Last look back at winter on the plots – at the end of March!

Last look back at winter on the plots – at the end of March!

I thought we’d take a last look at the plots after the winter, (now that the Spring has supposedly sprung!), starting in January 2013:

Leeks & Lentils at beginning of January on Plot 12A:

View along Plot 12A from top, beginning of January:

View along my plot from the top, middle of the month:

Here are some photos from February:

Leek bed a month later:

A Before photo just prior to harvesting a couple of rows:

An After photo of the Leek bed once a row or two were harvested:

The same bed of Leeks but harvested on the first day of March:

Beetroot ‘Baby Solis’ harvested & chucked straight on the compost heap!

These poor Beets were totally useless even if they don’t look too bad in the photo.

Last year was a total waste of time & space for me trying to grow Beetroot! I’d sown MUCH more than in previous years but harvested practically nothing!

Middle of the month: Carrots & Parsnips sown:

Might seem a strange time to sow Carrots but I was itching to put some seeds in & thinking March was just around the corner & the weather would be quickly warming up (!) &, having many packets of Carrot seed & several of Parsnips, I thought I could risk sowing some now. “If they don’t survive,” I thought, “nothing really lost as I’ve plenty more I can sow later.” Just as well as they are unlikely to germinate after weeks of winter weather all through February & March!

A few photos of my plot, 12A, in March:

We had a couple of dry, if rather cold, days at the beginning of March so I took advantage of them to dig in the last of the manure Gerry had brought down a couple of days earlier. I wanted to plant my new potatoes ‘Rocket’ in this bed. I’d started to dig in the horse manure in the middle of February, just before the snow came down, but was unable to finish it till about 3 weeks later.

New/Early Potatoes ‘Rocket’ being planted out at beginning of March, 1st row:

New/Early Potatoes ‘Rocket’ being planted out at beginning of March, 2nd row:

Second bed from the far end of the plot being manured:

Unknown Potatoes planted out in 2nd bed from the far end:

These potatoes came from the online shopping my wife does. She ordered new potatoes & when we saw them they were already sprouting! I kept about a pound of them back that were more the size of seed potatoes & put them in the 2nd tray of ‘Rocket’ that I had chitting in the kitchen. I planted them out once I’d finishing preparing the bed about a week after the ‘Rocket’ seeds were put in.

Onion sets ‘Sturon’ just planted out:

Planting these Onion sets was almost the very last thing I’ve been able to do on my own plot:

Broadbeans planted out:

This was the last time I was able to do anything on my plot during March owing to the extremely cold, strong winds that plagued us all of the month.

I only had 15 plants that had been growing in cardboard tubes in the greenhouse on Gerry’s allotment. I was going to plant out the last of the seeds directly in the soil but I’ve been unable to find them!

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Gerry’s plot during the first 3 months of 2013:

This is how the year/month began:

Still here!:

Snow on the greenhouse!:

I tried to write the date in the snow on the greenhouse roof but it starting breaking up before I could finish:

There were several inches of snow covering everything!

Now a few from February:

Bed after being dug over:

I started to dig this bed over during a short spell of dry but frosty weather in December but I couldn’t finish it. I spent half an hour digging but got less than half done before I was forced to give up because of the intense cold.

This bed had bugged me for weeks but, finally, I was able to complete it! I felt very relieved when I’d finished! Now it has a pile of manure waiting to be dug in!

Bed of Leeks & Lentils near the greenhouse:

There are actually two beds chock-a-block full of Leeks & Lentils.

Brussels Sprouts:

I managed to harvest some sprouts form these plants but the majority came from the one plant that escaped the netting! Although these have been under the netting since I planted them out all the leaves have been eaten away! I saw no caterpillars on them – I don’t see how they could have got through the fine netting anyhow!

Victoria Plum trees:

Some lovely blue sky, quite a rarity during the last three months!

Daffodils & Tulips sprouting & rests of Gladioli:

This bed right outside the shed looked a real mess & was another of those things that bugged me for a long time! I feel a great deal of satisfaction once I’ve been able to finish whatever it is that bugs me!

Daffodils & Tulips sprouting & no more rests of Gladioli:

Some views of the plot in March:

The same bed as above but nearly a month later:

Onion sets ‘Sturon’ just planted out:

Onion sets ‘Stuttgarter Giant Karmen’ sown:

To finish this blog I’m including some Crocuses that sneaked into the allotment in some old compost I brought down from my balcony!

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

Not much to show for three months but then I’ve hardly set a foot on the allotments since October 2012! This has been mostly due to the record amount of rainfall during November & December which continued into the New Year. January brought a lot of snow making it totally impossible any work. February was very cold as well & I wasn’t able to do much & March has been so windy & terribly cold that I’ve hardly been able to do anything either.

I hope to start my monthly series of allotment blogs from the end of next month & I hope I’ll be able to show a little more progress than I’ve made over the last 5 months!

Plot 12A Marching – marching on!

Plot 12A Marching – marching on!

‘Rocket’ seed potatoes on Plot 12A

I planted out my ‘Rocket’ seed potatoes about 10 days ago, on 2nd March. I had intended to plant them a week earlier but the weather was against me:

1st row planted:

2nd row put in:

Both rows now covered up & markers put in place:

Like last year I will put some plastic half hoops over them & cover them with fleece. I didn’t have time to do that on Saturday (9th).

On Saturday I also put in some unknown variety that we got with our weekly shopping some weeks ago. They were New potatoes but a lot of them were sprouting. As I had a trayful of ‘Rocket’ chitting in the kitchen & a 2nd tray with just a couple of rows, I thought I would take a chance on planting some of these. I put some in the 2nd tray & now they are in the ground:

On the subject of potatoes I bought some at a Potato Fair a couple of weeks ago:

They are both maincrop varieties: Picasso & Red Cara:

Picasso had been recommended to Gerry as being one of the best potatoes for our region by a man who grew them all his life so we both bought some:

Red Cara is described as being fairly resistant to blight which is why I bought it. I hope it lives up to its description:

I left them in the darkest, coolest place in our flat. I took the bag out this morning to find they had all got long sprouts on them! That was a big surprise!

Red Cara sprouting:

Picasso sprouting:

I have nowhere in the flat to put them out in the light so they will have to go down to the greenhouse on the allotment, be put in trays & then covered with a couple of layers of fleece as this week we are expecting sub zero (Celsius) temps all week. :-(( I have no bed prepared for them as I hadn’t planned on planting them till after Easter. The weather has been against us gardeners all winter. I’m at least 4 months behind with the preparation & planting.

I harvested some of the Leeks growing on my plot this month:

I was able to put in a bedful of Onion sets ‘Sturon’ last Saturday, too:

Onion sets ‘Sturon’:

Now in the ground:

Carrots & Parsnips were sown in a very narrow bed that hasn’t had any manure or compost added. I just broke up the soil to the depth of a fork, levelled it off & made a couple of furrows with a hoe & sowed them. As luck would have it we didn’t have a drop of rain in a couple of weeks! Typical British weather!

Although this blog is all about my plot I can’t help but ending with a photo of some Daffodils & Crocuses flowering on my balcony at home as there are no flowers on the plot at the present time:

Though there will be lots of Daffs & some Tulips on Gerry’s plot over the coming weeks.

Happy spring gardening to everyone.

Summer ending & autumn beginning (Plot 12A)

Summer ending & autumn beginning (Plot 12A)

September – October

Beetroot ‘Solis’:

The Spanish lady, Amparo, who spent 2 weeks here in August, & I sowed these seeds a couple of days before she had to return to Spain:

I had grown Carrots in the narrow bed earlier this year but it had been empty for about a month:

I was disappointed with the poor germination rate of these seeds & with the time they took to come up! Even now they have not made nearly as much progress as I would have liked:

The Pinto beans you can see on the left of the photos have made a lot of progress in just 1 month:

Beetroot ‘Solis’ in October:

Lettuce ‘Paris Island Cos’:

I sowed the very last of the packet of seeds I bought at the beginning of the year on the 1st of September:

Making progress:

More plants germinated & greater progress:

On the left of the photos you can see a tomato plant with fruit. This is the only plant to survive in the bed! All the rest of the plants died of Blight in July but this one, although infected as well, has somehow managed to survive & cling to life while producing fruit! I’m saving some seed from this plant to see if the genes will carry through to next year.

The same plants in early October:

Leeks:

Only the two rows on the right were planted out on the date in the photo, the others were planted out a week or two earlier! All the green you see are NOT weeds but Lentils I’d sown some weeks earlier when I had nothing to put in the bed.

Here is a view of the Leeks now in the first couple of days of October:

Leeks in half bed:

As this half bed was empty, except for weeds!, I thought I’d plant Leeks there as well. All the seedlings in both photos came from a guy who had sown several rows very thickly of his own saved seed. He told me I could have as many as I liked as he had plenty planted out for his own use.

Half bed of Leeks now in October:

Peas ‘Hurst Green Shaft’:

These were the very first pods of these peas that I picked & took home:

Pinto beans at far end of plot:

These are turning out to be the best bed of Pinto beans I’ve grown this year! They are at the end of my plot, it’s the last bed of my plot & where I grew early Potatoes ‘Rocket’ earlier this year:

A broad end on shot, rather than a shot from the beginning of the bed as in the other photos:

I put hoops in here as I wanted to cover the beans with fleece to give them a little protection against a possible frost we were forecast, as we had days of very strong winds I was unable to put the fleece over them.

Photo taken in October of the bed of Pinto beans at the far end of my plot:

Runner beans:

I’ve only included ONE photo of each as the plants look practically the same all month!

Runner beans ‘Celebration’:

This bean is easy to distinguish from the other beans I have grown as the pods are a lighter green & flatter than other beans the skin is also very smooth:

A photo of the last Runner beans ‘Celebration’ just harvested:

Runner beans ‘Streamline’:

These beans had a very rough pod but they produced 100s of beans:

Last of Runner beans ‘Streamline’ just picked:

Climbing French Bean ‘Cherokee Trail of Tears’, is, I think, the name of this ‘Unknown variety’. I got some seeds in a swap on another gardening forum at the start of the year. The labels got lost when it came to planting out the 5 or 6 climbing beans I’d sown:

French Climbing Bean ‘Cherokee Trail of Tears’ in October:

French Climbing Bean ‘Cherokee Trail of Tears’ seen much closer up in October:

The seeds are jet black & apparently can be cooked in the same way as we cook Pinto beans.

Tomatoes: Blight survivors:

These two plants are the only survivors of the blight that ravaged the allotment field during late July/early August this year. The further of the two didn’t survive to October, it was in such a bad condition that I pulled it up:

One surviving plant left:

Only Tomatoes harvested in 2012:

Last photo taken in October:

Last Tomatoes just picked. I picked these because we were forecast frost that night! I picked all the fruits that were just beginning to change colour & the green ones of a similar size:

To finish this blog of my own allotment, Plot 12A, here is a photo taken, from the inside, of the glorious show put on by these Perennial Sunflowers which I transplanted from Gerry’s allotment to the top of mine to help cover the corrugated iron sheeting that makes up the composting area:

Here is what they look like from the central pathway where all the allotments begin:

See you next month.

Carrots & Onions 2011

Carrots & Onions 2011

Although I didn’t get much carrot fly I can’t tell if the onions made any difference. I sowed 5 rows of carrot seeds amongst the onions only they took a l-o-n-g time to germinate! When they did they didn’t do very well!

Onions harvested but the carrot seedlings (sown in situ) can be seen behind them after I lifted the onions.

As Gerry told me last year he had never been able to grow them on his plots I thought I would have a go (Something that can’t be grown is like a red rag to a bull for me! I’ve just got to try to grow it myself!)

Carrots sown amongst Onions:

Onions from seed Alisa Craig:

Carrot seedlings in greenhouse

As they were taking so long to germinate I sowed some in a seedtray in the GH. They germinated quite well but by this time so had the ones amongst the onions!

This is from the day I planted out the seedlings that had been growing in the GH:

I pulled up the onions & managed to leave most of the carrot seedlings in the ground. I then planted up the bed with the carrot seedlings from the GH:

Rather fiddly but most, if not all, the seedling survived & went on to grow very well:

A few weeks ago I pulled them all up & was very disappointed to see that most of the roots were very twisted! Almost all of them were badly forked:

Yet that bed (& almost the whole allotment for that matter) had not been manured – not this year nor last as we didn’t know where to get any. Gerry has since found a source & we have lots now. The soil may have been rather hard & not deep enough but even with the dry summer/autumn we had I watered them quite frequently.

Next year I shall prepare the soil better, making sure it’s well broken up & loose.