Update on allotment

Update on allotment

Here is an update (of sorts) to Gerry’s allotment plot 58 during the 2016 growing season which is drawing to a close now that we are in September & the start of autumn is only a couple of weeks away now.

I’ve actually spent very little time on the allotment this year owing to a number of different reasons chief amongst them being a 3 week stay in Spain. No, not a holiday unfortunately, my wife’s family lives over there & her mother is very ill & may soon pass away. My wife’s sister is normally her carer but she had urgent business that couldn’t be put of for any longer so we agreed to take her place caring for their mother for a few weeks. This was during July, the middle of the growing season in the UK.

Just before going off to Spain I sowed 3 rows of Beetroot Mixture seeds in the raised bed in front of the greenhouse. In fact that day I sowed many more seeds than I have ever done before thinking that I could thin them out once we get back from Spain. Unfortunately when I was able to get down to the plot, a few days later after our return, I found that none of the seeds had germinated! Of course I was upset about that as the previous crop of Beetroot had bolted & Gerry had pulled them out. It was beginning to look like I wouldn’t get any Beetroot this year!

Bolting Beetroot:

The crop that had bolted was from the same packet of seeds that I sowed in the greenhouse earlier in the year. I know some people say you should sow them in situ but I’ve been sowing a few crops of beetroot in the greenhouse & then transplanting them to the allotment for some years now & have had better results that way than sowing direct.

The other half of the raised bed had onions from sets that I’d planted out earlier in the year. These were doing very well. There were few weeds amongst them & these were dealt with quickly.

Onions just planted out in raised bed:

Onions growing very well in June:

Onions just harvested:

Last year I had grown potatoes in the raised bed, (once they were finished & had been dug up I put in horse manure & compost in the half where the onions grew), I was sure I’d dug them all out but no, I obviously missed quite a few as there were lots of potato plants, in rows, growing amongst the beetroots & onions!

Beetroot Mixture just harvested:

I had to let them grow as it would have meant disturbing the onions & beetroots.

When I lifted the onions I found about 1/3 of them had a fungus disease, possibly White Rot, as the basal plate showed a rotting mass of white “fluff”. If that was the cause it will mean the bed can’t be used for any of the Allium family for at least 10 years! Which means Garlic, Leeks, Spring onions & of course onions themselves can’t be sown in it any more! I mentioned this to Gerry & he said a few of his onions, that he had sown before Christmas 2015, had had the same problem. I said we will have to put some kind of permanent marker on the beds to remind us about this as we are bound to forget at some time during the next 10 years that we shouldn’t put any crops from the Allium family in these beds.

Potatoes:

I didn’t sow any potatoes this year but Gerry sowed several beds of them in different places on the plot.

He has since harvested some but others he has left in the ground so as to harvest when he needs them. He told me the results hadn’t been too bad as I’ve not seen them.

Runner beans:

His runner beans at the very top of the plot don’t seem to have done nearly as well as other years when he has had far more than he could use.

Beetroot:

He sowed a row of Beetroot seeds rather thickly but has never thinned the seedlings out with the result being that they are a long thick clump of leaves &, I imagine, little root! At least his germinated & grew!

Cabbages:

He planted out some cabbages seedlings he had started off at home while I was away.

Cabbages at top of plot:

Brussels Sprouts near greenhouse:

Unfortunately the plants have been stripped bare of leaves by the Great White’s caterpillars! The same has happened to his Sprouts, planted in the bed in front of the greenhouse! These he had covered with netting but still they managed to get in & he has been left with skeleton-like leaves.

Dwarf French beans:

He planted out Dwarf French beans also while I was away but I don’t think they did very well.

Broadbeans:

Butternut Squashes:

Gerry has decided to get rid of the bed of Raspberry canes alongside the greenhouse but he doesn’t seem to have decided yet just what he will put in their place next year. So this year there will be no Raspberries just as there have not been any Strawberries either. The bed at the bottom of the plot that I made up a few years ago had become so overrun with Bindweed it was practically impossible to get any fruit from it last year & this year I removed the black plastic sheeting I put down when I planted out the rooted runners later Gerry applied weedkiller to the whole bed. Next year he wants to plant something different there.

Gooseberry bushes behind shed:

He has also cut back, quite severely, the overgrown Gooseberry bushes behind the shed which obviously means that there will be no Gooseberries from the 6 bushes next year.

Yet the other 6 bushes near the top of the plot he hasn’t touched though they are probably in a worse condition. Perhaps he didn’t want to lose ALL his Gooseberries next year!

The Black & White Currant bushes near these Gooseberry bushes are also very overgrown & are in need of some TLC!

Asparagus:

Gerry has several Asparagus beds on his allotment but he has one plant that is bigger than any of the others & that is located at the very bottom of his plot.

Plums:

There have been next to no plums at all this year. The Yellow Plum tree, (he now only has the one having given up his half plot where there were several trees), has had very few plums this year the same as his two Victoria Plum trees at the top of his plot. Last year they had the best crop I’d seen on them since I started helping him about 8 years ago. He also has a black plum tree he thinks is called ‘Black Czar‘. It had masses of flower in the spring but has produced just ONE plum this year! Like the other fruit trees last year it had a tremendous crop of plums! There must have been a late frost as all the fruit trees had a very bad production this year unlike last year’s which was record breaking!

Apple tree:

Yet the apple tree over the shed, a cooker, possibly Brambly Seedling, has done much better again this year!

Last year the crop was the worst I’d ever seen since I’ve worked on the plot. Again I imagine it is the fault of the weather. Last year March, & April, especially, were fantastic months for fruit tree pollination whereas May was a poor month with lots of very cold weather. Just the opposite of this year’s weather.

Well that about sums up the allotment plot this year. As you all know I gave up my own allotment plot (Plot 12A) last year, in September, as I couldn’t manage it & help Gerry & attend to all the other demands on my time. As you can see I’ve done very little work on Gerry’s plot this year but fortunately his health has been much better & he has been able to do a lot more than for some years. Giving up his other, half allotment plot, has also freed him up more time to concentrate his attention on his main plot.

Well that’s all for now I don’t know if I will write another account on the plot this year, it seems unlikely as the season is drawing to a close.

 

Beetroot Mixture harvested

Beetroot Mixture harvested

I harvested what few plants of the Beetroot mixture I sowed way back in March 2016 germinated & managed to grow on in the raised bed in front of the greenhouse. I don’t understand what was the matter with them, Gerry pulled up the great majority of the January sowing, (I’d made in the greenhouse & planted out in March), in June as they were all bolting. I sowed some more just a few days later but they never did germinate! So I’ve been left with only a handful of roots for this summer! ;-((

2016 has turned out to be my worst year ever for sowing beetroot. ;-((

Yet Gerry sowed some very thickly in the bed at the top of the plot & they have all germinated by the looks of it as they are so thickly crammed together he will never get a decent root unless he does some drastic thinning out very soon!

The few roots I was able to salvage are quite big, one, by far and away the biggest one I’ve ever grown, has concentric pink & white rings, the first time I’ve been able to grow one like that

The rest of the beets I dug up were white – not a plain old red one in sight!!! 😀 LOL!

I bought a packet of seeds of this variety a few years ago but when I harvested them they were plain old red beets!!! I was very upset & annoyed about that!!!

To cook the big one I had to cut it in half & then half way through cooking cut it up into quarters as it was too big to fit in the saucepan!

The smaller ones looked like cooked tomatoes when I peeled them after cooking them! See what I mean in the photos.

No Beetroot harvest

No Beetroot harvest

I went down to the allotment yesterday with the idea of pulling out the Beetroot Mixture I had planted some months ago as the last time I saw them, about two weeks ago, they were bolting.

I thought I’d sow some more seeds I still had left in their place. When I reached the raised bed in front of the greenhouse I saw that Gerry had beaten me to it, the plants were lying on the ground in front of the greenhouse!

I got out the hoe & cleaned up the ground of the last few weeds & to loosen the soil before sowing some more seed. Then I put down the 3 iron bars, once used for market stalls, to mark out the lines for the seeds, made a drill alongside each one & sowed more seeds, more thickly than I would normally like. Then to finish I watered the rows.

I hope they will germinate well this time after all the ground is much warmer & the days are also warmer & longer.

We will see!

Spring & a new start to the growing season on the plot

Spring & a new start to the growing season on the plot

Yes, Spring has sprung in the NH (Northern Hemisphere) & we are making a new start to the growing season on the allotments! Have you been itching to get your hands dirty again? I know I have! But I have difficulty getting down to the plot I share with my friend, Gerry, from church.

At the end of of September 2015 he gave up his half plot to concentrate on his one whole plot. Two years before I’d also given up my half plot as I found I couldn’t manage it & Gerry’s 1 & 1/2 plots. He’d had a very serious operation & for more than a year he found it too much to spend more than a couple of hours a week on his plots. I’d also found my time was very much compromised with other activities – very often related to our grandchildren.

The last 6 months I’ve also had health problems & have had to make several visits to the local hospital for tests on my bladder. This is still ongoing & a satisfactory cure has still to be found.

In January it occurred to me I could plant out the onion sets I’d bought before Christmas in a seed tray in the greenhouse on Gerry’s allotment. Although I wouldn’t be able to plant them out for a few weeks I thought they would be able to make a start & gain a few weeks on the season. As it turned out they had to stay in the seedtray in the GH for much longer than I had thought at first!

I filled a seedtray/flat with compost to overflowing & filled the tray with the biggest of the sets:

They must have spent the better part of 3 months in the GH! The onion sets were really crying out for more space by the time I was able to finally plant them out!

I’d also sown a 2nd tray with the remaining onion sets – these were smaller than the first sowing but, even though they hadn’t grown nearly as much, I planted them out on the same day as the first sowing & the Garlics. It will be interesting to see if there is much difference between the plantings at harvest time.

Back in the autumn of 2015 I started to dig in some horse manure that Gerry manages to get hold of. I was only able to do half this bed before the rains started & I started with my waterworks problems. So I used this half bed for my Onions & Garlic.

The Garlic weren’t nearly as bad:

I planted out the Garlic cloves alongside the Onion sets. Even though it’s not easy to see they are on the left of the photo, alongside the piece of blue string:

At the same time as I sowed the Onion sets & the Garlic I also sowed a tray of Beetroot seeds. They say you shouldn’t disturb the roots of Beetroot & for that reason they are usually sown “in situ”. Yet I’ve never found much in the way of problems doing this. I’ve been doing it for the 7 years I’ve been working with Gerry on his allotment plots as well as the 2 years on my own plot. I’ve sown some directly in the soil each year but I can’t say the results have been all that good.

This year I bought a big packet of Beetroot seeds in a mixture. There are yellow beets as well as white & one with pink & white rings. There are also long ones & short ones so it will be fun later when it comes to picking them!

The half bed that didn’t get any manure I’ve filled with the Beetroot seedlings & two rows of seeds:

I got enough seedlings to fill two half rows along the length of half a bed. I know they are very difficult to see but I assure you they are there! (on the right):

I sowed quite a few seeds in the two rows on the left but they haven’t germinated just yet:

At the present moment that is all I’ve done on the allotment for this year. I know Gerry wants to sow his potatoes but he heard Monty Don on the BBC Gardening World programme advise people not to be too quick in sowing them as the soil is still quite cold, so he has put off sowing them for the time being.

I don’t have any potatoes to sow. I put in a few Strawberry plants in the bed in front of the shed under the apple tree but I don’t know how well they will do this year. I weeded them a bit the last time I was down on the plot but they probably need a bit more attention.

In the same bed there are lots of spring bulbs that are presently flowering:

In a few weeks’ time the bright red Tulips will also be flowering – as they do every year!

Well these bright spring flowers mark the end of this first blog of the year on the allotment. As there is only the one plot this year the updates will be less frequent, (do I hear a sigh of relief?), but I will write an occasional blog & show you our work & produce.

Happy gardening everyone!

Amaryllis hybrids have now begun to flower!

Amaryllis hybrids have now begun to flower!

Though I’ve mistakenly put Anglo-American hybrid on some of the photos, this particular bulb is one of 3 bulbs that I put in the same 5″ pot last year when I was repotting many of my bulbs last year.

At least one of the pots was mistakenly put in the other bedroom with the Anglo-American hybrids. I really should have realised what had happened when the scape began to grow as it is in a pot with several other offshoots which I intended to separate & repot this year. All my Anglo-American hybrids were put ONE to a 5″ pot last year. NONE went into a pot together. This alone should have made me suspicious when I started labelling it as an Anglo-American Amaryllis!

Many pots last year were overcrowded with the new offsets that had been forming & were breaking the pots. I use plastic pots, not ceramic or clay so they are easily damaged when the bulbs/offsets begin to expand. As this process has to be done while they are dormant it wasn’t until February 2015 when I finally got around to doing it.

(Wrong date – should have been 16th January 2016!)

This year I’ve been confronted with a similar problem only I started to “tackle” it back at the end of November/beginning of December before I brought the plants home from the greenhouse on Gerry’s allotment. As space in our flat is really at a premium, & there was even less this year, I decided to empty out as many of the the remaining pots as I could in order to save on space in the flat during the winter. In previous years they used to spend the winter in their pots on the windowsills of our 2 bedrooms & in the kitchen where we have a 3m (10ft) windowsill. Last year all these windowsills were filled up to their maximum capacity – even though they were in tiers 4 rows high!

So many had to go on top of a big wardrobe in one of the bedrooms. None received any water until buds were seen to be coming out of the necks of the bulbs where upon I began to give them a little water again, increasing as time went by.

All the pots in one bedroom windowsill had to go out onto the balcony in mid March – the first time I’ve ever put them out so early as we often get frosts till the end of the first week in may some years. I did try to cover them with a plastic sheet on nights when frost was forecast & fortunately they all survived! :-)) I also took them down to the Gerry’s greenhouse on his allotment much earlier than other years. The greenhouse has no heating & a couple of pieces of glass had got broken during the winter making it prone to frost. Nevertheless they still managed to survive & were later moved out of the greenhouse on to some shelving on the plot itself for the summer. I had to take my bulbs down in several journeys over several weeks as they finished flowering at home.

One bedroom windowsill has 4 tiers of bulbs – all Amaryllis hybrids I’ve grown from my own seed:

These have grown & flowered & multiplied over the years. I only started giving them water a couple of weeks ago. Some will have to me moved into new pots as lots of the pots have 5-6 or more offsets in them! Last year I didn’t have the space, compost or pots to pot up everything into its own individual pot. Although I don’t generally let offshoots or seedling bulbs go into hibernation till after they have flowered for the first time I just couldn’t leave them growing this winter.

I may lose a few bulbs because being so small they are unable to store sufficient water or food. Nevertheless I expect the majority to pull through with very few casualties.

I’ve put 20 big bulbs in 6″ pots now on the kitchen windowsill, they all have buds at different stages, some are only just peeping out of the bulb neck others are several inches high already.

These were some of the bulbs I put in paper bags to remain dry over the winter:

Some of those that I emptied out of their pots in the greenhouse last December. The buds had started to grow quite high on some of the bulbs! These will be in flower in about a month’s time. During February I will have dozens of bulbs flowering – as well as in March & April! Having so many I have to start them off over a period of a couple of months so that way I get flowers for several months in a row!

Last Amaryllis now at home

Last Amaryllis now at home

I brought home the last of my Amaryllis from the greenhouse on Gerry’s allotment on Tuesday 1st December 2015.

This is by far the latest date I’ve ever done this! I thought it was late last year when I brought them home in the middle of November but this year, due to the extremely mild autumn we are having, I was able to leave them an extra two weeks!

They were in the greenhouse, where they had been since the end of August, to keep them dry & to encourage them to go into hibernation, (I have done this for several years now & it has given me very good results), as with several 100 bulbs now I’m finding it ever more difficult to keep them at home during the winter. By causing them to die back & go into hibernation I have much more control over when they start to grow again & thus can phase them into flowering in stages.

I took the bulbs down to the allotment in early May again this year. Most years I take them down several weeks later but because the spring was milder this year I started to take them down earlier. In fact I had started to put them out on our balcony as soon as they finished flowering as I had even less room in the flat than previous years. That was in April! I’ve never, ever put the bulbs out so early in the year before! Frost is always a possibility till the end of the first week in May most years here in this region of the UK. Yet I had nowhere else to put them. It was a risk I just had to take. It paid off for me fortunately as we had an incredibly mild, sunny April! Not a trace of frost all month! Very unusual!

Now half of the bulbs have been removed from the pots & the spent compost put on the greenhouse border where it will be incorporated into the soil to give it better moisture contention for next year. The other bulbs remained in their pots & I’ve now put them on the bedroom & kitchen windowsills, as in previous years.

But to continue to control their flowering period most of the pots continue dry & will stay that way till I’m ready to start them into growth again. The ones that have been removed from their pots will be potted up in fresh compost later still.

I have about 20 bulbs of an Anglo-American hybrid of my own creation. About 4 years ago a lady from the USA sent me some pollen of her Amaryllis which I used to fertilize some of my Amaryllis plants that were in flower at the time the pollen arrived. Only one plant set viable seed some of which I sowed & got excellent germination. These plants have been grown on & this coming spring should flower for the very first time.

They have never been put into hibernation but all the same they went through the same dry period as the rest in the greenhouse on Gerry’s allotment & were brought home at the beginning of November. These are on the windowsill of one of our bedrooms but had remained dry until I watered them on December 2nd. I hope to get these to flower before any of the other plants in the other bedroom or the kitchen. As they need between 6 to 8 weeks from watering/potting up dry bulbs to their flowering I don’t expect these to flower before the middle of January at the earliest.

I will write about them & include photos when they come into flower sometime next year.

Some beautiful Amaryllis for March

Some beautiful Amaryllis for March.

I thought I would show you some of the beautiful Amaryllis have been flowering on our living room table for the last 3 months:

So let’s start with this wonderful view of flowering Amaryllis bulbs on our living room table taken today, March 7th 2016:

(The flowers on the table in front of the Amaryllis are plants given to my wife for Mother’s Day, a Kalanchoe, from our youngest son, a Pansy in a tiny painted pot from church (given to all the ladies in church) & some Lilies from our daughter.)

Another photo from today of one of the Anglo-American hybrids, the fifteenth to flower since the beginning of the year:

This photo is of one of my previous hybrids that began flowering in 2010 & have flowered every year since!:

The next picture is of one, that may possibly be an offset of ‘Pinky’, that is flowering for the very first time:

A lady on another gardening forum sent me an Amaryllis bulb, 4 or 5 years ago, called ‘Pinky’, (a very apt name as it’s a lovely light pink). It’s flowers are much more open, having lost their original trumpet shape. As this flower has only just opened today it may not yet have reached it’s maximum size & aperture. The original bulb must be one of those that hasn’t flowered this year so far.

Here is a typical red, but I found it to be the darkest of all my reds to flower so far this year. Again this is a bulb from the previous sowing of 2006. That doesn’t mean to say it IS one of the original bulbs that first started to flower in 2010, no, it may be an offset of one of those:

Another one from previous years. The comments I’ve made above could well be applied to this one as well:

Anglo-American hybrids

This one however is the very first of my Anglo-American hybrids to open its very first flower ever! It opened while still on the bedroom windowsill where it has spent half the years for the last 3 years. The other half of the years it spent on Gerry’s allotment. All my Amaryllis spent six months of the year on the allotment & the other 6 months on our windowsills in the kitchen & two bedrooms. In the UK they can’t be left outdoors from the middle of October to late April or early May.

I’ve written a blog on the origin of these hybrids which you can read about in my blog section.

Here is a picture of the first 2 Anglo-American hybrids to open, side by side, in the middle of January:

Here is another beautiful Anglo-American Amaryllis, it’s been in flower since the middle of February:

This one I took on Leap Year’s Day, 29th of February:

Here are several of them flowering on our living room table at the start of February this year:*

These are some of the older hybrids flowering in our living room a few days before those above:

One of the Reds is in a bowl on the living room table as one of the flowers accidently broke off as I was trying to get it out of the kitchen windowsill.

My wife got me to change the old Venetian blinds & put up some curtains in their place last November/December. That now makes it very difficult to move the plants in & out of the window as well as making watering them much more difficult for me!

Well I hope you liked seeing these wonderful plants in flower in our living room this year. I think you will agree they look much better en masse than just one or two on their own! Remember also ALL these plants are grown from my own seeds NONE of them has been bought. Since the first seeds sown in 2005 to now I’ve never been without a few plants in flower for around six months a year every year!

I’m going to add just one last photo I took a couple of days ago of the biggest flower of them all – it measures 8″ (EIGHT)/20cm across! I took a photo with my hand in front of the flower with my fingers stretched as far apart as I could possibly manage & I barely reached the tips of the petals on either side!

Same flower but with my hand removed!

Last Amaryllis now at home

Last Amaryllis now at home

I brought home the last of my Amaryllis from the greenhouse on Gerry’s allotment on Tuesday 1st December 2015.

This is by far the latest date I’ve ever done this! I thought it was late last year when I brought them home in the middle of November but this year, due to the extremely mild autumn we are having, I was able to leave them an extra two weeks!

They were in the greenhouse, where they had been since the end of August, to keep them dry & to encourage them to go into hibernation, (I have done this for several years now & it has given me very good results), as with several 100 bulbs now I’m finding it ever more difficult to keep them at home during the winter. By causing them to die back & go into hibernation I have much more control over when they start to grow again & thus can phase them into flowering in stages.

I took the bulbs down to the allotment in early May again this year. Most years I take them down several weeks later but because the spring was milder this year I started to take them down earlier. In fact I had started to put them out on our balcony as soon as they finished flowering as I had even less room in the flat than previous years. That was in April! I’ve never, ever put the bulbs out so early in the year before! Frost is always a possibility till the end of the first week in May most years here in this region of the UK. Yet I had nowhere else to put them. It was a risk I just had to take. It paid off for me fortunately as we had an incredibly mild, sunny April! Not a trace of frost all month! Very unusual!

Now half of the bulbs have been removed from the pots & the spent compost put on the greenhouse border where it will be incorporated into the soil to give it better moisture contention for next year. The other bulbs remained in their pots & I’ve now put them on the bedroom & kitchen windowsills, as in previous years.

But to continue to control their flowering period most of the pots continue dry & will stay that way till I’m ready to start them into growth again. The ones that have been removed from their pots will be potted up in fresh compost later still.

I have about 20 bulbs of an Anglo-American hybrid of my own creation. About 4 years ago a lady from the USA sent me some pollen of her Amaryllis which I used to fertilize some of my Amaryllis plants that were in flower at the time the pollen arrived. Only one plant set viable seed some of which I sowed & got excellent germination. These plants have been grown on & this coming spring should flower for the very first time.

They have never been put into hibernation but all the same they went through the same dry period as the rest in the greenhouse on Gerry’s allotment & were brought home at the beginning of November. These are on the windowsill of one of our bedrooms but had remained dry until I watered them on December 2nd. I hope to get these to flower before any of the other plants in the other bedroom or the kitchen. As they need between 6 to 8 weeks from watering/potting up dry bulbs to their flowering I don’t expect these to flower before the middle of January at the earliest.

I will write about them & include photos when they come into flower sometime next year.

Allotment 2015

Allotment 2015

There not having been much to write about the allotments during the winter/early spring I have only now gathered a few photos & something to write about.

Like previous years I plan on writing – at least once a month – a blog on the progress of things on the allotments I’m sharing with my friend Gerry from church. I’m back to sharing with him after having to give up my plot (12A) last September due to time constraints & the demands made on me. 

As April has been a an unseasonably warm & dry month I’ve been able to get down to Gerry’s allotments a little more often.

View from the top of Plot 58 on 1st April 2015:

Lets start with some colour from March:

Crocuses flowering under dwarf apple tree in front of the greenhouse:

Some Daffodils flowering in front of our shed:

In April lots of lovely red Tulips in the bed in front of the shed:

I’ve been able to do some sowings & some work on the ground. Gerry has done the “Lion’s share” of the digging & has planted lots of potatoes.

Potatoes recently sown:

At the time of taking the photo I didn’t know Gerry had planted his seed potatoes in these couple of beds that’s why the caption reads: Beds recently manured. All that was visible were remains of the horse manure he’d previously dug in!

I haven’t planted any at all though there is still time yet to put in 2nd earlies & maincrop spuds. Not all is lost!

Garlic ‘Marco’:

I planted out a few cloves of Garlic ‘Marco’ back in December in the bed in front of the greenhouse. Now they are growing nicely.

Leeks at the top of the plot with some Lettuces planted alongside them:

The day I went down to the plot with my son I had intended to dig up the last of the Leeks that I had transplanted from my old plot last September but I discovered Gerry had planted these Lettuces right alongside them! Digging up the Leeks would have disturbed the soil around the too much I thought & they might not survive. I therefore left the Leeks where they were. Oh well, perhaps we can save some seed from them to sow next year! At least we will be treated to some great ball shaped flowerheads for a few weeks!

I sowed a packet of Broadbeans in toilet roll tubes:

As well as some Beetroot seed & Lettuces – 2 different varieties in the greenhouse.

Broadbean plants before/after I’d planted them out:

Beetroot ‘Bolthardy’ before/after I finished planting them out:

The Beetroot germinated very well & I’ve since planted it out on the plot. In fact I made two sowings & planted them out with only a few days of difference between them.

Beetroot ‘Bolthardy’ 2nd sowing just planted out:

All these seedlings were planted out in a raised bed I made up on Plot 58 between November 2014 & March 2015.

As the Lettuce hadn’t germinated I had none to plant out! One of the two trays of seeds has produced a very few seedlings which for the present are still in their tray. No more seeds seem to be germinating though.

After planting out the Beetroot I sowed a couple of rows of Lettuces directly into the soil this time of both varieties.

I also sowed a couple of rows of Beetroot seed as I have several packets of seeds still:

(My brother has since given me another packet!)

View from top of Plot 59B:

Mixed runner beans just sown at the base of the netting on the plot division:

Jonathan hoeing red onion bed:

I’ve even “roped in” my son, Jonathan, to give me a hand. He is my youngest son, he’ll be 38 this year. He hasn’t helped me on Gerry’s main plot, 58, so far that’s why the only photo I managed to grab of him was while he was busy hoeing the red onion bed near the end of Plot 59B, Gerry’s half allotment.

The first day he came down with me he helped me get the green netting on the plot division between Gerry’s half plot & his neighbour’s plot set up much better. It’s now stronger & better held up than last year. I don’t have any photos of this work as I didn’t think to get “before & after” photos. Though the after ones I can get any time now, obviously! I could even dig out (excuse the pun!) some photos from last year where the netting is quite clear but I doubt anyone would be interested in seeing “before & after” photos of some netting!!!

He also helped me with the raised bed we have made up on Gerry’s side of the plot division. This is something I’ve wanted to do for several years but had neither the time nor the wood with which to do it. Using some of the planks from my old plot we were able to make it up.

Raised bed beside plot division being made up:

Raised bed beside plot division now finished:

Some months ago we changed the flooring in our flat. We had had vinyl flooring since we moved in in 2001. We put vinyl flooring down instead of carpeting as we had 5 little dogs. A few years ago the last of the dogs died but we didn’t change the flooring. During the last 3 months of 2014 we decided it was time to change the flooring so we started to buy carpets which I, & one of my brothers, put down. We then kept the old vinyl to put down on the allotments. During April I covered most of the paths on Gerry’s half plot with this vinyl making a waterproof access to any of the beds.

Vinyl covered paths on Plot 59B:

Potatoes just planted out:

Here you can see the vinyl flooring on the paths either side of this bed of potatoes. Unfortunately there won’t be enough to cover much of Gerry’s main allotment. All the paths are approximately the width of the rake head +/- 12″. This just gives me enough room to turn face forward across the width of the beds so I can reach the centre from either side without having to step on the soil when it is wet.

Views of the apple tree over shed:

This cooker, perhaps a ‘Brambly Seedling’, is now starting to flower so I took a couple of pictures which will serve to close this the first blog on the allotments I share with Gerry for this year.

The apple flowers are so pretty when seen close up I thought I’d take a really close up photo:

Next month I hope to be back with the goings on down at the plots. Till then “Keep on gardening!”

Pumpkins on our allotments 2014

Pumpkins on our allotments 2014

I grew a few Pumpkins on my allotment & a few on Gerry´s this year but they didn’t do nearly as well as last year’s. 😦

On my plot I had one or two plants growing in the Runner bean bed! I imagine the seeds came from the compost I dug in before I put in the beans. I remember pulling out more germinated seeds as I didn’t want a lot of Pumpkin or Squash plants growing in the bed & taking up all the moisture from the beans. One Squash plant grew & produced some fruits, which I gave to our daughter.

I’m not sure if there were 1 or 2 Pumpkin plants as the runners they produce become so l-o-n-g they had to be put on the empty bed beside the runner bean bed. I’d emptied the bed of Beetroots that had been growing there & had nothing more at the time to fill it with. I laid the runners down on it & they grew happily there the rest of the summer. If I hadn’t given up my plot they might still be there!

I managed to get about 4 Pumpkins I think from my plot which I gave to our daughter for the grandkids!

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I also sowed a few plants on Gerry’s allotment, in the bed close to the division between his half plot & his neighbour’s half plot.

Lots of pictures for so little a thing! 🙂