Mostly we have been harvesting. Loads of beans, some really nice broccoli, chard, couregttes/marrows, red cabbage, and latterly sweetcorn, as well as the usual potatoes, turnips, beetroot.
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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.
 Leave a comment nbsp;  Beetroot, Black currant, Blackberry, Brassicas, Broad Beans, Cabbage, Carrots, Chard, Climbing beans, Courgettes, French beans, Garlick, Leeks, Lettuce, Parsnip, Potatoes, Purple Spr broc, Radish, Rasppberries, Red cabbage, Red currant, Runner beans, Spinnach, Squash, Strawberries, Sweetcorn, Turnips, Weather 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
Cold winter, some snow, car access to plot blocked by works. Didn’t get down very often so no major work done. Harvested carrots, turnips, beetroot, parsnip and leeks through first weekend of Mar. all of which did quite well. Carrots especially worked well, and the parsnips. Planted two rows of broad beans (super aquadulce) in early Nov (bed C), which germinated OK and about half of them survived. Picked rest of broad beans, which have been good but late this year. We have runners and some french beans on the way.  Runner beans, bed E Carrots tops are being nibbled or broken by something.  few remaining carrots There aren’t many of them, but the turnips, beetroot and parsnip look OK.  Turnips, beetroot, parsnip Berries are rampant, especially the blackberry. Picked a decent number of raspberries, red currants, and a few strawberries. Other beds look pretty dismal, though harvested more anya: small but no sign of blight/rot. 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.
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. 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. The kids and I spent a couple of hours tidying up and harvesting. Got two bags full of beans, the last mega-turnip, beetroot, artichokes, some cavolo nero leaves, two large and one medium-sized marrows, a courgette and three onions. Also harvested some unexpected broccoli, the last three garlic heads and one and a half of plants’ worth of potatoes (the ones that aren’t Anya!) Cut the tops of one row of the spuds but ran out of time to do the rest. Red cabbage is looking good – some decent heads forming. Ditto the celeriac. Brought home some poppy heads to scatter the seeds in the garden here to add some colour for next year. My fist trip to the allotment since coming back from hols. Quite overgrown but not as bad as last year. Mostly weeded, but also harvested some beetroot, parsnips (which needed thinning) and a courgette and a few assorted French beans.
Brassicas (bed E) look good, those are the red cabbage in the front, behind them the broccoli and at the back the purple sprouting broccoli. Root crops (bed D) also look good. The parsnips at the front are getting a bit crowded. Beetroot and turnip are ready. The carrots are under the fleece, with carvolo nero and celeriac behind. Onions (bed A)look OK, but were getting over grown with weeds. The onions grown from sets are ready, so I broke their necks. The courgette is OK, sweet corn may fruit if we have a long summer like last year but pumpkin and aubergine look very doubtful. Potatoes are fine, anya are done. But the tares sown as green manure on bed I got swamped by fat hen (which I strimmed, probably came from the compost, I suppose it’s a green manure of sorts). There’s also a pretty looking plant next to the shed, which we certainly didn’t put there. |
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