Harvested beans (pulled up the runner beans), potatoes (about half now up), leeks (the first mature ones) a few carrots, broccoli, some sweetcorn, turnips, courgette & marrows.
Grass needs strimming, otherwise looking good.
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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.  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. 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 carrots (Nantes 2) in raised container to be clear of root fly.
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. 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. Made compost trench in bed A and sowed half-row of French beans (Fasold) on it. Sowed half-row of Peas in bed D next to path. Sowed spinach in bed B. Covered bed J and neighbouring fruit area in thick cardboard and leaf mulch to keep down weeds (had been a lot creeping buttercup and couch grass). Onions, shallots and broad beans are all looking good. |
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