I pulled my first rhubarb today (forced under a dustbin) and when I checked my diary from last year I found it was only 2 weeks earlier last year, so maybe things aren't as bad as they seem!
Pulled my first rhubarb stalked too :icon_cheers: Non-forced though. Mine are quite few weeks behind for the usual and even now the longest stalks are only about 8"...but I couldn't resist getting few...YUM YUM :icon_cheers:
I'm actaully earlier this year getting in spuds, and I've just picked the first of thsi eyars saladings for tea, way earlier than last year... mostly cos last year March looked nice, so I sowed outside and then it got (and stayed) cold adn horrible adn they limped along... this year it was so cold that I started loads off (in March) in the greenhouse in pots adn strips etc.... end result I have tubs and troughs of them some indoors, some moving outside, and am starting to pick leaves....
I reckon I was about a month behind-but a weekend of hard graft has nearly caught up-so have the aches!!
Started at 6 this morning now time to catch up on house work :coffee2:
I will leave my rhubarb (unforced) another week or so, but usually April is the time to start eating it, so OK for now! My spuds are starting to break through the surface and the broadies and peas are tiny plants now, so not to worry, things will catch up.
I am anxious about my asparagus, 20 crowns, 10 years old, and nothing showing at all. We are having a big family reunion on 14th May and I have promised them a mountain of asparagus to share between 12. Usually I have had a picking or two by now, with daily pickings throughout May......East Sussex.
Quote from: artichoke on April 23, 2013, 10:13:10
I am anxious about my asparagus, 20 crowns, 10 years old, and nothing showing at all. We are having a big family reunion on 14th May and I have promised them a mountain of asparagus to share between 12. Usually I have had a picking or two by now, with daily pickings throughout May......East Sussex.
They will come - dont worry - just been bad weather and they are just starting to wake up..
I have been eating small amounts of forced rhubarb for weeks. Now the unforced stuff is going on a take over bid. Now moving from Timperley Early to Stockbridge Arrow. Victorian looks like coming along next. Holstein Red on a slow boat to China. Also got a patch of really deep dark red stems, it is so sweet it can be eaten raw. I think it was a seedling. Does not look anything like the rest of the batch.
Covered mine with a small heap of straw they seem to like it. Last summer I fed my weeds to one patch. The weeds do not seem to grow under the rhubarb but the rhubard seems to enjoy it.
Put of lettuce under bottle ready for eating now. Next lot going in.
Suddenly realised that I put out the first courgettes about now, so they are a little behind. Everything else doing well.
Apple tree not yet flowering but it flowered too soon last year.
"They will come - dont worry - just been bad weather and they are just starting to wake up.."
Thanks, but it is not that I think they are dead, it's just that I doubt there will be enough for the great heaps I hoped to offer everyone on 14th May!
Well..the soil certainly is warm enough now for outdoor sowing..
I tidied in GH and cleaned some pots..there was lot of dried out plant bits inside. Last year I had some brassica seeds head drying out there and...now I've got thousands of kale seedlings all over the place :BangHead: :icon_cheers: Don't know should I laugh or cry.
That 'dry stuff' must have been some seed heads or chaff with seeds that I have missed, one thing is what I cannot work out is..how in earth did the seed get all over the other plot too..there is kale seedling all over the place...
Well...that's that ticked off from list..no more kale to sow.. :icon_cheers:
Goodlife, I'd left a sunflower head at the back of the bench.....dozens of sprouted seeds! No need to sow sunflowers, then....