Early potatoes are in! 7 March 2014

A pleasant afternoon at the plot today. The glass on the raised bed and the manure had done it's job and the soil was a reasonable temperature. Put 18 early potatoes (Rocket - old faithful, 3 x 3 under each glass panel) in plus another two at the end of the bed under some perspex.

Also put some parnsip seed in on the top allotment, one row near the fruit trees and another next to the onion sets.

I turned over the carpet on the rest of the paths between the beds on the bottom allotment to get an instant "nearly" new effect

Back on the top allotment I chopped down the green manure - I will dig this in on a future visit.

 I went on my bike again, I had to bubble wrap the early potatoes to protect the chits!

22 & 23 February. Shorts and T-shirt weather!

Had a couple of trips up to the plot at the weekend, lovely and mild for February.
Spent more time on the bottom allotment, put in some red baron onion sets and transferred the shallots to the same beds in the remaining space

 and covered one of the beds with the glass panels in preparation for the early seed potato planting next month.

I tidied up most of the other beds and swapped the old plastic bin over the rhubarb for the larger ex-water butt. Fits much better

On the top allotment I've done a bit of a hatchet job on the fruit trees. Took some branches out of the centre of the plum and pear to open them up a bit and removed some crossing branches from the apple. I may have been a bit vicious - I'll have to wait and see if I get any fruit this year!

On a previous visit this month I finished getting rid of the excess strawberries. I gave some more to another 'menteer and replaced some of the old ones on the bottom allotment.

January 2014 - time for some muck spreading

It's been a while since I had a delivery of manure but a fellow allotmenteer offered to share a load with me.
I turned up on Friday afternoon to be greating to a massive pile of the stuff! Spent over 2 hours forking, barrowing, tipping and spreading on a relatively mild January day.

Covered 3 beds on the bottom allotment:

and where the carrots used to be on the top allotment:

Photos aren't great as it was getting dark by the time I'd finished. I was glad I had my new LED lights on the bike going home!

I've also cleared some more of the rampant strawberry plants too, there's still more to do but it's getting there....

Next job is to renew some of the wood on the raised beds as some of the posts and lengths are rotting a bit.

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):