Beds update - Courgettes, Rhubarb, Beetroot, Onions & Carrots but no Parsnips :-(

New Coourgettes from Danny planted out last weekend (dead runner beans in the foreground - the cold snap 10 days ago got them along with all the damage to the potatoes)


These are the rhubard heads from the one that I split in Feb and moved to this side of the allotment. Have not picked them at all yet, I thought I'd let them settle in and allow the leaf to feed the root ball for a while.

Bed 1 - no parsnips have come up but beetroot and shallots doing well. Have seeded extra golden detroit beetroot into the lines where the parsnip has not come through.


Onions, shallots and carrots doing well too.

Soft fruit progress - Goosseberrys and Strawberries

Strawberries

Young gooseberriy fruit

Broad Beans getting eaten by something.....

Don't know what is hammering my broad beans. Leaf damage looks like bird pecks, but there are holes in the middle of the leaf as well. Insects of some sort? I can't find anything on the leaves that appear to be the culprits??? Help!

Frost Damage, Planting Runners too early

Frost last week has damaged the growth on all the potatoes. We've pruned the brown leaves and hoping that there is enough green underneath to all the plants to carry on growing. Have also re-seeded rows of beetroot where the plants have not shown yet.


Also planted out a couple of courgette plants, four cauliflowers and the rest of the peas today. Ran the strimmer around the plot - huge number of dandilion heads shedding seeds all over the plot :-(


I scrumped some pea sticks from the hedgerow along the side of the allotment where the hawthorn had been cut back and some dead branches were perfect for building up a climbing frame for the young peas. Thankfully the peas planted out to the allotment early have not been too damaged by the cold.


Also planted two of the pumpkins plants out - these were germinated from seeds I took from the haloween pumpkin that the we hollowed out for the kids to put at the front door. Have planted these to ramble between the gooseberry and blackcurrents. The runner beans planted out 10 days ago are all dead. The allotment must be alot colder.


Progress in the other beds - gold beetroot is not germinateing as quickly as the red so have planted extra seed between sprouts.

Having to remove a number of smal spud plants that are sprouting amongst the carrots and onions.

Spinach is coming on well. Pasnips have been decidedly unsucessful. None of the seeds planted have germinated. Must read up a little more on what parsnips need. (spot the hedge bindweed popping up all over the place!)

Purple Sprouting, Peas, Runner Beans, Beetroot and Comfrey

Planted out a Comfrey which will be used for green manure whne it is big enough.



Birds have been pecking the young broad bean leaf, stunting their growth so I've tied lines with old CDs across the bed and tied a supermarket bag which should hopefully make it a slightly less chilled restaurant for the local pigeons!


Planted out the purple sprouting brocolli today and created a net frame around it. Done with old plumbing pipes and electrical cable ties - a magnificent invention and so much easier than fiddling with string. Also pushed the soil up on the first early potatoes. First lot of peas also planted out and netted.


Planted and polled the first of the French Runner Beans. Hopefully these will survive
the birds and slugs, but I will be planting more out expecting to lose some of these.


The net frame and runner beans from the front of the allotment.


I dont think the seeds hav sprouted on this side of the box bed so I have planted out some more Golden Detroit Beetroot at this end. The beetroot at the other end of the bed has started sprouting as have some parsnips. Carrots in the middle beds are also showing, onions and shalots are doing very well.

Late posting - Frost damage to Potatoes and Seedlings

Had a problem getting the photo's off the blackberry and a lack of time to fix it meant that I did not post these pictures when they were taken. The early potatoes that I planted out in the first bed got hit by some frost damage - which surprised me because I did not think that we'd had any serious frost - perhaps the allotment is colder than our garden at home? These pictures were taken 10 days ago and thankfully the plants have recovered. At first I thought it might be blight from poor quality seed potatoes but thankfully it isn't.



Seedlings update
Planted out 8 tomato plants into grow-bags under the kitchen window 2 evenings ago. These are now about 3 -4 inches high and have had to be tethered to canes. Last time I grew tomoatoes I did not support the plants and they rambled all over the place. All the other plants have been potted into medium sized pots. Will have to give some of these away and will plant some out on the allotment.

Most things have sprouted well. Butternut seeds harvested from a supermarket bought plant have sprouted, as have the Halloween pumpkin seeds. Not sure where I am going to plant these out. The potato seedlings (planted from seed harvested from fruit 2 seasons back has taken extremely well. I've decided to pot these into small tubs and grow them at home so I can keep an eye on them - the plan is to harvest the first tubers for planting next season. I have also planted out the extra seedlings in a hidden patch in a garden flowerbed. Quite excited about these.

Runner and Black Eyed Beans are also progessing well, although have lost a couple of plants to a blasted snail that got amongst them - ate through a Runner bean stem and stripped the first leaf off a Black Eyed bean plant. The Italian beans from Nick have not sprouted (yet). Some have rotted in the pot, but when clearing these out I found a few that looked like they were about the sprout so I apologetically pressed these back into their soil.

Chilli plants have sprouted at last - these were kept inside on the kitchen windowsill and took over 2 weeks to germinate - thought I have used a poor potting compost or the seeds were old but at last we have the little elf-like sprouts lifting their backs through the soil and lifting their slender arms to the light. Have habenero and cayenne so should not be short of a little HOT to add to dishes.

The tray of purple sprouting MUST be planted out this weekend - otherwise I will lose it in the tray. Only one line of the lettuce seeds that I planted in the window box has sprouted so may replant another type this weekend.

Only work on the allotment last weekend was to weed, weed and weed. The Bindweed has gone crazy around the raspberries as I have not turned that soil for 2 seasons.

Update picture of progress of Broad Beans taken 19/04/2010

Beans, beans and potatoes

Managed a good three hour session on the plot on Saturday. Continued clearing the bind-weed root from the soil below the old manure pile, dug a manure trench for the runner beans and turned and bedded up a section of the bean bed ready for planting the peas and black eyed beans which are coming along fantastically well in the pots at home.

The first broad beans have also started well - about an inch of growth from the first set that I planted and the second lot is now pushing through. I also could not resist planting the empty bed that I had set aside for purple sprouting. I have put french dwarf beans in instead. Will have to work out where to put the brocolli when its ready. (Note the good successional planning going on here!)

First of the early potatoes are also now pushing leaf through and the seedlings that I harvested two years ago from fruit that the potatoes produced is going great guns. I am considering planting these out into grow bags and not harvesting them in the first season - and then chitting and planting out next season as I am not sure how much they will yield in the first year.

I've also planted out Cosmos flowers in the flower corner of the allotment - Imogen and Amelie helped with these. I've also put chilli and parsely out in the seed trays - bally slugs have had a go at the purple sprouting and savoy cabbage - I think I've all but lost the savoy cabbage :-(

Broad beans - early growth


The manure bed and trench for beans and peas.


French dwarf beans planted in bed 6.