Manure and Garlic

I am on holiday now for a couple of week so i can spend a bit more time on the allotment. Not much to do plant wise but lots of tidying up and setting things out ready for next year.

First job for today was manure. As you can see I dont have a trailer so I use a large builders bag, tie up the corners and shovel it in. Then all i need to do is fork it into the wheelbarrow and on it goes. Granted the car does stink afterwards but i dont mind it too much. Anyway I managed to get 4 car loads on today before it got too cold. The weather forecast is cold and snow but at least there was some blue sky mixed in

The next job was to plant out the garlic. I put these into individual cell earlier in october in the greenhouse. There is plenty of strong growth to get them going and the cold weather will encourage the cloves to split.

These are some autumn onions. They are a little late but they should grow ok for pulling next summer when the autumn onions from this year have run out. The yellow onions grown this year are keeping well but the red ones have started to rot, I believe red dont keep too well so next year i will use them up first instead of storing.

This weeks weather has been much warmer with some nice sunny spells. Everything is now back on schedule after the hols. As in the previous post not much to do so a nice relaxing weekend just pottering. I got given a little shed so I put that together and tidied up the wood store and started putting together some kind of shelter for it all. Still picking beans, courgettes, potatoes, lettuce, chillies. Wednesday was a nice afternoon with the family. Stayed up til late waiting for the meteor showers but it was too cloudy. Had a nice time round the campfire with millie, kate and the kids.

Sweetcorn cobs are growing well. You can see the runner beans winding their way up the stalks. All the yellow onions have now been dug up and are drying in the sun, a good crop for this year but i need to make sure they are stored well for the next few months.

In the garden plot i still have two greenhouses. One with a grapevine in and the other with tomatoes and chillies. The grapes are black, small and juicy. This year i noticed quite a few ripe grape have been eaten and on furhter investigation i found earwigs have made the grapevine thier home! Not anymore, but i will have to watchout for them in future.

Tha tomatoes have done quite well with no sign of blight and a good mixture of varieties. The main ones are harbinger, subarctic and gardenpearl. The chilies have done especially well, they are 'cayenne' variety. Not sure how hot they are supposed to be but they pack quite a punch.

It's a strange time of year. After all the rush and panic of sowing seeds and planting out ther eisn't that much to do except harvest and keep tidy. There will always be jobs to do but not the pressing urgency from before. There is also a sence of impatience waiting for everything to finish so the beds can be cleared and palns made for next year, it's difficult to visualise and plot what needs to go where this year and for next year. I'm not sure where to put these asparagus plants. As you can see they are just starting to produce one globe each, but next year the plants will be much bigger and i have another eight plants grown from seed this year.

These are the first of the onions to be pulled up. They are spanish white and very nice in salads, much milder than normal ones

The leeks and southport red onions are doing well. First time growing them from seed and quite pleased with the results. The proof obviously is in the eating.

Next are the runner beans. I prefare the texture of these over green beans when cooked. The plants and flowers are lovely sight with the bonus of some nice beans to eat



These are some geranium, sweet williams and alpine strawberries in front of the shed to brighten up the place.


And lastly the herb bed. Not to sure what to do next year as they take up a full bed but i havent used any of them this year. There are some mints. oregano, tarragon, sage, thyme, garlic chives and lemon balm with some pot marigolds thrown in. Most of them used to be in pots but tey either outgrew them or kept drying out in warmer weather. They do look really well withn the flowers on so i may pot up the useful one for home and put the rest of them in the borders

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.

The recent windy weather has prompted me to buy some windbreak material to put between me and George's plot to try and protect the plants. Now that the border between our plots is finished off i can carry on planting up beans and some hardy annuals for colour and to attract pollinating insects. One plant that is doing really well is an honesty plant, grown from seeds found on a walk a couple of years ago. It has very dark purple flowers and the seed heads are round and flat like paper coins hence its nickname, popes money. The comfrey next to it is doing well and i may have a go at comfrey 'tea' to use as liquid fertilizer.

On Saturday the weather started out quite sunny tho still very breezy. The next few photo's show the raised bed i edged with leftover timber and how the rest of the allotment is coming on. The salad potatoes are doing really well from and earlier planting after warming up the soil with polythene.

The next shots are of the salad leaves in the greenhouse either waiting to be planted out or taken home to be eaten!

These plants are waiting to be planted out later when they have hardened off, mostly brassicas and some mini sweetcorn. The potatoes in bags are doing fine, i just need to make sure there is a enough drainage when it rains too much but also enough moisture because the leaves can deflect any water away from the soil.



These onion set are doing really well now. i may have to net them off to prevent onion fly. The herb bed looks well. It has a mix of mints, origano, tarragon, garlic chives, sage, thyme and lemon balm. I also have some pot marigold for colour and the attract beneficial insects to the plot

And finally look at the size of that! One of the asparagus spears is reaching for the stars. Most of the crowns have now produced one spear which means they have transplanted well. I do have some younger plants that are in the seed bed now but i am tempted to buy some more older crowns to get earlier crops.

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