by Philippa | Mar 7, 2014 | Allotment
Well, it isn’t long before you suddenly feel that Spring is upon you and that you don’t have much time left!
After some quiet weeks following the new year we visited the plots to see what needed doing. I pruned the currant bushes while Neil tackled the blackberry plants and the raspberry canes. Neil must have been feeling creative because after wondering why he had been so quiet for a while I found him by the shed with this little beauty! For growing peas up apparently!
All the seeds ordered for us from Kings by the society had arrived and so I sorted them into bundles of when they need to be planted, which seems like only a matter of weeks away! We also received the garlic bulbs ordered. After the best in show success of the summer we decided to just plant one variety this year, the Lautrec Wight. We did this about three weeks ago and no sign of life yet. In the following week we planted our onions (Sturon and Red Baron) in seed trays in the greenhouse to give them a good start as this really helped last year, particularly with the red onions.
The February storms brought chaos with them for the whole site. While other plot holders found sheds on the other side of fences and bits and pieces all over the place, we weren’t sure what to expect. We knew that we had a piece of glass missing from our greenhouse on plot 118 prior to the high winds and were dreading how vulnerable this would have made it. We were right to be anxious as the greenhouse had lifted up and shifted across the base considerably. Bob next door was lucky not to see it flying his way I think!
As a result of the wind most of the glass on one side was broken and all over the place and some of the frame is twisted and damaged. It prompted a big clear up in general really. It took two tip runs to clear all of the broken glass, buckets of debris dug out of the soil and other rubbish. We swept up all the small branches and leaves that had blown about and dug over most of the beds on plot 97, adding manure and organic chicken pellets to them.
We have moved a massive amount of manure onto both plots over the last few weeks but not really dug much over just yet as it has been so wet it becomes too much of a chore! That will be a job for the next few weeks as the weather picks up.
This last week we have bought our potatoes (Charlotte) and put them in trays to chit. We have also planted all of our tomato, chilli and aubergine varieties in the heated windowsill propagator at home and have already had most of them germinate after a couple of sunny days. We did some of our oddest planting yet. We have studiously followed the packet instructions for the bluebells which apparently need a forced 4-6 week period of cold and so we now have a bag of damp compost and bluebell seeds stashed at the back of the fridge! There is a reminder on the calendar to get them out in several weeks for the next step. That is, if they haven’t accidentally been eaten in the meantime!!!
by Philippa | Sep 1, 2013 | Allotment
Wowee! What a result! Last weekend was the annual allotment summer show. We hadn’t been sure what we would have to put in as entries in the produce competition. Some things were passed their best, some things were not quite ready enough! It’s always a bit of a gamble what will look good enough in the day or two before the show. You would think that we would be lovingly tending to each and every entry for weeks, ensuring that it is up to standard but it’s more like ‘hmmmm what looks passable and do we have enough of it?’.
This year we managed to enter our old favourites, garlic and beetroot, along with a cucumber, a single sunflower and a corker of an aubergine in the open category.
It was a good turn out for the show, with lots of items lined up in the judging tent. After the anxious wait for the RHS judge to do the rounds everyone crowds in to check out the results. We managed a respectable second place for our cucumber, beetroot and sunflower. Our poor aubergine didn’t place but the open category is always a tough one. However that was more than made up by our garlic not only being awarded a first place but also winning the best in show! According to the judge he had never seen any as good as ours! What a compliment! So as well as a certificate we have a trophy which is to be engraved! Seeing some of the previous winners on there we certainly feel like we are in esteemed company.
Massive congratulations are due to Bob who won a trophy for best plot over all three sites. This was also decided by the RHS judge who had done a thorough walk round in late July, so he definitely knows his stuff. Well done Bob!
With it being the bank holiday weekend there was plenty of time left for other allotment activities. Neil worked like a trooper as I was off on a cake course. He dug all of the onions up which despite an inauspicious start look amazing. The average size is probably the best we’ve ever had. We’ve left the drying upside down on the bench but will soon have to bring them in for storage.
He also collected a mammoth number of wheelbarrows of manure to cover the area where the onions had been.
The peas had served their time so he pulled them up for composting. Some of the broad beans were starting to flop over and no longer had any harvest worthy beans on them so he pulled up the row which had gone in first. The remainder are still ok for another week or two as they went in later and still have a good amount of pickings on them.
The raspberries have really come on in the last week. We’ve had one or two at a time up till now but this time we could take a full punnet home. The blueberries are still going strong, one plant in particular has flourished since we moved it into a large barrel planter. It’s so bushy with new growth you really have to search to find the hidden fruit.
And to prove I had a worthy excuse for not helping out with all the wheelbarrowing, here is my Gruffalo cake!
by Philippa | Jul 28, 2013 | Allotment
We had trugs full of broad bean, blackcurrants, blueberries and blackberries. It also included our first cherries, courgettes, tomatoes and potatoes (but didn’t want that to spoil our title!). We are now consistently taking large amounts of produce home so it really feels like we are in the swing of things!
We spent a good few hours there this weekend and seemed to get quite a lot done. Most things are looking green and perky thanks to the heat wave breaking with a few rainstorms. The last of the brassicas that had yet to be planted out had come on leaps and bounds as a result so they really needed to go out. After unsuccessfully trying to buy some more netting from the local garden centre and B&Q, Mickey came to our rescue (thanks Mickey!) with some spare. That end of plot 118 still hadn’t been turned over since we put some barrows of manure on it weeks ago so we first had to dig it over which was no mean feat in the humid, sticky weather! We then planted the brassicas out in three more tunnels. This means we have Brussel sprouts, igloo cauliflowers, candissa cabbage, kalibos pointed red cabbage and Savoy cabbage in one block. In the second block we have minicole and tundra green cabbages, scarlet borecole, cavolo nero, dwarf curly kale, red arrow sprouting broccoli, calabrese green sprouting broccoli, summer purple sprouting broccoli and regular purple sprouting broccoli. Phew!
Neil planted a couple of rows of green manures between the tunnels, because he sure does love the green manures. I think he used phacelia, trefoil and some crimson clover.
It was a week of season firsts on both plots. We harvested a handful of perfectly sized courgettes, both green and yellow. Neil also dug up our first crop of Charlotte new potatoes which looked great, really good sized and consistent quality and probably our best for the last couple of years. In the greenhouses we have our first aubergines, chillies and peppers growing. We also managed a handful of the first tomatoes to turn red. Things in the greenhouses have grown quite a bit so I needed to tie some stems up to support canes, which was good timing as I had to hide from a pretty heavy downpour! Other maintenance jobs included weeding the front of plot 97 (again! It never stops!) and tying up some of the larger plants as they were starting to droop into the pathway.
There had been a manure delivery which was quite good quality, not too much sawdust or hay, so Neil collected about 8 barrows worth! I think he’s replaced Ironman training with wheelbarrowing, he kept getting some saying it would be the last then going for another until he’d finished one whole section of plot 118! We can properly dig this in once some of the produce comes out as that side could do with quite a bit of matter added, as it’s lagging behind the left side that we’ve given more attention to.
We’ve been seeing lots of wildlife on the plots lately. We had a new season little robin come and scavenge some worms when we were digging the soil over, lots of bees and butterflies are enjoying the lavender and sunflowers and we’ve lost count of the number of colourful cinnabar moth caterpillars we’ve found. Is lovely being down there when it is full of life!
by Philippa | Jul 24, 2013 | Allotment
It has been far too many weeks since our last update so this one covers quite a lot of happenings! We knew that the end of June and the start of July was going to be a busy time as we had Glastonbury festival and Neil’s Ironman event, both of which spanned full weekends and which fell consecutively. In addition, just prior to going to Glastonbury the weather really picked up and temperatures were consistently high meaning that lots of jobs that needed doing couldn’t really wait what would amount to more than a fortnight.
Prior to Glastonbury both of us spent almost a full day at the allotment getting things ready to be left alone for a couple of weeks. This involved a major weeding of both plots, including the paths on plot 97. We had a lot of things still in the greenhouse or coldframe that needed to be planted out or potted on. We potted on all the tomatoes, cucumbers, chillies, peppers and aubergines into their final larger pots. We added a handful of the organic pellet feed that lasts for up to 8 weeks to each of them. In the greenhouse on plot 118 Neil dug the pots down slightly into the open soil, this seemed to work quite well when we tried it with a few select items last year as a bit of an experiment. It does seem to mean they don’t require so much watering.
We potted on all the brassicas but they had still been in the small trays they were sown in so they went into the small black bags we use as an intermediate stage. We put them straight out into the coldframe as we didn’t want there to be too much delay in them being ready to be planted outside once we returned from all our festivities!
Courgettes and some squash were ready to go outside and they did their usual impression of looking like they had died in the days following being planted out! But, as usual, they perked up in no time and once we had returned they looked much better.
There were loads of other things that we did and I had been really efficient and written a list of them for blog purposes but due to a technology fail this got deleted! But we did get to a stage where we felt content that the plots would not come to ruin due to our absence. Once we returned we were pleasantly surprised by how good they looked and also by how much had grown in the sunshine. We were also able take our first produce home-strawberries, rainbow chard and some mini cucumbers. In fact we have declared this year the year of the strawberry. We are at 25 punnets so far and there are still fruit on some of the plants!
In the last week or so the heatwave has meant that some things look permanently parched. Neil has set up the greenhouse irrigation system on plot 97 which helps. We have now planted out all of our squash varieties. All of the brassicas are either planted out under netting or are outside but still in the small bags still developing their roots. It does feel like they are really behind, I’m not sure whether this is due to the cool start to the year or our being busy or a combination of both, but they will be ready to go out this week. We have had a couple of trugs filled with produce, which along with more strawberries and cucumbers has included some peas, broad beans, red and blackcurrants and a handful of blackberries.
Having visited today to do some watering in the greenhouses we have our first red tomato! There are lots of green ones on all the plants but this is the first one to ripen. It is the gardener’s delight variety that is in the lead, although the plant does not look too healthy so it may be in a panic that its days are numbered! I also discovered that one of our pepper plants had lots of tiny holes in most of its leaves. I had expected to find some whitefly which we have had previously on some greenhouse plants but there were none. After very close inspection I found lots of very thin, bright green caterpillars. My internet searching has not given me a conclusive answer yet as to what they are or how to treat them but as the only thing I had at my disposal was some whitefly organic insecticide I gave the plant a good spray with that – even if the active ingredient doesn’t see them off the drenching might have drowned them! I’ll do an inspection at the weekend to see if there is any change.
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!
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