Sun 4 Aug

lettuce, pak choi, french beans, broad beans,  chard, spinnach, red currants, black currants, garlic, carrots, baby leeks, turnips, courgettes.

The day’s harvest, 4 Aug 2013

Todays harvest was lettuce, pak choi (from our neighbour), french beans, broad beans, chard, spinnach, red currants (4lb), black currants, garlic, carrots, baby leeks (thinnings), turnips, courgettes. (Not shown: some wonderful raspberries and strawberries that didn’t make it home.)

Also cut the grass, did a fair amount of weeding. The garlic s now all up, as are the over-wintered broad beans and the spinach (which went to seed before we got much from it).

Courgette, squash and sweetcorn

Bed I, courgette, squash and sweetcorn

Quite happy with how things are going this year. The courgette squash and sweetcorn in all look good, and the french beans are now beginning, though the dwarf beans are a little too little.

Beans

Bed C, French beans

 

June 2013

Planted out all the brassica we had sown indoors, in bed E. Also planted out courgettes, squashes and sweetcorn in bed I. Were given sprout plants which we also planted. Of all the brassicas the red cabbage which were planted direct in April are looking the strongest

Were given some lettuce plants which we planted under bean wigwams.

Sowed Musselburgh leeks direct into ground next to other leeks in bed D. Also sowed radishes, spinach, chard, beetroot and turnips to fill bed.

Caged the fruit. Which are looking rather good.

Thinned out the carrots and sowed a second tub of Nantes 2.  These are planted in some sandy soil I got from the excavations to bury a power line through the car park, with some leaf mould at the bottom, and mixed with ashes.

Earthed up potatoes and weeded. Bought a strimmer, so now (after a few frustrating false starts) the allotment is a bit more photogenic.

Currants coming along nicely

Currants coming along nicely

The fruit side

The fruit side

The veg side

The veg side

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Reset

I suppose I could just post new stuff and maybe no-one would notice the one-year hiatus… but no.

Last year fizzled out, bad weather, lots of stuff didn’t grow, what did grow got blight / white rot / whatever, motivation left me.

Over the winter I dug over most plots and covered with leaf mold. We decided to make life easier by planting half the plot with fruit bushes that don’t need too much doing each year. Didn’t quite it ready in time to get them in before the growing season started, but maybe the opportunity to be sure that all the perennials are dug out from that side is a good one.

Here’s the plan for 2012:

As of May 27 we have planted the potatoes (beds C&G), strawberries (bed G/H), beans (broad, runner and dwarf & climbing French) (bed E — along with lettuce and raddish), parsnips, perpetual spinach, & beetroot (bed D). On May 27th we planted leeks (edge of bed C) and sweetcorn (bed B) from pots that we had started at home. We have some courgettes, red cabbage and sunflowers at home. Also sowed some sunflower seeds at along the road at bed A and nasturtiums along the side near the public path.

The pots are just showing in bed G; the broad beans are up, but small; the runners and climbers are just showing, but no sign of the drawfs, so sowed one more at each station; the strawbs are flowering. Too early to tell about the others.

Sun 24 Apr.

Planted six rows of Anya and one of Nicola in plot I and bits of plot J.

Sun. 6 Mar 2011

Planted ~100 onion sets (sturon globe) and 50 shallots (longor) at end of beds G & H  nearest Donald’s.

Cleared top growth from side of bed I and bed J and around currant bushes, used it to fill in hole where cold frame used to be. Dug out couch grass root from current bushes and tried to improve soil with with leaf mould from where black berry grows.

Harvested the last of the parsnips and the celeriac from bed D, got more than I thought I would.
Continue reading Sun. 6 Mar 2011

What was where in 2010

Bed A : Onions
Bed B : Peas & beans
Bed C : sweet corn and squash (failed)
Bed D : Roots
Bed E : Brassica
Bed F : comfrey
Bed G : potatoes
Bed H : potatoes
Bed I : bare then green manure
Bed J : artichoke + bare

Sun 22 Aug

Mostly shovelled compost around.

Chopped tops of rest of the potatoes. Chopped down comfrey.

Broke necks of all remaining onions

Harvested two heads of broccoli, half a bag of beans, two courgettes and a tub of black berries (with a few rasps)

Took a look at the carrots for the first time since sowing them under fleece. A lot of what was there wasn’t carrot, so removed it, and carrots were over-crowded, so thinned them, but there are some nice looking but small carrots there. Covered again, should be ready in a few weeks.

Sun 27 June

Watered; little rain this month and soil was very dry.

Weeded beds D and E.

Planted 6 cavolo nero (Kale) between carrots and celeriac.

Dug couch grass roots out of front of bed I, and covered in compost as mulch. Sowed tares as green manure.

Dug up first two potato plants, one nicola one anya; got a few baby-new but not really ready yet

Beds I and J, mostly fallow except the artichoke and young currant plant

Rhubarb, blackberry and raspberries

Beds E and D, Brassicas

Jm and Kt watering the potatoes, June 2010

Jm and Kt watering the potatoes, June 2010

Sat 22 May

Very warm and sunny.

Planted various dwarf and climbing French beans on compost trenches in bed B.

Planted carrots (Fly Away) in bed D, covered with fleece to protect from root fly.

Netted the black and red currants

Harvested the last of the purple sprouting broccoli and dug out the plants in bed I

Watered the onions planted on Tuesday, they look a bit droopy but should survive. Leeks from 1 may are just showing.

Previously: what was where in 2009

What was where in 2009

Bed A & B : potatoes

Bed C: Onions & garlick, plus odds and ends like parsnip and salad later

Bed D: Sweetcorn and courgette at one end, leeks at the other

Bed E: peas and beans, with some lettuce and salad in between

Bed F: comfry (permanent)

Bed G & H: planted various squash, but they failed. Had load of compost buried and was kept covered w/ black plastic.

Bed I: Brassica, incl. purple sprouting broccoli which overwintered to 2010.

Bed J: Globe artichoke + sorrel (permanent), planted black currant off-shoot from Donald in summer .

Fruit: Rhubarb x 2 (one near fence ~1yr old, not cropped) Red currant and Black currant had been over pruned so didn’t bother cropping, Strawberries in containers by currants, Blackberries and raspberries.

In November planted:

Bed A: onion sets (failed, frost) and garlic

Bed B: broad beans (only two survived) peas (failed) and lettuce (did surprisingly well) under fleece.