Beats shopping on a Saturday...

I finally got round to digging over the bed for the three sisters today. See the transformation in the piccies below - just to prove that I did something productive today. The bed is probably about 3x4m.





It was really quite hot by lunchtime but a fellow allotmenteer invited me to join him with my nice cool drink for a sit and a chat next to his shed. It was great but it made my realise that I just don't sit back and relax on the allotment enough.

After a quick break at home, I did return to the plot for half an hour to plant out 30 sweetcorn plants. I hope that the birds/rabbits/slugs don't eat them before I return tomorrow.

Tomorrow's task is to sort out the brassicas...

Indoor gardening it is then...

...given the on-off rain. Such a grey day.

I have taken a bit of a chance and sowed some more tomatoes. It's a bit late, I know but this is just in case the plants I have remain poorly-looking. With any luck, I'll get a good crop from the younger ones albeit a tad later. I sowed 3 pots of Tigerella (the second attempt this year - only one seems to have survived from the first go) and 9 pots of Gardener's Delight.

I also sowed 6 pots of aubergine (Black Beauty), 8 small pots of cucumber (Miniature White), 8 pots of courgette and 4 pots of basil (2 of Sweet Green and 2 of Dark Opal).

Not sure about what to do tomorrow. I really need to dig over the patch for the three sisters bed but it all depends on the weather.

So much for a wet start...

...to the Bank Holiday weekend. It was forecast to rain from the early afternoon onwards but nothing so far. Just a fairly strong but warmish wind. Clear-ish skies at the moment. Apparently there will be heavy rain tomorrow and Monday but there may be a chance to get onto the plot on Monday morning. Fingers crossed - I could do with some time to sow some spring onions and asparagus peas.

After cutting some long grass, doing some light weeding and netting up the strawberries and gooseberries - both of which are beginning to fruit - I picked a handful of broad bean pods. There are a bit on the young side but I might try them cooked whole in some butter. One of my allotment friends gave me some lettuce seedlings which I planted next to the gooseberry bush so they could be protected by its netting. See piccies below for the broad beans and gooseberries.





Back home, the chillies are looking great (see piccie below). I have 18 plants between four different types and about half of them have developed buds. I bought the seeds from the Real Seed Company. There are:

• Early Green Jalapeño - green then red, blunt-tipped;


• 'Wenks Yellow Hots' - bright yellow before turning orange then red;


• 'Westlandse Lange Rode' - long and red;


• 'Iranian Round' Big Cherry Chilli - spherical bright red fruit (starting off green).

I will keeping 1 of each type but will be giving away the others. I am quite pleased as I was completely unsuccessful last year when I sowed some seeds collected from a shop-bought chilli. It was probably an F1.



The tomatoes are still looking a bit sad. I went to buy some grow bags today but the instructions suggested that planting out shouldn't be done until flowers have appeared. I will keep the plants outside to harden up. I may sow some others as a contingency as I understand that it isn't too late to sow.

Another new addition for the patio collection...a grape vine. From Tesco. Again, I was unsupervised so it really wasn't my fault.

Oooo...and the fifth Jerusalem artichoke plant might be making an appearance after all. It looks like it has been nibbled by something though.

No more volunteering...

Finally dug up the volunteer potatoes in the onion bed. The offending spuds were put in a black bag and binned to prevent spreading any diseases they may have had.

Came home for lunch and planted a few shallots that were festering in the shed. Very late but it will be interesting to see if any of them survive and do anything useful.

A couple of the tomatoes in the mini-greenhouse seem to have a yellow blotches on 1 or 2 leaves. No halos to the blothes so hopefully not early blight. I'll have to investigate that. There was talk on the allotment today of a frost tonight. Planting the tomatoes out, giving them some nice fresh air, is therefore not an option quite yet.

Two more achochas have germinated. There may yet be a harvest of these things. I've never eaten them before so I am quite curious to find out how much they taste like green peppers.

Of some parsnips I started pre-chitting just last weekend, 3 or 4 have germinated and have been planted out. I wonder why these were quicker than the previous batch...

Until next week...

The morning session...

Back home for a spot of lunch but I've already made some progress today. On arriving at the plot I was very surprised to see some pods growing on a few of the broad bean plants. I wasn't expecting to see them quite yet. It was only last week that I picked out some of the growing tips. I didn't realise the energy would be diverted to pod growing quite so quickly.

I planted the main crop potatoes - some towards the bottom on my plot and the Pink Fir Apples on the plot next door. The soil in the latter plot was so friable that I almost planted them just with my hands.

4 out of 5 of the Jerusalem Artichokes I planted back in February have emerged so I weeded round them. Not sure whether the fifth one is shy or dead. The rest of the session was spent trimming some of the long grass on the paths.

BTW, a couple of the achochas have germinated outside.

Now, to remove the volunteer potatoes...

Itching to get onto the plot...

The sweetcorn, squash, courgettes and beans that were sowed just under two weeks ago have been germinating well. No sign of the achocha and garlic chives though. I seem to remember chives being quite slow. The chilli plants are getting taller with a couple of them starting to develop buds - it's time to find homes for most of them before they take over the spare room.

So...almost the weekend when I'll be planting out the main crop spuds that have been in the lean-to for far too long.

Fact of the day

A couple of weeks ago, I found lots of potatoes re-growing from last year's crop dotted around where they had been planted last year. Today I found that a few more have come up. Apparently, potatoes left in the ground from a previous crop are known as volunteer potatoes. As they can harbour disease, they should be removed rather than left or replanted elsewhere. I'll remove them tomorrow, especially the ones that have emerged in amongt the onions.

Hot, hot, hot

It is baking on my sun-trap of an allotment today. It is a bit cloudy but very warm.

When I visited this morning, I found that most of my cabbages (covered by netting) have been munched by something, probably a rabbit. A bit disheartening. The broccoli (covered by wire) was fine. Perhaps wire is the way to go. On the up side, the chard and perpetual spinach that overwintered look ready for picking. I also found that the vast majority of the first and second early potatoes were poking out of the soil so I earthed these up.

After the inspection, I picked out some of the growing tips of the tallest broad bean plants. I've read that this reduces the likelihood of black fly infestations and is fine to do once the beans are flowering and have at least four branches. I sowed some beetroot (Red Ace F1 Hybrid), carrots (Autumn King), spring onions (White Lisbon), kohlrabi (Blusta) and radishes (Rainbow Mixed). I followed that with a spot of digging just beyond the row of garlic in preparation for planting my main crop potatoes before it got a tad too hot. The soil there is still a bit damp but by digging over it roughly, I will hopefully give it the opportunity to dry out.

The grass on the paths either side of the allotment is getting very long. I need to investigate tools for cutting it. I understand that a petrol strimmer might be a bit much for me. Perhaps a scythe...

Sowing for the three sisters

It has stopped raining now so I might be able to nip over to the plot for a spot of digging. While waiting on the weather, I have been sowing seeds and repotting some herbs and shrubs. I have sowed the following:

• Garlic chives;
• 4 x Globe Artichoke (Green Globe Improved);
• 36 x Sweetcorn (F1 Swift);
• 8 x Summer Squash (Early Prolific Straightneck);
• 8 x Courgette (Tondo di Piacenza);
• 8 x Squash (F1 Cobnut);
• 8 x Achocha (Fat Baby);
• 11 x Climbing French beans (Fasold);

The sweetcorn is for a 6x6 square with beans climbing up (the French beans plus some borlotti and others to be sowed another time) and cucurbits in the spaces of the grid. That's the plan anyway. After a little Internet research, I have decided just to sow one type of sweetcorn. It seems that cross-fertilisation is a problem for supersweet varieties but I won't take the risk this year.

I repotted some Rosemary, Apple Mint, French Tarragon and Orange-scented Thyme which are on the patio.

I forgot to say that yesterday I bought a lime plant. I don't really need it especially given that I should really wait until the lemon plant has either recovered or definitely bought it. The new addition to the collection is quite bushy and has some tiny fruit growing. I really shouldn't be allowed to go to Garden Centres unsupervised. I also brought an orchid and a pair of Japanese Maple shrubs. I only went for some netting and sweetcorn seeds.

To isolate or not to isolate...

Yesterday I bought a pack of F1 Swift sweetcorn and have just noticed that it must not be grown near any other types of sweetcorn. I was planning to mix it with 9 plants of Lark F1 Hybrid sweetcorn, which I have from last year, in a single bed. The packet of Lark says that it needs no separation from other varieties. What to do...

What's the difference between...

...dock and comfrey?

I didn't know this before but apparently comfrey has hairy leaves while dock does not. Also, the leaves on a dock are a bit more slender than those on a comfrey. Well, this is what I was told by an experienced fellow allotmenteer. I thought I had lots of comfrey around my plot but half of these are actually dock. You live and learn...

Today, I dug over the L-shaped bed in front of the shed (the corner making up the full square bed contains strawberries) and planted out some brassicas (see piccie below). In went cabbages (Savoy King and Greyhound), Brussels Sprouts (Bedford Fillbasket - I like that name), Broccoli (I don't know what type as this was given to be by a fellow allotmenteer and I forgot to ask for the name of the variety), Purple Sprouting and Kale. The things I grew from seed (all except for the Broccoli and Purple Sprouting) were generally a bit leggy - I should have planted them out earlier.



As can just be seen, I have placed some collars around most of the plants. These are roughly 15cm square and are inpregnated with copper so will hopefully keep the slugs off as well as Cabbage Root Fly. Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow, I plan on sowing Sweetcorn, Climbing and Runner beans, and Squashes for a Three Sisters bed as well as digging over a bed for my main crop potatoes that really need to go in soon.

What's the deal with capitalising plant names? I need to look into this...watch this space.