On the Home Front

With all that is going on down at the allotment I haven't done an update of what is happening at home for quite a while.

Aubergine 'Black Beauty'



Sweet Pepper

The sweet peppers and aubergine that I planted out into a growbag in the back garden are doing great.
The aubergine has loads of flowers which will hopefully provide at least one fruit if we have enough sun this September, and both peppers have got plenty of small, green fruit on, but nothing ready for picking as yet, probably down to the poor weather we have been having here.

Spring Onion 'White Lisbon'

The pot of spring onions are doing nicely, and will probably be ready to start harvesting from over the next couple of weeks.

Once I take the larger ones I hope the increased space available for the smaller ones will encourage them to grow a bit faster.

I posted some time back that my carrots had all been munched by the slugs, but I noticed the other day that I have three survivors that have germinated very late.  They are still tiny sedlings right now, but I have high hopes for them.

Winter Onion 'Tuffball'

The remaining onions I bought from Aldi are also doing well.  I have lost a small number of them, but I reckon I still have about 40 ready to go down to the allotment.

Now I have got bed 2 ready for them, they should be in by weekend, weather permitting.  The fifteen already planted in bed 1 are doing well, but not really showing much signs of starting to bulk out yet.  I have never planted such tiny sets before, so I don't really know what to expect.

Basil 'Minette'

I think that the basil is the one thing I am happiest with at home right now, as I have never been able to grow it past the first seedling stage before.

As you can see in the picture, it is doing really well, so well in fact that I potted on a few plants and gave them to a work colleague who was having problems with his own basil.

This variety has lovely, delicate, tiny leaves but is full of flavour.  I have harvested some already and we are looking forwards to growing this again next year on the plot, if I can get the fruit and herb area ready in time.

Spring Cabbage and Kale

I still have one tray of brassicas at home, waiting for space to be planted out at the plot.

There are fifteen spring cabbage and nine puprle curly kale.

So far they have escaped the cabbage white's attention, but I know it is only a matter of time before they are found and munched on.

Still on the Table

Most of the plants on the front garden table have been moved to the plot - all I have left are a few cavolo nero (caterpillar munched), a single strawberry that I couldn't get in the hanging planter, a gooseberry bush, one coriander, one oregano, a basil and the walking onion, which is ready for the seed pods (or whatever they are called) to be harvested as well.

Jalapeno

Oh - and the one jalapeno chilli pepper I have is producing some rather nice looking chillis.

In the raised beds the chard is being harvested and frozen, but the brassicas have all been attacked by the cabbage whites.  My own fault really as I was concentrating on the plot so much that I forgot to cover these at home.

The peas I put in have been pretty much munched down by the snails, as have two of the mange tout peas.

The borlotti, on the other hand, have put out a few flowers - tiny things compared to the size of the plants themselves - but no sign of any pods forming as yet.

Sweet Peas at Last

The sweet peas that were almost completely eaten have rallied, and we actually have three purple flowers.  I am going to cut these to encourage more to form.

Leeks almost overwhelmed by Chard

The leeks are all doing well, some are almost ready for picking (if we want baby leeks, that is) but I think I will leave them to mature over winter.

Both rhubarb plants are producing well - I think that I will have to harvest a few stalks this week.  Not sure if they will become wine or crumble right now - it all depends on how I feel at the time.

The tomatoes in the growbag have all got masses of flowers and loads of tiny fruits forming - I must remember to feed them this weekend.  Some of the leaves are turning brown on the ends - not sure if it is blight but I am removing them as I find them to try and slow it down if it is.

Even the tomato in the upside down planter has got flowers on it.

The lone remaining potato in the growing bag is not looking too happy right now, pretty sparse foliage and a spindly stem.  I may have to dig it up this weekend if it gets any worse.

Even the tomato in the upside down planter has got flowers on it.



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Both apple trees have still got their two apples each, these are now getting to quite a decent size but I will need to start staking the trunks as the weight of the fruit is causing them to bend alarmingly.

The autumn raspberries and the blackberry are all starting to show signs of flower buds forming, so I hope to get a small crop from them too before the fruit area at the plot is ready for them.

Hanging Strawberries

The strawberries in the hanging planter has got plenty of fruit on it now - this is the variety with pink flowers and I hope we will have enough sun to allow them to ripen.

The lettuce tub by the door has been allowed to go to seed so I can try and save some for next year.

Salad or Weeds??

A couple of the tubs that Angela sowed, and forgot to label have started to mature, it looks like we have a few nice lettuce developing along with a few other salad leaves that I am not familiar with.  I shall have to look them up before harvest, just in case they aren't salad leaves but weeds.

All of the herbs are doing well, and filling out the planters.

End of August on the Allotment - Video Roundup

I have finally managed to get the technology working to upload a video, so I have attached a link to it below.

The quality isn't too good, so don't try it on full screen, and the sound is also a bit ropey but it is my first attempt!

I hope you enjoy it - please post your comments below if you can.

Seven Week Itch?

It is now exactly seven weeks since I signed up for my allotment, and so much has happened since then.

I started out with loads of ideas, plenty of book and internet knowledge but very little in the way of practical skills or experience in how to create and manage a full sized plot.  In fact, it wouldn't have been an exageration to say that my learning curve was pretty much vertical in those first few weeks.

So, what have I learned in this short space of time?

 Pigeons like to eat anything green.  They made short work of the Savoy cabbage that I planted in bed 2, but fortunately I was able to get them covered over quick enough so that they have been able to make quite a dramatic recovery.



Covered bed

I also learned that even if some of your seedlings have been left alone by the pigeons, you can't rely on them always being left alone.  I had put all the spare seedlings to one side, on top of the pile of wood and they hadn't been attacked so I made the mistake of not making sure the netting was over them.  The pigeons found them and totally decimated them, including my three patty pans.

Len, one of the old hands on the allotment, told me that the pigeons prefer to land and walk to their food, which has explained why nothing in my square foot bed has been touched, as the network of strings marking out the squares must have put them off.

The hardest lesson so far is that there is always another pest on the plot ready to carry on where one has finished.



The mauled remnants of my seedlings



After the pigeons had taken most of the seedlings on the wood pile I covered them with netting and planned to plant the survivors on my next visit.

Two days later when I came to look at them I found them crawling with slugs that had taken almost everything that the pigeons had left behind.  They had even got into my onions and cored them out.  I am still hopeful that one or two may survive despite the mauling they have had, but I have moved everything to the front of bed 2, surounded by slug pellets and protected by netting, where they should have been from the start.

Purple Milan Turnip Seedlings

It hasn't all been bad, though.

Most of the planst sown direct have germinated, and are showing strongly.  The ones that surprised me the most were the turnips - first to show with almost 100% germination they are going strong.



Chard going wild



Some of the transplanted seedlings have also done really well, with the chard and leef beet being the most vigorous.

Lots of Leaf Beet

The plan was to keep them under control by regular harvests of the young leaves by my son Will, but he hasn't been to the plot for a couple of weeks so they have got a little bit out of control.  I am going to have to pick and freeze a lot of leaves over the next few days.

Lettuce doing well

The All Year Round lettuce which I didn't have much hope for when it was planted out is flourishing.  A couple of the more sickly plants didn't make it, but out of 16 plants I have 11 strong plants putting out lots of great tasting leaves.

I have taken a few leaves to have for the next day's dinner a few times now, and I am impressed by the flavour.  Definitely one to grow again, I think.

Courgettes Nice de la Ronde and All Green Bush

The two courgettes that I did manage to get into the ground are also doing OK, but nowhere near as good as the chard, lettuce and leaf beet.

There have been a couple of flowers on both, but so far only males until I looked this morning and found a couple of female flowers ready to open, one on each plant so I might get courgettes this year after all!

Brussel Sprouts and Purple Sprouting Broccoli

  Under the netting the brassicas are coming along nicely, most of the brussels, PSB and curly Kale are all about 18 inches tall now, apart from one brussel that has yet to grow past five inches tall!

The plant itself looks healthy enough, it is just a midget compared to the others.  Hopefully it will catch up soon.



Recovering Savoy Cabbages

 In bed 2 I have the Savoy cabbage that were attacked by the pigeons.  Fortunately they all seem to have survived and have put on quite a bit of new leaf this week.

They are still quite a bit behind the three I planted into bed 1, though.

Step dad Ken is still convinced that bed 2 will do best for cabbage.  Personally I think it will be a close thing but I hope bed 1 wins so I can say 'Told You So'



Nearly Ripe Cherry Tomato

 

More Tomatoes Ripening

 Another transplant into bed 2 were my cherry tomatoes from home.

These had outgrown their pots and desperately needed planting out, and have done really well so far, with three  fruit from each this week.  A bit more sun and I will have plenty more ready.

Jack O'Lantern Male Flower

Stars of the show for me so far must be the two pumpkins.



Jack O'Lantern Vine

 I have never tried to grow anything like these before, and now they have got themselves established you can almost watch them growing.

A set Fruit?

Mammoth Vine

Both plants have now got what looks to be two fruit that have set, and with the current climate of sunshine and downpours it couldn't be better growing weather.

Mammoth Fruit

Once they start to get a little larger I will have to make sure that they are supported off the ground to try and keep them rot and slug free.

The first fruit from the Mammoth that I hoped had set hasn't changed size at all, so it may be better to cut it off and leave the other two to grow, but I will probably wait to make sure first.

Water, Water, Everywhere .......

We spent some time at the plot tonight trying to figure out the best way to deal with the sodden ground that covers most of the back half of the allotment.

The plot is bordered by cinder paths, so yesterday afternoon I dug a test pit through one to see if we could persuade the water to start to flow in that direction.  The pit was about 18 inches deep.

Test Pit

This was what we saw there tonight.

This was good news as it meant that it would be possible to persuade the water to flow away from the plot.

We started off with a few shallow channels in the mud to encourage the water on the surface to flow.

This was followed by a deeper, wider channel which soon became filled with run-off.

We were unable to follow up on our discoveries as the boundary fence near to the corner of my plot is due to be replaced, and so any drainage channels that we dig would be likely to be destroyed when the contractor brings in his equipment.

On the plus side, we are going to ask if they will dig the channels for us with their equipment whilst they are there.  If you don't ask ....

Whilst we were there I took the opportunity to plant a few more specimens from home - three tomatoes and two chillis.


Two of the tomatoes are already producing fruit - I was able to harvest three red and three yellow cherry tomatoes from them.

Tomatoes and Chillis

The chillis and third tomato have come from the bedroom windowsill - I know it is probably far too late in the season to be planting these out, but as the only other option for these plants was the compost heap I am going to give them a fighting chance.



Rhubarb

I also planted up the rhubarb that Diane gave us a couple of weeks back.  It was planted into a hole that had at least six inches of manure in the bottom, and was finished off by another spade-full on top.  This is only a temporary home until we can get the water problem sorted,




Now for a quick spin round bed 1.

The lettuce are really doing well now, despite them looking rather sick when they were first planted out.  The Kale and PSB are also doing well, as are the Brussels, with the exception of one plant.  This little one looks healthy, but is only about half the size of the others - I wonder why?



Leaf Beet, Cabbage and Turnip



Flowering French Beans



The Leaf Beet, Chard and Savoy Cabbage are all coming on strongly, as are the French Beans which are now flowering.  The leaves on some of the peas continue to look a little yellow, but they now have four pods.

The majority of the seeds that Will sowed nine days ago have now come up - all the turnips and most of the pak choi, but strangely enough not all of the spinach have (apart from the ones he spilled and didn't pick up).  It may be that he planted them a bit too deep perhaps?

One bad note - the pigeons have decimated the plants that I had waiting to go in - I forgot to cover them up again when I left on Sunday, and they have eaten about 90% of the seedlings.

Attack of the Flying Rats

Earlier this week I planted out the remaining Savoy cabbage in bed no. 2.

This time I didn't use the square foot method, but simply planted them in four rows of three, 12 inches apart.

We wanted to see how they would compare to the cabbages planted in bed no.1 that had been prepared using the 'lasagne' method with layers of cardboard, manure and compost.

They were planted and watered in well, and I liberally scattered slug pellets around to keep them safe.

At this time I was part way through building a netted frame for them, but I had run out of time so I decided to leave the plants uncovered overnight until I could finish it off the next evening, thinking that if any cabbage whites did actually find the plants I would be able to get rid of the eggs before they hatched.

The next day I arrived to cover the seedlings to find the majority of their leaves had been stripped bare, down to the stalks.

I was stunned - there were no slime trails anywhere and I couldn't understand how the slugs had got round all the pellets which jad been so successful on the other raised bed.

Len, my plot neighbour came over as I was surveying the devastation and summed it up in two words.  'Bloody pigeons'

At home I had never had any problems with pigeons eating my crops, so it had never even crossed my mind that I might have had trouble with them on the plot, but the damage was suddenly explainable.

Len said that the pigeons prefered to land and then walk to the seedlings, stripping them of anything green.  This probably explained why the cabbage (and everything else) in bed no. 1 was untouched as I had set up a network of strings about three inches above the soil which must have deterred the birds from landing.

Obviously I now had to finish the protective frame, so I used string to fasten two 3m x 2m nets together as one wasn't quite wide enough, and draped them over the frame, fastening them down with staples.

The frame in place

It might not look pretty with a badly stitched join, but it will do the job, allowing the plants to recover and grow stronger.

I also decided to use the cover to protect a couple of tomatoes and chillis that I had brought from home, especially as the tomatoes had some fruit that was almost ready for picking.

Side View

I would love to claim credit for the design of the frame, but I got the idea from a You-Tube video that I have watched - you can see it for yourselves here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWdVEmbqDQs&feature=plcp

Mid August Allotment Update

A quick update on how things are doing at the allotment.

About four barrow-loads to go

The muck pile has now finally been moved off the roadway.

There was about 10 tons in total, and the original pile was 7 foot high and about twelve foot across.

When I first started to move it, it felt like someone was coming in at night and dumping more on top, but what a great feeling to clear it completely.

Unfortunately we have changed our minds as to where on the plot it should have been put, so quite a lot will have to be moved, but not until the pumpkins have come out in October/November.

Jacl O'Lantern

Talking of pumpkins, the vines they are putting out are doing really well, but I am concerned about their root system.

Len, a plot neighbour, told me last night that he had watered them both for me through the day as they had both 'flopped' and were looking really distressed.

I had noticed that on the Mammoth when I had arrived so had given it some more water as well.

Mammoth

We checked the manure pile around the plants and it seemed to be quite moist, but the roots don't appear to be getting deep enough to take advantage of it.

I gave them both half a bucket-full of water each, which perked them up no end.  I will have to keep an eye on them over the next few weeks, especially if we get a late warm patch.

Female flower on the Mammoth

On the plus side, the Mammoth has started to put out female flowers.  None have blossomed as yet, but as the males are still waiting too that suits me fine right now.

The French Beans and Peas are both doing well and climbing their supporting canes.  No fruit on the beans as yet, but there are three pods on the peas.

I was sold the French beans as climbers rather than bush varieties, but only one appears to have the necessary tendrils, so I am not too sure right now.

Potatoes flourishing




The potatoes are still growing strongly. 

I will need to earth them up more very soon, but I am struggling to keep the soil around the stems as it keeps washing away, either from rain or my watering.  I shall have to ask for a bit of advice from the Vine forum and also the old hands on the allotment.

A Clean Pond

The pond I inherited has miraculously cleaned up overnight.

Six weeks ago it was choked with duckweed and filled with bits of old wood.  We cleared it out, but the water was very murky and you really couldn't see anything at all.

I checked it again last weekend and the water has become almost crystal clear so you can see the small colony of newts in there when they come out from the cover of the weeds.  Wonderful.

Five of the six raised beds have been filled with manure and left to settle.

The remaining bed is being left for now as it is still too wet.

The plan is to dig a drainage channel through the orchard at the bottom of the allotment in the hope that it allows some of the water to flow away from my plot.

Once that is done I can start to set out the fruit and herbs area, and also the patio area around the pond itself.

More Savoy Cabbages

Step Dad Ken and I have had a little bet on whose cabbages will be best this year.

I have planted three in the raised 'lasagne' method bed, whilst he has a further 11 in the double dug bed next door.

Mine have been put into a square foot gardening grid whilst his are in traditional rows.

We will see how they all grow, and compare at harvest time.

Waiting to go in

I have loads more plants just waiting to go in - plenty at the plot and even more back at home.

I need to get the third bed up and running as soon as possible to accomodate them all.  This may take some time, however, as I have decided to riddle the soil to remove as much of the weed roots as I can before refilling.

30 minutes of crumbling and sorting provided about a spade-full of soil, so I have ordered a sieve from the internet which should fit over the barrow and speed things up quite a bit - I hope.