The First Pull plus Parsnips

Today I decided to start lengthening my leeks which is reffered to as pulling them,a different kind of pulling than the pastime carried out by Loughborough residents. I use 15mm  pipe insulation and the thinner Green garden canes to start with. I have used 2 different lengths as Dave Metcalfes leeks are not quite as long as my own Pendle improved so 5" on Daves & 7" on mine, they are all about the same thickness on the barrel and by planting out time Dave's will have caught up. I have Linda to thank for collaring them all up and marking each plant.

While Linda was at work on the leeks it me time to attack the new parsnip bed / box which I managed to get built outside. All that remains to be done with it now is to fill it with 3 ton of sand,another job for Linda when the weather permits. I chose to build a box rather than use barrels because barrels being round take up too much space and also I had little success last year with barrels while on the other hand I had some cracking specimens in my first year from a box outside,it remains to be seen what will happen this year but it is worth a try. The internal dimensions of the box are 40" x 77" so I should get 24 in there comfortably at 12" spacings.
The whole thing is about 6 planks deep as some are buried underground from the original bed

We also had a visit from Harley who now likes to tell the chickens to go to bed regardless of the time of day.The giant cabbages also got inspected although I am not sure what to do with 2 of them which are approaching 100lb each in weight.

I have also been booked to do a talk at the Huddersfield Allotments Federation I was asked by Jane the secretary who has the allotment next to mine, she has witnessed my progress and asked me if I would be prepared to come and share some of my experiences with the society. I have given a lot of thought to subject of the talk and finally came up with growing for collections. There are a few reasons for this firstly there is more subject matter to go at given that you need more types of veg for a collection, also I attended a good talk last year on collections so I already have a few pointers.Also I won best in show at the Huddersfield Allotments show with a 3x2 collection so hopeful will not be out of my depth. The talk will be on the 19th of March 745pm at Turn bridge working men's club Huddersfield HD1 6SB  all welcome no hecklers.Also if anyone reading this has any good photos of collections for my power point please could you email them to me paul.bastow@btopenworld.com
cheers in advance.