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.

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!