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 | Aug 1, 2011 | Allotment
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…at least not until the woodstain has dried! After a flurry of visitors last weekend, we realised that having our guests sitting on upturned buckets and bits of slate balanced on things was not very hospitable! Neil made a cheeky request to his dad that we could do with a picnic table. Little did we expect that less than a week later he would be telephoning to say he had made one and would drop it off this weekend! It is an absolute triumph and so we wanted to give it a couple of coats of preservative while the weather was dry to make sure that it lasts for years and years. Thanks Geoff!
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The weekend was a strange mix of larger projects and little bits and pieces that needed doing. Neil’s main project, again taking advantage of the warm weather, was to start recycling all of the bricks that have been collected on the plot during various clean up jobs into a barbeque. Armed with a plan and a spirit level he set to work. Rustic was the term I think he applied after a few courses of bricks were down! He worked long and hard on Sunday and it is almost finished. We will hopefully be able to christen it before the summer is out!
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I did a fair few barrow runs of wood chippings. It seems like feast or famine with our deliveries of chippings, so it is always tempting to get as many barrows as you can while they are around as you never know when the next lot is coming! I put an extra layer over the border between plot 97 and Sharon’s plot as whilst it wasn’t too long ago that we did the first layer those chippings contained quite a bit of green matter which has since rotted down. I also added some to the back of plot 118 as it is useful for keeping on top of the weeds that are determined to poke their way through the membrane there.
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The Solent Wight garlic and both varieties of shallot were ready for harvesting. Both are good indicators of when they are ready to pull up as the stems start to yellow and collapse down onto the beds. After harvesting, I gave the soil a good dig over and incorporated some chicken manure to start adding back some nutrients. The shallots have done particularly well, although as we have previously noticed the red Pikant variety is much smaller and less reliable than the white Topper. We strung them in bunches using garden string to hang them in the greenhouse for them to fully dry out and develop their brown papery skins. We are hoping that there are some prize winners amongst them so we can go for the hat trick at the summer show!
I also pulled up most of our lettuces as they had mostly gone to seed in the hot weather over the last couple of weeks. I need to get planting some more salad leaves next week as we have ended up with a gap in the planting plan, partly explained by a batch of Lollo Rosso just not germinating when I sowed a couple of rows a few weeks back. Think the bed might have been too shaded by the raspberry canes and the trees, so will try them elsewhere, hopefully it’s not the seeds that have passed their best.
We took a varied basket of goodies home with us this weekend – peas, broad beans, a green cabbage, calabrese broccoli, the first of the courgettes, tomatoes and chillies and a really good first harvest from the plum tree. Also, two lovely bunches of flowers, sweetpeas and dahlias, which are so fragrant and colourful. Am sure the basket will be even more full next weekend!
by Philippa | Jun 20, 2011 | Allotment
We really feel like we are on top of things on both plots at the moment, which is surprising given our three week absence while on honeymoon. Most of the greenhouse plants have been potted on to their final pots and due to having glazed the new greenhouse some have been moved over to plot 118. We have split all the varieties into both greenhouses, just in case they don’t grow consistently although the new greenhouse seems to be doing its job so far. As a result we seem to have plenty of room for other tasks. Neil has decided to do a little experiment with some rosemary cuttings which he is trying to get rooted. I’m not sure he knows exactly what needs to be done so he has just put them into damp compost! Apparently some rooting/cutting gels have high hormone levels, which is a bit off putting, so we will see what happens without.
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We have managed to take a bumper harvest of fruit home already, including about 1.5kg of raspberries, 750g redcurrants, 500g blackcurrants and 500g strawberries, all of which have been delicious. The blackcurrants, our first harvest off the plant we got about a year ago, are incredibly tart when eaten straight from the bush, so need plenty of sugar adding to any recipe they are being used in. I have a plan for the box we have in kitchen, a combination of cordial (move over Ribena!) and some blackcurrant vodka, which will need three months maturing and so will be in good time for Christmas gifts.
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We would have had more strawberries, and gigantic ones at that, had it not been for some local pest problems. The plants we put in during winter have been growing nicely, with large, upright fruit. They started ripening in the last couple of weeks and we had been looking forward to harvesting them once ready. However, eagle eyed Bob noticed that suddenly there looked to be a lot less fruit on the plants. We’ve come to the conclusion that it is either wood pigeons, squirrels or a rat. Whatever is responsible, it is pretty voracious and has left us with few fruit on the plants in the bed. It is a bit disappointing as it has never been an issue in previous years, but I suppose the wildlife now knows after three years on 97 that it provides a consistent supply of treats!
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Another casualty of the wood pigeons has been the kale and the purple sprouting broccoli, again things we have grown for the last two years without any attacks. We only planted them out about a week ago, having reared them to be big and healthy in the greenhouse and they are now almost stripped bare! This necessitated an emergency dash for some canes and netting and Neil spent a good deal of time constructing frames to keep them covered. Hopefully they will be back to normal in a few weeks, although Neil remains pessimistic! I really hope so as kale has certainly been a good crop in the colder months.
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More planting out this weekend, a Crown Prince squash, very precious as it was the only one that germinated out of the four I sowed. The broad beans, three varieties, Streamline, Red Knight and Moonlight, have been strung up the munty frame and look quite healthy but we have decided we must be a couple of weeks behind some other plot holders who already have flowers appearing on their beans! The Sugarsnap peas are now twisted round the base of a cane structure, these are the second attempt at these this year, as the first ones that I sowed directly into the ground pre wedding were very poor at germinating. Courgettes, Jemmer, Zucchini and Tundi, have gone out too.
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With the leek planting, I’m trying an experiment of my own. The Gardener’s World website reckons on planting them out once they are pencil thickness into holes that are 15-20cm deep and then watering them in so a little of the soil falls back in the hole. Some others (Bob included) reckon that all you need to do is dig them in with a trowel and put the soil right back over it. So we have two rows, one of each method, and we’ll report back if it makes any difference! We hope to still be in as much control of things in the next couple of weeks, but we have this weekend off in Glastonbury so who knows!
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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 9, 2010 | Allotment
Another long day at the allotment. We got there bright and early to find two gifts – a bottle of homemade banana and apricot wine from Chris (thanks Chris!) and Bob had rotavated all of the ground that we had turned over last week (thanks Bob!). This was a huge job giving us lots more usable space and must have taken ages because the soil was rock solid. – the soil looks perfect for planting in now. I tried on a section I had turned over on Saturday and whilst Iwas struggling with the rotavator Pilla was busy feeding and watering the garlic and shallots on plot 97.
We made a quick call in to the stores to buy netting and canes (you can never have enough canes it seems) and also returned with a massive amount of wire fencing, which should easily be enough to cover the full side and the back of our plot. After lunch I used hoops to make the tunnel covering the cauliflowers and red cabbage, while Pilla sowed a couple of rows of swedes. Hopefully this should protect them from attack better than last year as the mesh on this netting is much finer.
Back on plot 97 we planted out our sweetpeas across the front and up the bamboo arch and filled up their place in the cold frame with the runner beans and purple sprouting broccoli. I did some more weeding on plot 118 and Pilla planted out kale (dwarf green curled), savoy cabbages (tarvoy) and sweetcorn (sweet nugget and mini-pop, a mini variety from Bob) in the greenhouse and a few more lettuce varieties out in the plots. We also potted on some of remaining chilli plants.
Our first fruit shouldn’t be too long away now, the strawberry flowers will soon turn to fruit and the red current bushes already have little green berries on-exciting!
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