by Philippa | Jul 5, 2014 | Allotment
Glorious sunshine greeted us as we arrived at the plots today ready for a mammoth session to make up for our absence due to Glastonbury. I had managed a quick visit mid week after we got back home to give everything a water as it had been hot while we were away but hadn’t had enough time to do much more than pick some strawberries that were ripe. We knew therefore that there would be plenty to keep us busy and so planned a long stay (although slight hiccup in plan when we realised our pack lunch was still sat at home and Neil had to drive back to get it!).
Weeding and watering was the first plan of action as even a week off at this time of year can make a big difference to the number of weeds taking over. We blasted both plots, including the front and back borders and things already looked better. The bees were enjoying the sunshine, the lavender was so full of what looked like honey bees that they were humming as you passed them! That will make for some nicely scented honey.
We then had to sort out some failures, or if not failures then at least less successful things. The cauliflower and some cabbages that went into the tunnels a couple of weeks ago had been decimated by something. Given they are covered it isn’t wood pigeons to blame which leaves slugs or caterpillars. They had pellets down for slugs so we suspect caterpillars! Neil gave everything in the two tunnels a good spray with diluted washing up liquid and I think he even plucked off a couple of the wriggly green blighters that he spotted so hopefully that will sort it. But the ones that had been lost were non existent or beyond saving, so cutting our losses we filled the gaps with some more cabbages (tundra and minicole) and the remaining spaces will be filled with some savoy (vertus) which we potted on today so will be ready to plant in a week or two. The third tunnel on that side was planted with borecole (scarlet) and calabrese (green sprouting) and we’ll keep our eyes peeled for pests!
Another disappointment were the shallots. Over the last few weeks they have been gradually looking as if they have been dying off. Not like they do when they are ready to pick, just wilting away to almost nothing. We’d given them some liquid feed to perk them up but even this hadn’t worked and today all of them looked dead! Neil dug them up and put some green manure in their place. He also sowed some green manure over the area where the poppies hadn’t germinated. The shallots themselves didn’t look too bad once out of the ground, they are usable, but they are the worst we’ve grown in a few years and it was the same variety that were good sized and problem free last year. The only difference this time was they were in the open ground on plot 118 rather than a bed on plot 97, so maybe in future they need to stay in a bed to perform best.
We needed to catch up with the plants that were outside ready to be planted out and those that needed potting on. We put out all the remaining squash (bon bon, metro pmr, autumn crown, little gem rolet, crown prince, buttercup) and once you factor in the space they will expand into it didn’t leave much left before plot 118 would be full. We planted out the celeriac (prinz), some of which seemed to have partially succumbed to slugs so hopefully they will pick up and I’m excited to try what is a new crop for us.
The leeks (almera) were planted out and considering they were a bit of a rescue job after a hot greenhouse incident they looked really good. We made good use of our leeks last year so I’m pleased we will have enough to do the same again.
We put the sweet Williams and wallflowers into the coldframe and took out some things to pot on. We put the purple sprouting and summer purple sprouting into larger bags and I think it will only be a week or two before they can be planted out. We also bagged on the cavolo nero and dwarf curly kale. Given we had filled so much space with squash and other bits and pieces there wasn’t a great deal of space left but in readiness for the plants we potted on, Neil constructed two long tunnels, as long as the full width of one side. We made them much narrower and taller than usual as the crops going in them get really tall and the netting can sometime squash them down a bit too much.
We had some lovely strawberries, blackberries and cucumbers (minus one which Neil cut up for his sandwiches!) to take home and a small handful of currants, both red and black and it’s nice after a long and hot day to have some treats at the end of it!
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!
by Philippa | Jun 9, 2013 | Allotment
A lovely weekend at the allotment in the sunshine, several hours flew by on Saturday but that may have been in large part to lots of chatting with Bob! Neil managed a couple of hours with me on Sunday after getting his almost 3hr run out of the way.
You really cannot miss too many visits at this time of year, the weeds have gone bonkers! The high temperatures all this week have had a noticeable effect. I popped along this Tuesday and gave things a good water and weed but even despite that there were plenty of new weeds to tackle by the weekend. Neil did a mammoth weeding of the onions, which seemed to have attracted more weeds than anywhere else on plot 118.
The heat has contributed to most other things growing great guns this week. All the tomatoes needed sideshooting already. The parsnips were ready to be thinned and the beetroot also, which incidentally seems to have had a really good germination rate. You could practically watch some of the greenhouse sowings grow. I planted some pak choi (joi choi) on Tuesday and yet by Saturday they had germinated well. The climbing beans were all sprouted and so I moved them to the coldframe to go out next week. I suspect the Brussels and cauliflowers already in there will be ready to go out too, but will need netting.
All of the cucurbits have done well and will be outgrowing their 7cm pots soon so it will probably be time to get them outside in the next week or two. I potted on all of the cucumber/gherkin varieties and also all the chillies and peppers. We always pot on more than we will end up using as chillies are really nice to give to friends and families and are generally well received!
Outside, the strawberries on both plots look decidedly perky and you can see that they are going to crop well, as long as we beat the slugs! I gave the shallots and garlic some water and added some organic general feed to the watering can.
Neil put in some ‘cross training’ by digging over some more of plot 118 and getting a few barrows of manure. I sowed some flower seeds, much less tiring work! We say every year that we want to plant more flowers and while we have started quite a few off, I’m not sure we’ll have many due to patchy germination. Even our marigolds, usually a winner, have been a bit off. Bob clearly took pity and generously donated some of his spares which we can be transplanting or planting out in the next few weeks. There were some marigolds, lobelia, lupins and petunias. I did have two small buddleia and a hydrangea plant I’d bought last week, so I planted these out at the rear of the left side of plot 118 along the fence. Hopefully these will add some interesting colour and height when they establish. I sowed some pansies (forerunner), Michaelmas daisy, aster (milady), chrysanthemum (mixed), ipomoea (grandpa ott) and zinnia (Oklahoma) in the greenhouse and coldframe. I also sowed some poppies outside (Shirley double mixed). The packet rather poetically suggested sowing these in drifts for a majestic display, so I did my best to cast them in majestic drifts!
We are all up to date with seed sowing now, save for lettuce varieties. I think it’s because they grow so quickly that I have a tendency to leave them until we’ve caught up with other veg, which is a bit daft really as they are a tasty and value for money crop. Anyhow, I’ll get them in sometime over the coming week!
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