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 | Jun 16, 2014 | Allotment
The last week has been the perfect storm of hot humid weather and downpours of rain so when we arrived at the plots this weekend it seemed the weeds were what had been doing the most growing! Despite the weather being a bit overcast and drizzly we had a good long visit on Sunday and by the end of the day both plots looked pretty tidy.
Neil was a digging demon, I think he set his mind to finishing the digging on plot 118 and just kept motoring on, even though he was dripping with sweat and had already done a tough round of circuits that morning!
Meanwhile I did a lot of planting out from the items in the coldframe that were bursting to get out. The courgettes were planted out on both plots. The regular green zucchini variety hasn’t germinated is two sowings of several pots each time which is odd so we just have the one green variety in the dundoo organic. Neil is pioneering the crushed eggshell method of trying to stop the slugs, we’ll see if that has any success!
The brassicas that had been in the coldframe for a couple of weeks were ready to go out. You can really see the difference between those that have spent longer in the greenhouse or coldframe compared to the ones that have had more time outside. The red cabbage (drumhead) look better than we have ever grown, at least at this early stage. The cauliflowers (snowball) were a bit small and flimsy looking but I’m hoping that being outside will mean they pick up and get a bit sturdier in a week or two. They were joined by the pointed red kalibos and candissa cabbage varieties as well as the Brussels (Evesham special and Hastings).
We planted some more peas along the rustic pea frame Neil made with the sticks pruned from the raspberries and plums last year. The squash and the leeks from the greenhouse were put into the coldframe, the leeks particularly will be ready pretty soon if their current size is anything to go by. The rest of the brassicas that were in the coldframe but too small to plant out were transferred outside to hopefully firm up a bit before being planted out in the next week or two.
The zinnia and aster were planted on plot 118. They are apparently half hardy annuals, so a bit like the dahlias if we protect them over the winter they should survive for future flowerings next year. The poor acroclinium still didn’t get planted out, that’s two weeks where they have been passed over! Next week definitely!
There were just a few sowings to make for June, the kale (dwarf green curled) and cavolo nero (cavolo di toscana) and wallflowers (fairlady mixed) and sweet Williams (auricula-eyed mixed). Incidentally, one plant from last years cavolo nero is still standing and still growing, the rest bolted in the early hot weather but somehow this one has lasted. I think it officially wins the prize for longest growing crop on the plots.
At least after all the weeding we did across both plots we had the reward of a full punnet of strawberries! Pretty good considering there was only one or two reddening last week and we thought they would all be munched before this weekend. Very tasty indeed! With that and the first signs of fruit on some of the tomato plants this is the start of the excitement!
by Philippa | Jun 2, 2014 | Allotment
We knew that Neil’s ironman next weekend would mean that our visit would likely be limited to watering, so Bank Holiday Monday was a whopper of a day and fortunately it was dry and sunny all day. We had loads of planting out to do and suddenly we realised we didn’t have much space left other than areas which still needed digging over. It’s funny how you soon fill everywhere up! So Neil was a digging hero and just kept on going, which meant we had room for the dahlias, sunflowers and lupins. Some of the taller sunflower varieties needed stakes next to them so we can tie them up as they grow.
We also tied up the climbing beans which are starting to wind their way up their cane wigwam. The potatoes had gone from just peeking through the top of the soil at the end of last week to growing fully above the soil so Neil earthed them up.
We always try to avoid the brassicas getting too leggy, which can be a challenge at this time of year when the weather varies from hot to cool and back again and greenhouses are not the best place for them for very long. But put them out too soon and they are vulnerable to slugs, caterpillars and other pests. Some were ready to be potted on and to be kept outside of the coldframe, so we potted on the cabbage (candissa, red drumhead and pointed red kalibos), cauliflower (snowball) and the Brussel sprouts. The hastings variety of sprout had done much better than the Wellington variety we have previously used and so I only actually potted those on, consigning the others to the compost pile. There are only so many sprouts a two person household needs, even with Neil’s love of them!
There was some sowing to be done in the greenhouse as all of the remaining squash were ready to be sown before the end of May. We have autumn crown, metro pmr f1, little gem rolet, bon bon, buttercup and crown prince f1. I also had to do some re-sowing. Only one or two Savoy cabbages survived the hot greenhouse a couple of weeks ago so I sowed some more. The cucumbers that we put into the greenhouse beds on plot 118 were ready to go into their final spots. Outside, either a hot burst of weather or a gang of slugs had meant that the germination of beetroot and parsnip had been pretty patchy so I sowed more of these also. The new sowings outside included turnips (snowball and Milan purple top) and carrots (early market, flyaway f1 and autumn king 2).
There were two remaining beds on plot 97 that we had yet to dig over and add manure to and given it will only be a couple of weeks until they have to have plants in, now was to time to do this job so that the soil isn’t too acidic with manure when plants go in. One of the beds was where we had taken the strawberries out from a few weeks ago. They had probably been in for three or more years and once the plants were removed you could really see the difference between that bed and the others which have had manure and compost added to them a couple of times each year. So we added much more matter to it than we usually would, just to get it up to the same depth as the rest.
We also planted out the pak choi which look super healthy at the moment and will hopefully benefit from being in a partially shaded bed so that they don’t bolt. We even managed some comprehensive weeding, meaning that both plots were in a great state to be left for a further week or two before our next visit. This year seems to be the year of the mare’s tail, I’m waiting for it to be declared a delicacy in the finest restaurants so that we can feast like kings as we are certainly experts at growing it! Fingers crossed there won’t be much more of it when we get back this weekend!
by Philippa | May 25, 2014 | Allotment
We really are being spoiled with the run of three day weekends we have had since Easter, it’s a shame we have to wait until August now for the next one!
After coming back from Spain on Thursday we knew that while there had been some warm days, there had been mostly cooler temperatures and quite a bit of rain. This was to bode well for how things had got on in our absence! However, as predicted last week the tray of calabrese that had suffered in the heat had not had a miraculous recovery and so I had to sow some more calabrese green sprouting, purple sprouting and summer purple sprouting broccolis. But at least the old dried out tray did not go to waste, as we discovered the culprit in ‘cat bum gate’!
We had a lovely lunch with friends today so we only got to the plot after 4pm. We had a long list of things we wanted to get done and managed to check off quite a few items despite the late hour. The tomatoes have come on well and suddenly looked tall and full of side shoots, so Neil removed them and tied them up.
We potted on the aubergines (jackpot and long purple) and most of the courgettes. Although, oddly, the zucchini variety hadn’t germinated at all so I popped another few seeds while we potted on the rest. We also potted on the chillies (which I think we were on the third or fourth sowing of after a strange run of issues with them!) and as a result of all of these jobs, Neil had to take down one side of the staging to make extra room.
On a slightly smaller scale I sowed some more Savoy cabbages as they had some patchy germination and I pricked out some leeks (almera) into larger pots to get them a bit stronger while also sowing a large pot of the jolant variety.
In the greenhouse on 118 Neil hacked back some of the grapevine, and I do mean hacked back. It grows with abandon and I’m convinced that the harsher you treat it, the more it likes it! We try and train a central line along the apex of the greenhouse roof so that it doesn’t get too much in the way of the other produce in there but it still persists in trying to, literally, branch out!
As for outside jobs, there was lots of re-jigging of the coldframe to be done to fit in the cauliflower (snowball), zinnia, aster (milady), chrysanthemum (mixed) and celeriac (prinz) that were ready for some cooler conditions. I also gave the shallots a water, as while they didn’t need the moisture after a lot of rain in the last day or so, they did need some organic feed as they had some yellowing tips and generally looked in need of a bit of a boost.
We dug up the spinach that had most definitely gone to seed! In fact I was joking that we had been keeping it in until it grew as tall (yes I said tall!) as me. Well it had exceeded that height, so it was most definitely time for it to come out. We’ll add some manure and feed to the bed once we dig it over to get it ready for whatever is next to come.
There are still jobs left on the list for tomorrow’s bonus weekend day but we are hoping for drier conditions to get more done outside, fingers crossed.
by Philippa | Apr 20, 2014 | Allotment
The long weekend started off uncharacteristically sunny and Neil managed a full afternoon down at the plots on Friday. He had a plan to do some DIY and build a new gate for the back of plot 118, as our ‘temporary’ one has been in use for about two years! He finished the gate in record time but didn’t quite manage a full coat of woodstain as it takes longer than you think to do a good job of it.
We both returned on Saturday. Lots of signs of Spring, blossom open on all the fruit trees which looks beautiful. Also, the tulips at the front have opened and added some colour. The daffodils that we unceremoniously shoved in far too late after we found them starting to sprout in the shed have even made an attempt at flowering! Very full blooms but only about 3 inches tall!
However, it is that time of year where it seems all you need do is turn your back for a moment and the weeds are abound. It gives you itchy fingers to just get blitzing everywhere and so for the first hour or so that is what we did. I weeded all of plot 97 and down the outside of the fence by the path as there were a lot of flowering dandelions that will soon be sending their seed out so heavily it looks like it is snowing! Neil cleared all along the back of plot 118 and I then cleared in front of the greenhouse where the weeds were coming through the membrane. After a bit of hard work it looked much neater all round.
Neil completed painting the new gate which I am very impressed with! He then started to dig over the front left side of the plot ready for planting the chitted potatoes sometime later over the weekend. As soon as you start digging, the robin who hangs around our side of the site pays a visit. He is so tame it’s almost like having a pet, he will come right up to you while you work and you sometimes catch him with a worm in his mouth! It’s easy pickings when you’re turning up hundreds of them at a time!
While Neil was digging I did some planting as I had a bit of a panic when I realised it seemed like we were a bit behind with sowing. I’m sure it’s all in your head at this time of year, all it takes is a couple of sunny days and it suddenly feels like you are running out of time to get things done! So I planted cauliflower (snowball), cabbage (candissa), broad beans (masterpiece green longpod), Brussel sprouts (hastings and Evesham special) and Spring onions (white Lisbon and lillia). So we felt quite smug on leaving on Saturday with how much we had achieved and there looked to be quite a difference between when we arrived and when we left!
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