by Philippa | Jun 4, 2013 | Allotment
After a scorching weekend a visit was definitely in order, to water at the very least. But I managed to get quite a lot done and we are pretty on top of things, which is impressive given the time that Neil’s training has been taking up.
Everything got a thorough water, the greenhouse thermometer read 44c when I checked. The sunflowers that had been in our makeshift coldframe were planted out in two long rows. We still have some spares so we’ll have to find some spare spots for them. I also weeded the whole of plot 118, I only wish some of our crops would grow as fast as the weeds!
While in the greenhouse I did some more sowing. Some green courgettes (dundoo organic hybrid) which despite the packet saying it contained an average of 5 seeds, had 18 in it (yes I counted, but what a bonus given they were pretty expensive!). Also a selection of cabbage varieties (tundra, candissa, kalibos pointed red and minicole) and a random variety of sweetpeas as the germination rate of our first sowings have been pretty poor. I sowed some pak choi (joi choi) inside too, I usually just sow straight outside but have found the slugs seem to like them when they are very young and tender so thought I’d try transplanting them out once they have had a head start inside.
I did some outdoor sowings too. Some swede (best of all), turnip (Milan purple top), spinach (perpetual and medania) and some rhubarb chard (red). The beetroots and carrots have germinated so will need thinning in a week or two. The parsnips have also come on great guns but bizarrely one variety is doing much better than the other. If they don’t even out, I might use the end of the bed that haven’t germinated properly for something else instead!
The asparagus has grown so much since I was last down on Friday, I’m sure if you stood and watched you would see it grow. Some is about a foot tall. There don’t seem to be many spears coming up but the ones that have popped up look good. I suppose there is still time but not sure it will ever thicken out at this rate!
by Philippa | May 31, 2013 | Allotment
Phew what a scorcher! Or comparatively speaking given recent weeks. As we are at Neil’s half ironman triathlon this weekend I popped to the allotment today mainly to do some watering so things would be ok in our absence. However, the weather was glorious and I could find plenty of things to do so I ended up being there for a few hours. In fact there were so many things I wanted I get done I was jumping between jobs in what was probably a bit of a disorganised manner! Still I accomplished a fair few things.
I potted on the rest of the tomatoes that are going in the greenhouse on plot 97. This was really hot work as I had to lug the grow bags around emptying them into pots while temperatures reached 44c inside the greenhouse! In previous years we have fed our tomatoes, chillies and aubergines with Miracle Gro Organic liquid feed, adding it to the watering can once a week. When we did our B&Q run last weekend to stock up on grow bags and things we went to buy a couple of bottles of food only to find it is no longer available there. I’m sure it’s still stocked elsewhere but we don’t really have time to spare tracking it down! So we bought the only organic vegetable food option they had, the Miracle Gro dry feed. You add it to the compost, dig it through and water in. It reckons one application lasts 8 weeks. So we added that to the large pots we transplanted our tomatoes into and we’ll have to wait and see how it performs.
While in the greenhouses I realised there were a few other things that probably needed potting on or there was a risk they wouldn’t last until we had time to get to them. So I potted on the Brussels sprouts (hastings) and cauliflowers (snowball) and pit them straight out into the coldframe.
I pulled up some old sprouting broccoli and curly kale that was going to seed and dismantled the tunnel they were in. I also did some wedding of the larger weeds, so things looked much neater which is always my preferred way to leave things when we are away.
Some chippings had been delivered to the car park from the council. I put a couple of wheelbarrows over some patchy areas of plot 118 where you could see membrane peeping through. But I stopped after two as the chippings were largely green matter so it seemed a bit pointless to exert too much energy on it.
Having admired how far on some of Bob’s beetroot was and having only planted ours out a couple of weeks ago he revealed he had started his in the greenhouse as plugs. So instead of sowing more beetroot and chard straight outside on plot 118 I started some off in trays. Another plus is the neat lines we’ll have without inconsistent germination!
Lots of things are coming on in the sunshine. The grapevine has little grape buds on it and the plum tree looks like it will have a bumper crop after last years rest. The asparagus has produced seven spears of varying heights in the last week alone. I’m desperate to eat some this year but once again Neil says we have to wait! It doesn’t seem like it’s growing any thicker this year than last so I’m not sure what we are waiting for or what we could be doing to help it along, but oh well. I vote that if it doesn’t make big improvements next year we eat it and use the space for something else!
by Philippa | May 27, 2013 | Allotment
We had a pretty busy bank holiday weekend-Neil had a five hour bike ride and then on Sunday did twice round the Manchester 10km race. Monday was our day of allotmenting and we were really looking forward to it. The weekend had been pretty warm and sunny but Monday was a bit cooler but that’s ok for a full day on the plots getting stuff done. And boy did we get stuff done!
The front of both plots were weeded and we planted out some evergreen plants I’d bought a couple of weeks ago. The front of plot 97 doesn’t have many evergreen things in it which means it has times in the year when it looks pretty shabby and I wanted something a bit neater and more manageable year round. Well that has been improved and it will look even more lovely when things have established.
The coldframe was stuffed to the brim and everything needed planting out as they were at risk of being straggly. We planted out the broadbeans (masterpiece green longpod) in blocks and also planted some more seeds so we have some successional cropping. We also put out the pea varieties on the wire mesh (early onward, purple prodded and sugarsnap) and some more seeds in the planting trench. The germination was pretty inconsistent but hopefully they will all catch up with each other. As usual they all looked very floopy after they were planted out but with the windy weather we have been having they will strengthen up in no time.
We had done a mega B&Q run before getting to the plots for grow bags and multipurpose compost and it was good timing as the tomatoes needed potting on immediately. Neil did all 8 varieties in the greenhouse on plot 118 so they are in the final large pots and also potted on the aubergines to intermediate pots. The sunflowers were taking up lots of bench space so Neil put them out in our makeshift coldframe using some classy old shower panels! Good recycling at work there! Neil also gave the grapevine a good pruning as it is really getting going and there were too many little bunches to have all made it to full fruit.
The weather started to get a bit drizzly so I retreated to the greenhouse on plot 97 for some more planting of seeds. We are pretty much on target with most things now, accounting for the fact that the weather is about a month behind usual temperatures. I planted climbing French beans and red knight runner beans, three varieties of borecole (dwarf green curled, scarlet and cavolo nero), savoy versus cabbage and some sprouting broccoli varieties (purple sprouting, summer purple sprouting, green calabrese and red arrow). While I was doing that Neil started a job I don’t think he had planned to do but once he started he wanted to finish! The paths on plot 97 have for the last year or so been getting quite mossy and weedy. It’s ok to keep on top of the weeds every few weeks but the moss is a bit more tricky and also gets very slippy when wet. So Neil scraped off the top layer of the paths and it looks really neat. Hopefully it will last for a while!
In general this last week has seen a sudden influx of green and everything looks a lot fuller. We will definitely be sorted for redcurrants this year! We might also see our first gooseberries after planting out a bush that was in a pot for four years doing nothing and which I think we both thought was on its last legs! Next week will have even more going on. Love this time of year!
by Philippa | May 27, 2013 | Allotment
I managed a cheeky few hours on Wednesday this week. But something was telling me that maybe this wasn’t a good idea as it became a very weird visit! Firstly, there was a headless (needless to say dead) bird on one of the beds. I had to be brave and get rid of it. No sign of the head yet-I’m a bit dreading it turning up somewhere!
Second weirdness was the discovery of a giant buried egg! I was planting some carrots (early market, flyaway and autumn king) and beetroot (boltardy, golden, forono and barbabietola di chioggia) and gave the beds a good raking first. I uncovered what at first appeared to be a large potato, although there was no associated greenery. On closer inspection it was a large egg, entirely unbroken and buried quite deep. I left it on the surface as I carried on planting, while a magpie eyed up the egg and eventually pecked into it-what a stench! So that got a flinging too! Later research indicated it was probably a goose egg buried by a fox for snacking on later.
I retreated to the greenhouse so I could catch up on some seed planting. I planted all of our courgettes (yellow jemmer, zucchini and floridor) and our squash (butternut, metro pmr, Turks turban, crown prince, bon bon, autumn crown, marina di chioggia). I also started a few larger pots of herbs, parsley, thyme, coriander and green and purple basil. A few last pots of melon (watermelon charleston grey and Blenheim orange) and spring onions (white lisbon and red) and then the final fright was a huge hairy spider in the greenhouse! A sure sign it was time to pack up and go!
by Philippa | May 6, 2013 | Allotment
Finally it feels like we’ve shaken off the colder weather and this bank holiday weekend was unusually sunny for such an occasion! We’ve had a couple of trips down to the plots between us over the long weekend. Neil had a mammoth bike ride to do on Sunday morning and so I was on my own. The path on plot 97 has been in need of a good weed for some time and these last couple of weeks the weeds everywhere have gone crazy, particularly dandelions! So I did some manic weeding which then spread to outside the fence down the side and along the front also. Was quite therapeutic really and looks much better for it. The weed compost ‘dalek’ is now full to the brim!
On Monday, boy was it hot! The temperature on the car dashboard reached 22.5C which hasn’t been seen for a while! We had a productive few hours. Despite the heat and being on a triathlon training rest day Neil decided to lay some flags extending the path on plot 118. The picnic bench has been resting on pieces of slate since we got it so now it has a proper base.
Lots of the greenhouse sowings have done really well in the last week. In particular the sunflowers and tomatoes suddenly looked like they were ready for more space. Neil is away in the US for work over next weekend and I am down in London for the same week and it didn’t seem like some of these plants could wait a fortnight! So while Neil shifted the flags and wheelbarrowed some manure I potted on all of the tomatoes, Brussel sprouts and sunflowers. Neil is crazy for sunflowers. However many we grow Neil always wants to grow more! They had germinated really well so there were plenty to pot on. We now have about 20 sunflowers-Neil tells me his plan is to have four rows!
Bob has kindly agreed to water the greenhouses next weekend but we can’t wait to get back and check how things are and, fingers crossed, spend more time in the sun!
by Philippa | Apr 28, 2013 | Allotment
We only popped down for a couple of hours today, which after sorting some admin things became only about an hour and a half! But we did get some good jobs done. Our shallots arrived mid week, which is pretty late compared to previous years when we’ve had them planted for several weeks already. Usually we put them in at the same time as the onions so they are probably a month behind those. Oh well! We tried a new variety this year, Longor, which is a longer, more banana type of shallot so we’re interested to see how they get on.
While I planted Neil was giving the compost heap some attention. It’s had quite a lot of brown matter in over the winter months and not much green matter so we are hoping to redress the balance in coming weeks. Neil chopped some larger pieces down to make it a bit finer and after a few turns there was some decent looking compost coming out from the bottom layers. Neil spread some on plot 118 and hopefully there will be more before too long.
Lots had sprouted or grown since last week. The sunflowers have germinated, as have some of the peas and the Brussels sprouts. No sign of the broad beans coming through yet which are what I’m keenly waiting for! The redcurrant bushes have started to bud and already it looks like there will be a bumper crop. Although next year we will really have to do some pruning as they are looking a bit wild and bent over in places which will only increase once they are weighed down with fruit!
The rhubarb looks fantastic, in fact it was too good to resist so we pulled a few stalks! Great to be taking something off at last!
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