More help with the plot - Mom & Dad have arrived!

Mom has asked me to post this as she has not been able to set up as an author for the site yet. I'm sure the allotment and the site will benefit greatly from this injection of care, attention and labour! Great to have you with us Mom & Dad!

July 6, 2010. John and I pottered down to the allotment in the early-ish evening, coolish and cloudy, a blessing as we have been so very hot and dry. Everything is struggling. John set to to clean round the old strawberry bed, which is raised by planks. I started to take the bindweed and other weeds out of the raspberries which are putting all their energy into getting their fruit to seed stage. John prefers weeding with the soil dry, but I found I had to be careful not to disturb the raspberry roots - so John got the water and then it went easier. ANd the raspberries enjoyed the water. I also picked and ate three gooseberries on the plant away from the general goosegogs, and very sweet and juicy they were too. The black currants and gooseberries are really good this year.

We cleared the strawberry bed a few days ago, and I have taken some of the old strawberries and soaked them in water, hopefully to find a few still alive and able to regenerate. They are now soaked in small pots. I also raised a whole lot of shallots, and they are busy being pickled even as we speak. There will be three big bottles of them, mildly pickled because of young sensitive tastebuds.


The peas,purple broccoli beans and chili plants are going a treat. Spinach has shot (too much heat and dry again) the bush beans are flowering, we have picked one golden beetroot and we are waiting for ANdrew to give his verdict, the courgettes are doing VERY well, looking very pretty with their huge leaves, yellow squiggly flowers and bouncing baby marrows.

John thinks the potatoes are maybe ready for lifting.

I am going to ask Andrew for a Sunflower to take to my botanical drawing course.

Picking started

Got a bag full of black currants and gooseberries today (thanks Mom & Dad for the hours of picking). Also lifted the shallots and onions. Broadbeans already finished - suffered from blackfly. Beetroot, peas and carrots ready for picking too. Looking forward to trying the Golden Beetroot. Going to have to start jamming soon. Still not lifted any potatoes.

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.