some weeks ago) for the first time, trying all the time not to touch the carrots themselves that were now showing their true 'carrot' leaves. With a bit of luck they will not need too much more weeding and will be able to compete with any new weeds that will germinate now as a result of the rain and the newly disturbed soil. Before leaving the plot and the arrival of more rain I gave the onion sets and shallots a generous dressing of blood fish and bone hoping that it will get well watered in. The onions sets will need weeding in the next few days.
April 27th 2002 Saturday afternoon was more typical for the time of year - April showers have arrived. Although there were two heavy downpours (one of hailstones) they were very short and didn't stop the action for long. Sowed more radishes (Sparkler2) a row of beetroot (Boltaroy) a row of carrots (Berlicum2) and more potatoes (Pink Fir Apple) Dug more ground.
April 26th 2002 Finally the rain arrived today. After a month or more of dry weather (so much for April showers!) and very warm sunny weather in the last couple of weeks, the wind has turned to the north east, the temperature dropped and the rain arrived. The sprouts put in yesterday looked fine and the rain had stopped by early evening in time to plant out some calabrese. I'm glad I weeded the Japanese onions and the shallots yesterday I also gave them some of the first home made (stinging nettle) liquid feed. The spring cabbage have been big enough to cut for the last week or so, but are only now a really good size. The asparagus has begun to emerge from it's leaf mold mulch and the first radishes were also ready to pick.
April 25th 2002 Planted out first rows of sprouts.
2000
21/22/23/24/ After a third week of cold winds from the North there has been a change in direction with strong winds from the west - much warmer and wet. The bees in the allotment are now a strong colony and raring to go. The have begun to use the new supper but the weather has prevented them making much headway. The stores in the brood box have now been almost completely used and replaced with brood. I'm sure the full supper has also provided a useful supply of food in these cold weeks even if it has been replaced as soon as the sun shines. This hive swarmed last year and has a young unmarked and unclipped queen in residence and despite the extra space of a new supper I have had to remove queen cups on the last two inspections. I think vigilance will be the order of the day here if I'm to avoid another swarm this year.
My modest town garden doesn't have much work to do in it at this time of year. Mowing the lawn and a little pruning of the Forsythia that has now finished flowering. My weed tolerant regime gives me a display of dandelion honesty and forget-me-nots mixed with the planted wallflowers and tulips - a riot of colour. If I had the space I would experiment with just a combination of dandelion and purple honesty that are such a contrast to each other. Who ever follows me will probably curse my dandelion tolerance and take years to remove them all but they don't flower for long and can be dug out after flowering to make space for more choice summer specimens. The allotment now has several rows of potatoes planted, shallots, garlic, broad beans, carrots, beetroot, onion sets, spinach, and a row of various brassica seeds sown (Cauliflower - All The Year Round and English Winter, Cabbage - Savoy, Christmas Drumhead, January King, Holland Late Winter, Broccoli - Purple and White). The cold weather in the last few weeks has extended the cropping season for the purple and white sprouting broccoli but as the weather warms that will soon change and the plants will run to flower and need to be pulled up and put on to the compost heap or dug in under the last of the main crop potato planting.
1999
April 24th/25th. A beautiful sunny weekend. The Lilac is in bloom - time to begin sowing French beans - but not too many as there is still a chance of loosing these early sowings to a late hard frost - they can be sown weekly until well into July if both main crop and late varieties are chosen. I sow some late varieties now in order to have plenty of seed for next year's late sowings as those sown in July are less likely to set seed easily.
Moved many plants around. Hoed, sowed seeds weeded the onions, garlic and shallots by hand. I've sown more broad beans - possibly the last for this year as I find late sowings of broad beans less than a 100% successful and not really required in the Autumn when there are plenty of other vegetables to hand.
April 26th
The weather this evening has made a sudden change . It's much cooler than yesterday the wind has turned Easterly and there is a fine drizzle casting a cool blanket over everything - ideal for planting out cabbages, lettuces and garden plants that need relocating to a new site and of course digging and planting more potatoes. Sowed more lettuce, radish, cauliflower.
Thursday 27th April 2006 The greengage tree outside my window has been flowering for some days now and is being constantly visited by a variety of bees. There is every indication that we should get a reasonable plum crop this year although I think the overall number of honey bees must be low this as the cold weather during the long winter has taken it's toll on the number of colonies that have survived.
Sold first nuc of the year today.
Wednesday 26th April 2006 Planted potatoes
Tuesday 25th April weeded onions on Geoff’s plot. Gave garlic compost and put bin back together. Potted on cabbages
Tuesday 24th April Opened up compost near the bee hives in Geoff’s allotment and prepared site for climbing French beans with it. Geoff is going to put up the posts this year as he likes them sited precisely.
Saturday 23rd planted a new row of asparagus
Sunk pots with germinated snowdrop seedlings in under the other large apple tree. Will cover tops of pots with leaf mould when the plants have died down and leave them until next year.
2005
Tuesday 26th April 2005 I put a feeder on the the hive with the new swarm in it. The long promised rain has arrived - well what is left of it - most of it has fallen on Britain to the west of us.
Monday 25th April 2005 We have had a run of warm sunny days now and I was called out to pick up the first swarm of the year.
Sunday 24th April 2005 I removed a queen from one of the hives and put it in a new brood box with a few bees and a couple of frames of honey to put on the students allotment.
2004
29th We have had a considerable amount of rain in the last few days as was evident by a wheel barrow half full of water in the apiary allotment. I spent some time this evening sorting out and transplanting my bluebells. I have several sorts of bluebells (click for an explanation) the English wild bluebell that has the flower bells down one side of the stem, the Spanish bluebell that has flowers all around the stem and hybrids of the two have a random arrangement. So I am separating the original English bluebell from the others and growing them apart in an attempt to prevent them interbreeding. They are sharing a space under an apple tree with the Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum) that I have been growing for many years now and have built up quite a stock of bulbs. They disappear after flowering and have a habit of cropping up somewhere else in subsequent years as the smaller bulbs can get dug up and re-planted without being noticed.
If you are interested in bluebells Bluebells for Britain have an online survey that they would like your help with
April 24/25 Sowed first French beans and planted out red onion seedlings grown by John. Split up one of the bee hives in the other allotment apiary.
April 23rd 2004 The queen is dead – long live the queen.
I hate doing it – killing a queen bee. Especially when she has given her best in several years good service and in her turn been the mother of other good queens. But it has to be done. When a queen bee gets old and starts to run out of eggs the worker bees will make a queen cell for her to lay an egg in where they will feed the hatching grub with royal jelly and as a result produce a new young queen. All of which is fine except that having two queens in a beehive is rarely successful and one of the two has to go and the old queen is likely to swarm. In order to prevent this event the old queen has to be removed from the hive.
As I removed the queen before she had dropped an egg in her selected cell several other cells are likely to be made into queen cells. In a weeks time I will open the hive again and select the best looking completed cell and remove the others. I won’t then open the hive again for a month by which time the new young queen will have hatched, left the hive for a maiden flight, mated, returned to the hive and started laying eggs – that’s if all goes to plan.
2003
25th April Rain at last. Used up a complete bag of blood fish and bone feeding potatoes, onions shallots and garlic.
2002
Sunday 28th 2002 We had substantial rain during the night and early morning that added to that of the day before and has now made a real difference to the allotment. When I sowed the last French beans just a few days ago it was like sowing them into sand it was so dry and dusty. Now the soil is in perfect condition for planting out cabbages and lettuces and for sowing more seed. The day was bright with patches of warm sunshine and scudding clouds brought over with a strong wind from the west. The showers held off until evening allowing time to finish planting potatoes and planting out. As the wind was blowing I weeded the carrots (sown some weeks ago) for the first time, trying all the time not to touch the carrots themselves that were now showing their true 'carrot' leaves. With a bit of luck they will not need too much more weeding and will be able to compete with any new weeds that will germinate now as a result of the rain and the newly disturbed soil. Before leaving the plot and the arrival of more rain I gave the onion sets and shallots a generous dressing of blood fish and bone hoping that it will get well watered in. The onions sets will need weeding in the next few days.
April 27th 2002 Saturday afternoon was more typical for the time of year - April showers have arrived. Although there were two heavy downpours (one of hailstones) they were very short and didn't stop the action for long. Sowed more radishes (Sparkler2) a row of beetroot (Boltaroy) a row of carrots (Berlicum2) and more potatoes (Pink Fir Apple) Dug more ground.
April 26th 2002 Finally the rain arrived today. After a month or more of dry weather (so much for April showers!) and very warm sunny weather in the last couple of weeks, the wind has turned to the north east, the temperature dropped and the rain arrived. The sprouts put in yesterday looked fine and the rain had stopped by early evening in time to plant out some calabrese. I'm glad I weeded the Japanese onions and the shallots yesterday I also gave them some of the first home made (stinging nettle) liquid feed. The spring cabbage have been big enough to cut for the last week or so, but are only now a really good size. The asparagus has begun to emerge from it's leaf mold mulch and the first radishes were also ready to pick.
April 25th 2002 Planted out first rows of sprouts.
2000
21/22/23/24/ After a third week of cold winds from the North there has been a change in direction with strong winds from the west - much warmer and wet. The bees in the allotment are now a strong colony and raring to go. The have begun to use the new supper but the weather has prevented them making much headway. The stores in the brood box have now been almost completely used and replaced with brood. I'm sure the full supper has also provided a useful supply of food in these cold weeks even if it has been replaced as soon as the sun shines. This hive swarmed last year and has a young unmarked and unclipped queen in residence and despite the extra space of a new supper I have had to remove queen cups on the last two inspections. I think vigilance will be the order of the day here if I'm to avoid another swarm this year.
My modest town garden doesn't have much work to do in it at this time of year. Mowing the lawn and a little pruning of the Forsythia that has now finished flowering. My weed tolerant regime gives me a display of dandelion honesty and forget-me-nots mixed with the planted wallflowers and tulips - a riot of colour. If I had the space I would experiment with just a combination of dandelion and purple honesty that are such a contrast to each other. Who ever follows me will probably curse my dandelion tolerance and take years to remove them all but they don't flower for long and can be dug out after flowering to make space for more choice summer specimens. The allotment now has several rows of potatoes planted, shallots, garlic, broad beans, carrots, beetroot, onion sets, spinach, and a row of various brassica seeds sown (Cauliflower - All The Year Round and English Winter, Cabbage - Savoy, Christmas Drumhead, January King, Holland Late Winter, Broccoli - Purple and White). The cold weather in the last few weeks has extended the cropping season for the purple and white sprouting broccoli but as the weather warms that will soon change and the plants will run to flower and need to be pulled up and put on to the compost heap or dug in under the last of the main crop potato planting.
1999
April 24th/25th. A beautiful sunny weekend. The Lilac is in bloom - time to begin sowing French beans - but not too many as there is still a chance of loosing these early sowings to a late hard frost - they can be sown weekly until well into July if both main crop and late varieties are chosen. I sow some late varieties now in order to have plenty of seed for next year's late sowings as those sown in July are less likely to set seed easily.
Moved many plants around. Hoed, sowed seeds weeded the onions, garlic and shallots by hand. I've sown more broad beans - possibly the last for this year as I find late sowings of broad beans less than a 100% successful and not really required in the Autumn when there are plenty of other vegetables to hand.
April 26th
The weather this evening has made a sudden change . It's much cooler than yesterday the wind has turned Easterly and there is a fine drizzle casting a cool blanket over everything - ideal for planting out cabbages, lettuces and garden plants that need relocating to a new site and of course digging and planting more potatoes. Sowed more lettuce, radish, cauliflower.
