August 28th

Had another couple of hours on the plot this morning.
Got my first sweetcorn

Pumpkins and butternut squash coming on well

Remaining potatoes looking good on top allotment

Sweetcorn, salad and beetroot coming on well on bottom allotment


Parsnips doing well on top allotment, had 4 so far, getting a few bare patches, put some rocket and lettuce in.

August 14

Had a few hours up on the allotment, dug up the last 2 Rocket potato plants - big enough for jackets now!
Dug up a row of International Kidney, some nice sized ones for boiling and a few bigger ones. Some had a little scab on them, not sure why. Had some boiled tonight and the skins nearly dropped off. Maybe don't need to boil them for as long!
Sweetcorn is coming along great and the pumkins are swelling well.
Pulled up all the red onions I planted on bottom allotment last autumn and strung them up in the shed.
Sowed loads of rows of carrots, lettuce, spicy salad, radish, pak choi, etc. where the potatoes and onions used to be.
Got another large courgette - as usual I blinked! Cooked it in a veggie lasagne with greenhouse tomatoes, onion and cayenne pepper - delicious.

20 July 2011

Had a trip up this evening with rain threatening. Hammered some posts in on bed 4 where my brassicas are and managed to cover them with the Wondermesh I had on the strawberries to keep the pesky Cabbage White Butterfly off. There was quite a few white fly on the underside of some of the leaves - will have to lookup some organic method to control it!
Got a load of spicy salad for me, the rabbits and the guinea pig!

July 10th 2011

Managed 2.5 hours on the plot on Saturday. Got there 06.45. Funnily enough there was no-one else there until 7.30!
Had a 2 hour weeding session on top allotment followed by a strawberry and raspberry picking session. Got first courgette too and some more early potatoes.

Mid June - First Earlies

Went up to allotment for 06:40 on my bike to get some potatoes - dug about 4 roots of earlies up, got a reasonable crop - and was confronted with loads of weeds.
The recent rain has done them wonders! I hoed for about an hour round the runner beans and maincrop potatoes to try and control them and pulled a load up by hand from the shallots, onions and carrots. I also raked some soil up my maincrop potatoes on top allotment to tidy up the ridges. Sweetcorn is coming on and I've got a fair bit of blackfly on my broad beans (even though I pinched the tops out).
My peas aren't doing very well this year - I'll have to bung some more in and hope they come quick aenough.

15 May

Dwarf and French beans planted at allotment - front bed of bottom lottie.

Greenhouse - planted 3 Aubergines in a grow bag at far end.
Picked second ripe strawberry - delicious.
Tomato plants now about 4 - 5 feet high!

Front of house - planted 5 tomatoes and an aubergine in grow bags.

14 May 2011 - Planting Session

Got up to the allotment at 06:45 ready for a planting session.

Put in:

14 Runner Beans (not doing as many as lasy year - overrun with them)
2 Giant Pumpkins
29 Sweetcorn (most of them in bed 2 of bottom allotment, rest at bottom of top allotment next to beans)
5 Butternut Squash (2 with the sweetcorn, other 3 with the pumpkins. Used a good dollop of well rotted manure in the planting hole).
3 Courgettes
Planted bed 3 with pea and mangetout plants and filled rest of bed with a row of seeds

Took 2 of the 3 panes of glass off the potatoes in bed 8, left fleece on. Looking good - loads of flowers.

Bottom Allotment

Top Allotment