Preparing for the Winter

The summer is well and truly over, there was a frost on the allotment this morning!

Sweetcorn, beetroot, courgettes have all died back. The total crop of three apples have been eaten. The red onions have been lifted and stored.

Spent the morning tidying up.

Completed the netting around the brassicas, cleared the summer cabbage bed and planted with garlic bulbs.

We also cleared the legumes bed and planted Radar onion sets.

The Rainbow Chard, in the background of the picture is still doing well.

The Raspberries are also still producing well, although the fruit doesn't have the fantastic taste it did back in August. The frosts may have finished the fruit season though.

Sun, in flower form

Not seeing so much of the real thing at the moment, but Tash's sunflowers are blooming this week.


The variety is called "Earth Walker". They are smaller than the normal yellow flowers, but much more interesting!

Lots of Shallots

Cleared up the weeds along the onion and shallot rows yesterday, harvesting the remaining shallots along the way. A better harvest than the potatoes:


Cleared the pea plants, which have stopped growing peas, and sowed some new carrot, fennel, and french beans in their place. In the background my new path, built from Dez's left over patio slabs, can be seen.

Blighted!

The entire site has been hit by potato blight. Lost about 1/3 of the Desiree crop, cut off the exposed foliage last weekend, then unearthed the potatoes last night. A lot of them had been infected, including this monster:


Still, managed to fill a large bucket of good potatoes so could have been worse.

The tomatoes, on the other hand, have been a total loss. Another week and I might have been able to pick the first ones, but the blight got there first and the whole lot had to go on the bonfire.

Peas and Beans

A good crop of peas this evening, and the first few broad beans.


Fairly sure that the Catriona potatoes have blight so have removed all foliage. Will leave it a week for the blight spores to die then dig the half-row which is still in the ground. Fortunately the Desiree plants don't seem so badly affected so I am leaving them alone for the moment.

The Weeds Strike Back!

Feels like I have spent hours clearing up weeds over the last week, but they are growing faster than I can remove them. At least the compost heap is growing!



'Feltham First' peas are really getting into their stride. I picked half a carrier bag of fat pods this afternoon to add to more potatoes, courgettes, and shallots. The broad beans have plenty of pods now, some of them are getting quite fat, but not quite ready to eat today.

Making a meal of it

Dinner last night was lamb chops, new potatoes, peas, sauted courgette and shallots.

Unfortunately the allotment isn't big enough to keep livestock so the lamb came from New Zealand, but everything else was grown on the allotment and dug or picked less than 30 minutes before being eaten.

Very nice it was too!

The harvest begins

The strawberry plants were the first - several handfuls of berries, which is more than I expected from new plants.

Dug up the first two Catriona potato plants at the weekend, yielding 20 or so decent sized spuds and a few tiny pea-sized ones!

First early peas eaten as Mangetout, first two baby courgettes, and four big shallots. Tried unearthing two carrots but they were disappointingly small and forked. The others need time to grow.

Not a brilliant germination rate, but there are seven sweetcorn plants growing strongly. Planted more seeds in the positions of the 4x4 grid where nothing had appeared.


The weeds were starting to take over so have spent a lot of time clearing them up over the last week. Beetroot, Swede, Turnip, Rainbow Chard, Pea, and French Bean seedlings now have some space to grow.


Feltham First peas, and Broad Beans are now getting very large.

Everything is growing

Unfortunately that includes the weeds!

The two courgette plants Mum and Dad gave me are doing well, expecting to eat the first courgettes in the next week or so.


James Grieve apples are bulking up .
A few russets are visible, but nothing on the Howgate Wonder. The trees all look healthy with lots of new growth so looking forward to bigger crops next year. Anything this autumn is a bonus!

The Feltham First peas are flowering, as are the broad beans, so looking forward to a crop soon.
The second and third sowings of peas (Jaguar) are doing nicely, as are the french beans. Will be a while before they are ready to eat.

End of the monsoon?

The rainy season seems to be over for the time being, but the allotment is in much better shape after a couple of weeks of regular rainfall.

"Feltham First" peas are growing very quickly, as are the broad beans next to them.

Several broad beans failed to germinate, so there is a second sowing to fill in the gaps, just breaking through the surface.
French beans have also been a little disappointing, although some have come up, so another row of "Tendercrop" went in today. The first sowing of "Jaguar" peas have started sprouting, sowed another row this afternoon.

Carrot and leek seedlings, transplanted from indoors a few weeks ago, are doing really well. Apparently carrots don't take kindly to being transplanted - fortunately no one told me or the carrot seedlings!

Second sowing of carrot and leek seeds are now sprouting, as are the purple sprouting broccoli and brussels sprouts in the seed bed next to them.

Potato plants are getting really big now:

Rain at last!

Mum and Dad gave me a whole bag full of plants at the weekend. While I was planting them yesterday afternoon the heavens opened. What a result, no need to water them in now!

The shed guttering appears to be working successfully - the water butt is about 1/3 full. Another good thing is that the shed appears to be waterproof as I sheltered inside it during the worst of the storm.

More Digging

I'm getting fed up of digging, but the end is in site. Five out of six vegetable beds done, and the sixth partly complete. Still going to be an area of grass left which might be used for flowers if I get around to clearing it this year!

Fruit trees and bushes are mostly looking healthy. Apple, blackcurrant, and strawberry plants are in flower, and there are small gooseberries on the two bushes already.


Started on construction of strawberry and brassica cages to keep out birds, and Cabbage White butterflies respectively. Need some more netting to finish the job.

Lots more planting

A belated progress report from last weekend. Spent a total of five hours on the plot on Sunday.

First job was to attach guttering to the shed, and point the downspout at the new water butt. Not a total success - following tests with a watering can it looks like the brackets need spacers behind them as most of the water over-shoots the gutter.

Made a start on clearing the ditch. Just about everybody who has come over for a chat has mentioned that it is my responsibility to keep the ditch clear, so I thought it was time to do something before the nettles, bindweed and brambles took over. About 2/3 done, the rest can wait for another day.


Then, on to the fun stuff...
Two apple trees planted as cordons, leaving space for a third in the row. They are Egremont Russet - late fruiting and a good keeper, and James Grieve - mid-season fruiting but doesn't keep so not one often seen in the shops. The plan is to add an early variety to provide a long season of fresh apples.


When in Wilkinsons on Saturday morning, I picked up red- and a black-currant bushes. Unspecified variety, but for £1 each it's worth a try!

Lots of weeding; the pieces of Couch Grass rhizome missed while digging are all sprouting, Bindweed is exploding into life, and the very unwelcome Marestail is sending shoots up. All under control for the moment.

Both Catriona and Desiree potatoes are showing leaves now. The Feltham First peas have stalled after a sustained attack by something that left bite marks all around the leaves - Flea Beetle according to one of the other allotmenteers. Sowed some Jaguar pea seeds which will hopefully miss the breeding cycle of the beetles.

Ribbit!

Just starting to tidy up this evening as it was getting dark and nearly jumped out of my skin when a frog suddenly moved almost from under my foot!

To be fair, it was probably a lot more startled than me. It hopped off underneath the shed so hopefully has taken up residence there and will be dining on plenty of slugs this summer!

And now: A Pond!

This evening, I relocated the pond liner which was buried in the undergrowth into a suitably sized dip, surrounded it by offcut turf, and filled with water. Hopefully the frog which was hopping around a couple of weeks ago will find it!

Started de-turfing a new area. Slightly hampered by the discovery of a previous occupants carpet mulch which now has couch grass growing through it in a dense mat to the extent I had no idea the carpet was there until digging up the edge!

A Busy Weekend

Mum and Dad came to visit last weekend. We got a lot of work done. A shed, more clearance, rotovating, weed removal, a compost bin, and planting.



The fruit bed in front of the shed now contains:

• 2 Gooseberry bushes (already on the plot, but replanted).


• A Blackcurrant bush (already on the plot, but replanted).


• Raspberry canes, mixture of existing and new, pruned and replanted.


• Strawberries


• A Howgate Wonder cooking apple tree

Two rows of potatoes: Catriona second earlies, and Desiree main crop. Feltham First peas, and some rhubarb in the corner.

All in all, a very productive weekend!

A Blank Canvas

Well, not quite blank. In fact, there is a dense carpet of turf, plenty of dock plants (boo, hiss), three gooseberry bushes, a raspberry cane and some sorry looking brassicas in the small recently-worked area at the end of the plot.