Nearly sorted

The plot has been greatly tidied up over the last few weeks. Nearly there, just in time for the weeds to get going - saw the first frond of Mare's Tail rearing its ugly head today!

I cleared the overgrown mass of wire, netting, sticks, and weeds out from behind the shed today. Several plastic sacks, an old pond liner, a large pile of half-rotten cardboard, and a few barrows of wood chippings later it looks like this:

A big improvement :-)

All three rhubarb plants are doing really well, but are also flowering.

Not seen this before, but chopped them off after taking the photo. Also pulled of a few stems and made a rhubarb crumble for tea!

Fruity

The fruit section of the allotment has some new additions:
A damson tree and logan berry bush from Deacon's nursery, and some strawberry plants, spread from runners last year.

The whole lot is now weeded and mulched, and the herbs which were growing in the corner last year have been moved to make way for the new strawberry plants.

Spring is around the corner!

It felt like Spring today: Sunny and warm, no rain for the last week, ideal to get outside and get the allotment sorted.



The grass divider across the plot has been covered with weed-control fabric, buried either side. The plan is to break up some pallets, use the wood for edging, then cover with bark chippings next time a pile is delivered.

Brought back 5 "Autumn Bliss" raspberry canes to fill in the gaps, a redcurrant bush, and a bag of "Red Sun" shallots, which are now planted next to the garlic. Apparently there is a shortage of shallots because of the wet summer last year, but there were plenty at the garden centre today.

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.