“Save it for a rainy day!”

“Save it for a rainy day!”

“Save it for a rainy day!” Something I’ve been saying for months – at last it came along!

I have had seedlings growing in seedtrays in the greenhouse on the allotment for months (I have already written about my Alpine Strawberries in a previous blog) & today I finally got around to transplanting the poor Lavenders that have been in the tray for months!

Quite surprisingly for me the seed germinated quite quickly! I’d expected them to take a long time & be difficult – but just the opposite in fact!

I transplanted the majority of the seedlings into small black pots but a few bigger ones I put into individual pots of a bigger size. I was surprised by the extent of their root system & their relative “wiriness”.

As the thunderstorms kept coming & going I was forced to take refuge in the GH. So I started looking at the packets of seed I had “lying around“. I found a couple of packets Lettuce seeds; I had one of Cos type, Rubone, that my wife brought me back from Spain last year, I’d sown a few of these & they have all now been harvested & eaten! I didn’t sow any more of these because they had been “lost” for a couple of months! When we found them a few weeks ago they were damp. I left them, spread out, for a couple of days to dry & tried to sow some but nothing has come up in the seed tray!

Then I found a packet Gerry gave me a few weeks ago of “Webbs Wonderful” that was unopened so I opened it & sowed a few seeds in a seedtray. Looking through some packets from last year I found a an open packet of Lettuce “Tom Thumb” so I sowed some of them as well! I don’t know if these will germinate or what the germination rate might be. We’ll see in the coming week or two!

I also sowed some more Water Melon seeds, Sugar Babe, that my wife brought me back from Spain last year, I’d sown a few of these & they have all now been planted out in the allotment. A couple of the plants have little yellow flowers. I haven’t noticed any fruit yet, but then I haven’t got down to look at them close up.

I sowed some flower seeds as well. My wife likes Godetias very much & I’ve grown them several years on our balcony. I bought a packet a couple of weeks ago & sowed some in pots on the balcony. I still had a few left over so I put them in a seedtray in the GH on the plot as well! She also loves Carnations, she always associates them with her country, Spain. So I’ve always grown a few on the balcony for her. She brought back a packet of seeds from Spain & I sowed some earlier in the year. They all germinated very well but once again I didn’t get around to transplanting them.

A few weeks ago I brought them home from the GH on the plot to transplant them into pots for use on the balcony. Then my wife asked me to give them to our daughter so she could plant them in her garden. So I’ve sown some more today!

What else did I sow? Hmm… Ah, yes, Carrot “Autumn King 2“. For some reason they don’t seem to germinate on our plots! I sowed 5 rows amongst rows of Onions a few weeks ago but there has been no sign of a single seed having germinated as yet! Gerry told me last year he had never been able to grow Carrots on the plot, but I thought I might have better luck, but it seems not! So today I sowed some in a seedtray in the GH but will transplant them into the soil as soon as they get their true leaves & then we will see!

A guy from an allotment across the central path gave me a few Leeks today. I’ve never grown them before. One he said was an early variety & the other a late one. I have no place suited to them for the moment so I’ve heeled them in for a few days till I can find a more permanent site for them.

As you can see I had quite a busy “Rainy Day”!

http://myfolia.com/journals/107090-save-it-for-a-rainy-day%5DSave it for a rainy day!

I’ve copied this blog of mine which I wrote on My Folia.

These events I describe in the blog took place on Tuesday 28th June. It was a day marked by thunderstorms all day long!

Early summer on the plot

Early summer on the plot

Summer put in the very briefest of appearances on Sunday & Monday 26-27th June. We reached around 30ºC on Monday! On the allotment it was so hot that you could see the plants wilting! Especially the Sunflowers but even the Beetroot & other plants, like the Potatoes in front of our shed, were wilting! I may not be a plant but I was wilting as well!

On Tuesday we had thunderstorms on & off for most of the day. After which the next few days saw much lower temps.

Gerry has 2 rows of Gooseberries on his plot. A row of 3 at the beginning of the plot & another half a dozen behind the shed. This year they are so laden with berries that the branches are bending over & touching the ground! I’ve already picked some 3 times for myself. Gerry has taken quite a few & we tell other people they can help themselves!

The 6 bushes behind the shed haven’t been watered in the 2 years I’ve helped Gerry on the plots. The 3 near the beginning got watered several times a couple of weeks ago.

I planted some French Marigolds & Tagetes amongst the Tomatoes as companion plants as they are supposed to repel Whitefly. I’ve since learnt that they attract them – away from the Tomatoes!

My Lettuce is now bolting! This one has flowers that will open any day now! Even so we have had many heads from them & everyone has commented on my giant Lettuces! They’ve been quite impressed! Yet I did nothing more than water them after I transplanted them! They have had no fertilizer nor compost or manure nor was that part of the plot treated in any way beforehand!

Lettuce bolting:

The bed of Tomato Mallorquin after tying in & removing sideshoots:

1st Early Potatoes Arran Pilot

My very first Cucumber in the greenhouse!

Onions from seed Alisa Craig:

Rocket 1st Early Potatoes:

The Potatoes are flowering at the top of the plot & they really look fantastic:

The seeds were sown on 28th May. Sunflower bed with wood chipping mulch. A lorry full of wood chipping came to the allotment field on Wednesday 29th June. I got a few barrow loads & covered this bed in them to a depth of a couple of inches! No more weeds in this bed!

Sunflower bed with wood chipping mulch:

This is how my Sweet Peppers looked before weeding:

This is how my Sweet Peppers looked after weeding:

First Black Currants of the year to be picked:

A week later:

Gooseberries:

2nd sowing of Beetroot Bolthardy harvested:

Onion sets Turbo:

The Onions I am growing from seed Alisa Craig:

Three Sisters planting:

As we come to the end of this update of the allotment I share with Gerry, I’m adding the last couple of photos of the plot as seen from inside our shed, they are taken about 2 weeks apart so as to get a feeling for the speed of developments down on the plot:

View from inside shed on 11th June:

View from inside shed on 27th June:

This last photo of this blog is a photo down the length of our allotment taken from the top & looking down to the bottom:

Our 1/2 plot is on the right from the Sweetpeas to the end. The half plot, up as far as the bin & the Sweetpeas, belongs to another lady & her daughter. On the left is a partial view of the whole plot that Gerry has.

Hope you find this blog interesting & I hope to post the next blog around the middle of July. Several more crops are being harvested & I will include them there.

Happy gardening to all.

2nd season allotment blog – 15 days in June

2nd season allotment blog – 15 days in June

I thought I might take a slightly different view this time with the plot – I’m posting a photo from the beginning of the month & the same 2 weeks later so you can appreciate the growth made in 2 weeks.

3 Sisters bed – Water Melon, Sweet Corn & Runner beans:

Once the Water Melon gets underway I shall not earth up the plants in the rows. This is done this way for the moment to facilitate watering & weeding.

Tomatoes Mallorquin:

Sweet Peppers:

Beetroot Bolthardy:

Beetroot Bolthardy Harvested:

Lettuce Cos Ruboneo:

A month later:

Onion sets Turbo:

Onions Alisa Craig from seed:

Shallots:

Potatoes 1st Early Rocket:

Potatoes 1st Early Rocket – 1st Harvest:

View of plot from inside shed:

As is Traditional I’m ending this blog with a couple of views from inside of our shed as I see it while sitting down to eat a well earned sandwich or two!

Well I hope you found this slightly different way of focusing on the allotment that Gerry & I run of interest!

Although I now have my very own allotment plot, since June 10th, it’s very late in the year to do a great deal. I shall continue to help Gerry as before. He also gave me a hand last Saturday in helping to clear my new plot.

At the end of the month I shall post another blog of the progress the plot has made during the 2nd half of the month. Hopefully there will more harvests to show. I’ve had to leave several things out while doing this comparison blog. Next time I’ll add more things. Enjoy!

Allotment 2011 – My second season! April – May!

Allotment 2011 – My second season! April – May!

I haven’t written a blog on the allotment for several months now so I’ll make up for lost time by making this a double blog. I hope to go back to fortnightly blogs in June.

March was a rather disagreeable month with rain & cold weather but April was, officially, the hottest April on record since they began 130 years ago! The soil on the plot looks & feels like grey sand! Near the end of May now & still we have had no rain! We have had a few very light showers which have made absolutely no difference to the soil & I have to cart cans of water around the plot. Last Saturday, 21st, I spent over 2 hours watering the plot!

I’ll make a start by showing some of the changes that have taken place since my last blog in March:

It wasn’t my intention to include frosted potatoes at the start of this blog! No, what I meant to show was the Buddleia that Gerry cut back so very drastically last autumn! Up to now only one of the 3 stumps he left has sprouted. Just as well because I planted potatoes all around the area it covered when in full growth last year!

Although it doesn’t show up very well on this reduced size photo, two rows of potato tops were badly damaged by the frost we had on the night of 4th May:

Onions Alisa Craig:

Lettuce Cos “Ruboneo”:

This is the Lettuce variety that my wife brought me back from Spain last September.

Lettuce Cos “Ruboneo” seedlings before & after planting out:

Same day:

Here they are – a month later!

Three weeks later, in May!

Garlic:

Beetroot:

Just this week I’ve noticed that one of the plants in this patch is bolting!

Onion sets Turbo:

Gerry brought a couple of bags of Onion sets down to the plot & I planted them for him:

Beginning of April 2011:

3 weeks later:

1 month later (end of May):

Sweet Peppers:

Bed 1:

Bed 2:

Three Sisters:

Have you ever heard of the Three Sisters method of planting? It consists of planting a spreading plant (Water Melon in my case), Sweet Corn & then a climbing bean (which uses the Corn to climb up). I’m trying it out this year for the first time. The beans haven’t germinated yet giving the Corn time to grow tall before the beans start climbing.

Potatoes Earlies ‘Rocket’ in front of shed:

Day of sowing (end of March):

No photos during April!

Now at beginning of May:

10 days later:

2 days afterwards:

View from shed:

Here are some views up the plot from inside the shed:

1st April – still looking rather bleak!

Three weeks later!:

Tomorrow I’ll take one for May. I haven’t got around to doing one this month!

End of May:

There you have, in a nutshell (a rather big one!), the progress made on the plot during April & May 2011.

I hope to go back to fortnightly blog in June. So watch out around the middle of the month for my next instalment!
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Gerry & Balcony’s allotment

Gerry & Balcony’s allotment

My balcony has at last become to small to keep me in check & I’ve now got half an allotment.

As you will remember from my blog Half an allotment … a friend from church, Gerry, has let me use some of the space on his allotments. I’ve now been down several times & have made a start on clearing away a space so that I can plant some lettuces & onions. The lettuce seeds are making progress & I will take them down to the allotment in a couple of weeks.

Here are some of the onion setts I have planted on the balcony. I have planted each of the individual setts in its own small pot. I’ll take them down to the allotment in a few weeks time. Then I will fill the pots again with the setts that are still waiting.

Onion setts just planted:

No sign of the cucumbers germinating yet. On the other hand it’s only been a week or so since I sowed them in the picture below.

Cucumber seeds just sown:

The Sweet Peppers have germinated well but not making much headway. I’m sure they need more light. I was thinking of putting them out on the balcony during the day when the weather suddenly changed for the worse again.

Sweet Peppers germinating:

Below is a general view of the allotment looking up from the middle towards the top. The tree is an apple tree that apparently produces a lot of apples but which is very old & neglected. Gerry said something about pruning it but I thought it would be better to leave it as it is. After so many years with no attention a certain equilibrium between the tree & pests will have built up & any pruning will upset the balance. We’re going to leave it for this year & just observe it. we will then see if we do anything to it for next year.

Apple tree:

The allotment is in quite a mess as Gerry had to have a very serious operation last summer & the allotment suffered from abandonment as he simply wasn’t in condition to go down & maintain it.

The patch below was sown with sunflowers last year & millions of weeds grew in among them! We cleared away all the remaining dead stems from last year & it is now ready to be dug over but I won’t be able to do it as the patch is far too big for me. I’m going to ask him if he has any plans for it, if he hasn’t I will see if I can use it for potatoes.

Bed to be dug over:

The lower half of this plot belongs to someone else. You can see, even at this distance, that they have done quite a bit of work on it.
The photos below are of the first small patch I began to dig over on 26th March. It’s taken me 4 sessions of various hours each to almost finish it. There is another half an hour’s work to do before the last few feet are finished.

First small patch:

It takes me so long to do a small area that a healthy person would have done in a couple of hours at most. I have to push the fork into the ground, lever it forward & then get down on one knee to lift up & turn the forkful over! I’m lucky that the soil is quite loose & seems to be in quite good heart. But trying to turn over the soil while standing up is totally impossible for me as it causes excruciating pain in my lower back. Even getting up & down for every forkful is agonizingly slow work. So I shan’t be doing much more once this plot is finished.

First small patch dug up:

It was necessary to dig it all over as it was full of perennial weeds, Dandelions especially. Now they are all out & in a few weeks time this bed will be full of the onions (see photo above, I have several more trays full like this) I now have on the balcony as well as the lettuces I’ve started.

Below is the patch almost finished. One more session will see it finished! Phew! This photo is from the 29th. I couldn’t go down on the 30/31st because of the rain.

First small patch:

Below is a photo of the autumn fruiting Raspberries – awaiting pruning! We have made a start but less than a quarter has been done as yet. In the coming days I will see if I can finish pruning them down to ground level.

Autumn Raspberry canes:

In this last photo, on this blog for the time being, the shed can be seen. As is immediately obvious it still needs to be put up! We are going to put it up at the far end of the plot as seen from this position. The place Gerry wants to put it up is beyond the Apple tree. It still needs to be levelled & the weeds present there removed. Gerry has already put down weedkiller so we should be able to clear it in the next spell of good weather. Then we will have to get someone to give us a hand to put it up.

Shed awaiting assembly:

In a few weeks time I will see about making up a continuation blog with whatever progress we have made.