Colourful crops-no filter!

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.

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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!

Weeding and digging and weeding…

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!

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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!

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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).

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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!

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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.

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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!

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Jobs to be done!

Well, it isn’t long before you suddenly feel that Spring is upon you and that you don’t have much time left!

After some quiet weeks following the new year we visited the plots to see what needed doing. I pruned the currant bushes while Neil tackled the blackberry plants and the raspberry canes. Neil must have been feeling creative because after wondering why he had been so quiet for a while I found him by the shed with this little beauty! For growing peas up apparently!

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All the seeds ordered for us from Kings by the society had arrived and so I sorted them into bundles of when they need to be planted, which seems like only a matter of weeks away! We also received the garlic bulbs ordered. After the best in show success of the summer we decided to just plant one variety this year, the Lautrec Wight. We did this about three weeks ago and no sign of life yet. In the following week we planted our onions (Sturon and Red Baron) in seed trays in the greenhouse to give them a good start as this really helped last year, particularly with the red onions.

The February storms brought chaos with them for the whole site. While other plot holders found sheds on the other side of fences and bits and pieces all over the place, we weren’t sure what to expect. We knew that we had a piece of glass missing from our greenhouse on plot 118 prior to the high winds and were dreading how vulnerable this would have made it. We were right to be anxious as the greenhouse had lifted up and shifted across the base considerably. Bob next door was lucky not to see it flying his way I think!

As a result of the wind most of the glass on one side was broken and all over the place and some of the frame is twisted and damaged. It prompted a big clear up in general really. It took two tip runs to clear all of the broken glass, buckets of debris dug out of the soil and other rubbish. We swept up all the small branches and leaves that had blown about and dug over most of the beds on plot 97, adding manure and organic chicken pellets to them.

We have moved a massive amount of manure onto both plots over the last few weeks but not really dug much over just yet as it has been so wet it becomes too much of a chore! That will be a job for the next few weeks as the weather picks up.

This last week we have bought our potatoes (Charlotte) and put them in trays to chit. We have also planted all of our tomato, chilli and aubergine varieties in the heated windowsill propagator at home and have already had most of them germinate after a couple of sunny days. We did some of our oddest planting yet. We have studiously followed the packet instructions for the bluebells which apparently need a forced 4-6 week period of cold and so we now have a bag of damp compost and bluebell seeds stashed at the back of the fridge! There is a reminder on the calendar to get them out in several weeks for the next step. That is, if they haven’t accidentally been eaten in the meantime!!!

Best In Show

Wowee! What a result! Last weekend was the annual allotment summer show. We hadn’t been sure what we would have to put in as entries in the produce competition. Some things were passed their best, some things were not quite ready enough! It’s always a bit of a gamble what will look good enough in the day or two before the show. You would think that we would be lovingly tending to each and every entry for weeks, ensuring that it is up to standard but it’s more like ‘hmmmm what looks passable and do we have enough of it?’.

This year we managed to enter our old favourites, garlic and beetroot, along with a cucumber, a single sunflower and a corker of an aubergine in the open category.

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It was a good turn out for the show, with lots of items lined up in the judging tent. After the anxious wait for the RHS judge to do the rounds everyone crowds in to check out the results. We managed a respectable second place for our cucumber, beetroot and sunflower. Our poor aubergine didn’t place but the open category is always a tough one. However that was more than made up by our garlic not only being awarded a first place but also winning the best in show! According to the judge he had never seen any as good as ours! What a compliment! So as well as a certificate we have a trophy which is to be engraved! Seeing some of the previous winners on there we certainly feel like we are in esteemed company.

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Massive congratulations are due to Bob who won a trophy for best plot over all three sites. This was also decided by the RHS judge who had done a thorough walk round in late July, so he definitely knows his stuff. Well done Bob!

With it being the bank holiday weekend there was plenty of time left for other allotment activities. Neil worked like a trooper as I was off on a cake course. He dug all of the onions up which despite an inauspicious start look amazing. The average size is probably the best we’ve ever had. We’ve left the drying upside down on the bench but will soon have to bring them in for storage.

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He also collected a mammoth number of wheelbarrows of manure to cover the area where the onions had been.

The peas had served their time so he pulled them up for composting. Some of the broad beans were starting to flop over and no longer had any harvest worthy beans on them so he pulled up the row which had gone in first. The remainder are still ok for another week or two as they went in later and still have a good amount of pickings on them.

The raspberries have really come on in the last week. We’ve had one or two at a time up till now but this time we could take a full punnet home. The blueberries are still going strong, one plant in particular has flourished since we moved it into a large barrel planter. It’s so bushy with new growth you really have to search to find the hidden fruit.

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And to prove I had a worthy excuse for not helping out with all the wheelbarrowing, here is my Gruffalo cake!

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“I’m dreaming of a white Easter”

The unpredictable weather certainly lasted longer than we anticipated! A few weeks of snow, ice and high winds have meant that we have not been able to get down to the plots much at all. We would normally have started sowing our tomatoes and chillies in our heated propagator at home but once they germinate they need to be potted on quite soon afterwards and the greenhouses just aren’t warm enough yet. With the forecasts only now getting to be more appropriate for the time of the year we are starting them this week.

The onions are still in the greenhouse. Some have sprouted quite tall, others haven’t, but all of them have made really good root systems. An added bonus will be that when we plant them out in the next week or two the chances of pesky birds or squirrels lifting them will be reduced if they already have roots. This is also good for those gardeners who like neat rows uninterrupted by random gaps!

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The Easter weekend and its bank holidays gave us a good block of time to do some more soil preparation. All of the beds on plot 97 now have multiple trugs of well rotted manure dug into them. We had added some manure to plot 118 a couple of weeks ago on top of the compost layer and so we did a fair bit of digging it over. The difference in the soil quality on the left side of plot 118 is really noticeable compared to a few years ago. Even the patch of clay we have in one area is much lighter and finer, all through what’s been added over the last couple of years. It feels like a good achievement, albeit a bit of a geeky one!

There are quite a few signs of Spring finally visible. The raspberry canes, gooseberry and currant bushes are budding. The garlic we planted a few weeks ago has sprouted, seemingly having enjoyed the cold snap! The rhubarb has gone crazy, particularly on plot 118. It looks like it’s sprouting up all over the place! Hopefully now the weather is milder we are looking forward to getting caught up with sowing things in the next couple of weeks, but we wouldn’t be surprised if we end up working about a month behind schedule due to the weather. Surely we must be due some normal weather next year?!

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