by Philippa | Jul 23, 2014 | Allotment
I am always amazed at this time of year when the crops start coming in weighty armfuls just how colourful the allotment is. So vibrant and there is a lovely mix of hues. It almost looks photoshopped, especially the bright blue cornflowers. Perfect for picking and putting in vases to brighten up the living room.
I went to the allotment this evening to do some mid week watering, essential in this heatwave we are having and it was nice to spend a warm evening pottering. As well as watering there were some pickings that couldn’t wait till the weekend. I took a punnet full of blackberries with a few strawberries which will probably be the last for this year. It was a visit of ‘firsts’ too. I picked our first courgettes, 2 yellow, one green and one round, from plot 97 which are always ready before those on plot 118 as they have the advantage of being in beds. The raspberries on plot 118 seem to be ripening an bit earlier with the heat we’ve had so I picked a princely amount of three that were ready! Most of the plums were also ripe, not a huge number but we weren’t expecting there to be after the bumper crop last year. The blueberries are not far behind and judging from the flowers, I better start looking up plenty of blueberry recipes!
by Philippa | May 3, 2014 | Allotment
Glorious sunshine on Saturday and given the forecast worsens for the rest of the bank holiday weekend and Neil has the minor distraction of another marathon to run on Monday we thought we would make the most of it today.
In a fit of giddiness of being ahead with our ‘things to do’ plan we did some more planting. The first of the seeds to be sown straight outside this year were parsnips (countess and imperial), spinach (medania and perpetual), chard (red and rainbow) and beetroot (boltardy, forono, golden and barbabietola di chioggia).
More planting in the greenhouse of green and purple basil, melon (Blenheim orange), courgette (zucchini, jemmer, tondo chiaro di nizzi and dundoo) and cucumber (gherkin and burpless tasty green). Things that had not even germinated last week, such as the cucino cucumbers or Savoy cabbages, had grown pretty tall, all in six days. Some of the brassicas were growing so well that they needed thinning out, especially as we have no need for 50 plus red cabbages! Neil got busy snipping with the scissors-cruel but necessary! He also pricked out the pak choi and in a bit of an experiment put some in black growing bags and some in a seed tray to see which fares best.
Due to the warmer weather the onions and garlic looked like they could do with some water so I watered them with some organic feed which should perk them up. I always worry about how much this feeds the weeds too as I’m sure things like mares tail must love it! We did some outside sowing of flowers too. Cornflowers were sewn in ‘deep masses’ and poppies were cast in ‘majestic drifts’ according to packet instructions. Otherwise known as fling ’em in and see what happens!
Neil, always one to be tempted by an internet purchase, had added a white marker to his order when getting some seeds online and now it had arrived was keen to try making some signs for our crops. So we used it on some slate pieces that we have previously written on with chino-graph pencil with only short term success. Apparently it is waterproof but can be easily removed with soapy water. Stand by for reviews of its progress in a few weeks time. Meanwhile Neil thinks any allotment judges will like the extra effort to make the place look nice!
Having emptied the manure bay on plot 97 with recent loads to dig into the plots, Neil filled it back up again while there was spare manure in the communal bays. He also put about 6 barrows of it at the end of plot 118 which was only cleared of the kale a couple of weeks ago. I’m sure digging it all in will appear on the ‘things to do’ list for coming weeks! So much for being ahead, there are always jobs to be done!
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