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...

Minor heartbreak

It had been a week I think since popping over to the plot so when I had a couple of hours to spare (yeah, right) on Saturday I was keen to see if the tomatoes had ripened yet.  On arrival, I found the 6 plants had been ravaged by blight.  Lots of the fruit looked savagable so I ripped the plants out and separated off the good-looking fruit.  Not too bad, I thought, I'll make lots of green tomato chutney on my day off on Tuesday.  I also harvested some sweetcorn, patty pans and bush beans and dug up all the spuds.

So I look the crate of tomato fruit home (discarded the blighted plant material) and washed them.  I had a work trip away Sunday-Monday so left them at home waiting to be cooked up.  On my way home yesterday, my husband sent me a text to tell me that all my fruit had gone mouldy (bless him - he didn't want me to have a shock by walking in and seeing them like that so forewarned me).  No green tomato chutney for me today.  We did manage to eat some of the redder ones roasted for brunch on Sunday morning and they were very tasty.  Shirley might be worth trying next year but much earlier to try to avoid the horrible blight.

I consoled myself with a 2 hour session down the plot this morning.  I planted out some purple and white spouting plants and tended to the cabbages and Brussels sprouts (weeded and fed).  I also cleared a square metre of grass and nettles.

I also came back with a big handful of broccoli sprouts from the stumps left after harvesting the main head. And 3 more patty pans.  And a potato that I'd left in the ground at the weekend.

Lots more ground to clear...

Patty pans a-go-go

After a long weekend away and a very busy work week last week, I couldn't wait to make a quick trip to the plot this morning before work.  The cupboards were getting bare so I needed to fetch some grub.

The patty pan squash (green tint) have been busy in my absence.  I was worried about the lack of fruit to date but needn't have been.  There were 4 fruit looking ready to pick in that they were measuring about 4 inches in diameter.  There were another couple at about 2-3 inches across which I left thinking they need a bit longer.  An Internet search suggests that they are ripe for the picking at 2-3 inches across.  Perhaps I'll pick the others tomorrow if I get a chance.

Anyway, I come home with those 4 squash, a couple of handfuls of mange tout, 1 cucumber, 2 handfuls of broccoli sprouts and 2 cobs of sweetcorn.  We had the sweetcorn, broccoli sprouts and a squash for tea.  Very nice.  I just steamed half the squash and added the rest to our pasta sauce.  The sweetcorn was steamed for about 30-35 mins and it was delicious - getting full marks from my husband.

Last week, I did manage a short trip to the plot and saw that the tomatoes were still green-as-you-like.  I hadn't caned them up at all so they were lulling all over the place.  I removed some more of the courgette leaves and put up some canes for the tomato plants to lean on.  The hope was that more sunshine would get to the fruit for ripening.  Today, I could see that a couple of the fruit had started to blush.

The weather has turned cooler now so autumn feels like it is approaching.  That makes me happy.  We've had a great warm summer and I've had a great first season on the new plot.  Time to get digging this weekend if the rain holds off.

Biggest harvest from the new plot to date

I had a day to myself today to catch up on some chores and to treat myself to some gardening.  Last weekend, I focused on our front garden at home and carved out a new bed (7x0.8m roughly).  It was tough getting the turf off of such dry ground and even forking over the patch was hard-going.  I under-estimated the task but it gives us more scope for a sunny bed because the opposite bed is shaded by next door's hedging.  So today, I started populating it with the Mediterranean herbs from the other bed, and the fig plant which was sitting in a pot in the back garden and not fruiting.  I am hoping that the new location against a south-facing wall, albeit sheltered to the east by our house, will make it happy and get it in the mood for fruiting.

I did get some time over at the plot in the afternoon.  It was warm - about 23 Celsius.  The priority was to put some sort of barrier around the sweetcorn in an effort to put the badger off.  Two of the bits and pieces left on the plot when I took it on looked promising.  Someone had taken two sheets of plastic netting and attached thin planks along both ends of them.  Each plank was about a metre high so I cut them all in half leaving me with four pieces of netting with short planks at the ends.  I could then use them to form a boundary around 3 sides of the sweetcorn patch, keeping them upright and in place with bamboo canes.  The fourth side of the patch is covered by the courgette plants so it shouldn't be a problem that the netting doesn't extend that far.  Fingers crossed.  Some of the plants have cobs starting to grow nicely so the badger will come round soon.

The mange tout flowers look stunning (not that you'd know it from the photo below) and a closer inspection revealed a small handful of purple pods that were ready to pick.  Obviously, I tried one.  Sweet and crispy.

And I harvested a cabbage, two heads of calabrese, some onions and a few handful of chard leaves (for tonight's curry).

A whole carrier bag full of treats!

I watered everything then returned home for a lolly to cool me down.

My very first calabrese

I managed to get 40 mins or so at the plot today while the little one was napping.  I dug over a little bit more of the recently uncovered patch but less than I wanted.  I watered a couple of things but didn't have time to attend to everything.

I was very happy to be able to harvest my very first calabrese head.  It looks like it was about to start opening its flowers so I grabbed at the chance to pick it.  It wouldn't have won any beauty contests (ha - I can talk) but it tasted great with roast chicken and allotment-grown potatoes.

I really need to sow some spring cabbages this week before it gets too late...