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.

D-Day

Today is the day I get my allotment!

Had lots of emails back and forth with the allotment secretary last night.

I have now been offered the full plot instead of the three quarters I was going to take - apparently the lady who was going to have the other quarter has been offered space on another plot.

I had a chat with my stepdad (who is my allotment partner) and my wife (who is having a quarter for soft fruit) and they both said to go for it, so this afternoon I will be signing up for the full plot.

I just hope that I am not taking on more than I can handle here.

The secretary also told me that the plot has been recently strimmed - I am not sure if that is good or bad right now as I would have liked to have walked the plot first just in case there were any plants mixed in with the weeds that could be saved as I had been told by a neighbouring plotholder that there was some rhubarb in there somewhere. It would also have shown me where the nasty perennial weeds were.

On the other hand, it has saved me a day's work, and I can get straight on with creating my first couple of beds, depending upon what the ground is like.  It has rained so much here recently that I am concerned that the soil will be so wet that I really can't dig it. or if there is a lot of clay in the ground as my stepdad thinks, there will be standing water all over the plot.



Seedlings ready for planting 



More seedlings!



Last night I totally emptied the blow away to do a thorough check for slugs and snails hiding on the underside of the various pots and planting trays in there.

It was only when I laid all the trays out on the hot tub lid I realised just how many seedlings I actually have ready for planting out - and remember, I also have more on the table in the front garden.

The haul in the blow away that is ready to plant out is:

67 onions - not sure if these are ready as they are only tiny as yet.

15 Winter Cauliflowers

15 Winter Cabbage

15 Purple Curly Kale

15 Brussel Sprouts

15 Purple Sprouting Broccoli

1 Tomato

6 Peas

1 Capsicum Pepper

2 Pumpkins

4 Courgettes



Even more seedlings!

Left over from planting the front garden

1 Swiss Chard

3 Leeks

2 Cavolo Nero

2 Curly Kale

1 Romanesco Broccoli

Not big enough to plant out yet are

9 Lettuce

3 Kohn Rabi

11 Courgettes

I have also got loads and loads of seeds ready to go in.

I just hope I can keep everything under control!

Allotment Countdown. T-6

There are now only six days until I get my allotment, so I have been working hard to try and get sone seedlings ready for transplanting as soon as I get a couple of beds ready.

Got some more veg plugs from Aldi today - I got Brussel Sprouts and purple Curly Kale, and I also picked up a tray of strawberries as I needed five more plants to fill up my hanging planter..

I have also sown nine modules of lettuce, All Year Round, and I have tried an experiment with the water retaining gel that came with the Aldi veg plugs by replacing the compost and sowing a couple of spinach seeds into each cell.

I also picked up an olive and a fig from Lidl.  The olive was in reasonable condition, but I don't think that the fig is going to survive long at all.  Still, I will give it a chance.

These won't be going to the allotment as they need to be brought in over winter.

Multi Onions per plug

After having transplanted all the veg plugs my blow away is absolutely full - I ended up with 59 onions as each plug had up to six separate seedlings - after asking for advice on The Grapevine I decided to carefully split them and give each one its own separate cell.



A very full blow away

 We have finally had a bit of sun, inbetween the torrential rain and hail, and this seems to have given everything a bit of a kick start.

Lettuce by the front door

The cut-and-come-again lettuce by the front door is looking great and we have already had three or four meals from it.  I am hoping that it will last long enough for me to get some lettuce grown down at the allotment.  I cheated a bit with this lettuce - I noticed a pack of 'living lettuce' in the reduced section at Asda marked down to 20p, so I bought it and carefully split it into eight sectios, each with a well defined root system, and planted them in a large tub.  Three weeks later they had almost filled the tub and we were popping out for some lettuce whenever we needed some.  I think I will give that a try again next year.

The tomatoes in the growbag at the front of the house look like they are finally starting to develop some flowers.

The thyme has almost doubled in size over the past week which is really good as it is the herb we use most in the kitchen.

A couple more kohl rabi have germinated along with two Sweet Baby tomato and two Oregon Sugar Pod mange tout  on the boxroom windowsil.

Still nothing from the Borlitti, Mammoth pumpkin or Anaheim chillis but it has only been six days.

I was expecting these to germinate faster than those outdoors - the Mammoth pumpkin in the blow away took 10 days to finally show - it will be interesting to see how long the one inside takes.


I have also decided it is time to plant out my aubergine and a couple of the peppers, so I balanced a grow bag on some greenhouse staging to keep the plants away from the slugs and snails.  I already have one pepper forming, and both plants look like they are about to produce a few more flowers.



Two Peppers flanking the Aubergine in the GrowBag



Not sure about the aubergine - it is going strong, but I can't make up my mind if it is about to flower or just produce more leaves

We are now officially at DefCon One!

War has now officially been declared between me and the slugs and snails in the garden.

It started off small, as these things tend to do.

There were losses on both sides, but more of a skirmish than a war at that point. A few leaves here and there in exchange for a couple of hundred enforced salty swimming lessons.

Then one morning everything changed

.

Two whole brassica seedlings were completely stripped overnight, along with major damage to an aubergine and a pepper. The aubergine is going to be OK, but it is still touch and go for the pepper.

In response to this unprovoked escalation I have been forced to bring out the biological weaponry in the form of Nemaslug, and tonight I spent a happy hour dosing every inch of the front garden I could get to, and also around the blow-away in the back.

Only time will tell if this all-out retributive strike will be successful, but just in case I have placed all surviving brassicas into their own personal fall-out shelters made from 2L pop bottles.

Pop Bottle Cloches

If you don't hear from me again it means that I will have seriously underestimated the slug and snails' defensive capability!

Wish me luck!