The glorious Easter weather has really transformed the New Routes site. The plants have responded enthusiastically to that bit of warmth. The polytunnel is a mass of green seedlings ready to be pricked out, and we already have full coldframes and display shelves. Outside the perennials are putting on leaf rapidly and the orchard is fully in blossom.

This is the third season that we have had our polytunnel and we have learned how to use it efficiently, to pace ourselves and make sure that there is space to move young plants on to. Last year we grew a lot of plants but we didn’t have the space for them. We had five raised beds and a single vegetable bed but we were still in the process of constructing the further dozen raised beds which make up the main therapeutic horticulture area behind the polytunnel. We had only just got the allotment too, and because it had been vacant for a long time and used as a bit of a dumping ground by the other allotment holders it was unusable for most of last year.

This year we are so much more organised. We have a proper standing out area with some shelving constructed by the joinery project so we can sort and display the plants better and as a result we are starting to generate more sales. It also allows for a flow of plants from seeding to pricking out through hardening off to standing out, so that we only sow in the polytunnel when there is space to do so. Now we have all of our perennials out on display. The coldframes are full of brassicas already, and we have liberally sprinkled around the trays with used coffee grounds (free from Starbucks) to deter the slugs and snails that are starting to wake now from their winter hibernation. We try to avoid putting slug pellets down if possible as we are trying to encourage wildlife, so we use regular applications of coffee or sawdust from the joinery shed along with regular checks inside the boxes.

The MacIntyre learners have been planting out in the raised beds and on the allotment too. It’s going to be so good having all of the extra space on the allotment this year – not only for the potatoes but also for the squashes and pumpkins that we have not been able to grow in great quantities up until now. We planted over a hundred seed potatoes on there, as well as the ones that we have growing in tubs in and around the polytunnel. It was a bit of a race to get them in before the long Easter weekend. Of course, Good Friday is the traditional day for planting your seed potatoes, but we also knew that we would be incredibly busy when we came back after the break. After Easter we usually sow our bean, pumpkin, sweetcorn and squash seeds. We have also been concentrating on the bedding plants and bringing on the hanging basket plants (we actually bought these in as plugs to make sure that they were big enough to use in May). We’ll start making up hanging baskets in mid-May, which is a good activity for our less physically active learners.