Sunny Sunday

Spent a nice day between the two plots today, first up to 69 and pulled some onions to have roasted with our tea and a handful of broad beans too.



 

Then on to plot 119 armed with a sandwich and time for quick refreshment before tackling more weeding and watering the greenhouse and polytunnel.  First tomatoes are being formed,

little tiny green things.  And some flowers on the cucumbers too.  Really surprised to see a beautiful little flower on one of the chinese gooseberries - wasnt expecting that!  Must be very

happy in the greenhouse.

 









 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of pretty flowers around too, have lots of self seeded poppies including an amazing pink one, hope to grab some seeds later on in the year and plant some more.  The calendulas are doing well too, brightens the place up a bit.  Took some time just to sit and enjoy the place today too, a lovely atmosphere down there.  Then off for a walk down by the river to pick some elderflowers for a batch of wine, did it last year and it was amazing.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harvesting

Been a busy week or two with work but still managing twice weekly visits to water the greenhouse, keep the tomatoes in order and generally check over things, kill off any blackfly, keep the paths trimmed and pick rhubarb.  Everything is growing really well and the cabbages and other brassicas seem to be recovering after the inital onslaught by slugs and snails and pigeons and anything else that took a fancy to them, the kohl rabi is doing exceptionally well and beetroot are looking healthy.  All in all, the weather is doing the plots a world of good (although the weeds are always a problem!)

 





 

With both plots pretty much planted up now we have:

Plot 69 - broad beans, dwarf beans, runner beans, climbing beans, 3 different carrots, parsnips, potatoes, 2 different beetroot, calendula, raspberries, gooseberries, jostaberries, cabbages, swiss chard, rhubarb, 3 different white onions, red onions, leeks, garlic, herbs, cauliflowers, curly kale and spinach.

Plot 119 - rhubarb, strawberries, broad beans, climbing beans, dwarf beans, potatoes, hops, celery, celariac, chard, sweetcorn, florence fennel, bronze fennel, kohl rabi, 3 different cauliflowers, 2 different brussel sprouts, tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines, sweet peppers, courgettes and cape gooseberries.

And at home... rhubarb, potatoes, broad beans, peas, garlic, red and white onions, chard, celery, baby marrows, hops, celariac, tomatoes and chilli peppers.

Today for tea we are going to be having some home grown onions, broad beans, carrots and peas - from 3 feet outside the back door!  Doesnt get much fresher than that!

 

 

 

 

 

Grow Bags

Amazed at the difference in quality between grow bags - we bought some cheap ones from Homebase for a couple of pounds each (green ones) and they are more like woodchip inside than soil, and they smell absolutely revolting, like something has crawled in there and died, not pleasant at all.  But cheap and cheerful and we thought we would try them.  Then I bought some Growmore bags, (red ones)  bit more expensive but a lot bulkier and substantial, good quality compost inside and smell like grow bags should.  Earthy.  As an experiment I put the expensive ones down one side of the polytunnel and the cheapies on the other side, and put tomatoes in all of them.  Down the centre of the polytunnel I put both types of growbags again, but with cucumbers in.

Results.............

 

Big difference!  Goes to show you get what you pay for.  Started feeding them today so hopefully that will help the scrawnier ones!  Seem to be plenty of flowers coming on them though.

And the cucumbers?  Which grow bag do they prefer?............... Looks like they dont really care!

Weathering the Storms

Went to check on both plots today after a very wet and windy week, was expecting everything to be everywhere, but surprisingly it was all looking pretty intact.  The swede seedlings I put in last weekend are looking a bit sorry for themselves and the blackfly have had a population explosion but apart from that all is well.  Squirted stuff at the blackfly aphids - think it has done the trick, none moving by the end of it!  Nice to have a wander around without having to think about watering for hours.  Ground is damp but certainly not soaking or flooding.  Very pleased with the parsnips, they are coming along leaps and bounds.  To think I germinated the seeds on damp kitchen paper and planted the tiny little sprouting seeds into pots with a pair of tweezers!

 

Broad beans plants are starting to produce little broad bean pods, what with both plots having beans, and some at home too, hopefully we will have a freezer full of them!

And the lovely colour calendula buds finally flowered, absolutely stunning colours, really pleased with them.  Will definitely do them again next year. (Apologies for the fuzzy picture, only had camera on my phone tonight!)

 

Nettle Beer (Update)

Well the Nettle beer has been sitting in the bottles for quite a while now so I thought after a long day at the allotments I could do with a drink.

I don't think the nettle beer is likely to clear any more than it has, so I decided to crack open a bottle and give it another try.



Well what can I say about it, well I finished the bottle, so it must be okay, nice fizz to it and a lot better taste now it has matured a while in the bottles. In fact I would go on to say I really quite like it. It's very refreshing with a ginger hint to it. I will definitely make this again at some point, but will use some sort of clearing agent to make it crystal clear next time. All in all a excellent use of those pesky stingers.

 

Weeding, weeding, weeding....

A day dedicated to weeding Plot 69, and it definitely needed it.  If only the veg would grow as quickly as the weeds.... bindweed a bit of problem on this plot, and thistles - the previous owner of the plot next to ours left it to grow huge thistles last year apparently and we are reaping the benefits.....  Worked methodically from one side to the other on our hands and knees hand weeding and managed to get it all back to some sort of order.  Very backbreaking, but good to find the veg between the weeds!



 

Got some calendulas about to flower too, but they seem to be an unusual colour, not the usual yellow ones we see around the place.

 

Managed to get some planting done after a picnic lunch, put in some more rainbow chard, French dwarf beans and swede seedlings.  Protected the lot again with netting and slug pellets.  Bit of a problem at the moment with black aphids on the broad beans, tried the old method of washing up liquid diluted today, will see if that works before resorting to hard chemicals.  The ants seem to be keen on them too though so they are trying to help as best as they can.

Wondering if anyone has an idea what this plant is?  Have seen it on a number of plots and cant work out what it is, and whether it is edible, about 4ft high, not fragrant, not seen any flowers on it either, fleshy stems....

 

PS.  Beetroot doing well!



 

New Beds

Well, a whole dedicated to plot 119 today.  Started the day at the local garden centre, and after a cooked English breakfast (for energy!!) we bought 4 raised beds.  Then home to pick up plants before heading to the plot.  Was a case of dodging the showers today but not too bad and certainly nice and cool to be working today.  Polytunnel is looking good, had to string up the tomatoes today as getting quite tall, and lots of flowers coming which is a good sign.  Simon got to work putting together the four raised beds, the plan is to put more in as time goes by but at £50 for 4 it will take quite a while, we reckoned on £400 for the whole plot which is a bit ouchy but a long term investment.  As the rest of the plot is all planted up we will just build the beds up over time as things are dug up and eaten, next will be the spud section.   Bed 1 soon became home to Simons sweetcorn 'Lark' which he had grown in toilet roll tubes.  Bed 2 was for the florence fennel, Bed 3 for swiss chard (rainbow) and Bed 4 for self blanching celery.  Simon then put in the first path and covered it with woodchips.  Certainly looks a lot neater and quite pleased with it all.



 

Will be nice when the next row goes in, but that wont be for a while yet as things are growing there already!  Whilst Simon was doing the raised beds, I weeded the whole plot, nice andeasy due to it raining heavily the night before.  Few brussel sprouts and kohl rabi have been nibbled but replenished the slug pellets so hopefully that will sort that out.  Put in a half row of dwarf beans too which are left over from the other plot.  Had some blackfly on the broad beans so did a lot of squishing.  In a organic fashion of course..... the ants seem to be enjoying them, and the ladybirds are out in force as well so hoping that nature will take care of the pests.   Courgettes are doing well too.