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.

 

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!

Giving up!

Giving up!

As of September 2014 I’ve given up my half allotment, Plot 12A, as I couldn’t spend nearly as much time as I needed to on it & the needs of our daughter & grandchildren have also restricted my time there. A third reason is that we don’t get much out of it as neither my wife nor I are keen on many vegetables that can be grown on it. We only really like potatoes, tomatoes, lettuces, sweet peppers, cucumbers, beetroot, onions, garlic & strawberries.

Plot at beginning of September 2014:

We were ending up with gluts & deficits – especially with lettuces as, for as much as I try to stagger them, the weather seldom played ball & I’d end up with gluts that couldn’t be used or even given away! We thought it didn’t make sense to continue to pay out for a plot that is getting more expensive every year & could only be used for less than 6 months a year.

The orange fencing marks the end of the plot or the division between plots 12A & 12B.

Nevertheless it’s not the end to my allotment growing as Gerry has told me I can grow some things on his 1 & 1/2 plots. That’s how I started out in 2010, helping him. It was he who encouraged me to apply for my own plot! He has supported me during these years in letting me use his greenhouse on the plot & using his shed & tools. In turn I’ve tried to help him on his plots at the same time.

This past summer saw a big struggle in maintaining his plot & mine as well at the same time. Having even less time on the plots made both our plots suffer & once weeds start to get the upper hand it’s an uphill fight against them which they seem to win most of the time.

On August 1st Gerry had to go into hospital for a major operation which saw him on the op table for 9 hours! He is now recovering well but it will still be a few months till he regains his former strength. It won’t be till next spring that he will be able to work on his plots again & at that time I will help him again.

I’ve added a few photos of views of the plot I’ve given up, some were taken at the beginning of the month some just a few days ago. These will obviously be the last pictures I will be taking of Plot 12A.

Plot 12A Beds being dismantled:

As you can see from these photos I’ve started to dismantle the raised beds that my brother & I put up 3 years ago.

Since the pictures were taken I’ve finished the dismantling & today my wife (she very rarely sets foot on the allotments!) & I took down the runner bean plants while she foraged around for the last of the beans. If I can get down tomorrow I’ll take the canes down & return them to Gerry who kindly lent me them.

I’ve also got two teepees of runner beans to take down yet & when they are finished that will be the end of my dismantling of the plot.

Thanks to many of you who gave me encouraging comments & their support over these past 3 years. I very much appreciated them! 🙂 Thank you all for putting up with my, more or less, monthly blogs on our allotments as well.

But … you won’t be getting off too lightly as I will be back with more blogs on the allotments – when I can’t be sure but I’ve sufficient photos from Gerry’s plots to make up several blogs!

Now we are nearly through June & harvesting has begun!

Now we are nearly through June & harvesting has begun!

I’ve already harvested the first Potatoes & Strawberries of the year this month, as well as Lettuces & Broadbeans!

I’ve been able to finish off the Lettuces ‘Little Gem’ planted in the greenhouse border as well as those that were left over from that planting at the end of February & were planted outside under a dwarf apple tree in front of the GH.

There are more to be harvested from my allotment, Plot 12A, I planted them between the two rows of bamboo canes that make up my bean frame. They will have been harvested long before the runner/green beans block out much of the light.

Lettuce ‘Little Gem’ inside bean frame:

Lettuce ‘Little Gem’ just harvested & cleaned up at home:

I also sowed some more seed of the same Lettuce, (May). I accidently had 2 packets of seeds as I thought the 1st had been lost & bought a 2nd. The 1st turned up on the GH bench, under a tray of seedlings! As each packet has 1,000s of seeds I won’t need to buy any more this summer!

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Talking about sowing seeds, I sowed some Beetroot ‘Detroit 2’, in the GH, in March, which I planted out on my plot in early May – at the same time as the Lettuces. I also sowed some Beetroot ‘Cylindra’, a few days ago, (June) in the narrow bed alongside the bean frame.

Beetroot ‘Cylindra’ just sown in bed No.3:

Never grown this type before, only the round ones. I’d added spent compost from my balcony in this bed to lighten up the soil while making it more water retaining. I’d sowed the seeds of Lettuce ‘Little Gem’ here a week or so earlier but there was still space to spare for some more seeds. This will be the first time I’ve grown cylindrical Beetroots as till now they have always been the round ones. I’ll report back on the results in a few month’s time.

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In the middle of March I planted out my early Potatoes ‘Rocket’ & ‘Pentland Javelin’ & repeated the same mistake as other years of planting them too close together!

1st Early Potatoes ‘Rocket‘ being sown:

The spacing between plants in the same row isn’t too bad but I plant the rows too close together resulting in a mess once the plants really get going as I can’t get to them properly to earth/hill them up! I put in 3 rows where I now realize I should have only put in two! A mistake I’ve made previous years! Perhaps I ought to put up a sign to remind me next year to only plant two rows of seed potatoes in each bed!

I’d “chitted” (sprouted) a bag of seed potatoes ‘Rocket’ which were planted out at the same time as ‘Pentland Javelin’ which were not “chitted”. In fact I bought them only the day before planting them out!

All the potatoes were sown in the same bed which I’d dug horse manure into a few days earlier. Potatoes being the only rootcrop that doesn’t mind growing in freshly manured ground.

Just 2 weeks ago (10th June) I dug up all the ‘Rocket’ potatoes, there was only one row of them almost the width of the allotment. I ended up with quite a decent crop as well.

Potatoes ‘Rocket’ after harvesting:

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I also sowed some Leeks ‘Musselbourgh’ & ‘Red’ Onion seeds (from my daughter) in Gerry’s GH, to go in my plot, during March. These germinated very well & have since been planted out on my allotment.

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During March I also lifted the Parsnips that had been in the ground all winter as well as lots of Leeks.

Parsnips just harvested, now in greenhouse:

I put them in the GH to dry off a little for a couple of days. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Leeks Musselbourgh just lifted:

I was very pleased with the amount of Leeks I got this winter. I harvested them every couple of weeks.
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Near the end of March I planted up a bed of Onion sets ‘Stuttgarter’ as well as a row of Garlic cloves.

Onion sets ‘Stuttgarter’ just sown:

A month before I’d planted out some Onion sets ‘Setton’:

Garlic cloves just sown:

I planted out a bed of these same Onion sets in Gerry’s 1/2 allotment.
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In early May I sowed a 2nd packet of Broadbeans as the 1st packet sown in February gave me only 3 plants – one of which I hoed away! They are called ‘Sutton’ & are a dwarf variety. Most of these seem to have germinated & are now making nice plants.

Broad beans ‘Sutton’ just germinating:

The 2 plants from the earlier sowing are flowering. This week I’ve picked some of the pods.
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May was a very busy month for me because I also planted out lots of Runner bean seeds on the bean frame, most of these were mixed seeds from last year. Some were black seeds, some speckled, some white & also a packet of ‘Scarlet Emperor’ I’d bought.

Runner bean seeds saved from 2013:

Runner beans germinating:

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Beetroot ‘Detroit 2’ seedlings inside bean frame:

Beetroot ‘Detroit 2’ in Bed No.4 (bean frame):

What a difference 14 days make!

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During May I also planted out 2 beds of Tomato plants; one, ‘Gardener’s Delight’ (a particular favourite of mine!), the other, ‘Sunstream’, a small, plum shaped fruit whose seeds I’d saved from some tomatoes my wife bought during the winter. I liked the taste of them & saved some seeds. These germinated very well in the GH, as did the others.

Tomatoes ‘Gardener’s Delight’ just planted out:

Tomato ‘Sunstream’ just planted out:

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On my plot I also sowed some Carrot ‘Purple Haze’ seed from my daughter. Never grown purple carrots before!:

I also sowed a few Sunflower seeds she gave me as well. These are in the middle of the narrow bed alongside the beanframe.

I didn’t know when I sowed the Sunflowers that they were a dwarf type! Now they are shading out the Purple Haze Carrot seedlings!

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At the far end of this bed I planted out the pots of Pansies, Daffs & Crocuses that had been growing on our balcony railings. The Pansies are doing very well & have flowered a lot. They add a welcome note of colour!

Just this week a light pink Hyacinth has begun to flower!!! I’ve never, ever heard of a Hyacinth flowering in the middle of June before!!!

Well that just about resumes what I’ve done on my allotment, Plot 12A, over the last few months!

Be back next month with more news on Gerry’s plots!

Hot July down at 12A!

Hot July down at 12A!

What a scorcher of a month we had this year! It’s been years since we last had such a hot spell in July! (Since July 2006 in fact!) At first, with the cold spring, it seemed like we were going to have another “fizzer” (Austral slang: A person or thing that disappoints, fails to succeed, etc.) summer, like last year’s, instead of the sizzler we all hope for. Fortunately it turned out to be the latter rather than the former!

Lettuces ‘Little Gem’:

Lettuce ‘Little Gem’ ready to be picked:

Lettuce ‘Little Gem’ inside the runner bean frame:

Lettuce ‘Little Gem’ now bolting! A close up look:

The Lettuces in the 1st & 3rd picture are in the same bed!

A few days later here is where they ended up:

This year I thought I had planned my sowings very well but I didn’t count on such a cold spring nor such a hot summer! So they ALL came together at practically the same time & I had a tremendous glut!

I took a couple of bagfuls into church & on my Facebook page I said that if anybody wanted any to drop me a line but only one of my brothers did so. He came round to pick up some for one of his sons & his girlfriend. My wife & I were eating one a day each – but you can only eat so many! Lots of Lettuces from this bed & the one under the runner bean frame ended up making compost! ;-((

Beetroot ‘Baby Solis’ & ‘Chioggia’ being picked:

This year was a VERY good year for Beetroot! I don’t remember having had one single plant go to seed/bolt! Just the exact opposite of last year when I hardly got any at all to eat! It made no difference whether they were transplanted – as the great majority were – or sown directly into the ground. I also had some of ‘Bolthardy’. They all gave great results! I even sowed a couple more packets on Gerry’s plot after I lifted his onions & the ground had been bare for a few weeks.

However I was very disappointed with ‘Chioggia’! It was supposed to have pink & white rings but all I ended up with were paler red Beetroots – without pink & white rings! I had 3 plantings on my plot which I thought I’d labelled correctly, but after the first harvesting I thought perhaps I’d mistakenly labelled ‘Baby Solis’ for ‘Chioggia’. When the 2nd batch was harvested & they were the same I thought “This is rather odd but let’s see how the last batch I put in on my plot turn out”. These were planted under the runner bean frame but not a single pink or white ring in sight!

I’d made a last sowing, this time on Gerry’s plot & directly in the ground & the packet was placed at the top of the row. When I harvested them I thought this time they must have pink & white rings – but no, they were just a paler red, not even pink!

I’d bought the seeds precisely because of this novelty!

Broadbeans ‘Aquadulce Claudia’:

Plants growing very well on my plot:

Broadbeans ‘Aquadulce Claudia’ just harvested:

More, a few days later:

I had a very good crop of Broadbeans ‘Aquadulce Claudia’. I picked so many that I have frozen them & will be using them little by little over the coming months!

Leek seedlings ‘Musselburgh’:

These seedling Leeks grew very quickly & by the end of the month were ready to be moved:

Leeks from 2012 with flowers & lots & lots of bees!:

Bees seem to go mad over the flower heads of all types of Alliums! Gerry planted some type of perennial onions just outside of the greenhouse door on his allotment a few years ago when my wife & I were visiting our family in Spain. These grow & flower every year & they are covered in bees every year!

Onions ‘Sturon’ from sets:

These really did do very well this year! I’m very pleased with the results from just one single bag of sets:

Here, at the end of the month, they are beginning to fall over. In just a few weeks time they will be harvested.

After such a rainy summer during 2012 I found I had enormous onions. Before then I’d always been unsure about how to water them. I’d asked for advice & what I got was confusing; some say they water them when they plant them & don’t give them a drop more all summer, others said they watered theirs like the rest of their veg.

This year I decided I’d water them frequently & I’m glad I did as the results speak for themselves! I’ll put a couple of photos in my blog for August.

Pinto beans at the top of the plot are now flowering:

These beans were sown in the 2nd bed at the top of my plot at the beginning of June & within 6-7 weeks were flowering! I’d never sown them so early before.

Here are the same Pinto beans now climbing & flowering:

These beans don’t grow very high but these have grown taller than any others I’ve grown before.

New Potatoes ‘Rocket’:

Although I planted the seed potatoes very early this year, (middle of February), they came through at practically the same time as others planted later.

Potatoes ‘Rocket’, which are growing in the last bed on my plot, are now being harvested:

I’d harvested the first few at the beginning of the month but this year I started harvesting as I needed them instead of digging them all up the same day as I’d done in previous years!

Even so I now have several carrier bags of potatoes now at home from a sowing of a few more earlies & some maincrop. We should have enough potatoes to last us through to about Easter next year!

Strawberries just picked from the 1st bed at the top of my plot:

Here they are at home on the scales:

A few weeks later I also got a lot from the bed at the bottom of my plot:

I’m ending this long, (& long overdue!) blog on this bright note of the summer days now over for this year!

Till my next blog on August, happy gardening to all my readers!

End of first season on Plot 12A

End of first season on Plot 12A

I’m now coming to the end of my first season on the new half plot I got from the Town Council on the 1st of September 2011.

Even if I dare say so myself, I’ve done quite a bit of work & transformed it completely! There’s little to see in the way of plantings as I’ve been concentrating on clearing away the very old overgrown Raspberry beds. Thanks to an exceptionally mild & dry November I’ve been able to do much more than I could have ever imagined when I took the plot on four months ago!

Ex-Raspberry plot 1st to be dug & manured:

All the Raspberry beds have been dug out & the roots removed. The couch grass (twitch) has been dug out as much as possible, but, as we all know, for as much as you try to remove every tiny trace of root, lots always remains & in the spring I expect it will be as green as a bowling green! The very first bed I dug up has sprouted a generous crop of grass!

First & second beds dug & manured:

It is hard work, very hard work clearing away the Raspberry canes & even worse digging out the Couch grass! As my back isn’t in very good condition I have to stop for a breath & a rest after practically every forkful!!! It’s a real fight trying to get the grass roots apart sufficiently so as to be able to lift the mass out of the soil. I have to rock the fork backwards & forwards several times on two sides before I can get down to getting the spit of soil & roots out! An exhausting task, even for a person half my age!

The First bed refers to the very first bed I dug up & manured. It wasn’t part of the Raspberry beds. The Second bed is the first of the Raspberry beds to be dug up & manured. Hope that clears up doubts as to the numbering of the beds!

The First bed was planted with a few Strawberry plants at its far end whereas none of the old Raspberry beds have anything planted in them. This bed is also at the furthest end of my half plot, there is a division put up by the council gardeners which is clearly visible in the photos.

Third bed dug & manured:

This is actually the Second bed of the old Raspberry beds. It’s the third bed from the end of the plot. There’s nothing planted in it at present.

View of bed alongside Compost heap:

Here is where my plot (12A) actually starts. The main path for cars & dividing the allotments field in two down the centre is on the far side of my compost heap. I will have to do something about it in a few months’ time as it is far too big at present. Dividing it into two/three parts seems to me to be the most sensible thing to do. First I will have to empty it! Unfortunately it is totally infested with Bindweed!

Horse manure being dug in:

This is the very first bed from the beginning of the plot. It was really choked up with Bindweed & Couch grass. I dug it all over trying to remove as much of the roots as possible. Later I dug it over a 2nd time adding the horse manure.

Bed finished digging in manure:

It took me two days work but now it’s finished! That was just digging in the manure!

View of manured section:

A couple of weeks later the 2 beds here are finished & the manuring has been finished. The 2nd bed was full of several rows of Onion sets. After weeding them & getting out as much as was possible of the Bindweed roots I pulled the loosened soil up around the necks of the plants to stabilize them. Since then I’ve mulched them with soil improver & they look 100% better!

Strawberry plants just planted out:

These Strawberry plants come mostly from the plants that Gerry had in pots in his GH at home. He brought them down to the GH on the allotment where they spent about 6 months. I put them outside when they started to flower but brought them inside again when the runners started to root into the grass around the GH! I put the runners into pots & pegged down other that hadn’t rooted yet. That way I got a whole load of new plants to put in this bed.

Strawberries mulched with soil improver:

A couple of weeks later Gerry brought a load of sacks of Soil Improver down to the allotment & I used a couple of sacks to mulch around the Strawberries & the Calendulas.

Calendulas & Strawberry plants on Christmas Eve:

Here is the most up to date photo I have of this bed which was taken on Christmas Eve.

To end this blog I’m including a series of photos of the bed that contained Leeks, Beetroot, Carrot & Onion seedlings when I took over the tenancy in September.

Leeks, Beetroot, Carrot & Onion seedlings 16th September:

Leeks, Beetroot, Carrot & Onion seedlings 5th October:

Leeks, Beetroot, Carrot & Onion seedlings 23rd November:

Leeks, Beetroot, Carrot & Onion seedlings 3rd December:

Leeks, Beetroot, Carrot & Onion seedlings Christmas Eve:

Sometime in the New Year I will continue to make updates but almost certainly the next Episode in this saga won’t be until Spring is officially here!

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.

My very own plot – This time 12A!

My very own plot – This time 12A!

As of 1st September 2011 I’ve become, officially this time, the new tenant of PLOT 12A! Just this morning, 3rd September, the papers came in the post & I’ve filled them out & sent them back to the Town Council offices with a cheque for £12 – the year’s rent till 31st August 2012.

I spent a disheartening/discouraging 15 -20 mins walking around them before deciding on one. I’d already turned down two plots on 2 previous occasions this year! I couldn’t go back with a negative the third time! So when I got home I immediately phoned them & told them I was interested in Plot 12A. I was told the paperwork would be put in the post right away.

Here is a view of my new plot taken from the central path & looking down the length of mine. The plot only goes a bit beyond the rusty barrel you can see:

I think I may have found the one with the least work to do on it & which I can make a go of. It’s “major” drawback is the out-of-control Raspberry bed, that will need digging out I’m very much afraid! That will be a major job as well! That will have to wait till they die back for the winter. It will probably also be a job over several seasons till I eradicate it all! They make a lot of suckers & the roots can go quite deep & extend a couple of metres to the sides of the bed! I’m not sure whether I’ll keep any plants as yet, I’ll need to examine them closer up to see if it’s worthwhile.

Raspberry bed:

Raspberry bed:

It’s not very far from Gerry’s plot either but on the other side of the central path for cars. No doubt Gerry will offer me the continued use of his shed/greenhouse/tools. When I thought I had plot 19A in June he said I could continue to use his things as I have none of my own, well who would need gardening tools on a balcony!

While I was checking the plots out I checked out 19 B. No work has been done on it in months! The Sunflowers, both Tall & Mini, are now flowering but, as they haven’t been watered in months & we have had little rainfall in that time, they are all stunted & the Tall ones are little higher than the Mini’s!

Here’re a couple of photos that I took:

Sunflowers “Mini”:

Sunflowers “Tall”:

Like in June I will continue to help Gerry with his plots, obviously not quite as much but after running 1 & 1/2 plots for almost 2 seasons my own 1/2 plot will seem very small indeed!

A couple of more views of the overrun plot I’ve taken on:

There are some runner beans growing up a framework:

I gave them a couple of canfuls of water as the soil was so dry.

I discovered a row of Beetroots & gave them a watering as well after removing the weeds. Likewise with a row of Carrot seedlings I also found. I also found what look like Spring onions seedlings – I say Spring Onions as you wouldn’t sow normal onions so late in the year. These also got a good soaking!

Where the plot begins, alongside the central pathway, there is a compost heap that runs the entire width of the plot:

I shall have to empty it & divide it in two, only it will have to wait for some time yet as I discovered that there is a wasps’ nest in it!!!

Gerry came down while I was digging a bed alongside the compost heap & brought a load of bags of horse manure in his trailer! He asked me if I wanted them & I accepted so we lugged them out of his trailer & dumped the bags on top of the compost heap for the time being – but away from the nest!

Well I shall be posting updates on my new plot in the future though until Spring next year there won’t be much to blog about! I’ll be posting a new blog on Gerry’s plot soon.

End of July on the plot

End of July on the plot

Well July (October?) has come & gone & now the summer seems to be getting underway – at last! The weather forecaster said a couple of times during the last 2 weeks of July that the weather map corresponded more to one from October than July!

Well now the time for harvest is upon us! Our Onions have now reached the point where we have to lift them so they can dry out.

Onions, Turbo, from sets:

This is what Gerry’s Turbo onions, grown from sets, looked like on the 15th:

Here’s what they looked like 15 days later when I lifted them:

Here’s a close up of the onions which have become very big!:

Onions, Alisa Craig, from seed:

Here are the onions, Alisa Craig, I grew from seed:

Three Sisters planting:

Two views of the Three Sisters planting:

10 days later:

The Sweetcorn isn’t doing too bad nor are the beans but the Water Melon has been a waste of time! I pulled up just this morning 2 plants that had died! Only a very few of the plants I put in are growing, I doubt I will be getting any water melons!

Beetroot, Bolthardy:

I continue to plant more Beetroot in the greenhouse & here is the last batch before planting out:

Here they are planted out! Nothing much to look at! They look lost & forlorn in the patch I’ve put them in:

A Tomato “weed”:

This appears to be a self sown seedling from Gardener’s Delight that we grew in this bed last year! It’s growing amongst Gerry’s onions & has had no more water than the onions yet it is growing quite well & has even set fruit! As the self sown Sunflowers have grown very big they cast a lot of shadow over the bed now. The Tomato doesn’t seem to mind though!

Carrot Autumn King:

The Carrots I sowed quite some time ago are now making much better progress after I dug up my Alisa Craig onions. They were obviously too dry before but now with more water they are doing much better.

On July 18th I planted out the ones I’d been growing in a seedtray in the greenhouse. I put them in front off & to the left of the ones I sowed directly into the soil.

You can see the difference a couple of weeks makes! The Lettuces you can see at the top are Webbs Wonderful that were planted out the same day as the Carrots.

Globe Artichokes:

Gerry’s Globe Artichokes are now in flower & the flowers are very attractive to look at, as you can see in this close up of one!

Lettuce Tom Thumb:

Towards the end of last year’s growing season Gerry gave me a packet of Tom Thumb lettuce seeds. I sowed a few rows & was very impressed indeed by its hardiness as all the small plants overwintered very well out on the plot with no protection at all!

A few weeks ago I sowed some in a seedtray in the greenhouse & planted them out on July 13th:

Here they are a couple of weeks later. In a few more weeks I’ll be able to start picking them.

Peanuts:

The Peanuts I wrote about a couple of weeks ago are all still alive & doing well:

Runner beans:

The Runner beans that Gerry started off in his greenhouse at home, which he later brought down to the plot, are doing very well. On Saturday I picked the first handful of the year.

I forgot to take a photo but here they are in flower & their bright red flowers bring a welcome splash of bright red to our plot. Almost every other plot has some as well!

Sunflowers:

One of the Sunflowers, (light yellow), self sown, from last year now in full flower. It’s the only one of its colour among the self sown!

Some of these self sown Sunflowers are, literally, the size of dinner plates! Most of the self sown Sunflowers are multi-branching ones & the plot has really come alive in the last couple of weeks!

Sunflower Titan grown from seeds Gerry bought a couple of months ago. 1st 3 rows on 15th July:

Titan 1st 3 rows 25th July:

These are Sunflowers from seed saved from last year seen on 15th July:

In just 15 days they have grown enormously!:

First of the mini Sunflowers, from seed I saved last year, now beginning to open:

This one is called “Little Dorrit”. Gerry brought the seeds down a couple of months ago & I sowed them:

Titan 1st 3 rows on 15th July:

Titan 1st 3 rows on 25th July:

Potatoes Maris Piper 2nd Early:

Last week my brother, Steve, & his wife came to spend a few days here. I roped him in the help me on the plot!

Here he is just starting to dig up the potatoes:

Here are some pictures of the potatoes we dug up:

They are in 3 groups/piles because of the configuration of the bed:

Tomatoes Mallorquin:

These Tomatoes are growing away quite strongly now & have a fair number of tomatoes:

The Tagetes & French Marigolds are really thriving in this position!:

*Yellow flowers at bottom of plot (Perennial Sunflowers):

We were unable to identify these flowers last year but they come up every year. They make a nice splash of colour where they are but they are not nearly as bold & brash as the Sunflowers.

View from the top of the plot:

I thought you might like to see more of an overview of our plots so I took 2 photos from the very top of our plots looking down towards the bottom:

The first photo shows more than our plots. Gerry’s half plot begins where you can see the Sunflowers with the dying Sweet peas in front of them. From there to the hedge is the half plot

From the bottom of the picture to the the Sunflowers is the half plot that belongs to another lady & her daughter.

On the left you can see our greenhouse, all the plot from there, both back & forwards, is Gerry’s whole allotment.

View of the plot from inside the shed:

To end this terribly long blog is the “Traditional” view from the shed. Unfortunately there is not much to see! Gerry had cut the Gladiolas that were beginning to open before I took this photo!

There are still more things I could add but I think this blog has now become too long so I’m putting an end to it here. Nevertheless, I hope you have enjoyed this blog of our plots.

Please leave a comment to tell me what you think of it!

Summer (?) on the plot

Summer (?) on the plot

We may be “officially” in the middle of a “Great British Summer” but you would never believe it! A couple of months ago one of the tabloid newspapers had great big headlines on its front page proclaiming we were going to have the hottest summer since records began! At least words along those lines! Temps were expected to be in mid to high 30s C!

I’ll start this month’s summary of the plot Gerry & I share with a look at how the Three Sisters planting has come along:

Three Sisters:

Beginning of July:

As the month got under way here is a shot of what this tripartite planting looked like:

A week later we had some very strong winds for a few days & these blew over the Sweet Corn so I put more canes in & ran some string between them & loosely tied in the Sweet Corn before they ended parallel to the ground instead of perpendicular!

Another week later & the Sweet Corn, as well as the Runner beans, are going “great guns” but the Water Melons aren’t doing at all well!

Cucumbers in greenhouse:

Beginning of July:

Middle of July: (Spot the difference!)

Looking terrible, aren’t they? What can you do about Powdery Mildew? I can’t give them any more ventilation than they now have. The door is never closed nor is the vent in the roof & there’s a pane of glass missing where the Tomato plant is growing, as anyone with sharp eyes would have already noticed!

Outside in the ground they also have Powdery Mildew!

First Cucumbers to be harvested from the greenhouse:

Had quite a few since then though during this last week they seem to have almost stopped growing! Maybe the colder weather?

Same day but only 2 were big enough to harvest from the plot outside:

Onions Alisa Craig:

I grew some Onions, “Alisa Craig“, this year from seed for the first time ever.

Here they are a few days before I lifted them to dry:

These are a few that came out of the ground when I pushed the tops over. Many of the tops had already begun to keel over I just hurried up the natural process! The soil was so dry that it looked, & felt, like grey sand!

Shallots:

Garlic:

The Garlic I planted haven’t grown very big at all! I wonder if it is worth the while planting them in the future?

Purple Sprouting Broccoli:

I was reading about the benefits of Broccoli on the Internet – very good for preventing Prostate Cancer it seems. I commented on it to a guy in the plot next to ours who was planting out some “Greens” (they all look the same to me – I couldn’t distinguish between a Cabbage or Brussels Sprouts or a Cauliflower!) when he said that was was he was planting out! He then offered me the few plants he had left over! I accepted them & planted them & covered them with some netting to protect them from the pigeons as you can see in the photo below:

Beetroot:

The day before we went to Spain (Prince’s Wedding day) for a few days I sowed some Beetroot seeds directly in the soil, the only ones I’ve sown that way this year, so here is the end result a couple of months later:

Just a few days after taking the above photo I decided they were big enough to harvest & this is what I got:

Onion Turbo:

These are Gerry’s onions from sets planted in March I think:

Peanuts!

Yes, Peanuts! I’m growing them outside in the soil! Here are two photos as proof of what I say!

The picture above is of them the day I planted them out & the one below is about 10 days later. Of course I have no idea whether I will get any fruit (peanuts) as I may have planted them out too late, but it’s another of my little EXPERIMENTS! , like the Pinto beans & Garbanzo beans & Lentils I tried growing last year.

Potatoes 1st Early Rocket harvested

I believe I mentioned somewhere before that I had read the praises of this variety sung on the BBC Gardening Forum which decided me to give them a go.
The results can be seen below. But I have no idea of how many kilos I harvested – of these or any of the others below!

Potatoes 1st Early Kestrel harvested:

I harvested Gerry’s potatoes at the beginning of the month & you can see what each plant produced in the 4 rows in the photo below. I also took a photo of each row as I finished digging them up but I also took this one of all 4 rows when I had finished lifting them all:

He has quite a few more rows of Main Crop potatoes still growing as have I! He has King Edward & Maris Piper whereas I only have Maris Piper as my maincrop. I do have a couple of rows of 2nd Earlies Maris Piper that need to be dug up soon!

Potatoes 1st Early Arran Pilot harvested:

These potatoes were the last to be planted (can’t remember the date now!) & I put them at the very top of our plot.

Runner beans:

The Runner beans Gerry sowed at home in his GH & brought down to the plot later are now flowering, as you can see. So far we have had just one pod but there will be plenty more soon! I planted them in 3 rows & on the outside I planted some Pinto beans which are also in flower – though they can’t be seen in this photo.

Tomatoes Mallorquin:

The tomatoes are setting fruit but it doesn’t look like we will be having a glut this year! They are now waist high. The 3 plants on my balcony are now head high!

Sunflowers Little Dorrit:

Here is a photo of some dwarf Sunflowers called Little Dorrit. Gerry bought a packet earlier this year. I shall save some seeds for next year.

Sunflowers Titan:

The first three rows of Sunflowers in this photo are of Titan, again a packet Gerry bought this year. Behind them are more that I just call Tall as I don’t know what they were called last year.

Anyway they are growing faster & taller than Titan! For some strange reason they are also growing taller on one side of the bed than on the other! You might be able to see that in this photo below:

Water Melon,Sweet Corn & Broccoli:

The Water Melon & Sweetcorn are growing together at this end of a bed which also includes Broccoli. The Water Melon is doing better in this bed than in the 3 Sisters planting. The wood chips were put down weeks after the plants were put in.

Sweet Peppers:

The Sweet Peppers are coming along nicely! They are opening their first flowers & I expect to see the first fruits beginning to form over the next couple of weeks, perhaps I will be able to get a close up picture of a plant with its baby peppers!

There is no view of the plot from the shed this time simply because it seems I have forgotten to take any! Anyway it is difficult to see down the plot any longer because the apple tree branches with their fruit are hanging down over the doorway & the Raspberries have almost reached their maximum height, further obscuring the view down the plot!

Well that’s it for this blog. In my next blog, about the beginning of August, I hope to include a “View From The Shed” photo which at least may show the Gladioli beginning to open, as there are now lots of flower stems emerging from amongst the leaves.