by Philippa | Aug 1, 2011 | Allotment
[flickr]photo:5998778145[/flickr]
…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!
[flickr]photo:5999325546[/flickr]
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!
[flickr]photo:5998783015[/flickr]
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.
[flickr]photo:5998785675[/flickr]
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 | Jul 14, 2011 | Allotment
I have decided that I am not going to bow, or call him Chairman or Mr President, no matter how often he asks. Following the AGM today Neil was elected as Chair of the Society. This was mainly due to the lack of willing volunteers when it came time to re-elect, but he does have plenty of enthusiasm!
[flickr]photo:5935332152[/flickr]
The AGM did not take very long, nothing very controversial. We then had a Sow and Grow event, with planters of compost to plant up with seedlings of lettuce, cucumber, tomato and radish, so that people could learn how to plant them and take something away to nurture at home.
[flickr]photo:5934776291[/flickr] [flickr]photo:5934774747[/flickr]
The weather was a bit hit and miss for most of the day, but it didn’t get in the way too much as most of the jobs we were doing were tidying, plot admin sort of tasks. We made two visits to the tip with all the bags of rubbish, glass and other general junk that had been cluttering the place up since we got the new plot. This alone made a huge difference. We also tidied our spare plant pots that had been hanging around on the old plot and gave the shed a good tidy, it really looks like we are on top of things. Perfect timing as the allotment competition judge will be doing the rounds in the next couple of weeks, fingers crossed this will get us extra points!
[flickr]photo:5935338242[/flickr]
Both sets of rhubarb needed all the dead leaves removing, as it made them look like they were on their last legs, so they look a bit perkier now and can concentrate on growing for next year. The broad beans that were in over winter had finished producing pods so Neil dug them up and covered the cleared area with some of our compost. I think he used three wheelbarrows full and it all looked really good quality and had a fine, crumbly consistency. I think it’s fair to say we are pretty proud of our compost (geeks!). The second lot of broad beans we put out as a bit of a punt have started to produce pods, so we may actually have successfully extended the season pretty well.
[flickr]photo:5935333682[/flickr]
I potted on the melon plants that were in the old greenhouse and put the watermelon plants into the cold frame. Next time I’ll plant them outside, which surprised me as I imagined they would need to stay in a greenhouse, and they like having a ridge to grow up so a bit of digging will be required. I also planted some more savoy cabbage seeds. It may well end up being far too late but the plants that we have so far have spent too long in the greenhouse while we were away on honeymoon etc and so I don’t think they will be great, so I’ll try to catch some up and put them out as soon as possible and see what happens.
[flickr]photo:5934770091[/flickr]
Next week we will be looking at planting any of the late sowing varieties we have, such as peas and beans.
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.
[flickr]photo:5854060905[/flickr] [flickr]photo:5854611646[/flickr]
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.
[flickr]photo:5853201119[/flickr]
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!
[flickr]photo:5853751726[/flickr]
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.
[flickr]photo:5854071577[/flickr] [flickr]photo:5853744296[/flickr]
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.
[flickr]photo:5853184071[/flickr]
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!
[flickr]photo:5853186339[/flickr] [flickr]photo:5853741658[/flickr]
by Neil Wilkinson | Jul 14, 2010 | Allotment
Had a lovely allotment lunch today, a salad only containing things we grew on the plot. I went last night and got salad leaves, beetroot and broad beans and added some new potatoes, an egg and our cucumber. With a homemade honey and mustard dressing it was flipping lovely!
by Neil Wilkinson | Jun 1, 2010 | Allotment
Due to the Manchester 10km and Edinburgh marathon over the last two weekends we haven’t been spending a lot of time on the plots and have had even less time to update the blog. We’ve made up for the former by having a four day weekend of allotmenting and I’ve taken a lot of pictures to get a good update done.
Two weeks ago we moved the munty frame from 97 to 118 – there is a lot more room there and it held up very well in the move. We’ve planted out about twice as many runner beans as we did last year, with a new variety that’s a cross between a runner and a french bean and as such is less stringy. We got these out just after the last frost which caught a few people out (including killing the top leaves of our potatoes), and the beans seem to be doing pretty well, hopefully there won’t be another frost. This weekend we quickly hardened off the sweetcorn for a few nights and planted them out in front of the runner beans.
After the AGM on Sunday we bought four Brussel sprout seedlings as out of a whole tray of our own seeds only three germinates and we have only two viable plants. Considering just one of us eats sprouts I think two plants would be more than enough but it just didn’t feel like enough. Still, at 30p a seedling we hardly broke the bank! Next up was planting out some sugar snap peas, dwarf french beans, climbing french beans and peas. To do this we had to create something for them all to climb up – the dwarf french beans and peas need support up to about waist high, the climbing beans and sugar snaps need something considerably higher. I designed a totally unique structure (absolutley nothing like the bean structure on Bob’s plot, it’s not even close*) and put it right next to the nets I made for the sprouts (the netting is also nothing like the net structure just next to it on Bob’s plot. Totally different*) and Pilla planted out the seedlings and sowed a few extra peas in the holes for good measure. We then did a fair bit of weeding over the plot as the warm and wet weather over the last week seemed to have really brought out the weeds, they are growing quicker than everything else! We also planted a line of sunflowers in front of the beans and gave the onions and broad beans a liquid feed – we have some concerns about how fertile the soil is on this bit of the plot and neither the onions or broad beans look particularly healthy.
We spent a lot of time potting on plants in the greenhouse throughout the weekend as we had lots of plants busting to move into bigger pots. We potted on all of our tomatoes into their final pots, along with the padron and black pearl chilli’s, marconi and new ace peppers and the aubergines (moneymaker). I took down some of the staging to make room for the plants in their bigger pots – I took the staging down but left the ‘deck’ and legs in two large pieces which I then attached the side of the greenhouse. This keeps them out of the way and should mean it’s really quick to put up the staging again in the spring.
We did a general weed on plot 97, although there really wasn’t that many to take out. Pilla did some successional sowing of lettuces in a free bed, something that we weren’t very good at last year and vowed to improve upon this time around. On Sunday we thinned enough of the many lettuces we have to make a tasty salad for tea. Pilla also sowed another batch of parsnips and a few beetroot as the germination rate on the new plot has been really disappointing which we think might be a sign that the soil fertility is in need of some help . We had tons of beetroot last year (some of which won a prize at the summer show) so only having a few will be a real shame.
Elsewhere on plot 97 things are looking pretty good – we have lots of blackberry flowers across the whole length of the bush, it’s quite amazing that this was a tiny little plant this time last year. We have loads of little strawberries growing and in the same bed the raspberry canes are covered in fruits that are not quite ripe, flowers which results in frequent visits from many bees. The scabiosa plant has survived the winter and now has it’s first very pretty flower. Happily we only have a few days of work this week before we can get back to the plot!
* Ok, I ‘borrowed’ the design from Bob!
Recent Comments