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 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 | Mar 8, 2014 | Allotment
The weather has really warmed up this week and so the windowsill sowings in the heated propagator had all sprouted swiftly and some were even ready to be taken to the greenhouse. I think we had our most successful germination, but maybe I had that thought too quickly as the chillis, aubergines and peppers which weren’t quite ready to go to the plot suddenly all died! They looked like they had burnt almost so I wonder if it was too hot for them. So we would have to sow them again. At least we have only lost a week or so.
The garlic and the onions have green tops over a couple of inches already which is great. The onions are in seed trays in the greenhouse and the white onions have definitely sprouted more and better than the red. We planted the shallots (Longor) that had been delivered during the week. We decided to put them on plot 118 so this will be the first year that they haven’t been grown in beds. I’m hoping that they are not going to be adversely affected, for example by slugs, so fingers crossed! The other planting we did was of some crocus and daffodil bulbs that have been in the shed for too many months! I suspect it is too late for them to do much this year, but it will be a nice surprise when they pop up next Spring.
We wanted to do some more clearing up so we are ready for the next few weeks when things will explode into action. We had some tubs of soil still in the greenhouse on plot 97 that we’d grown tomatoes and chillies in, so we got rid of the large root balls and spread the rest of it over one side of plot 118.
The herb beds had gone a bit crazy and were showing signs of growing again and so now was the time to do some pruning back or we would have missed our chance. It is always satisfying doing a before and after shot of a job like this! And it was a very pleasantly fragrant job too-certainly better smelling than digging the manure that we put on top!
Speaking of manure we put about another ten barrows of manure on plot 118, joining up all the gaps so now it has all had a thick layer. Neil also did some digging over, of which there will be a lot more to do before too long!
We harvested some cavolo nero, purple sprouting broccoli, horseradish and our first picking of the forced rhubarb. The rhubarb was a revelation, so pink and tender with a lovely delicate flavour with much less tartness. I just simply poached it and served it with some creme fraiche with some orange stirred through, delicious! Think we will be picking more next week…
by Philippa | Aug 6, 2013 | Allotment
We managed a couple of visits this week and while the change in the weather might be making others grumble, the rain has helped a lot. Most of the squash and brassicas have grown a fair bit and look much greener.
The plots were judged for the annual competition this week so it’s a good job we’d done a lot of weeding last time. While I doubt we’re in line for any prizes we can at least be proud of how both plots look, especially given everything else that we’ve had to do this year! The results will be announced at the summer show so watch this space. One area he thought some members needed to improve on was composting. It’s odd as we’ve composted right from the start and it seems so obviously helpful that its hard to see why people wouldn’t compost! Maybe they just need a bit more information about how to get started. On that theme, Neil gave the compost bays on plot 118 a good working over. There was quite a bit of couch grass in one of the bays that we’d stored manure in which he cleared and he managed to get a couple of barrows of compost out of the bays for spreading around.
Neil was very much getting jobs ticked off the list! He did some tidying of the back of plot 118 and so I put some chippings down to keep it looking neat. He repaired the back gate which had somehow come away from its concrete post. But the best job was building a new front gate! It had been made out of pallet pieces but over time the screws holding the fastenings in were coming loose in the wood as it was slowly disintegrating. In fact the whole latch had fallen off on Saturday meaning it couldn’t be locked. Cue a trip to buy some wood and hey presto we have a lovely new gate! He even managed to get a coat of green woodstain on it before the rain started on Sunday afternoon.
Meanwhile, I wasn’t exactly slacking! The garlic and the shallots have been looking ready for harvesting for a couple of weeks so I dug them up. The two varieties of garlic are noticeably different in size, with the Lautrec Wight bulbs being almost twice the size. While the Solent Wight has performed well for us previously I might be tempted to just go for one variety next season. I hung the bulbs upside down on the greenhouse staging to dry. Then we’ll be able to see if there are any likely prize winners this year! The shallots looked good. The average size of this banana style variety is much better than the round varieties and I think we’ll get a lot of use out of them as a result. I strung them up in the greenhouse again to dry them out before storing.
The strawberries that have been growing straight in the ground rather than in the beds on plot 118 have for the last year been looking a bit like they were on the way out. The crops from these are generally smaller and fewer in quantity. We’ve never really been sure of the variety as we inherited them but they are quite seedy too, definitely our poorest performers given how good the others are! So we decided to get rid of them and I dug them all out. We also started collecting some runners off the other strawberries so they can be transplanted later.
We had a successful batch of small but tasty carrots. Think the key is picking them quite early on, previously we’ve left them a bit longer and they have been holey as if they’ve been eaten by something! So we’ll pull some more up next week. Meanwhile we’ll have to be looking up some good plum recipes as it looks like there will be a bumper crop!
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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