by Philippa | Jun 12, 2014 | Allotment
Oh well. With all the rain we’ve had I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised. This last week seems to have been more about feeding the local pest population than growing produce for our plates! The flowers we had planted out last week were the favourite targets, some sunflowers had been totally decimated. We had bought some more organic pellets during the week and within about five minutes of arriving at the plots we had used almost a full bottle! To fill the bare spaces we planted out some chrysanthemums as they were bursting out of their tray.
We also planted out the ipomoea. We had grown some last year but left them and left them and they were never put out but even then they grew some beautiful deep purple flowers shaped like trumpets. This year I was determined to do them justice. Having wanted some more information about where they are suited to and how they grow I did some googling and discovered they can grow up to 5 metres tall! Not sure I realised that when I bought the seeds! Or that they are the same family as bindweed. They grow in the same climbing fashion, twisting round things. As soon as I told Neil that, he wasn’t keen on planting them out in case they run riot with their roots! As a compromise I planted them along the back fence of plot 118 as this gives them something to grow up without risking them spreading further.
We did a lot of watering, the tomatoes were ready for tying up and needed side shooting again. I also gave them some feed for the first time this season. They’ve grown so big in the last week they needed moving to their final spacing which meant Neil had to dismantle the side staging to make room. We potted on the peppers (new ace) and the chillies (jalapeño) and everything looks quite tidy in plot 97 greenhouse.
Outside things were looking quite good. The beetroot and carrots I sowed (or in the case of the beetroot replanted!) had germinated really well, as had the turnips which I thinned out as they were already a good size. The chard and parsnips were fairing slightly less well, so I’ll check their progress next week and see if any more sowings are required!
Despite the warm weather Neil did a mountain of digging! He cleared enough space for the hoops and canes that will cover the brassicas in the next week or two.
The sun also meant we have signs of ripening, the redcurrants are turning blush pink and there were quite a few strawberries tantalisingly close to being ready. Am just hoping the liberal scattering of pellets means the slugs will have left some for us!
And a sunny note for the end, thanks to Bob for a lovely bunch of beautiful sweet williams to brighten up the living room!
by Philippa | May 27, 2013 | Allotment
We had a pretty busy bank holiday weekend-Neil had a five hour bike ride and then on Sunday did twice round the Manchester 10km race. Monday was our day of allotmenting and we were really looking forward to it. The weekend had been pretty warm and sunny but Monday was a bit cooler but that’s ok for a full day on the plots getting stuff done. And boy did we get stuff done!
The front of both plots were weeded and we planted out some evergreen plants I’d bought a couple of weeks ago. The front of plot 97 doesn’t have many evergreen things in it which means it has times in the year when it looks pretty shabby and I wanted something a bit neater and more manageable year round. Well that has been improved and it will look even more lovely when things have established.
The coldframe was stuffed to the brim and everything needed planting out as they were at risk of being straggly. We planted out the broadbeans (masterpiece green longpod) in blocks and also planted some more seeds so we have some successional cropping. We also put out the pea varieties on the wire mesh (early onward, purple prodded and sugarsnap) and some more seeds in the planting trench. The germination was pretty inconsistent but hopefully they will all catch up with each other. As usual they all looked very floopy after they were planted out but with the windy weather we have been having they will strengthen up in no time.
We had done a mega B&Q run before getting to the plots for grow bags and multipurpose compost and it was good timing as the tomatoes needed potting on immediately. Neil did all 8 varieties in the greenhouse on plot 118 so they are in the final large pots and also potted on the aubergines to intermediate pots. The sunflowers were taking up lots of bench space so Neil put them out in our makeshift coldframe using some classy old shower panels! Good recycling at work there! Neil also gave the grapevine a good pruning as it is really getting going and there were too many little bunches to have all made it to full fruit.
The weather started to get a bit drizzly so I retreated to the greenhouse on plot 97 for some more planting of seeds. We are pretty much on target with most things now, accounting for the fact that the weather is about a month behind usual temperatures. I planted climbing French beans and red knight runner beans, three varieties of borecole (dwarf green curled, scarlet and cavolo nero), savoy versus cabbage and some sprouting broccoli varieties (purple sprouting, summer purple sprouting, green calabrese and red arrow). While I was doing that Neil started a job I don’t think he had planned to do but once he started he wanted to finish! The paths on plot 97 have for the last year or so been getting quite mossy and weedy. It’s ok to keep on top of the weeds every few weeks but the moss is a bit more tricky and also gets very slippy when wet. So Neil scraped off the top layer of the paths and it looks really neat. Hopefully it will last for a while!
In general this last week has seen a sudden influx of green and everything looks a lot fuller. We will definitely be sorted for redcurrants this year! We might also see our first gooseberries after planting out a bush that was in a pot for four years doing nothing and which I think we both thought was on its last legs! Next week will have even more going on. Love this time of year!
by Philippa | Apr 28, 2013 | Allotment
We only popped down for a couple of hours today, which after sorting some admin things became only about an hour and a half! But we did get some good jobs done. Our shallots arrived mid week, which is pretty late compared to previous years when we’ve had them planted for several weeks already. Usually we put them in at the same time as the onions so they are probably a month behind those. Oh well! We tried a new variety this year, Longor, which is a longer, more banana type of shallot so we’re interested to see how they get on.
While I planted Neil was giving the compost heap some attention. It’s had quite a lot of brown matter in over the winter months and not much green matter so we are hoping to redress the balance in coming weeks. Neil chopped some larger pieces down to make it a bit finer and after a few turns there was some decent looking compost coming out from the bottom layers. Neil spread some on plot 118 and hopefully there will be more before too long.
Lots had sprouted or grown since last week. The sunflowers have germinated, as have some of the peas and the Brussels sprouts. No sign of the broad beans coming through yet which are what I’m keenly waiting for! The redcurrant bushes have started to bud and already it looks like there will be a bumper crop. Although next year we will really have to do some pruning as they are looking a bit wild and bent over in places which will only increase once they are weighed down with fruit!
The rhubarb looks fantastic, in fact it was too good to resist so we pulled a few stalks! Great to be taking something off at last!
by Philippa | Jun 20, 2011 | Allotment
We really feel like we are on top of things on both plots at the moment, which is surprising given our three week absence while on honeymoon. Most of the greenhouse plants have been potted on to their final pots and due to having glazed the new greenhouse some have been moved over to plot 118. We have split all the varieties into both greenhouses, just in case they don’t grow consistently although the new greenhouse seems to be doing its job so far. As a result we seem to have plenty of room for other tasks. Neil has decided to do a little experiment with some rosemary cuttings which he is trying to get rooted. I’m not sure he knows exactly what needs to be done so he has just put them into damp compost! Apparently some rooting/cutting gels have high hormone levels, which is a bit off putting, so we will see what happens without.
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We have managed to take a bumper harvest of fruit home already, including about 1.5kg of raspberries, 750g redcurrants, 500g blackcurrants and 500g strawberries, all of which have been delicious. The blackcurrants, our first harvest off the plant we got about a year ago, are incredibly tart when eaten straight from the bush, so need plenty of sugar adding to any recipe they are being used in. I have a plan for the box we have in kitchen, a combination of cordial (move over Ribena!) and some blackcurrant vodka, which will need three months maturing and so will be in good time for Christmas gifts.
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We would have had more strawberries, and gigantic ones at that, had it not been for some local pest problems. The plants we put in during winter have been growing nicely, with large, upright fruit. They started ripening in the last couple of weeks and we had been looking forward to harvesting them once ready. However, eagle eyed Bob noticed that suddenly there looked to be a lot less fruit on the plants. We’ve come to the conclusion that it is either wood pigeons, squirrels or a rat. Whatever is responsible, it is pretty voracious and has left us with few fruit on the plants in the bed. It is a bit disappointing as it has never been an issue in previous years, but I suppose the wildlife now knows after three years on 97 that it provides a consistent supply of treats!
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Another casualty of the wood pigeons has been the kale and the purple sprouting broccoli, again things we have grown for the last two years without any attacks. We only planted them out about a week ago, having reared them to be big and healthy in the greenhouse and they are now almost stripped bare! This necessitated an emergency dash for some canes and netting and Neil spent a good deal of time constructing frames to keep them covered. Hopefully they will be back to normal in a few weeks, although Neil remains pessimistic! I really hope so as kale has certainly been a good crop in the colder months.
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More planting out this weekend, a Crown Prince squash, very precious as it was the only one that germinated out of the four I sowed. The broad beans, three varieties, Streamline, Red Knight and Moonlight, have been strung up the munty frame and look quite healthy but we have decided we must be a couple of weeks behind some other plot holders who already have flowers appearing on their beans! The Sugarsnap peas are now twisted round the base of a cane structure, these are the second attempt at these this year, as the first ones that I sowed directly into the ground pre wedding were very poor at germinating. Courgettes, Jemmer, Zucchini and Tundi, have gone out too.
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With the leek planting, I’m trying an experiment of my own. The Gardener’s World website reckons on planting them out once they are pencil thickness into holes that are 15-20cm deep and then watering them in so a little of the soil falls back in the hole. Some others (Bob included) reckon that all you need to do is dig them in with a trowel and put the soil right back over it. So we have two rows, one of each method, and we’ll report back if it makes any difference! We hope to still be in as much control of things in the next couple of weeks, but we have this weekend off in Glastonbury so who knows!
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by Neil Wilkinson | May 10, 2009 | Allotment
We have spent a lot of time at the allotment this weekend, which has been nice and despite thinking that we didn’t have too many jobs to do we haven’t really stopped! Yesterday, we had to do a lot of weeding. This week has brought a snowstorm effect of ‘dandelion clocks’ blowing all over the whole site and everywhere they land they seem to germinate in a matter of days. Being at the end of the row of plots means that we seem to have more than our fair share! There is absolutely no prospect of weeding them all out but we have turned over the areas of unplanted soil to stop them in their tracks. But weeds are not the only things that have been growing as our plants are doing quite well. We have some berries on our redcurrant bushes (although admittedly they are more like greencurrants at the minute!) and the radishes continue to thrive. If you look close enough at the photo of the radishes you can see the sprouted dandelions, the little blighters! Our potatoes continue to grow furiously and to protect against any cold snaps and to give them as much growing depth as possible we piled soil around the leaves. This will be an ongoing job as they get taller or until we run out of soil to pack them in!
The rest of yesterday was taken up with feeding and cleaning out the chickens (cue Neil climbing into the chicken coop to get at the hard to reach spots!) and also helping Simon with some digging. We hope that it is good allotment karma to help out others if we don’t have that much to do on our own plot and three people digging certainly makes more progress than one. It was a lovely evening which meant that we only really noticed the time once our stomachs started to rumble at half past five!
Today was another early start due to the AGM. This passed without too much political unrest but was noteworthy for ourselves as a new Treasurer was needed. So I stepped up and won by a landslide (although I was without an opponent!). We had to have a lot of things explained to us by Susan, the retiring Treasurer and I am sure that there will be a lot more that we have to learn on the job but today is officially day one in office!
Following the meeting and a healthy amount of gossip we got down to some actual work. Neil has been researching various methods of growing climbing beans on the internet and happened upon the Munty frame. It has a short and a taller side, with the short side facing North, and pieces of bamboo connecting the two. Vertical pieces of string run from the base of the short side and then across the slanted top which the beans can be trained up. This makes the beans hang down from the plants so that they have room to grow and are easier to harvest and has the advantage of leaving the bed underneath free for other produce. Neil used spare wood from Site 1, bamboo canes and twine and it kept him busy for most of the afternoon. We will probably be putting the beans out towards the end of May.
I spent the day planting, both outside and in the greenhouse. Inside I planted melons, pumpkins/squashes and a mixture of lettuce. Outside I planted pak choi, red and green lettuce and some oriental salad, leaving some stripy soil so we know where they are! Ignore the rather pathetic looking mizuna in the photo below, it was only planted out yesterday and is still acclimatising-or at least that is what I am telling myself!
Another late finish today, we only left at 6pm but this was partly due to having to wrestle with some netting to go over the purple sprouting broccoli we put out yesterday. We are told the woodpidgeons are partial to such plants and we didn’t want to lose any during the week. We will have to consider a better way of netting them before next weekend but we were simply too impatient for our dinner to stay any longer!
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