Missing the plot

Nothing more to say about the weather...I'll bore myself.

I did pop over to the plot for the first time in 2014 a couple of weeks ago for 10 mins just to take a look. I was expecting carnage but the only thing amiss (literally) was the compost bin I had started filling with veg leftovers.  Then I had an hour last Sunday to plant the 20 raspberry canes (10 Polka and 10 Glen Ample), 1 blackcurrant bush (Big Ben) and 1 gooseberry bush (Invicta) I'd bought from Blackmoor Nurseries.  I had to work fast and just plonked them in really.  The canes were a bit close together and had been bare rooted for 4 days in a bag but hopefully they'll live.  

Soon it'll be time to starting thinking about sowing seeds on the windowsill...

Blown it

I hadn't been to the plot for a few weeks, not properly anyway.  The weather hasn't been great and it has been busy at home.  I nipped over for half an hour yesterday to check on things.

The main development was that some of the Brussels plants had obviously grown some lovely sprouts but that many of them had blown already.  I picked all the ones that were of a decent button size and took them home with 4 leeks and a cabbage.  I have blanched a handful of decent-looking tight sprouts to freeze for Christmas and cooked up a leek, potato and sprout soup with the sprouts that had exploded.  An allotment soup for all the family.  Yum!  Hopefully.

Bean there, done that

It has been a few weeks since my last post but I have spent some time over at the plot.  I've cleared out the courgette plants and the sweetcorn (leaving the butternut squash ones behind as they have some small green fruit and I can't bear to rip them out yet).  There were still some patty pans coming but they were becoming moldy.  I've harvested half of the leeks as they look rusty and not very happy.  They taste ok though.

Last Sunday/Monday, we were warned of strong hurricane-strength winds so I nipped over to see what I could fasten down.  Winds were already picking up by lunchtime but I decided to leave the mesh where it was, over the Brussels, spring cabbages and sprouting, and just bring the tools I couldn't fit in the storage box home.  When I checked on things on Tuesday, nothing had budged except a couple of homemade wood and mesh frames from a neighbouring plot.  They had made there way onto mine.

I nipped over very briefly today with husband and toddler to quickly sow the broad beans where the courgettes and sweetcorn had been.  My toddler "helped" in her own way by throwing beans randomly into the shallow trench I had made.  It will be a minor miracle if any of the beans germinate.  Not just because of the hasty sowing but also because a large proportion of the seeds are from last year and had been kept badly in an outside storage box.  They even got rained on in their packet at some point.  For this reason, I sowed 2 per station in many places to hedge my bets.

My husband is quite impressed with the state of the plot.  It does look like I've dug over most of it though it is more like three-quarters.  Hopefully, I can get the rest of it dug over Christmas.

A quick check on the garlic bed showed that the Early Purple is living up to its name by being the first to send up shoots.

Vampires beware...

...the garlic is coming for you!  I spent some time on the allotment this morning and it was a tad nippy.  Well, not that cold but I wasn't dressed for it.  I need to dig out my fleece from the loft.

I put in 8 cloves of Elephant Garlic (2 of these were 'rounds' from this year's attempt at growing them), 30 cloves of Solent Wight, 30 cloves of Early Purple and 15 cloves of Lautrec Wight.  Some of the Lautrec Wight cloves were a tad small and a couple were discarded because they were a bit soft.  The rest looked good.

So the Lautrec is a hardneck so will apparently develop a flowering stalk that should be harvested as soon as it appears and used in a stir fry.  I must remember that as it could result in the bulb doubling in size.

I measured the length of the plot with a bamboo cane which I think is a 180cm one.  Not including the end bit for storage and composting, it is 7 canes long (12.6m).  I measured 3 canes for the length of the top two quadrants and 3 for the bottom ones, leaving a 1 cane strip in the middle for fruit.  So I'll plant some fruit bushes and raspberry canes down that strip, leaving a gap down the centre for strolling, watering and inspecting.  

I cut down the sweetcorn and will dug over that small patch later in the week.  There appear to be a couple of baby squash growing but I can't see that they have time to mature before the frost sets in.

Almost being organised

After a bit of chickenpox this week with the little one, I did get 2 hours on the plot this weekend but took it slow.  I focused on brassicas.  I checked the sprouting broccoli for caterpillars (again) and found 3 of the critters.  Then I planted out the holey spring cabbage seedlings.  There were 16 in all so I set them out in a 4x4 block next to the compost bin which is situated in an awkward place in the top right quadrant (more about the quadrants I am planning in another post).  I looked over the Brussels sprouts and picked off a few snails, slugs and caterpillars.

I dug over a 1m square to finish off the patch for the garlic.  That's for tomorrow when I have a day off work.  I'll also transplant the rhubarb crown that is currently languishing in the shady bed in our front garden onto the plot.  And I'll try sowing some Meteor peas.  I wouldn't bother with early peas but these were free on a magazine so I'll give them a go.

My plan is to divide the plot into 4 quadrants with a strip halfway down (width ways) for fruit bushes and the rhubarb and a strip at the bottom for composting and storage.  I've not decided whether to have the raspberry canes with the fruit bushes or at one of the ends.  I'll rotate crops between years as is traditional.

The top left quadrant will be for legumes and cucurbits but these currently house the leeks, sweetcorn (now finished), squashes (which are flowering but too late to fruit) and courgettes.  There are all the bush beans and a Brussels sprout plant (which ironically is the healthiest looking of the lot despite not being covered).

The top right quadrant will be for brassicas.  That is where the potatoes were.

The bottom left will be for roots veg.  That is where the brassicas are currently settled.

The bottom right will be for the onion family.  Nothing is in here just yet.

Sounds terribly organised for me.  It won't last.

More Where's Wally

No digging at Friday lunchtime but I did get 2 hours at the plot yesterday.  Bliss.  

I dug over about 8 sq m at a guess.  The ground was quite dry in places but so much easier than how it was with the heavy clay on the original Plot 35.  

Then I went to check on the purple and white sprouting plants I'd planted recently.  They were holey.  Flipping caterpillars!  So, on my hands and knees, I inspected all 12 plants v carefully "disposing" of the little critters.  One plant looked very badly diminished but the heart is intact so fingers crossed it might recover.  I sprinkled a few chicken pellets around them, raked the bed and watered them before covering them back over.  

Lesson for next year - do check brassica plants before planting out.

Where's Wally?

I just had a bit of time before starting work to do some housework and finally got round to checking the spring cabbage seedings on the patio.  Something was making them holey.  Sure enough each one (on average) had 2-3 little green cabbage white caterpillars.  Very good camouflage especially on the stems so I may not have picked them all off but most of them are now on the patio for the birds.  Fingers crossed the little plants will recover nicely to be planted out in the next couple of weeks.  The caterpillars seemed to have stuck to the outer leaves although a couple of the bigger ones were clearly en route to the heart for a nibble.  

Hopefully, more digging at lunchtime today...