Pre Holiday Rush

We are going on holiday tomorrow (Friday) so this week has beeen a bit of a rush trying to get all plants into the ground and make sure everything is tidy and away for the next 2 weeks. Ronnie in one of the other pens is keeping an eye on things til i get back. Hope it's not to hot and dry for the plants. A view of the pen before we left. Everything growing well


One very large chinese cabbage. Off to some friends for their tea or two, A variety of courgettes and a row of nicola potatoes!

I'm off to France. ta ta for now!

Flaming June Turns into Roasting July

This week has continued to be warm and humid with temperatures slowly creeping up as the week progresses 23-25 degrees most days. One or two thunderstaorms with the worst rain of Tuesday but this had little impact on dry land! Most plants doing ok but a rush to get organised for convention and holidays. Not much in pots now so they will go into any available space. Need to sort out strawberry runners and pin them into pots. No more sowing now until after holidays unless its a couple of rows of radish or similar outside.

This set of photos taken on Thursday morning hopefully showing where everything is and how its growing. This will give a good indicator for next year

Staring at the west facing border I have Broadbean 'bunyards exhibition' (sown 27/2, planted ?)very nice stir fried young whole pods. Next are peas 'oregon sugar pod', kelvendon wonder', 'meteor' (6/4) kelvendon wonder' (4/5)



In the border you can just make out more broad beans (sown 4/5), in the raised bed from left to right runner beans 'cobra' (sown 4/5) peas 'kelvendon' and 'meteor' (sown 7/6) dwarf bean 'valour' (sown 7/6) fennel (sown 8/4 & 11/5) peas 'meteor' and 'sugar pod' (sown 4/5)



Just between the two lots of peas are a row of dwarf beans 'tendergreen' (sown 4/5) next a row of peas 'celebration' (sown 14/4) spinach beet 'perpetual spinach' and swiss chard 'bright lights' (sown 6/4)

Just behind these raised bed some sweet peas in the border, slow to get going but worth the wait. Nice sweet fragrance and hopfully attracting useful insects plus adds a splash of colour to all the green!

Looking further along the nursury bed lots of cuttings and seedling waiting to be planted out in autumn. To the right are some sprouting broccoli 'early purple', 'late purple' & 'italian'waiting to be planted out but they are sprouting now so i am cutting off and eating the heads as they are ready. Not sure if this is supposed to happen but why waste them. Under the netting are 'green calabrese', dwarf kale and calevo nero (all brassicas sown 25/3) The netting has protected them well with no catapillar damage. The dwarf kale has been especially nice to eat just picking a few leaves per plant and cooked with a little oil and garlic.

Courgettes in tyres! The tyres have protected the plants from the worst of the weather and will keep the courgettes of the floor and protect them. Staarting at the top left and going clockwise are 'kojac', '?', 'dundoo', 'defender', 'zucchini', 'golden zucchini', 'bianca de trieste', 'kojac' with 'butternut squash' in the middle. As you can see the two zucchinis and butternut are not doing as well as the others (all sown 15/3, planted out 13/5)

Here is my attempt at the three sisters growing of sweetcorn (sown 12/3), baby sweeycorn (sown 14/4) bean (sown 4/5?)and squash (sown 25/3)together. As you can see all three are doing well although the beans have grown far quicker than i thought so they will need some cane to support them.


These are the leeks and onions. Not sure whether to grow or not next year, wait and see. I am Tempted to grow overwintering onions to fill the gap next year. Most sets were planted end of March/early April

In these shots its the fruit border. The beans have finally recovered from being put out too early when the weather turned much cooler. Other beans that were planted narly two monthe later are not much further behind. Lesson here i think. Dont sow too early! Not sure of the varieties.

The kid's raised beds are doing well with peas, lettuce and carrots as are the beetroot and chinese cabbages in the next bed

The herb bed is growing well. I think it is more for decorative than useable herbs. There is some lemon balm, thyme, garlic chives, oregan, tarragon and sage which can be used in the kitchen but the others are mints which may need digging out and putting in a border instead!

These strawberries are well protected from the blackbirds and are just starting to ripen

The potatoes in tyres are also doing well, not sure weather to do the same again next year or maybe put strawberries instead.

Friday and Saturday was rain so very little done. On Sunday I divided up some primroses, potted up a couple of cayenne and peppadew chillies and a bit of weeding. Weather gone sunny again. Too tired to do too much, sal and kids went to the farm to go horse riding and i read up on taking cuttings and had a nap in the pen house. I took some photo's to show the progress so far and dug up some 'Dunluce' first early potatoes. As you can see from the pic's, not very big plants but some nice big spuds. They were a little floury and broke up when boiled but still very tasty.

Next are some pictures of broad bean 'bunyard exhibition' and 'pea meteor'. The three sisters bed with sweetcorn, bean and pumpkin (and courgette) Chillies , tomatoes and basil in the greenhouse. THe kids raised beds and finally the herb bed

Another nice weekend with warm and sunny weather. I finally finished tidying up the large conifer next to my shed. It does take up quite a bit of space but provides shade for the salad beds and partially hides the shed from the roadside. Beacause of the dry weather everything needs watering, sometimes twice a day! Some of the mizuna and pak choi in pots i have planted out to give them a better chance. Sunday was another hot and sunny day, too hot to work too hard so i sowed some fresh poppy seeds, pricked out the echinaea seedlings and put up some netting for the kids peas. then it was a rare time to put my feet up and have a snooze in the sun.

All the trees and plants attrct a variety of wildlife from insects, birds, frogs, toads and even rats! They come through from the chicken pens. I dont mind them too much but they do make you jump. There are plenty of birds nesting and feeding nearby. This baby coal tit was taking a rest in the trees

You can never have enough pictures of clouds and sunsets. Nothing more to say. Let the picture speak for itself

Finally, these are 'charlotte' potatoes that were grown in pop up bags. These were planted 8/3, three seed potatoes per bag on 4" of compost and covered with 2" they slowly filled up as the shoots grew. I was very impressed by how many were in the bag when i emptied out though i did notice the soil was very dry. So even with good watering they didn't rot and they grew well.

Charlotte

On Tuesday i emptied the bag of 'Nicola' potatoes and these gave a similar result, 1 1/2- 2lbs of new potatoes. On Wednesday it was 'Juliette' potatoes. The weather turned very wet and windy and they were in danger of damage, well thats my excuse anyway. I love new potatoes! The weather stayed cool and cloudy for Thursday but managed to plant out lupins into nursury bed, fennel and chard next to the peas. Harvested spinach, spring onions, turnips and radich for salads. I needed to build some kind of windbreak around the asparagus as they were in danger of damaging the crowns. The next to be tried was the 'Belle de Fontenay' of all the varieties tried so far these are my favourite. They have a nice old fashioned taste and hold their shape well quite sweet too.

Juliette

Belle de Fontenay

Hot June continues for the beginning of the month. Picked up some more gardening work which is always a joy. Wednesday (3rd) was a lovely day with me and the kids staying up the allotment until 8 o'clock. Still a lot of watering to do but the crops are doing ok. The strawberries are coming on now so i have put some straw under the fruit to protect them. On Thursday we had the first strawberry of the season, an 'aromel' everbearing variety, very sweet and juicy. All the plants were fed with liquid seaweed to give them a little boost. Some of the beans still not looking too good and a couple of the courgette plants dont look like they will survive much longer.

Very pleased with the turnips 'oasis'. These were sown 2/3 seeds per module and planted out without thinning. As you can see in the picture, as they grow they push each other apart. This may not do too well if they were left to grow full size but they recommend you pick them about the size of a golf ball. I have to say i prefer them raw than cooked. Nice sweet taste when raw and more to them than radish.

At the weekend the weather turned cooler and eventually rained which was good for the plants but not much to be done. I did pot up the chillies at home, pricked out and potted up the lupins, sowed a salad tray in modules, some more peas and beans and finally some green primrose seeds. On Gardeners World Carol Klein demonstrated how to grow primrose from green seed, worth a try.

Through the week the wethaer has picked up again, not as hot as before but a good mixture of sunshine and showers. A busy week of gardening but well worth it. Below is a little tray of pickings. Turnip, radish and spring onions for salads, rhubarb for dessert and chinese cabbage for soup. The cabbages have done really well with not pest damage and little attention. These were sown on the 14/4 so are pretty quick to mature.

On Thursday I dug up first if the salad potatoes 'belle de fontenay' with my little helper Elisabeth. We both had great fun finding all the little potatoes in the soil. Despite the rain recently the ground is still very dry. For one plant we collected 1 1/2 lb of potatoes. They had a lovely sweet taste especially with a little butter and salt. They were planted on the 22/3.

Too Busy to Blog

It has been well over a week since i last updated my blog. As you can imagine its quite a busy time of year getting things started, sowing seed, potting on, pricking out, hardening off, too frosty, too sunny, not much rain. As well as those things to think about the allotment is still being finished off with fencing, top soil for beds, cuting grass etc. Hopefully next year will be a little easier. The garden plot is much easier with just a little maintenance and moving plants around.

Wednesday was the start of work for a guy called Richard, a neighbour of a gardning customer who wanted some raised beds building. Unfortunatly the timber suppliers had no suitable timber in but i got seven pallets for free. Thursday was spent making fence panels and another hour at Richards digging over the beds ready for the timber surrounds. On Friday i planted out the leeks and onions grow from seed into a bed prepared for them. The other two photos show the early potatoes and onions growing well but could do with some rain on them as could everything else. The sunny weather means everything is drying out and slowing down, but rain is forecast for next week.

Leeks and onions planted out

Onion sets

Early potatoes

Saturday looked like being poor weather so i stayed at home and tidied up the front garden. Is amazing how much material comes from cutting back and pruning. Later the weather turned reasonable so i was able to finish off the fencing down the pathway, tidied up some beds and took some fuscia cuttings. Sunday i planted out some sweet peas in the border and topped up some beds with seived soil. Later i got some plants from a friend Judith. I got some grasses, huechera and hosta and swapped for some geranium seedlings but i have some other plants to dig up for her later

On Monday it finally rained so into the greenhouse to sort through seedlings and plants. I pricked out the early sowing of brassicas into pots ready to harden off and plant in seed bed for later. Tuesday was more rain but Wednesday picked up and was quite hot and sunny. I finished off the raised beds for Richard and continued seiving top soil to top up borders and got some manure from the farm to mulch the hedging and plants.

Richards raised beds

Salad potatoes in bags now outside

Next are a couple of views, one of the fruit border which has space along the front edge for peas and beans. The tulips are just starting to fade now but have been a welcome addition to brighten up the plot. I have some hardy annuals to put in between hedges and plants to attract bees etc

Asparagus and Strawberries

What another glorious week. The weather has been very sunny and warm yet a little cool at nights, a couple of nights there was a slight frost. No damage to any plants but a reminder that there could still be frosts well into May.

Thursday i planted out the spring onions from modules down the side of a strawberry bed, any spare soil will get used up with catchcrops to make good use of space. So far they have settled in ok. Some one was getting rid of some top soil from a project at home so i now have a couple of ton's of soil to sift through. There are lots of stones in but it will do for topping up beds and the stone will come in for gravel paths, nothing is wasted here.

I have widened out the fruit bed to make space for peas and beans. I then dug a trench and filled it with garden compost from the wooden bin, not as good a quality as bought compost but still useful for improving soil.

Saturday was a big day because the asparagus and strawberries were delivered. I thought i had prepared the bed ready for them but it took a while to get it just right. They are all in now, 10 Backlim and 10 Ginjlim, but it will be a couple of years before any can be picked. I still have some growing on in pots and some still in modules, but it is where to put them as they take up so much space.

These photo's show the crowns as they arrived, the trench dug out and the crowns laid on a mound at the bottom of the trench and finally the crowns covered over












Here the strawberries 'aromel' have been planted next to the rhubarb, this frees up the bed i had planned for them for a three sisters experiment (sweetcorn, bean and squash)



The children have sent off for som Dig In seeds from the the tv. Gardeners world and other programs are getting people started growing thier own with free seeds so on Sunday i finished off some raised beds for the kids to sow the seeds when they arrive.

On Sunday I finally painted the archway into the allotment and fixed the honeysuckle to it. Sowed some seeds in the salad bed under fleece, carrot 'tendersnax', beetroot 'boltardy' and radish 'sparkler/french breakfast'

In the garden plot i moved the huchera and gunnera near to the pond which will suit these moisture lovers. I divided up a red priumla that was looking past its best and potted up a couple and some hostas for home

Today I planted potatoes 'pink fir apple' in two sets of tyres

Elisabeth, Millie and Ziggy come for a visit


Seedlings and plants in the greenhouse

Potatoes in bags can go out now but need cover if frosty