Year end

It's been a great year, got a couple of visits in before and after Christmas. Cropped some more leeks, parsnips, beetroot and rocket.

Tidied up some of the beds on the top allotment and started to cull the rampant strawberries!

31 October 2013 - Slowing down...

It's been a busy month with harvesting and then preparing for the winter slow down.

Got a decent crop mid October

Had a couple more trips on my bike this week, cleared all the beans away, the pumpkin and butternut squash plants, some of the courgette plants, the salad on the front bed of the top allotment, sorted out part of the strawberry bed on the bottom allotment, cut all the autumn raspberry canes down to ground level and done a load of weeding and digging.

The top allotment is looking a lot tidier now!:

The green manure has taken well:

View of top allotment past the trees (I've taken all the apples now):

Bottom allotment still needs some work:

It was a lovely day today, the sun was shining most of the time and I was down to shorts and t-shirt. I had taken a sandwich with me and a flask of tea!

Still got loads of carrots, parsnips, beetroot, leeks and salad to crop and I've put in some onion sets, shallots and broad beans to over winter.

Back at home the carrots in the raised bed have been fantastic - best I've ever done!

I've cleared nearly all the tomatoes out of the greenhouse now - here's the last of them:

25 September - Harvest Time!

It's been a busy 2 months but it's time to start harvesting my produce. Spent 2 1/2 hours on Sunday digging up potatoes (Cara and Setanta). I've still got 2 rows of Sarpo Mira to dig up (I dug one up to see what they are like!). Got some lovely spuds - a few of the Cara had a bit of eelworm but the Setanta were almost perfect.

The pumpkins are coming along well:

17 July - Hot stuff and strawberries galore!

Since my last post it's been a busy time up on the plot! All the sweetcorn are in now - this was taken on 30th June. Some of them look a bit pathetic but they've picked up a lot since

and I've been digging up new potatoes for a few weeks. The first earlies (Rocket) have all been eaten - this was my first crop on 24th June

and I've started on the second earlies (Melody). The Melody are really tasty and have all come up clean - no scab, holes, etc.

It has been so hot recently all my time seems to be taken up with watering - not complaining though as everything is growing really well and the weeds haven't been too bad.

The strawberries have been phenomenal, we've had 6+kgs on the first picking then 3+kgs many times since. Picked these on 3rd July:

Picked these on 6th July:

And these were the latest crop:

I've been using 2 pieces of bubble wrap to stop them getting squashed - works really well. I've used 3kgs to make some wine - done it before - it's lovely stuff (although I say so myself!)

The Jack O'Lantern pumpkin, butternut squash and courgettes are doing well, however the Atlantic Giant pumkins died but I managed to get another nice looking plant from a school fair.

These were taken on 8th July:

I've put a row of spring onions in and half a row of mixed sald on the top allotment. The carrots and parsnips are growing well:

picked a few and pretty pleased with the result:

At home the tomatoes in the greenhouse have started producing, I've had some sungold and red cherry so far.

The Alicante are a decent size just no sign of them changing colour yet! I've got a few beef tomatoes in pots due to lack of space but I think they'll probably produce quite small fruit.

The sungold have gone a bit triffid like

and the raised beds have been producing loads of peas, salad and coriander. The carrots and spring onions are coming along well but the basil is still a bit small:

It feels a bit like Springwatch when we look out the door in the kitchen to the "shed" (it's open at one end). We've got a great view of a blackbird and her nest feeding her chicks. Here she is in action (photo not so good as I didn't want to frighten her):

13 June - Planting, weeding, planting, weeding!

Had a great holiday but came back to loads of weeds.

Just about on top of them now.

On the bottom allotment, I've put in the sweetcorn and a couple of butternut squash in one bed, some cabbages to go with the cauliflowers in another (covered with wondermesh) and more peas that I sowed at home to go with the ones I sowed in the bed. I've got a few more sweetcorn in the greenhouse at home but they need to be a bit bigger before I put them in.

I've also covered the strawberries with wondermesh to keep the birds off.

The carrots are going well but there's lots of gaps so I've sowed some more seed to fill in.

The red hot poker in the front bed is shooting now but I need to get rid of the other flowers - they keep taking over!

Everything seems to be growing ok just a bit slow - need more sun and warmth please....

On the top allotment some of the beans didn't seem to be coming through so I've put some more in from the greenhouse at home.

Another row of carrots has gone in - trying Flyway. The previous row is growing ok as are the pasnips now I can see them after weeding!

I've covered the area in front of the carpet at the bottom with some weed suppressing fabric and planted a Jack O'Lantern pumpkin, some courgettes and butternuts through it. There's one more butternut in a pot at home that was a bit slow to germinate so I'll bring it on a bit before planting. I've also moved a bit of the carpet off, got rid of the little bit of bindweed I'd missed (I hope!) and put the Atlantic Giant pumpkins in - they didn't look as healthy as I would have hoped - hopefully they'll survive. These have all been planted on top of a dollop of horse manure kindly provided by another 'menteer and they've had plenty of water - mainly from the sky ;-)

Photo is a bit wobbly - whoops...

The strawberries seem to be taking over on the top allotment - I will sort them out after they've cropped - looking forward to the first one.

I've had a few crops of salad from the front of the top allotment - it tastes lovely and dead easy to crop with some scissors.

Daughter's area has had various flower seeds scattered over it - wonder if I'll know which are weeds....

At home, I've used some old blocks to raise the waterbutt on the back of the Utility and have managed to run an overflow pipe to the other butt on the greenhouse (takes longer to fill). After the recent rain it was a good test and it worked brilliantly. The sweet potatoes in the greenhouse are growing a bit now, I've only lost 1 but it doesn't matter as I'd put 2 in each bag.

I've got a few Sungold tomatoes now and a few Alicante too.

23 May - Raised Beds at home

Here they are:

I've put in a few peas, some lettuce, parsley, coriander, basil, 3 different types of carrot, etc.

It'll be nice to be able to pick some fresh produce from the garden as well as the greenhouse.

The pipe is connected to the overflow of the waterbutt but I want to rig up a better watering system when I've got more time.

19 May - Frantically getting plot ready for holiday

We're going abroad for a week next Friday evening and it's panic stations trying to get everything sorted before we go!

I've put some beans direct into the ground behind the poles on the top plot. Somebody gave me that great tip - it means you can hoe right up the pole.

I've put in (min. 2 at each pole):

3 x Runners - Tender Heart

3 x Runners - White Lady

5 x Cobra

3 x Borlotti

3 x French - Blue Lake

2 x French - Mont D'Or

3 x Dwarf - Opera

3 x Ying Yang

The parsnips have germinated no problem, I also earthed up a few of the potatoes and I put in 4 short rows of leeks behind the beans (about 60 - 70 in total). I used the end of a short hoe to make the holes, popped the leeks in and filled the holes with water and then left them. This method has worked well in the past.

On the bottom allotment I completed the prep on daughter's area and threw some wild poppy and convulvus in. She wants to put some other flowers in too.

At home, I've had a poor showing of the squash, courgettes and pumpkins. I've sown a few more seeds in some of the pots that aren't performing - I'll probably get 2 in a pot now just like the tomatoes.

The peppers are looking fine if a little slow and the tomatoes in the grrenhouse are doing well, second set of flowers coming and the plants are approaching 3 feet tall. The sweet potatoes seem to be alive but not doing much yet - hasn't really been warm enough I suppose although according to my max/min thermometer it's hit 40°C on a few days - phew!

I filled my new raised beds in the back garden with some upside down turf from front garden (soon to be block paved) and then put compost on top. I've put a few peas in toilet rolls from the greenhouse in one of them. I want to get some more stuff in them before we go away. I've arranged for my father to water the allotment if required and a neighbour to do the plants in the conservatory and greenhouse.

The weeds are starting to be a problem so I could do with a hoeing session on the plot one night this week.

I'm hoping there might be a crop of first earlies in the first half of June but they are a bit behind this year.