Four hours, contd.

After lunch, I surface-weeded the bit below the row of onions I put in last week, and put in a long row of shallots. They were already growing in the allotment, left over from last year: I simply dug them up, divided them, and re-planted them. They might come to nothing, but if they are successful, I've got a crop of shallots for precisely nothing.

 

 

Below the shallots, I sowed two rows of Boltardy beetroot, and two rows of Perpetual Spinach/Leaf Beet. Then I called it a day. I was very parsimonious with the beetroot and spinach seeds, putting them in singly three inches apart. Each packet only cost 60p, but now I'm beginning to see the logic of Joe's insistance on saving seed and being very mean with it. Each beet "seed" is in fact a cluster of seeds, and will produce several seedlings, and if they grow three inches apart, that gives baby beet for weeding out and eating young, and mature beet for pickling.