Mid Season Planting

The current weather has been brilliant for our crops, but unfortunately it has also been equally as good for the weeds.

Flag Iris looking good

As the weeds have grown where they wanted to, and not where we have placed them then they have an obvious advantage over our crops.

Sad reminder that nature tends to win

The natural cycle of things also cannot be stopped.  Earlier this year I planted out some swede seedlings that I had bought at the end of last season but didn't manage to get into the ground until March.  This weekend I had to admit defeat - every single swede had bolted and was producing yellow flowers which meant that they would never bulk up to produce a crop, so they all had tocome out.

I replaced them with six seedlings of cabbage 'Primo' that I had picked up at the plant sale at the Uppermill Museum a couple of weeks back, and they have joined the three surviving Brussel Sprout plants that were already in the bed.  As you can see from the picture above, one is doing really well but the other two have suffered with the slugs and are really weak.  I hope that they survive as it is a bit late to start more from seed.

On a more positive note, the white onions, shallots and Japanese onions that were planted out in April are, on the whole, doing well.

There have been a couple of casualties but I am pleased that I decided not to over-winter these.

The raspberry bed is filling out really well, and has been covered with white flowers over the past two weeks.

Now the bees from the Apiary have done their work lots of the canes are dripping with ripening fruit.

Last year some of the canes seemed to be either Tayberries or some other variant, this year I will try to look after the canes a bit better and actually cut them back after I have harvested the fruit

Grape growing wild!

The grape vine that I was given at the end of last season is doing well.  At one point I was afraid that it was dead, but just look at it now!

There are even several bunches of mini-grapes forming.

On the Beechgrove Garden TV program this Sunday they recommend pruning back the vines to one leaf past the grapes and each sideshoot to one leaf past the main stem.

I will give that a try over the next week

The strawberry beds are doing well with mostly green fruit as yet, but the ones I spaced out and planted through weed fabric look to be the easiest to harvest and best for less weeds and control of runners - if it works well I might re-plant the whole strawberry bed after the summer.






The current and gooseberry bed is looking very lush and green, but the currant plant nearest the camera has absolutely no fruit what so ever!

The leaves are different to the other currants on the plot, so I will have to wait until I get some fruit before I can identify it properly.

Waiting for a space

On my table I have loads of broad beans and peas just waiting for a space to become ready in one of the beds.

There are also a few brassicas that were originally in the poly tunnel but were attacked by a slug.  Hopefully they can recover enough to be planted out.

Cucumbers, Squash, Basil and Chives

On the stand on the decking I have got a few strawberries that were rescued after a communal tidy day a few weeks back.

They have been joined by a few  Crystal Lemon Cucumbers, Hawk Squash, Purple Basil and a pot of Chives.

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In my original square foot garden bed there are two perpetual spinach and a chard that have gone wild, and are now far too big for the bed.

I will take them out and plant up some new seedlings as they take next to no time to grow and I will try to keep on top of picking the leaves so they don't get out of hand so easily again.

Walking Onion bulbils

My walking onion (Egyptian Tree Onion) is thriving - there are loads of bulbils forming on the top of their leaves, the bulbils, leaves and bulbs are all edible, but I am leaving it to grow as it is a perennial.

Most of the long stems have been broken by something - not sure what but I hope it wasn't me.

This year I have three beds of potatoes in the ground, the varieties I am growing are Maris Peer and Red Duke of York (1st earlies), Cara and Sarpo Mira (2nd earlies) and Pink Fir Apple and Orla (Maincrop).

White Currant

Last year I was given a couple of currant bushes, one red and one white, which I stuck into either end of a bed just to give them a temporary home.

Both bushes have taken, and I am very happy to have them absolutely dripping with fruit.

Red Currant

The redcurrant bush was so large that I had to clip it down quite a lot to get it in the back of the car.

Rather than throw these clippings away I stuck them in the ground around the bush.

Every single one survived and grew on, so I will have loads of redcurrants for my wine making later this year.

Compost pile

Last year I had been using two dalek compost bins, but the amount of green waste I was producing soon filled these and more.

I was fortunate to be given a few pallets by another plotholder which I screwed together to make a compost baywhich as you can see is also nearly full already.

Winter Slowdown

There's not been a lot to blog about recently.

It's been cold and frosty, then wet and windy and it looks like we are going back to cold and frosty for the weekend.

The onions on the plot have pretty much stopped growing now, the garlic is putting out loads of roots but no shoots from the other end (I only found this out becasue the pigeons have pulled up a couple of cloves - they must have mistaken them for worms).

The winter cabbages are beginning to heart up nicely and the first should be ready for harvest by Christmas.

No sprouts as yet, but the purple kale is looking wonderful.

The tallest of the perpetual spinach is suffering with the frost - I may have to cut it back hard as it is flopping all over the chard, which is doing remarkably well despite the hard frosts we have had.

The remaining two Pak Choi have survibed the frosts well and are looking good.

The rhubarb has finally admitted defeat and is dying back - this should be fine where it is until January when I will transplant it into the rhubarb bed near to the pond.

At home I have a couple of Romanesco Caulis forming nice curds, but a couple of the others look like they will be going to seed instead - not a problem as I will try to harvest the seed for next year.

My Cavolo Nero have recovered from being ravaged by caterpillars in the Autum and are producing lots of nice-looking leaves and are almost ready to start picking from.

All four apples on my trees were still on as of last weekend, and I was debating as to whether I should leave them or pick them - high winds have made that decision a bit unneccessary for the green apples as both were blown off, but the reds are still hanging on.

Until I can get the drainage problems at the plot sorted out I cannot build any fruit beds so the bare rooted strawberries that I bought have had to be sat in water for far longer than I was anticipating - I hope that they survive. 

I had them in the kitchen to start with but I had to move them off the worksurface so they ended up on the boxroom windowsill where I thought they would do well with whatever little daylight they could get, but I have noticed tonight that the fresh green leaves that appeared whilsat they were in the kitchen have started to fade and go brittle - maybe the cold from the glass has been too much?

I have now moved them away from the window in the hope that they will hang on until I can get them into a prepared raised bed at the allotment.

Ice, Ice Baby!

I have just got back in after a very cold morning on the plot.

Where my plot is situated I get no direct sun on 90% of my land at all during the winter as the sun is so low in the sky, so any frost that appears does not melt but gets built up over any subsequent frosty days.

Frosty Savoy Cabbages

Today has been the third or fourth consecutive frosty day with the result that everything is covered with a thick layer of frost.  It all looks quite beautiful really, but I wanted to harvest a few spring green leaves and in the end I didn't as I wasn't sure how the plants would fare with an open wound in these temperatures.

Perpetual spinach just about survuving the cold

I realise that some vegetables need a really cold snap to jolt them into production, and that plenty of the brassicas I already have in the ground can cope with these temperatures, but I can't help looking forwards to Spring and the new growing season when everything becomes alive and vibrant again.

Brussels with a halo of frost



Drainage ditch completely iced up

Despite the cold I took the opportunity to finish digging bed 7 today.  We had originally started it last weekend, but ran out of good weather before we had got much more than half way through.

This morning it was pretty hard going to start, with the frost penetrating to about 3 inches below ground, but once I had taken out the first spades-width and moved back from the edge this reduced to just over an inch so I was able to make some good progress.

The manure pile had also frozen solid, despite there being some heat generated from the rotting process below the surface.

It looks like the heavy rain that we had last Thursday had pooled on every surface and then frozen quickly to create an icy coating which subsequent frosts have thickened. 

The piles of earth that we dug out last week were literally frozen solid - I tried to break them up with the mattock, but just succeeded in spraying myself with loads of ice chips mixed with frozen soil - not nice.

I will have to wait for some nicer weather to arrive before this bed is finished, but on the positive side I have now moved enough manure from the pile to leave space for bed 9 to be created there, but that too is a job for another, warmer day.

Autumn Blues and Water Problems

As we move through Autumn there is less and less to do on the allotment.

The summer plants have all finished and been removed to the compost pile, the over wintering brassicas are all in and looking healthy.

The overwintering onions and garlic have been in for about six weeks.  The onions are showing strongly, with about three to four inches of growth on the white onions and one to two on the red.

No sign of any life from the garlic as yet, neither the purpose bought stuff or the jumbo ones from the supermarket.  That seems to be the same with everyone else on the allotment though, so I am not too worried at the moment.

The perpetual spinach is still performing strongly, as is the chard.  I am hoping to be able to keep harvesting from these until Christmas.

I have had a first harvest of leaves from the purple kale which I planted out in early August, the plants are growing strongly and should have no problems in surviving the cold.

The Brussels planted at the same time are still causing me some worry - there are plenty of leaves and the plants themselves look strong, but there is no sign of any sprouts forming on most of the plants as yet.  I hope that I can get something off them for Christmas day - that would be really nice.

The rhubarb is finally starting to die back - recent frosts overnight seem to have done the job - so once the rhubarb bed near to the pond is completed they can be transplanted once they have gone completely dormant.

I am still having major problems with the lack of drainage on the top half of my plot - most of it is very sodden with standing water and lots of mud on the surface.

It looks like the drainage channels that I dug have been partly successful as the neighbouring plots and communal areas that used to be waterlogged are now pretty dry, so the water from them has apparently drained into my plot.  The solution appears to be just carry on with more of the same, and make the channels already dug deeper and a bit wider.

Another plot holder has arranged for a mini digger for the afternoon to help him to turn over his plot as it is completely full of tree roots, making hand digging almost impossible.

Once his plot has been done the digger is going to deepen the drain through the orchard area away from my plot, and will then dig channels through my plot to meet them.

The orchard drain will simply have a length of perforated drainage pipe laid at the bottom and then be back filled.

My drain will have a 3" layer of 3/4 stone under a drainage pipe, with the rest of the trench being filled with 3/4 stone.  As the majority of the drains will be under flagged paths I am hoping that this won't cause me too many problems with my planting next year and that it sorts out my water logging problem.

If it doesn't, I really don't know what else to try.

On a more positive note, we spend most of yesterday afternoon digging over bed 7 which had been getting a bit swamped with grass, and mixing the soil well with manure from the larger of the two piles.

Once finished this will be where I plant my bare-rooted strawberries for them to over-winter as I couldn't put them where I intend them to live permanently as it is currently too wet.

I have eighteen plants - six each of Malwina, Mae and Elegance.  They are supposed to crop at different times through the season, so I am hoping to have a succession of strawberries all summer long next year.

I have also got started on moving the first manure pile as I want to put a couple more raised beds where it is now - my son Will did a grand job in shifting loads of it for me, and with very little complaining about the smell (then again, it is now quite well rotted and lovely stuff) and there is now nearly enough space to drop frames for raised beds 10 and 11 down.

When I stop to look at what we have achieved so far, I am quite proud of my little plot.  Once the water problem is sorted out there will be no stopping us!

Allotment Catch up - Early October

After having nearly four weeks away from the allotment due to a combination of holidays, illness and bad weather I wasn't looking forwards to my visit earlier this month.

I was expecting caterpillar munched brassicas, slug munched lettuce and courgettes and drowned everything else, but I am please to say that although there was some damage, it was nowhere near as bad as I was anticipating.

The torrential downpours had washed away every slug pellet, so there were quite a few fat slugs enjoying the fruits of my labours.  They soon got the sharp end of a trowel and were flung onto the manure pile.



Onions hanging on - just !





In bed 1 the square of 15 onions had suffered some slug damage, with about four whose tops had been munched but the rest seem to have been left alone.



Big lettuce pressing against the netting



In the next picture you can see just how well the lettuce are coming on - when I planted them I thought they were the sort where you harvest the outer leaves as and when you need them, and that they didn't form a heart, but every one is now a huge, full-hearted lettuce that are very sweet tasting.

One problem with all the rain we have been having is that the very outer leaves which have been touching the soil had started to rot on the plant, but I soon whipped those off.



Brussels, PSB and Kale



The brassicas also under the netting in bed 1 are still growing strongly - there have been a few caterpillars on them due to the flimsy construction of the netting and cage, but nothing major so I am hoping for great things from them later this year/early next.



Before removing the finished courgette plants



The peas at the top of bed 1 had withered so I pulled them out, and the courgettes had been badly attacked by the slugs, so they came out too.

The turnips planted from seed are starting to bulk up a little - the largest was about 2 inches across, and some of the spinach is also doing well, but a lot of it has been swamped by the cabbages in the next squares so was still pretty spindly.  A lesson to be learned for next year here, don't include brassicas in a square foot bed unless they are all similar size plants or they will overwhelm their neighbours.



Pak Choi doing well



The pak choi planted from seed have done fantastically well, so I harvested a couple for our tea, and very nice they were too.

Some of them were also having trouble with the huge cabbages next door, so I did a little trimming of the lower, larger cabbage leaves to give the pak choi a bit more light, which will hopefully allow them to grow a bit more.





The star of bed 1 so far has got to be the french beans.  I have had four small harvests from them already and all four plants are still loaded with flowers.  I just hope that the frosts keep off and we have enough sun to be able to harvest the rest as they have an unbelievable flavour.









Lots of Bean Pods




The Mammoth pumpkin hasn't really lived up to its name despite an early showing - the one remaining fruit hasn't really grown very much since the last time I measured it.



Mammoth Pumpkin



The Jack 'o' Lantern, however, has nearly doubled in size.



Jack 'O' Lantern



I just hope that at least one of them will toughen up enugh to be carved for our Halloween Party on Oct 27th!





Top of bed 2





At the top of bed 2 the Savoy cabbages are doing well despite their somewhat shakey start and are pretty much the same size as those in bed 1.

I had to remove the two cherry tomato bushes as they had signs of blight, but I have left the chillis in place - the plan is to trim them and try to overwinter by wrapping in fleece with the surrounding brassicas also providing some shelter.

In the space left by the tomatoes I have planted some of the kale that was pigeoned, slugged and caterpillared back in July as they appeared to be staging some kind of come back.

I also planted three Kohl Rabi that had been sitting at home and should really have been in the ground by now.



Bottom of bed 2



At the bottom of bed 2 the donated rhubarb is growing fantastically well - all my rhubarb at home is starting to die down ready for winter but these two are still going great guns.

The transplanted turnips have taken well, but aren't as far along as the ones left behind in bed 1.

The radish at the botton right of the picture have started to form bulbs, but they aren't much more than pea-sized right now.

The chard and perpetual spinach are flourishing, but some of the slug-munched onions appear to have been too far gone to save.

I have also started to plant into bed 3 as I had to bring out all the remaining brassicas from home, plus those munched on earlier but still with full hearts.

The whole of bed 3 now contains spring cabbage, curly cale, brussel sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli.

I think the next thing to do is to get beds 4 and 5 ready using the lasagne method.

This isn't as I planned, but I need to get some onion sets and some garlic in and the way the weather is closing in as we head through Autumn I doubt that I will have enough time to double dig as I had wanted.

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.