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.

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.

And then there were six ......

Another long day at the plot again this Saturday - I was on at 6.30am to put the frame together that will eventually hold the netting needed to keep the cabbage whites and pigeons off my brassicas.

A quick check on the plants I had transplanted out earlier this week revealed no slug damage at all to anything - a triumph for slug pellets.



Jack O'Lantern

Both the pumpkins have finally started to put out a vine - the Jack O'Lantern was doing well, but the Mammoth has nearly doubled in size since it was planted out and has what appear to be female fruit forming already.


Mammoth



I may have to pinch these out as they are far too close to the main stem, but I may just wait and see first....

When I planted the courgettes on Thursday evening neither had anything other than leaves, but this morning both have flower buds which I am hoping will open tomorrow.

The French Beans are doing well, with a few flowers and the peas have already got two pods forming.

Hard at work - One of them at least

I went off-site for breakfast about 8am, but was back again for around 10.30am with both step dad Ken and son Will, and we all stayed there until 6pm.

We soon had the frame for the third bed made as all that was missing was the long sides.

Part dug third bed

This bed was installed alongside the existing two and me and Will started to dig it out while Ken continued cutting the rest of the timber to make more beds.

You can see the netting frame that I had made to the left of the picture.


Part way through the afternoon Ken was given some more produce from one of my friendly plot neighbours, Diane, who came across with a handful of beetroot for him.  Thanks again Diane.


 After a lot of hard work we managed to get the final three beds in place, but weren't able to dig them, or even get them properly aligned as we had run out of both time and energy.



 As almost the last act of the day Will planted his first ever seeds - he put in 2 blocks of 9 spinach 'Matador', 2 blocks of 4 x Pak Choi and a single block of Turnip "Purple Milan".  I hope that they germinate and prove to him that he hasn't got 'black thumbs'.

These last sowings have completed the first bed which is now totally full.  Only another five beds to have a go at now.

Week 5 on the allotment - Stuff in the ground - at last

After four weeks of hard work I have finally managed to start transplanting plants from home to the allotment.

It was starting to get pretty desperate as plenty of the seedlings that I have either bought in or started from seed have really outgrown the trays that they were planted in and have started to get root bound.

On Monday night I took a few trays from the blow away down to the allotment and started to plant up into the first bed.


The first planting

 In the picture above you will be able to see that I have marked out squares so we can employ the square foot gardening techniques.

Unfortunately the beds are 4.5 feet by 9.5, so the beds to the right and the top of the picture are 18" wide, but I have taken advantage of this to plant some of the larger, taller brassicas on this side as they won't shade out the smaller crops.

From right to left in the picture above I have planted:

Row 1 - 5 x Brussel Sprouts
Row 2 - 5 x Purple Sprouting Broccoli
Row 3 - 5 x Purple Curly Kale and a square containing 4 x leaf beet
Row 4 - 16 x Winter Onions, four squares containing 16 x All Year Round Lettuce

The two squares of climbers at the top of the bed contain 4 x Blue Lake Climbing French Beans.

One thing I wanted to get out but forgot to bring down were my peas - there is a spare square waiting for them next to the French Beans.

I went back to the plot again last night to finish off the second bed that you can see in the picture, and watered everththing with 1 cup of water per plant.  The lettuce in particular were looking wery worse for wear, but perked up remarkably with the water, so I think I will have to make daily visits to make sure they have enough water until they get their roots deep enough.


Potato Bed

I am also really pleased with the progress of the potatoes.  These were simply supermarket spuds that had been left in the bag too long and had sprouted. 

I stuck them in the ground on Friday July 13th so they will be four weeks old tomorrow.

These are growing so fast it you are actually able to see the difference in size from one day to the next.  I will have to start thinking about earthing them up soon, and I will probably use some of the bought in compost rather than taking from the bed itself.  I had originally made troughs and ridges in this bed and planted into the troughs, but the local foxes trashed the bed on the first night so it is pretty flattened by now, with no spare soil to use.

They were supposed to be there to break up the ground and also to provide some foliage cover to suppress the weeds - if they carry on like this they will certainly provide the cover, and if I do manage to get a crop from them, well then that will be a bonus.

The two pumpkins that I planted straight into the manure pile seem to have got over the transplanting shock and have started to grow again - the Jack O'Lantern is doing best but there are signs that the Mammoth is about to send out a vine - lots of little leaf buds (at least I think that's what they are).

The problem I am now coming up against is one I never expected when I took on a full plot - I am running out of room to plant things in.

The existing bed has 12 squares remaining, but four or five of them are already reserved for Savoy Cabbage - I have a mini competition going with stepdad Ken who is convinced that the bed I made using the no-dig method cannot possibly compete with the bed we double-dug together, so we are going to plant cabbages into both beds at the same time and monitor the results.

The double-dug bed is nearly ready for planting into - I finished filling it last night but I still need to level it and break up any large clumps, and I also need to pull out as much cooch grass root as I can.

There is so much at home waiting to go in that I really don't know how I am going to be able to fit it in, even with another four beds ready to fill the space we rotivated two weekends back.

Plants waiting to go in

There are already loads of plants waiting to go in that I have moved from home, with more Kale, Sprouts, leef beet  and PSB plus cabbage and cauliflower.

We have also been given a little rhubarb plant for when we eventually get the soft fruit area going, plus a couple of comfrey plants - thanks Diane.

All these, and I have still got a blow away at home absolutely full, plus the table in the front garden as well.

More Goodies for the Allotment

Last Friday I ventured out in the pouring rain to have a look at a plant Nursery near to where I work.

It was a tiny thing, round the back of a row of terraced houses but with an amazingly wide range of veggie plants for sale - lots more variety than I have found with the big boys.

I went with a list, unfortunately some had sold out but I still managed to come away with quite a haul.

6 x Calabrese 'Marathon'
6 x Purple Sprouting Broccoli (these did fantastically well for me last year, so I decided to have another try)
6 x Beetroot 'Boltardy' (not so good with these last year - never did manage to get one much more than a couple of inches across)
6 x Climbing French Bean 'Blue Lake Stringless'
6 x Onion 'Red Baron'
6 x Onion 'Rjinsburger 5'
6 x Viola
1 x Nasturtium 'Empress of India'
1 x Tomato 'Golden Gem'
1 x Tomato 'Little Sun'
1 x Chilli 'Jalapeno'
1 x Sweet Genovese Basil
1 x Coriander 'Calypso'

Garden table groaning with the weight of seedlings just waiting for a home at the allotment

I had a boot full of goodies - and the cost?  Only £16.25 !!

The owner was really helpful, recommending alternatives to things on my list that were out of stock.

If you are ever in South Manchester I can recommend the Chorlton Nursery

http://www.chorltonnursery.com/

All I have to do now is keep them alive and well until I can get my first bed set up on my allotment - hopefully within a couple of weeks.