By Phil, on August 11th, 2013% Harvested french and runner beans, one courgette, two lettuce, a carrier bag of chard and a couple of plants worth of both types of potatoes and a few more carrots.
Second and third sowing of carrots are coming up (nantes 2 and berlicum, from late June) Don’t know if there will be time for them to mature, though they are only a couple of weeks behind last year’s.
Summer rasps and strawberries are over, as are broad beans. Grubbed up second row of broad beans.
Sowed 2 rows Spring Hero cabbage where broad beans were (bed C) and a second row of chard next to the other two rows of radish (one of rudi one of french breakfast) and a row of valor lettuce where garlick was (all bed D)
Watered sweetcorn and squash especially, put cardboard tubes on musselburgh leeks to blanch the stems. Strimmed all grass.
By Phil, on August 4th, 2013%  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).
 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.
 Bed C, French beans
By Phil, on July 28th, 2013%  Blackcurrant vodka in the making A couple of hours at the allotment today, harvested 2.5lb blackcurrants. These were put into one normal and one medium kilner jar, and covered with Vodka. In a few months we will have blackcurrant vodka.
Also brought back lettuce, courgette (well, marrow), brad beans, strawberries and raspberries (both very nice), and potatoes (sarpo mira, which are ready) .
By Phil, on July 21st, 2013% First visit after about 3 weeks due to holiday, during which time there has been lots of sun and not much rain. We weren’t expecting good things, but were very pleasantly surprised. For one thing, looks like a friendly neighbour had been doing some watering for us. Thanks! We did lots more today.
Pretty much everything looks good. Potatoes are healthy and flowering.
Most of the beans are looking OK (though the dwarf beans haven’t really got going), and the lettuce is ready.
The garlick is ready, the leeks OK (thinned out the musselburgh that we started on windowsill, the last lot sowed direct into the ground failed), radishes were ready a week or two back, but still (just) OK, the spinach is heading to seed but still (just) OK, chard, turnips and beetroot looking good.
The brassica and parsnips are looking good, but needed weeding.
Berries and currants looking good, though we should have tied up the raspberries as some of them have keeled over. Sweetcorn, squashes and first lot of carrots all good (but later sowing of carrot have failed)
Brought home loads of lovely red currants (4.5lb!), strawberries and raspberries. Lots of broadbeans, a courgette on its way to being a marrow, baby leeks and small carrots (thinnings), and giant radishes, some garlick, and a couple of lettuces.
Big difference to last year.
           
By Phil, on June 16th, 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  The fruit side  The veg side 
By Phil, on June 24th, 2012% No, not the first time back since the ‘reset’ post a month ago, but sadly not far off. The weather’s been ‘orrible.
Anyway, the plot was massively over grown, so did a lot of weed-pulling and grass chopping. The sweetcorn in bed B has pretty much all failed and no sign of any drawf beans in bed E. The climbing and runner beans are OK but not great. Broad beans are just flowering but not too impressive. A smattering of beetroot and parsnips in bed D, no perp. spinach. Leeks are holding on, potatoes are OK. Some donated cabbage plants we put in bed A are looking good.
Harvested some mouse-nibbled radish from between bean rows, and some really good looking rhubarb.
Planted sunflowers by the shed which have been struggling in pots at home. Planted squash and courgette plants in Bed B, a mix of bought from Henri’s and grown from seed in pots. Sowed more beetroot and a couple of rows of turnips in bed D. Sowed loads of lettuce and rocket between beans.
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Beans
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Not much by way of parsnip, beetroot etc.
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Potatoes looking OK
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No sweetcorn. Leeks holding on, newly planted squash & courgette
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Four fine cabbages
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More potatoes
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Strawberries
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The pile of weeds and grass we pulled today.
By Phil, on May 27th, 2012% 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.
By Phil, on April 18th, 2011% Planted 2 rows red cabbage in bed B with radishes as catch crop; 1 row parsnip and 1 row beetroot in bed C; lettuces between broad beans on bed A.
Harvested purple sprouting broccoli, perpetual spinach, and rhubarb. Rhubarb this year has thrown up a lot of flower stems.
By Phil, on August 8th, 2010% Grubbed up broad beans and peas from bed B. Both have been a disappointment this year: the beans were late and yield much, they were at their best while we were on holiday (normally they’re pretty much done by then); the peas dried up while we were away. Sowed white clover as a green manure.
Sowed lettuce (tom thumb) and spring onions in the square at the other end of bed B where some French beans failed to grow. Also sowed Chinese broccoli and Indian mustard in bed C where the aubergine and pumpkin are doing nothing.
French beans are in full flow, got 2 or 3lbs of them, Also harvested some potatoes (Anya), onions, a turnip, and a large courgette.
By Phil, on July 31st, 2010% Back from holiday, Jules, Jm & Kt went to check on allotment.
Harvested 1 bag of broad beans (grubbed up plants). a couple of large courgettes (just short of marrow-sized) and some smaller ones, a bag of spinach, a couple of plants-worth of potatoes (anya), half dozen small artichokes, one lettuce (others had bolted), spring onion, turnips, beetroot, 2kg redcurrants, some raspberries, strawberries and a blackberry.
The peas have dried up and died while we were away, but overall, apparently, the plot loots OK.
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