Rain stops play

Yesterday was dry though a bit cloudy. Quite warm though. Andy corrected some of the screws on the one raised bed frame that I had put together last week and confirmed that it was difficult to get them in. Then he put another frame together for me.

Today, we took them over to the plot and Andy hammered them in (see piccie below).



After a break, I returned to the plot to sow some seeds into the new raised beds and to harvest some courgettes and fruit. I added a thin layer of peat-free compost to the new beds, then it started raining quite hard though not for long. I went home thinking that was the lot for today.

It cleared up and the next trip to the plot was more fruitful. I sowed some lettuce and spinach seeds in the raised beds and covered them with a net. I also picked some apples from the tree right at the end of the plot (I thought it was on my neighbour's side but he insists that it is on my side), a small, pitiful handful of blackberries and several courgettes.

I did a spot of weeding round some of the cabbages, the ones right in front of the shed. I should have uncovered the mesh cloche a while ago as they were getting big. There were loads of slugs around because of the rain, halfway up cabbages, on top of cloches and among the courgetts. I gathered some of the most visible ones and put them unharmed onto the compost heap. I liberally sprinkled organic slug pellets around the most susceptible plants.

Knobbly spuds competition, anyone?

The weather was good today - a couple of big grey clouds in the morning but no rain and then sunny skies later. I spent over 3 hours at the plot today. I was just going to pop over for a brief visit but I decided to do something about the main crop potatoes. The Pink Fir Apples were looking decidedly brown and sad so I dug them up. The word 'dug' is misleading - there were easily harvested by hand. No signs of blight in the tubers, which were on the whole extremely knobbly, but about a fifth of the harvest had green bits. Shame. I cut back the foliage of some of the other main crops. I took the potatoes home, dried them off, and they are now in a paper sack in the shed. I hope they store ok.

I dug roughly over the patch for the raised bed. Installation will wait until next weekend. I did redo some of the screws so they don't stick out so much. Still not pretty but perfectly functional (hopefully).

As well as the potatoes, I harvested 4 Summer Squash, 3 courgettes and 2 cabbages. I stir-fried one of the cabbages and it was good. The heads are small but each is perfect for one. One of my fellow allotmenteers, who I saw on my way over (he was carrying home 2 bags of runner beans and a very large marrow) told me to watch my brassicas as his were covered in caterpillars. Mine seem to be ok. They were covered with a mesh tunnel cloche until a few weeks ago. I think that did the trick of preventing the butterflies laying eggs on them. It may have been the two nearby Hyssop plants though...

Knowing my limits

Well, I had a go at putting together a frame for a small raised bed. As you can see from the piccie below, it is possibly the worst example of workmanship ever (the piccie shows its good side).



On the plus side, it is still standing after an hour and it seems to be a rectangle. On the minus side, I couldn't get all of the screws in properly so lots of them are sticking half way out. I might ask my partner nicely to sort these out once the thing is solid in the ground. For future reference, sawing the wood = easy, screwing together with a drill = challenging. It is a 2xFlowerPowerGirl job. I know that now.

I am not sure how I am going to get it over to the plot as it won't fit in my car. I might just have to carry it over though I'll look pretty stupid doing it.

In an effort to cheer myself up, I sowed some seeds. I sowed some basil and coriander in pots for the windowsill. And I sowed some parsley and Savoy cabbage for the mini-greenhouse.

I only popped over to the plot very quickly this morning. I saw a Summer Squash that needs picking. The cauliflowers I planted last week seem to be surviving ok. I might harvest one of the cabbages even though it is quite small. Just to try it.

A woman with a plan

After procrastinating for ages, I finally have a plan. It still needs some checking but here it is:



As well as those beds shown on the plan, I will be adding a couple of mini-raised beds to grow salads all year round using some glass panes I picked up free from a skip (with permission of course) and some old pallets and planks. I hope to get these together this weekend. That's another plan though...

Just sow

There has been a lot of rain this weekend though, thankfully, there have been breaks in the middle of the day to allow for some gardening.

Today I planted out 6 more cauliflowers to join the other 8 where the broad beans were a few months ago. I didn't bother digging over the area beforehand as brassicas like firm ground. While planting, came across three broad beans that had germinated. I planted them next to the row of cauliflowers just in case they manage to grow.

After that, I did a bit of general weeding and hoeing. I moved 6 Brussel Sprout plants from next to the parsnips to next to the cabbages and strawberries. They don't look too good though. I netted them up and I will just have to hope that they grow a little stronger. When I watered them in, I added some seaweed feed in to help them out.

The beetroot and carrots next to the parsnips were not looking good. Neither seems to be growing edible roots. I wonder whether they weren't sowed deep enough. I removed the beetroot and will use the leaves in a salad. I left the carrots. I then sowed two intermingled rows of Autumn King carrots and White Lisbon spring onion.

The chinese cabbage I sowed a few weeks ago has not appeared. In its place, I sowed a row of Skyrocket rocket and a row of Little Gem lettuce. As well as a tunnel cloche, I sprinkled plenty of organic slug pellets for protection. Next to these, it seems like there might be some chicory that have germinated. Not sure though with all the little weeds that have shown up. Just to be sure, I sowed another row in the same bed and have put a cloche over this along with some more pellets.

No sign yet of the seeds I sowed last week. The transplanted globe artichokes don't look too bad though and the Jerusalem artichokes are now much taller than me (I'm about 5 foot 8 btw).

The main crop potatoes have made it to 14 weeks now. If they can just hold on for another couple... I removed a couple more poorly leaves from the courgette plant with mosaic virus. It doesn't seem to have affected any others as yet.

Back at home, the rocket, spinach and mispoona are developing true leaves. Some salad leaves that I sowed a couple of months ago had been eaten by something - I assumed it was a slug. However, on closer inspection, they were covered (and I mean covered) with caterpillars. The butterflies really had been busy - I didn't realise they had been laying eggs in the leaves. Some very quick Internet research (I found http://www.uksafari.com/caterpillars.htm) confirmed that these were made by the Cabbage whites). I have to remember to check for this in the future at this time of year. One caterpillar had made it to one of the cauliflower seedlings in the cold frame about 2-3m away from the salad. Luckily I spotted it (and checked the other plants) before taking it to the allotment.

RIP tomatoes

Well, it was a bit of a disappointing session at the plot today. The tomatoes had succumbed to blight and were looking awful. I removed the fruit and threw the foliage and roots in with the rubbish. I have brought the fruit hope to try and ripen some of them. Lots of the fruit is a bit small and young but 10-12 or so may be mature enough to ripen ok. I'll either get a banana to help them out or just cover them with newspaper. Against my intuition, Internet research suggests that tomatoes need to be kept in the dark to ripen quickly not in the sunlight.

The main crops don't look too bad - they are not yet revaged by blight (see piccie below). The tomatoes actually had sections of stem that had turned black. That doesn't seem to have happened to the potatoes yet. I have left them in for now. I cut the foliage from the last row of earlies though.



I picked a few courgettes for some friends. The sweetcorn amongst them had clearly be attacked by a badger. The same badger who seems to be terrorising other allotmenteers' carrots and runner beans. Some of the sweetcorn has been ripped out completely - it wasn't just nibbled cobs. I put some chicken wire around some of the corn (see piccie below) and have pinned it down with tent pegs.



One of the courgette plants had strange looking leaves (see piccie below). I am guessing this is mosaic virus. I know nothing about this so I will do some research...



I planted out 8 All The Year Round cauliflower plants and transplanted 4 Florence Fennel seedlings. I thought I had more fennel seedlings than that but I guess that some of these were eaten or gave up.

Diagnosis blight

I was looking for some piccies of blight on the web and found some good ones (http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/instruct/gudmesta/lateblight/image.html). Perhaps, if my potatoes do have blight, it has been spotted early because the other examples show brown blotches with yellow outlines or white-ish bloom.

Not that I'm concerned or anything...

Taking precautions

After work, I thought I'd nip over to the plot to remove some of the leaves that seem to be showing signs of blight in an effort to prevent it getting worse. There were more affect bits than I thought there would be. I stuffed a carrier bag full of leaves and branches that had brown patches (see piccie below).



By and large, the foliage looks very healthy - certainly better than last year. I may have to consider digging the spuds up at the weekend if it gets any worse. At the very least, I should try to earth the spuds up a little more.

Apparently, you can even buy blight testing kits (http://www.pocketcheck.co.uk/product_ranges/30/potato). Wow.

Making space

There was lots to do on the allotment this weekend but I didn't think I'd get chance to get through it. Today was showery until 1500 when I finally went over. It was quite wet under foot and almost too wet to dig. Not enough to put me off though.

First task was to transplant the globe artichokes to give them more space. As the piccie below shows, they were a tad crowded.



The largish one had even produced a couple of chokes (see piccie below). I removed these so that the plant can save its energy for its second year. On closer inspection, it seems that a couple of the others have also started to grow very small artichokes.



The second main job was to transplant the leeks from the four pots that have been sitting on the patio for a few months to the bed that has recently been almost completely vacated by early potatoes. I hope it isn't too late. I tried to select the thickest specimens - I planted 6 rows of about 12 (see first piccie below). There were about 27-28 thinner ones which I planted three to a hole with the aim of getting some miniature leeks (see second piccie below - a tad out of focus though). It was that or waste them.





As an aside from the main tasks, the piccie below shows how much the parsnips are romping away. I wish that I had sowed some more - lesson learnt for next year.



Also, I think I spotted a ghost slug on the plot (see piccie below). It was quite sweet really (until it starts doing some damage).



I am a tad worried about blight. One of my fellow allotmenteers popped over and mentioned that he spotted the start of blight on his tomatoes. He sprayed Bordeaux mixture on them to prevent it getting any worse. Although we both saw that my tomatoes look fine, when I inspected my main crop potatoes, there do seem to be a couple of suspicious-looking brown patches on a couple of the leaves. I may need to be prepared to cut back the foliage next weekend or to dug up the spuds. Unfortunately, the spuds have only had 12 weeks in the ground (since May 17th) which is not long enough for them to be fully-grown. The flowers do seem to have come and gone though. I will return tomorrow if I can to remove the leaves that look like that they have got a brown spot. Fingers crossed - it would be nice to harvest the potatoes in four weeks time and not sooner.

This and that...

I finally got round to the allotment today. There has been no rush to water anything as the last couple of days have been quite wet. Yesterday was a little damp so I focused on the garden. Today was shower-free if a little grey though it warmed up in the afternoon, just as I hit the plot for a few hours.

There was lots of tidying up to be done and the soil was in top condition for weeding. I started with the bramble near the top. It was getting in the way of digging up the early potatoes. There was a lot to cut back but I have left the branches that are busy fruiting. I moved on to the peas which I dug up. I haven't saved any of them for seed because they haven't been looking very healthy recently. I have put the chard that has gone to seed quite wildly on the compost heap. I plan to use the vacated bed for the globe artichokes. I have ten plants but they are bunched up too close to each other at one end of the bed. At the weekend, I will transplant these to give them more space.

As well as three carrier bags full of potatoes, I harvested five courgettes, the last of the peas and a small bunch of spring onions which I had grown (and forgot about) on my neighbour's patch.

Til the weekend...

Taking it easy

I didn't get up to much today. I didn't go round to the plot but concentrated on thining out the cauliflowers and chard that I planted a few weeks ago. I have about 30 cauliflowers and 10 chard so I'll be giving some away when they are strong enough to plant out. I also sowed some Mispoona, rocket and spinach in pots on the patio.

It rained hard for a few minutes around noon so there was no need to rush round to the plot to water everything. There'll be a chance to catch up later in the week though.

Focusing on the garden

Today has been fantastic weather-wise. Warm but not too hot in the morning - some threats of rain but really amounting to anything more than a couple of drops. Warmer in the evening though the wind is picking up a little.

Today was all about the garden at home. One corner of it was taken over by old and new Summer raspberries and it desperately needed clearing out. The cat was enjoying the den it provided for her but it was still time to go - the raspberries had moreorless finished fruiting. So, I trimmed the plum tree and the roses. I moved one of the roses from under the plum tree to give it more light. I cleared out the old raspberry canes and moved the new ones into position snugly against the fence. I then went to move the gooseberry bush from behind the coldframe so that I could move the coldframe back against the fence. A few branches of the bush must have come into contact with the soil over the past few months and developed roots. There was one main bush, one smaller one and several single stem plants (plus a small handful of large red fruit). I have planted the two biggest ones near the raspberries and have potted the other up to get established. Hopefully, I'll have some to give away early next Spring. I also put some canes up for the two sets of tomatoes I have on the go in the garden.

I nipped over to the allotment to put the cuttings from the roses, plum tree and raspberries, which I chopped up, onto the compost bin. It is almost full now - I might have to organise another soon. I checked the courgettes and found two large, round marrows (stuffed marrow on the menu tomorrow me thinks) and three more reasonable-sized cougettes to pick. The tomatoes are looking good - the fruits I saw on them last weekend are much bigger. It is not a surprise that thirsty things are growing well at the moment. The weather has been perfect for them this week with a few long bursts of heavy rain with warm sunshine in between.

I think the focus will return to the allotment tomorrow...