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 | Jul 21, 2010 | Allotment
Don’t panic, it’s not Neil that is getting thrown out! It’s the crops that have passed their best!
It is a strange time of year as we are harvesting lots but there are some crops that are already starting to look a bit tired. The unpredictable weather has not helped either, as the wet and warm conditions have meant that a few of the lettuces, the broccoli raab and the pak choi have gone to seed. Part of me felt bad that they had to be pulled up but they are no good once they reach that stage as the leaves taste bitter. In any event they make the way for other exciting things!
Something that we wanted to improve on from last year was making better use of our space and extending our growing season. One way we have done that is to keep on top of those crops that need to be successionally sown, such as lettuces, spring onions and various herbs. Another way to achieve this goal was to do some clever seed shopping. About 6 weeks ago we placed a further seed order specifically for those crops that can be sown later in the season. Once I had cleared the seeded crops this weekend I set about planting some of the new varieties which included beetroot (boston), carrot (nanco), mustard (red zest) and bunching onions (shimonita). Hopefully this will mean that we will be harvesting tasty crops during the September-December period which was pretty lean last year. We have some more late sowing seeds that we will sow over the coming weeks as more of our current crops reach the end of their useful life.
Neil was busy once again with the path on the new plot, which is growing as fast as the vegetables! We are almost out of flags now though so we are on the scrounge from anyone who has any spare. He also built a little raised bed that we have been talking about building for ages. We finally got round to visiting the reclaimed timber yard this weekend and so Neil dug up the top trek layer to give some extra depth for this new bed. In true recycling style he then used some of this top trek to level out the path flags and the rest to fill in some holes in the car park! To fill the new bed he sorted through a few wheelbarrows worth of soil from the ‘mud mound’ on the new plot, so it really looks like a sizeable chunk has gone already.
Exciting news to end with! Firstly, we ate our first homegrown cauliflowers this week and they were tasty! We tried to grow them last year and after weeks of anticipation watching their crowns form they all blew and went to seed before they were ready to be picked. This year we tried them on the new plot with much more success. We put this down to the slightly lower soil temperatures compared to the raised beds, but who knows! A little tip to share, once the heads are almost fully formed use some padded pegs to clip the outer leaves over the crown to protect it from the sun and hopefully prevent the head blowing.
And finally…we have a new greenhouse! After a few failed auctions we were finally successful in winning a greenhouse on eBay. It is a 10ft x 8ft wooden framed one with a louvre window which will replace the wooden ramshackle shed on the new plot. It is to be collected from its current owner in the next few weeks so wish us luck for the deconstruction/journey/reconstruction!
by Neil Wilkinson | May 10, 2009 | Allotment
We have spent a lot of time at the allotment this weekend, which has been nice and despite thinking that we didn’t have too many jobs to do we haven’t really stopped! Yesterday, we had to do a lot of weeding. This week has brought a snowstorm effect of ‘dandelion clocks’ blowing all over the whole site and everywhere they land they seem to germinate in a matter of days. Being at the end of the row of plots means that we seem to have more than our fair share! There is absolutely no prospect of weeding them all out but we have turned over the areas of unplanted soil to stop them in their tracks. But weeds are not the only things that have been growing as our plants are doing quite well. We have some berries on our redcurrant bushes (although admittedly they are more like greencurrants at the minute!) and the radishes continue to thrive. If you look close enough at the photo of the radishes you can see the sprouted dandelions, the little blighters! Our potatoes continue to grow furiously and to protect against any cold snaps and to give them as much growing depth as possible we piled soil around the leaves. This will be an ongoing job as they get taller or until we run out of soil to pack them in!
The rest of yesterday was taken up with feeding and cleaning out the chickens (cue Neil climbing into the chicken coop to get at the hard to reach spots!) and also helping Simon with some digging. We hope that it is good allotment karma to help out others if we don’t have that much to do on our own plot and three people digging certainly makes more progress than one. It was a lovely evening which meant that we only really noticed the time once our stomachs started to rumble at half past five!
Today was another early start due to the AGM. This passed without too much political unrest but was noteworthy for ourselves as a new Treasurer was needed. So I stepped up and won by a landslide (although I was without an opponent!). We had to have a lot of things explained to us by Susan, the retiring Treasurer and I am sure that there will be a lot more that we have to learn on the job but today is officially day one in office!
Following the meeting and a healthy amount of gossip we got down to some actual work. Neil has been researching various methods of growing climbing beans on the internet and happened upon the Munty frame. It has a short and a taller side, with the short side facing North, and pieces of bamboo connecting the two. Vertical pieces of string run from the base of the short side and then across the slanted top which the beans can be trained up. This makes the beans hang down from the plants so that they have room to grow and are easier to harvest and has the advantage of leaving the bed underneath free for other produce. Neil used spare wood from Site 1, bamboo canes and twine and it kept him busy for most of the afternoon. We will probably be putting the beans out towards the end of May.
I spent the day planting, both outside and in the greenhouse. Inside I planted melons, pumpkins/squashes and a mixture of lettuce. Outside I planted pak choi, red and green lettuce and some oriental salad, leaving some stripy soil so we know where they are! Ignore the rather pathetic looking mizuna in the photo below, it was only planted out yesterday and is still acclimatising-or at least that is what I am telling myself!
Another late finish today, we only left at 6pm but this was partly due to having to wrestle with some netting to go over the purple sprouting broccoli we put out yesterday. We are told the woodpidgeons are partial to such plants and we didn’t want to lose any during the week. We will have to consider a better way of netting them before next weekend but we were simply too impatient for our dinner to stay any longer!
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