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 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 May 27th, 2013%  Erik the Gnome has been on our allotment for about 10 years now, keeping an eye on it while we are not there. In the summer he hides in the brambles so this is the last month that he is easily spotted. 5 May, planted Nicola Potatoes in bed A. Sowed sweetcorn in modules on windowsill.
19 May, in bed C: planted out beans that had been grown in pots. 1 row dwarf french (snap bush), 1 row climbing french (neckar queen); on other side of each wigwam sowed seeds; sowed double row of runners (scarlet emperor on left from shed, best of all on right).
22 May, only one courgette is showing so sowed a few more in each pot.
26 May planted out pandora leeks that had been sown in modules in bed D.
Other row of pandora leeks sown direct are coming through and looking good.
In bed E, have two rows of about 8 parsnips come through, and six red cabbage from earlier sowings. Sowed a few more parsnips and cabbages to fill gaps and covered cabbages with net to keep birds off.
Beans planted previous week look frost damaged but alive. Carrots are showing.
By Phil, on April 21st, 2013% Sowed third row of broad bean (Bunyards Exhibition, should come on later than those sown earlier). First row look OK, one or two of second row just beginning to show.
Sowed row of Leeks (Pandora, same as sown in modules, should be read in late summer / Autumn) next to garlic in bed D
Sowed row of red cabbage (Marner Lagerot) next to parsnips at end of bed E.
Sowed carrots (Nantes 2) in raised container to be clear of root fly.
By Phil, on March 3rd, 2013% Half of over-wintered broad beans are gone, only two left in one row and some slug slime. Moved those two to fill gaps in other row and sowed a new row. Put up glass on either side of double row to act as wind-break.
Dug over last metre or so of bed D, raised it slightly and planted ca. 14 garlic cloves. The cloves have been in the shed since Oct or Nov, mostly look ok bit kind of optimistic to think that they will grow well. Put netting over to keep bird off.
Harvested last of leeks and parsnip.
started new compost bin (one nearest shed) with top off bin next to it, some kitchen waste and leaves+comfrey juice.
By Phil, on March 3rd, 2013% 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.
By Phil, on July 28th, 2012%  Blighted potatoes Potatoes have blight. Chopped off tops. Dug a few plants: they’re OK, though the anya are on the small side. Potatoes last year had blight to similar extent and time, and they were mostly OK in the end, so fingers crossed.
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.
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