I will have had my plot for three weeks on Sunday, but it seems like an awful lot more.
The grass that was strimmed before my arrival is back at about 3" tall and needs doing again.
I have got about 20 square metres covered with a cardboard mulch, got a 4' square bed double dug and planted with potatoes which have been in for two weeks so far with nothing showing as yet.
My compost pile is growing and will hopefully give some decent stuff next year.
I have now got my new barrow, and the weed-suppressing fabric that I ordered ages ago was finally delivered on Wednesday.
I have had 8 tons of cow manure delivered of which about six has been moved to a holding pile on the allotment.
We are planning to rotivate the middle section of the allotment tomorrow morning, adding the remaining manure as we go to get it well mixed in.
The wood for the raised beds is also coming tomorrow morning and there will be an awful lot of it! I will have to get a staging area for the planks set up just off my plot by the orchard so it can all be stacked there.
I am going to visit ASDA tonight and get a few bags of compost ready to top off the raised beds as they are being filled, which I am hoping will allow us to start planting out the seedlings from home - some of them are really a coupe of weeks overdue for going out, but all have been hardened off and so should be ok straight away.
The soft fruit and herb area is going to be covered in weed fabric apart from a central sectrion which will have the top few inches of soil lifted and pits dug and filled with manure to hold some rhubarb. This area will be protected by another raised bed frame.
The raspberry and blackberry canes will be planted straight into pits dug on the border of the fruit section as will the gooseberries and black currants, and once the fabric has done it's job we will be planting a selection of herbs in front of the bushes. This is going to have to wait a while though, as the holding pile for the muck has extended right through one side of this part of the plot.
My two pumpkin plants are getting quite large now and so I think they will be set out directly into either end of the muck pile to give them their very own 'hot' bed. Another experiment, but one I have high hopes for.
Not much to report from the home garden right now - we have picked and eaten our second raspberries of the year - only a small handful but very, very sweet. Same for the strawberries in the hanging planter - we may have only got a few fruit so far, but there are new flowers on some of the plants.
I have used a different variety to top up the planter, these give lovely pink flowers instead of the usual white ones - we will have to wait to see how the fruit compares.
The tomatoes in the grow bag have now been staked and are setting loads of tresses, but are still less than two foot tall. I'm not sure what variety these are as I bought them as seedlings at a plant sale.
I have had my first tomato from the bush variety waiting to be planted out - it was yellow and had split, probably due to inconsistent watering on my part , but very nice so I think it must be a yellow fruiting variety. There are loads more coming, so we will soon find out.
I have harvested a couple more sticks from my rhubarb which we had stewed with sugar - lovely!
We have also had some chard, steamed, and lots of lettuce from the pot by the door.
This pot has been a great success as we have been picking and eating from it for over six weeks now, but it has finally started to bolt with the recent hot weather so it will be cleared tonight with the final leaves used in a salad for tea, then I will replant the pot with some 'All Year Round' lettuce seedlings from the blow away which should be ready for picking off in another couple of weeks.
One big failure is the melon plant, which has inexplainable curled up and died despite having been watered well. One of my plot neighbours used to lecture on horticulture, and has suggested that it could have been attacked by vine weevil - I will have to look carefully at the roots later to see if there is any evidence of that.
One of my potato bags has come down with blight - I have removed all the foliage and will be harvesting this weekend. I have already had a little furtle and come up with a decent sized potato just under the surface, which bodes well for a good harvest here.
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