​I have planted x3 different varieties of Rhubarb crowns this year.  It won't be ready to harvest until next year but I can wait! You can plant Rhubarb crowns anytime between Autumn and Spring.  Plant them in a sunny spot in well drained soil.  I have prepare the soil by removing all the weeds and digging in plenty of well rotted manure.  When planting crowns, it is important to  ensure the top of the crown sits 3cm below soil level, and space them at 75cm intervals. Keep plants well-watered in their first year and mulch annually with home-made compost or well-rotted manure.

Rheum x hybridum ‘Timperley Early’: If forced this Rhubarb will provide tender pink stems as early as February otherwise if just left to grow naturally it will be ready for picking stems in March.

Rheum x hybridum ‘Raspberry Red’ is a new variety, producing deep red thick stalks early in the season – so there’s no need to force them. The stems have a particularly sweet flavour.

Rheum x hybridum ‘Victoria’ is an old variety, named after Queen Victoria. It produces long stems with a sweet flavour and good texture, it’s considered to be one of the most reliable rhubarb varieties available. It can be harvested as baby stems, forced or simply left to mature.

Whilst we eat the stems of Rhubarb the leaves are highly toxic because they containing Oxalic acid,  which is what we use in the bee hives to keep the Varoa mite at bay.  It is also known as a Laxative, so go easy on the Rhubarb Crumble.

Not being able to grown anything in the Kitchen Garden due to having the sun dome with all Gardners World plants in it, I have grown some peas up last years "sweetpea" canes in the Herb garden. Today I have harvested enough for tonight's meal.

Winds reaching almost 85mph hit Britain,  been at the top of hill and very open, we felt it and so did the chickens.

​I went out this morning and their food tray was empty........  You'd think these fat little chickens had never been feed.

The allotment is almost finished,  the vegetables I planted late last year are doing ok. I have lost a few of the cauliflowers to frost and the pigeons have eaten a few of the brussel sprout leaves in the last few days as I left the cloches off.

But the forced Rhubarb looks almost ready for the rhubarb crumble.

I have chosen the Glen Prosen cultivar because the label said it was good and the fact that they are a summer fuiting variety!   I have planted 10 canes.  The canes are thorn free and the fruit is firm, round and well flovoured and should be ready for picking in July.  They thrive well in moist soil and in full sun, so they should grow incredibly well where I have planted them. 

I have planted them 40 cm apart and they will be tied in to wires as they grow.  As soon as they have finished fruiting I will need to cut those canes down to the ground and tie in the new canes, which will provide the following years growth,

If they were Autumn fruiting raspberries then I would need to cut all the canes to the ground in late spring or early autumn.

I have bought 4 cordon trees:
1.  Plum Opal
2. Gae Dennison's Superb
3.  Plum Marjorie's seedling
4. Pear Conference

I have staked them using telescopic tree stakes, so they can length as the cordons grow.
The cordons will need pruning in the summer when the new growth reaches 30-40cm. The tip will need to be pinched out to encourage side growth.  Then when the side shoots reach 15cm they need to be cut back by half to just beyond a leaf.

This has been a really busy month in the garden for Hard Landscaping.  

We started by building the base for the new greenhouse, then the area was cleared to make way for the Cotswold Hoggin Path.  Hoggin is a mix of gravel, clay and sand, that is self binding.  

We have had great fun with machinery.  A digger to remove the turf and dig out.  A mini tracked dumper to take all the rubble and sods of earth to the top of the garden and bring all the hardcore and then hoggin to the bottom.  I think it would have taken weeks without it.  (we also had a concrete breaker but that was for the old sespit)
Then comes the wacker plate to compact the hardcore and then the hoggin.

I have just dug the first lot of potatoes for tea tonight, they are boiling away with some fresh mint and smell delicious, just can't wait to add the salty butter. Yum yum yum