[Heather_S]

http://www.stargazy.org/plants/allotment/2006-04-16/

The garlic, shallots and onion sets are all starting to grow really well.

Interestingly I put a few milk bottle cloches on some pak choi seedlings and i put a clear soda bottle cloche on some of the other pak choi seedlings. The seedlings under the milk bottles actually did better than in the clear bottles. So save your milk bottles, don't drink lots of soda because the bottles are not as good cloches as milk ones

My Rhubarb is growing flowerheads already  :shock: I had a look on google and apparently I should be cutting these off *now* so I'll do that tomorrow. They look a bit like deranged poisonious cauliflowers

Bloomin' slugs ate my daikon radish seedlings!  :x I put some bottle cloches over the least eaten up seedlings. Will need some of those slug pellets I think... I've not seen the iron-based ones at Robert Dyas so I will have to go to the garden centre sometime and check there.

Oh and my potatoes are coming up!! The Red Duke of York potato sprouts are a beautiful reddish/deep purple colour.

Tulips are coming up. Apple tree is coming out in leaf. Plum tree is nearly in flower (nice big white flower buds). Things are actually starting to happen out there!!  

[Jake]

Wow, you seem to have tragedy and triumph all in one go there. My Rhubarb is doing well too, I'd never seen a flower head though!

My peas are doing well but my beetroot looks really poorly

Can't believe your potatoes are up already, I reakon at least another fortnight before mine show.  I planted some florida butter beans too, I don't know what I was thinking when I ordered them, they really do not like the cold. Obviously I suppose.

[Heather_S]

Ah yeah I missed out that I can't tell weeds from beetroot seedlings or if they've come up at all... can't tell what's a weed and what's a seedling at the moment in some places.
My peas are looking quite battered by the winds and that's the large seedlings I planted a week or two ago. The actual peas I planted seem to have not come up at all so I might have to try replanting them again. I'm trying to plant through black plastic and we think that could be part of the problem. It is keeping the weeds and couch grass down though.  
I planted my earlies on 23 March so they've been in for a long time. Still need to plant the main crops but I planted the 2nd earlies on 1 April I think.

Hope you saved some beans back. My seed packets all say May for beans and that's when I normally sow them. Still not warm enough outside at the moment for them and it seems nearly impossible to hold back a legume "seedling"/triffid at home.

[Jake]

Hope you saved some beans back. My seed packets all say May for beans and that's when I normally sow them. Still not warm enough outside at the moment for them and it seems nearly impossible to hold back a legume "seedling"/triffid at home.

Ahem..yeah I sowed them at home and they'd got really big so I planted them out :oops: