How did it get to the end of May so soon?

I can't believe that we are now almost at the end of May already.

Seed potatoes waiting to be planteed

It feels like I have done almost nothing on the plot, there are plenty of beds that need topping up with compost, half of my seed potatoes are still waiting to get planted out and the majority of the seeds I had planned to grow this year are way past their optimal time for sowing.  I was going to lift the strawberries and replant them through weed fabric, but that should have been done whilst they were still mostly dormant back in March.



Finally up and ready for use

We weren't even able to inspect the bees on time, so they swarmed and we lost half of them as we couldn't collect the swarm.

There have been some high points recently as well - the greenhouse that I got from FreeCycle is finally up and fastened securely to the flags that make up its base and being well used.

Jack's Patch on April 26th

My grandson Jack has come to the plot with me a few times and has got his own bed for planting in right next to the seating area where he can be looked after.  He is only just two, so his helping involves jumping in muddy puddles and throwing compost and soil over himself at every opportunity, but it does lift my heart to see him having such a good time outdoors.

Shallots, Little Gens and Spinach planted

I am hoping that by having his own growing space and encouraging him to plant what he wants he may be more inclined to taste fruit and veg he might otherwise not try.  I can live in hope, anyway.

The first early potatoes that I put in on Easter Monday have finally shown their heads and are looking to be strong plants, so I hope that I can get a decent crop from them when they are ready for harvest which should be around my birthday, the first week of July.

It remains to be seen if their somewhat delayed start will mean that they are not ready for a few weeks after this - I will wait for them to flower and the foliage to wilt before tipping them out.

I'm sure that Jack will give me a helping hand and will appropriate most of them to take home to his mum for dinner.



Tomatoes, Celeriac, Chillis, Pumpkins, Courgettes,Shallots

I have rescued the shallots from the old polytunnel where they have been sat since October last year and pretty much neglected.

A couple of the tomatoes I started at the beginning of March have also survived and have been potted on along with some little gems, spinach and celeriac, and I bought a small pack of cauliflower plugs from Aldi which are doing well in the cold frame.
I have also sown far too many courgetes and pumpkins (in the plastic cups to the right of the picture) , but I wanted to make sure that I had at least one pumpkin for Jack's Patch.  As of this morning I have three pumpkins and eight courgettes :)

The New Season Starts Here

I have spent quite a few hours over the winter trying to decide what to grow on the allotment this coming season.

Like many gardeners, over the last couple of years I have built up a quite impressive collection of different seeds from many places.

Some of these, like the Purple Topped Milan Turnips, will never get planted as neither I nor my wife like them.

Others like Asparagus Pea have been planted once but we didn't like the taste.

Yet more are in the sad situation of being either too far past their use-by date to be worth trying again.

The final lot of seeds destined never to be sown on my allotment are those that are OK, but are not my favoured variety - a good example being the Purple Climbing French Beans that I grew last year.  Perfectly good in their own right, but not as nice on the plate (in my opinion) as Cobra or Blue Lake.

I store my seeds in three large plastic boxes that used to hold mushrooms, and each box is split into three sections.

The seeds are split into the following sections - Brassicas, Herbs, Legumes, Leaf Crops, Cucurbits, Root Crops, Tomatoes and Chillis, Alliums and Others.

After discarding the out-of-date seeds and those that I won't be using for the reasons listed above, I still have over 150 varieties including 20 types of tomato, 11 chilli peppers, 9 lettuce, 6 courgettes and 5 types of cauliflowers including purple and romanescue.

Obviously I won't be able to grow all of these, but until the sowing time arrives I am holding back on choosing one variety over another.

Last summer I had been asked to help judge the local Housing Association Garden competition, and I received £50-worth of garden vouchers as a 'thank you', so I decided to make good use of them and purchase a few propagators and seed trays so that I was able to start my seed sowing tonight.

I chose 10 tomato varieties (last year I didn't get a single tomato, so I am determined to do better this year).  I wanted lots of variety so I planted a couple of cherry tomatoes, a couple of large beefsteak type, some plum (standard and baby) and then some unusual varieties like Green Zebra and Orange Banana.

Broad Beans were fairly easy as I only had two varieties, Crimson Flowering and Bunyard's Exhibition, so I sowed a dozen of each.

Last year I got a few packets from Seeds of Italy which I was very happy with, so I also sowed a few cells with Lettuce Bisca Rossa which had provided us with several nice salads over summer.

I am also trying some shallots from seed this year, the variety is Zebrune, and so I sowed 21 into individual cells.  I normally use sets, but wanted a bit of a challenge this year :)

I have put the mini propagators on the box room windowsill to germinate - hopefully I will start to see some life within the next week.

Fennel, Chicory and Manchester Carrots!

I had a quick visit to the plot tonight to finally get most of the seedlings into the ground.

These have been waiting in their pots for far too long, so I decided that I would have to squeeze them in wherever I could.

Fennel

I stuck my seven Fennel plants into my square foot bed planted one per square.

I have never grown this before, so I am looking forwards to seeing how it develops.

Italian Lettuce

Also in this bed are some Italian lettuce and also some Chicory.

I purchased a few seeds from Seeds of Italy this year, the plan is that most of the crops grown in Italy come from the Northern regions where the climate is similar to ours here in the North West of England.

Chicory

Chicory is another plant that I have never grown before, I believe it can be harvested through the summer for it's leaves to add to salads, but if the root is lifted and kept in the dark over winter it will form the chicory 'chicons' that we see in the supermarkets.

I'm really looking forwards to trying this out.

Little Gems

The Little Gem lettuce that I planted out about four weeks back have finally started to bulk up a bit.

Until very recently these plants had been shaded by some perpetual spinach and some chard that I had let go too far - the lettuces' progress seems to show that I made the right decision when I pulled up the giant plants to give these some more room.

Nantes Carrots

The Nantes Carrots have suddenly grown to a tremendous size, the fronds are now almost 2 feet high.

At one point I thought that I wouldn't be getting any as they took ages to germinate.

I also planted up loads of Manchester Carrots last night - hopefully these will not take as long to show.

Rocket with two rows of Celery in front

The Rocket I planted at the same time as the Celery has not responded well to the hot spell we are having - virtually every plant has bolted and produced a flower.

I have pinched out all the flowers and given them a good soaking - hopefully this will let me keep them a bit longer.

The Celery plugs in front of the Rocket are also doing well but are still growing slower than I had expected.

Nearly Ripe

Some of my strawberries are now ripening - I have had nearly 1.5kg so far over the past week, with probably ten times as many still to come as the various varieties I have ripen.


I think that I will be making strawberry jam this weekend.

\My first grapes

All of the fruit on the plot is at varying stages of ripeness.

Only one of my raspberry canes has ripened whilst the others are still at the tiny green berry stage.

The grape vine that I was given last year has loads of tiny bunches showing, and the gooseberries have lots of fat berries which are starting to change from green to red.

Black currant berries

Even the tiny black currant bushes have loads of fruit.

White Currant

Red Currant

The white and red currants that I was given last year have masses of fruit on them which is nearly ripe.

This is the first time that I have grown these, and as it was so easy to propagate from cut stems last year I think that I will probably have a few more this time next year.

Onions and shallots

The onions and shallots are swelling nicely, but some of the yellow onions have started to flop over which normally means that they are ready to lift.

These will be very small bulbs, but hopefully the rest will be able to grow a bit more before I have to lift them too.








Most of the shallots have split into four bulbs,but some have split into five or even six, and there are a couple of threes, but these are quite large bulbs.



I grew shallots from sets last year for the first time, but this year's offering looks to be a far better crop.

Shallots showing the split

This is probably due to the soil that they are planted in - last year they went into a bed that had been double dug, but was quite full of heavy clay.

This year they have been planted in a lasagne bed which had been used for my potato buckets last year, and so has had plenty of  compost dumped on top as the buckets were emptied.

Cara, Sarpo Mira and Pink Fir Apple Potatoes

Speaking of potatoes, this year's crop is doing well.

I have already had a few first earlies, both Red Duke of York and Maris Bard, which have been in the ground for just about 12 weeks.

My second earlies and maincrop are now outgrowing the first earlies and I am looking forwards to a good showing.


Now that I have started this season's harvest in earnest I have decided to keep a running total of how much it would have cost me to buy what I have grown from the supermarkets.

So far I have saved £16.50 - mostly on strawberries.

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.

More new plants for the plot

I think I will have to stop going for the food shopping - the local supermarkets are having so many seasonal special offers in every week that are just so hard to resist!

For example, this week I picked up another 24 strawberry plants (8 early, 8 late and 8 all year) and a pack of shallots from Aldi all at £1.99 per pack.

I also picked up a 3kg box of Blood, Fish & Bone powder for £3.99, and it was touch and go as to whether I purchased a cold frame, but I manfully resisted the temptation - for this week at least.

I was actually looking for a few packs of Asparagus, but they had already sold out despite them only having been on sale that day.

I had previously decided that I wasn't going to grow asparagus as it would tie up a bed completely, but this was a deal almost too good to miss. 

Unfortunately I missed it.

This will add another £12 to my costs for the year.  I have also decided to include the costs of any seeds that I purchased last year to be used this year.

The drainage channel has had a bit of a test over the past few days as we have had snow, rain, hail and everything in between.  A couple of sections need to be deepened by a couple of inches, and I also need to carry on deepening the channel through the orchard to allow the water to drain more easily but overall it appears to be working as planned.

I have some 3/4" stone at home which I am going to use to fill the drainage channel but I hadn't brought it with me today so I couldn't start to lay the path over the channel as planned.

Whilst looking at the rhubarb bed which is currently the only piece of infrastructure in place on the top half of my plot (apart from the pond) I have realised that it is in the wrong place and needs to be moved about 3 or 4 feet back to line up with the edge of my plot.  This is a bit of a nuisance as the ground under the bed has already been dug over and enriched with loads of manure, but there is no helping it.  Also, part of the spoil heap left by the digger is in the way so I will have to move that first.

As I couldn't start on the path over the drain I decided to start on the path next to my existing beds instead.  I laid some black membrane down and covered it with a few inches of bark chippings, then moved some of the flagstones from the existing paths to the new path, mainly to give me an idea of the amount of space that I will have to build the new beds and also plant the fruit bushes between the two new paths.

Another cost that I hadn't counted on will be the cost of some scaffolding boards to make the soft fruit and herb beds.  I am not going to use the planks I already have because the new beds will only be 24" wide, and as the original wood I have is 3" wide that will be far too much of the bed taken up by the wood edgings.

We have quite a large number of scaffolding boards on the plot at the moment - cost to plotholders is only 20p per foot, so as I will need approximately 48 foot to start with, that works out at roughly £10 for a bed 19' by 2'. 

Not bad at all.