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.
Showing posts with label Rainbow Chard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rainbow Chard. Show all posts
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!
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.
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.
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Mammoth Pumpkin |
The Jack 'o' Lantern, however, has nearly doubled in size.
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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.
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'
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.
Stars of the show for me so far must be the two pumpkins.
I have never tried to grow anything like these before, and now they have got themselves established you can almost watch them growing.
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.
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.
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Chard going wild |
Some of the transplanted seedlings have also done really well, with the chard and leef beet being the most vigorous.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| Brussel Sprouts and Purple Sprouting Broccoli |
The plant itself looks healthy enough, it is just a midget compared to the others. Hopefully it will catch up soon.
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| Recovering Savoy Cabbages |
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'
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| Nearly Ripe Cherry Tomato |
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| More Tomatoes Ripening |
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.
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| Jack O'Lantern Male Flower |
Stars of the show for me so far must be the two pumpkins.
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| Jack O'Lantern Vine |
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| A set Fruit? |
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| Mammoth Vine |
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| Mammoth Fruit |
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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| 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 ....
Two of the tomatoes are already producing fruit - I was able to harvest three red and three yellow cherry tomatoes from them.
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| 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.
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| 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?
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| Leaf Beet, Cabbage and Turnip |
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| 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?
First Major Harvest of the Season
So far this year I have been able to harvest a small amout of produce from the garden - there have been a small handful of strawberries and raspberries, a couple of tomatoes, six potatoes, six sticks of rhubarb and a couple of pea pods
With all the sun we have had recently the chard in the front garden has started to bolt and has thrown out huge flower spikes.
We also had a handful of leaves braised in stock to go with tonight's tea. I wanted to have a taste test just in case the leaves had become too bitter to use, which is what I have read happens once the plant bolts.
Fortunately they weren't too bad, so there is now a colander full of large leaves plus a nice pile of smaller, hopefully more tender leaves and some stalks - about 350g in total from 2 plants.
There are a further three much larger plants still awaiting harvest - I will probably lift them tomorrow and put something like beets in their place.
I have planted another Bright Lights Chard at the allotment which is a few weeks behind those in the raised bed at home.
I am hoping to be able to harvest some of the smaller young leaves from that plant on Saturday as well as some of the leef beet we planted last weekend to give Will his first ever produce to take home.
That will be a great milestone for him - the next will be when his seeds start showing, followed by harvesting from the plants he has sown himself.
With all the sun we have had recently the chard in the front garden has started to bolt and has thrown out huge flower spikes.
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| Bolting Chard |
The flowers themselves are nowhere as colourful as the plant, simply being a mass of tiny green petals.
I decided to harvest some of the plants tonight as we will be making a chick pea and spinach soup tomorrow, using the chard in place of the spinach.
We also had a handful of leaves braised in stock to go with tonight's tea. I wanted to have a taste test just in case the leaves had become too bitter to use, which is what I have read happens once the plant bolts.
Fortunately they weren't too bad, so there is now a colander full of large leaves plus a nice pile of smaller, hopefully more tender leaves and some stalks - about 350g in total from 2 plants.
There are a further three much larger plants still awaiting harvest - I will probably lift them tomorrow and put something like beets in their place.
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| Bountiful Harvest |
I am hoping to be able to harvest some of the smaller young leaves from that plant on Saturday as well as some of the leef beet we planted last weekend to give Will his first ever produce to take home.
That will be a great milestone for him - the next will be when his seeds start showing, followed by harvesting from the plants he has sown himself.
Things are happening at the allotment
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.
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.
End of week catch up
In the past week since I last posted things have been moving on quite a bit, both at the allotment and at home, and I have had a major catastrophe too.
On Sunday afternoon I was relaxing in my hot tub after a few hard hours at the allotment when one of our cats knocked my mobile phone into the water.
Needless to say it was a complete write off, so I haven't been able to post up any more pictures since, which has kind of put me off writing anything.
So - what has been going on this week at home?
I have harvested a few more rhubarb stems which were stewed down with some sugar and a bit of water - very nice, but it really needed a bit more sugar. All right - a lot more, to be honest.
The first few raspberries of the year have been eaten too - they didn't need any extra sweetener as they were gorgeous by themselves. There is another handful ready too, looking forwards to picking those tomorrow.
I have also harvested a few Rainbow Chard leaves and steamed them with some cabbage given to me by a very generous allotment neighbour. Not sure if I prefer them to spinach right now, but I will have plenty more opportunities to decide as the chard has really started to fill out and develop into really big plants. I'm glad I decided to give them plenty of room when I planted them out six weeks ago!
The lettuce tub by the front door has also been raided quite a lot this week, but as they are starting to show signs of bolting we will be eating them as fast as we can before they turn bitter.
I have also picked up a young melon plant and stuck it into my largest pot - you never know, we might actually get some sun over the next few weeks to allow fruit to develop. I am thinking of building up a frame for it to climb up - apparently this will encourage it to set more fruit along the length of the vine rather than just at the end as it would if I let it crawl along the floor.
The borlotti and mange tout on the windowsill desperately need planting out - the borlotti is now nearly four foot tall and looking for something to climb up, the mange tout has flopped over and is rapidly spreading along the windowsill. I have a space picked out in the front garden in front of the trellis for them, so hopefully they will be able to handle the shock of being outdoors for the first time
The two tomato seedilngs in one pot have been separated into their own pots and are coming on well. The chillis have now got four leaves each, and are slowly getting stronger.
The spinach grown in the gel is doing remarkably well, the only problem I forsee is trying to get the plants out of their cells without losing half of the root system which is now well established within the gel itself. I am going to plant these inbetween the leeks in the raised bed - they should be picked and eaten long before I need to get at the leeks.
Not too sure about the radish at the moment - the majority of the first leaves have withered and died, but only a couple of the plants have well developed true leaves as yet. It may be that I am going to lose a lot of these plants. The plan is to plant them out below the brassicas in the bed in front of the trellis once they have all got good true leaves showing.
In the blow away it is like looking through a jungle, the plants are doing so well.
I am considering bringing some of the trays out and leaving them on some greenhouse staging just to give a bit of room to the others left behind.
I am very pleased with the pumpkins - both are getting quite big now, so I will have to look at potting them up into bigger containers as they really don't like being cramped.
One disappointment so far has been the onions. They have been pricked out into individual modules for some time now, but there is virtually no signs of growth from any of them as yet.
With the weather having been so bad this week I haven't had much time to get down to the allotment, but I have had 8 tonnes of cow manure delivered in anticipation of some nice weather that will allow me to rotivate part of the plot and get it all mixed in.
I have spent an hour tonight moving the first of it off the path where it was dumped - 11 barrows-full and I have hardly dinted the pile! I reckon there is about another 150-200 barrows-full to go, so at my curent speed it will take me 10-15 more hours! I just hope that I will speed up as I get more used to the work.
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.
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.
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| Seedlings ready for planting |
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| 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
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| 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!
I move towards the Dark Side
As I was sat in front of the TV last night, planning out what I could plant for the rest of the year I was hit by the realisation that, once again, I had officially Left It Too Late to get any kind of decent crop for summer, or even autumn.
The visions I had of luxurious beds of home grown veg just outside the door, ready for me to harvest whenever I felt like it disappeared, and I decided that if I was to get anything planted for this year's harvest I would have to either borrow the Doctor's Tardis and go back a couple of months or do the unthinkable.
As I am unfortunately not on speaking terms with said Doctor, I had to revert to plan B and surrender to the Dark Side.
I went to the local Garden Centre to buy some established plants.
An hour or so later I was back home with trays full of green goodness and wasted no time in planting up the recently emptied raised bed.
From right to left there is Rainbow Chard, three rows of leeks and a row of Cavolo Nero.
I also picked up some thyme to replace the one that didn't survive the winter and some tarragon which I potted up with some rosemary.
There was also a couple of Catmint plants for our four boys - if you have never seen cats near catmint before it is fun to watch as it gets them totally stoned. In previous years the plants have lasted less than a week as when high the cats have a tendency to roll around over the plant, but this year I have put them in a tall tub to see if they will survive for a bit longer
Having a couple of tomato plants left over I decided to try a new way (to me anyway) of growing tomatoes.
This is an upside-down tomato planter - the idea is that you put a single tomato plant in the bottom of the bag, held in place by a foam collar and fill the bag with compost. As the plant grows it is supposed to hang down while the roots grow upwards into the compost. This is said to keep the plant free from slugs and snails and allows the fruit to develop unhindered by bent stems etc. Time will tell.
It was about this time that the rain started quite heavily, so I abandoned the rest of the planting until tomorrow night after work - I have still got a trays of Curly Kale, Broccoli and the rest of the Cavolo Nero to plant in my other raised bed,
The visions I had of luxurious beds of home grown veg just outside the door, ready for me to harvest whenever I felt like it disappeared, and I decided that if I was to get anything planted for this year's harvest I would have to either borrow the Doctor's Tardis and go back a couple of months or do the unthinkable.
As I am unfortunately not on speaking terms with said Doctor, I had to revert to plan B and surrender to the Dark Side.
I went to the local Garden Centre to buy some established plants.
An hour or so later I was back home with trays full of green goodness and wasted no time in planting up the recently emptied raised bed.
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| The bed filled with new plantings - Oh, the shame |
From right to left there is Rainbow Chard, three rows of leeks and a row of Cavolo Nero.
I also picked up some thyme to replace the one that didn't survive the winter and some tarragon which I potted up with some rosemary.
There was also a couple of Catmint plants for our four boys - if you have never seen cats near catmint before it is fun to watch as it gets them totally stoned. In previous years the plants have lasted less than a week as when high the cats have a tendency to roll around over the plant, but this year I have put them in a tall tub to see if they will survive for a bit longer
Having a couple of tomato plants left over I decided to try a new way (to me anyway) of growing tomatoes.
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| Upside Down Tomato Planter |
It was about this time that the rain started quite heavily, so I abandoned the rest of the planting until tomorrow night after work - I have still got a trays of Curly Kale, Broccoli and the rest of the Cavolo Nero to plant in my other raised bed,
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| Curly Kale, Broccoli and a single Rainbow Chard waiting to be planted |
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| Aubergine, two Peppers, a few remaining Leeks and Cavolo Nero |
I also have an Aubergine, a Red Capiscum and a Yellow Capiscum for a growbag in the back garden. Hopefully it will be a bit more sheltered there allowing them to thrive even in this northern climate.
I just hope that the new plants don't become tea for the local slug and snail population. I had a little wander tonight around dusk, between the rain showers and there didn't seem to be any slugs or snails anywhere near the raised bed.
I found loads on one of my potatoes that was starting to look a bit worse for wear so I picked them off and 'disposed' of them - hopefully that will allow the potatoes to produce some strong foliage and get on with the important business of making lots of tubers for me :)
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