After a slow start to the big seed sowing months we tried to seriously redress the balance this weekend. We took advantage of the sunny weather and managed to get loads planted on Saturday afternoon in the greenhouse and even a few directly outside. We now have growing at the allotment at least:
– purple sprouting broccoli
– spinach
– red and green lettuces
– Brussel sprouts
– sunflowers
– marjoram
– globe carrots
– marigolds
– petunias
– dahlias
– lavender
– more sweetpeas
The lavender is exciting because we have a rough plan to grow it and perhaps use it as part of the table decorations at the wedding. We also planted a fair few things at home to give them a head start in the propogater.
Whilst Pilla was busy sowing I got to work increasing the staging in the greenhouse, eventually it should be about twice the size of last year, which was pretty warm work in the sunshine.
After missing out on an apparently interesting monthly meeting on Sunday we got to work on the new plot which is still quite weedy in places. We tackled a small corner around the rhubarb and in the same area planted 4 rows of potatoes – this space must be about twice the size of the area we gave them last year. We covered the freshly weeded area with some spent hops to try and stop some of the weeds growing back.
The goods news is we took our first crop home this week, our rhubarb has taken off on plot 97 this week with the warm weather so we managed to pick a few stems.
Sorry for the lack of picures – we left the camera at home again 🙁
We had another busy weekend, mostly spent at birthday parties and watching the cricket, so we had to fit our allotmenting into our day off on Friday.
We harvested our onions, cut down the spent sugar snap peas and most of the broad beans, weeded and tidied up the front of the plot. Whilst Pilla was busy doing that, I gave our chilli plants some attention – a few had become a bit dry and wilted. We also harvested the potatoes we had left in the ground and prepared our second strawberry bin.
So, that’s it – we’ve had the plot a year. We’ve been looking back at the old pictures and it’s quite amazing that we’ve managed to fit in getting so much done – so many times we got something finished just as we needed it. I think both of us are looking forward to taking a bit more time next year and we have all of autumn and winter to plan it. This period last year was just a mass panic of ‘where are we getting our fence/wood/soil/greenhouse/shed/glass/pots/shelving from?!’ We are going to be making a list of jobs to do soon and this should definitely be more manageable than ‘create a brand new plot’.
My last job at the plot today was to take some pictures in the same places as we took last year – the video below is my go at stitching it all together. The pictures above were taken from a rather precarious standing-on-the-top-rung-of-the-fence position. It’s fair to say if Philippa had been there I wouldn’t have been allowed to clamber up there!
Despite the nice weather the allotment was pretty quiet and those two factors brought a constant companion to us today. The table we rescued from the bins is proving to be a bit of a sun trap – and at our allotment where there is sun, a place to lie and a few cat treats you will probably find Tammy. She’s a soppy little thing.
Tammy wasn’t the only creature on the plot today, we saw plenty of bees on our dahlias, a few ladybirds and about a million snails climbing up the bean frame. We are not supposed to like snails at the alloment and the bigger ones regularly get launched over the fench into the rough ground at the side of our plot, but when they look like this little fella, it’s sort of hard not to.
Again we didn’t have that much to do today. We fed the plants in the greenhouse, did some weeding and then harvested some more produce. Today we have taken home runner beans, tomatoes, courgettes (which Pilla is currently cooking up into a courgette casserole) salad leaves, mint, potatoes, cucumbers and sugar snap peas.
The beetroot is almost ready and our chillis are finally growing. I put the pictures of these together because I was talking to Ralph on Saturday, and not only did he give me a big bag full of tomatoes (thanks Ralph!), but he talked about a chilli and beetroot pickle he made last year. Pickles, beetroot and chillis – surely you can’t go wrong with that combination! We are going to have to make that this year.
Back in the greenhouse we got out first full truss of tomatoes – I think the variety is ‘Gardeners Delight’. The aubergines are growing at a fair pace and the sweet peppers have almost exploded. We have four plants and there must be 10-15 peppers on each.
Thought I’d also share the success of the growing frame (it’s known as a munty frame – I got the design from a web forum) as it is now producing tons of very straight runner beans and they are easy to pick too because they all hang down beneath the frame. Brilliant. The garlic we picked last week has dried out nicely in the greenhouse, and I think we can start digging up the rest of the garlic next week.
Another glorious summers day in Manchester arrived today. Oh no, hang on, sarcasm is quite difficult to do in a blog! It’s pretty much been non-stop rain today so we didn’t get much done. Handily enough though we don’t really have a lot to do anyway. Allotmenting is a pretty curious beast – just at the point you think it’s going to be all hands on deck for the summer, well that’s the exact point when you don’t have to do very much. We had a bit of weeding to do and the plants in the greenhouse needed a good watering and that was about it really. The greenhouse plants seem to be doing really well – we had our first tomato and sweet pepper on Saturday.
We had another good harvest – plenty of runner beans, potatoes, salad leaves, cucumbers (we are currently a bit overrun with them), a few courgettes, thyme, mint and chives. The courgettes are proving to be curious things. We have four plants and the two yellow courgette plants are going great guns producing quite a few fruits (I had a quick discussion with Pilla, and we *think* it’s a fruit) the green courgettes are proving a little more stubborn. This is despite the fact that they have lived side by side since the first leaves appeared. Why the difference? Who knows!
Some of our garlic has flopped over so we took the opportunity to dig one up see how it was doing – and it’s actually a pretty good size. We’ve left it drying out in the greenhouse, I’ll try and take a picture next week. Pilla had some Treasurer duties to attend to by signing up a new plot holder and that was pretty much it – we were home for lunch. In the depths of winter we would have loved a few allotment days like that!
The chickens we jointly look after have got their laying groove on – we found three eggs on Saturday and another two today. We had a further six waiting for us in the allotment fridge, as you can see they are a massive assortment of sizes and shapes but all the better for that I think. If we wanted perfect looking food I suppose we could just go to the supermarket – but that would mean missing the excitement of rooting around nest boxes!
Our harvest from the allotment is now notching up a gear – this week we’ve taken home a lot of new potatoes, cucumbers, mint, raspberries, broad beans, sugar snap peas and a few different lettuces. Most of this produce has been eaten straightaway – only some of the broad beans have had to go in the freezer. The lettuce has been really successful and was delicious with tonight’s dinner.
We only spent a few hours at the plot late this afternoon – after the morning run for Pilla’s half-marathon training we had a nap – it’s taken us a week, and we still haven’t recovered from Glastonbury! Luckily the plot is taking care of itself a lot these days so we just had a bit of allotment ‘admin’ to do – weeding, watering, a tiny bit of planting out and adding support to some of the plants. I tied up the sweet peas at the front of the plot whilst Pilla took the weeds out of all the beds. The advantage that we got when we took on this plot was the lack of weeds – it took around an hour but Pilla managed to weed the whole plot.
I also added a bit of support to the tomatoes – some of which are now up to the roof of the greenhouse. After some watering and feeding that was pretty much us done. I think we might have spent longer harvesting our crops and taking pictures than we did doing ‘proper’ jobs – that’s how allotment life should be I think!
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