Theres no place like....

... your allotment! After a hectic day on Sunday, topped of with the girlfriend shouting at the kid, her mate turning up with her kid and baby, the front room being turned into a battlefield strune with toys I cunningly managed to slip away to the allotment for an hour of peace leaving them too it! :)

This was a double bonus as I am working from Scotland for the next fortnight, so actually really needed some allotment time - which has been sparce due to the weather - to make sure everything was ok.

Managed to get my Mussleburgh Leeks planted that have been growing away in the greenhouse since Feb... got to say I was mightly impressed to see that Dick (the orical of all things allotment related) has also put his in the weekend too... allbeit his were twice the size of mine! Decided to put them inbetween my Rhubarb and strawberries - mainly because this bed was weed free and gets full sun all day! (thats my planting plan out of the window!)

Speed-weeded round the onions, garlic etc just to try to keep on top of them.

Re sowed (for the third time) my carrots - although have swapped to Autumn King now rather then early Nantes to see if I have any success with these!!!! Have still left the non germinating rows inplace though.. maybe I'll get back in a fortnight to discover something has sprouted (apart from weeds!!) Also sowed a couple of rows of radishes, lettuce and parsnips (I know there late!) Earthed up my potato's and had a general potter about.

Tomato's and sweetcorn are still looking alittle sickly, but sprinkled round some slug pellets so hopefully they'll still be there when I get back - same cant be said for the punkins and courgettes though which have been a complete failure!

On a positive note though the brussel sprouts, sweeds and cabages I put in last week are still 95% where I left them and seem to be doing well!

Elsewhere my cauliflowers and cabbages in the greenhouse should be ready to go in when I get back, turnips and swedes and coming on nicley as are my reserves of tomatoes. Runner beans are still not running, more of a dawdle, and onion sets are looking fab! summer bulbs round the shed are all coming on and my clemitis is staring to wind its way up the shed!

Fingers crossed it will still all be there when I get back! :)

Grrr!!!!

Well, after my binge planting on Sunday went up to the plot yesterday evening to plant some Swede's, Cabbages and Brussle Sprouts (they were all 50% of in the garden centre, so at 50p for a tray I couldnt resist!)
Got to the plot to discover my plastic over the punkins had blown of, only saved from floating of over the houses by a brick I had put on one corner, one punking plant had dissapeared, and the remaining one along with the courgettes was looking a little sickly! >;(
In addition to this STILL no signs of anything I have direct sowed on the plot (carrots, spinich, lettuce and beetroot)and the slugs or birds have been at my tomatos, sweetcorn and runner beans!!!! which all have been half stripped of any leafs!
Half an hour planting my cabbages which the birds will no doubt strip in 15 mins soon as my back is turned, and now its forecast rain all weekend!

At this rate I'll only be getting potato's and onions this year!!!!!

Planting in Puddles

Managed to get to the plot on Sunday... early, as despite the non stop down pours we have had all week at 7am it was actually clear and sunny! Arrived at the plot thinking I would be the only person up there, but suprisingly the gates were already open and weveral plot holders seemed to have had the same idea!

Took my punkins, courgettes, tomatos and sweetcorn up with me, as although I had planned to plant these out on May Day they were getting a little too large for my plastic greenhouse, and with the weather being as it is at the moment I thought I'd best get them in whilst I had the chance!



Heres the punkin plants in `weedy bed No.1`, Ive tidied up the black plastic and nailed it to the wood to try hold it down! Unfortunatly I didnt get chance to dig in any manure, but added plenty of Growmore and I'll see how they go. They have mainly been planted just for Halloween and as a kind of experiment to see how big they get. Ive planted them into dips so that the rain water can run into the holes and water them... although with the weather at the moment I think they might get drowned!



In the same bed I have also planted 3 courgette plants, I suspect if these do well it'll be 2 plants too many!



Into `weedy bed No.2` have gone 2 Moneymaker tomato plants, and 2 Gardeners Delight - again planted through plastic to help conserve water and keep the dreaded crouch down, and along side these; again as an experiment Ive got 4 sweetcorn plants



At the other end my runner beans are coming on, although the ones I sowed direct are still not showing. At this end I'm trying to keep the weeds down with a good thick mulching of leafs... which, fingers crossed, seems to be doing the trick!



Shot from the plot above showing were both my plastic beds are, they dont look the best, but for the £6 I spent on plastic they should hopefully save me a lot of weeding as despite how well I dig these beds they are still riddled with crouch roots just waiting to reclaim my neatly laid out beds! - on a seperate note though I have noticed the plot above seems to have dead patches appearing in the grass... which I presum must mean someone has been up spraying with weed killer! hope there careful when there near the boundry!



Elsewhere on the plot everything is growing quicker then I can pick it, despite me giving it away where ever possible, no signs of my sowings of Rossa Lettuce yet though... or my 2nd sowings of carrots!!!!!!!!!!



The biggest spring onions ever!



Japaneese Onion's are now starting to swell... although....



Due to the heatwave we had, followed by all this rain some of them seem to be bolting... Ive cut the flower heads of and hopefully they should still be ok???



Dessire Potatos all popping up through the soil...



Strawberrys are all covered in flowers now... and finally ----



Looking across the plot....

The May Plot

The shed - still without the trellis painted! Couple of sweetpeas planted though to go with the Clematis so this should cover it soon anyway!

Second planting of Runner Beans (after the first set disappeared!) the canes at the rear have been direct sowed - so will be interesting to see how they perform against each other. At the other end of the bed there is a crouch grass invasion so this will be covered with plastic and maybe my sweetcorn and tomatoes planted here?

Did somebody mention crouch! This is No.1 weedy bed... so named as the roots in this bed are so thick and notty you can hardly get your fork through them! Plan here is to get some serious amount of manure in, cover it with the plastic properly, then plant my 2 punkin plants, and a couple of courgettes through this.

Flowering Kale plants, these really should have gone on the compost heap a while back, but have decided to repay my reprieve by bursting out in small yellow flowers. as nice as they are though they will soon be for the chop before I have baby Kales popping up all over!

First shoots of my Desiree Main Crop spuds breaking through... after a full month of nothing showing!!!

Blackcurrents are all budding up

strawberry's flowering

Bit of sunny weather and rain and the lettuces have grown an astonishing amount. A couple of sowings of `Rossa` (red variaty) have gone in behind these

Rhubarbs are still growing at differing rates - soon as I get my manure these will both have a good mulching, shame I cant pick any this year!

Nice shot across my allotment looking out over the others.Bed on the lrft is my `fruit bed`, although this currently consists of just strawberrys and rhubarb, I had thought of planting tomatos in here, but your supposed to keep them away from potatos (blight) and since the potatos are in the bed on the right I think this is a little close! Maybe I'll use the space for `left over` plants!
Beds in the distance are lettuce and onion/garlic.

The plot looking quite nice and tidy! With the recent hot weather Ive been pop'in up every evening for an hour or two and managing to get things weeded, planted and pampered! ... all except for the middle bed which still need going through with a fine tooth comb. This will be dedicated to my brassicas though - which are still tiny in the greenhouse at home, so time yet to get this prepared

Looking up the path, the plot above still has no signs of life except for the grass growing - even though someone is paying rent on it!?!?!

No scarecrows here, Brian and others on the plot seem to favour plastic bags flapping in the wind... I'll have to remember this once my brassicas are ready to go in

COME ON ENGLAND!!!!

Not really allotment related, but thought I'd show you a pic of the front gargen at home... after digging up all the summer flowering bulbs on Friday my annual bed (next to the drive) was looking a little bear. With the world cup this year thought I would do something a little different this year so saturday was spent merrily wandering round the garden centre looking for red and white annuals

I have now planted the bed up in the shape - and colours of the england flag! ... along with 2 `red & white` hanging baskets by the doors! not too sure how it will turn out (although I suspect it will perform better then the actual England team!)
I'll post a pic once everythings blooming :)

Itching to get planting!

Managed to get up to the plot over the start of the weekend to do some weeding and pottering about. It never fails to amaze me what a bit of sunshine and rain does... not only for the plants.. but also for the weeds!!!
The lettuce I was pondering throwing on the compost is now big enough to pick, spring onions are looking more like pickling onions! Onions are looking like - erm.. onions!!!
The grass around the boundries is romping away, so I really need to take the strimmer up sometime this week and hack that all back!

No sign of the carrots I sowed a while back, so Ive resown 2 more rows, plus some spinich beat. The runner beans have been eaten, but Ive got a new lot in the greenhouse at home ready to go in - plus I've direct sown some across the rear canes. Weeded around the plot and dug over my No.3 long bed to leave stale before I put my brassicas in.



Heres a pic of my `mini` greenhouse at home, not much in it (due to lack of space) but I'm planning to try nad direct sow most crops this year. Maybe once the security fence has been installed at the plot I'll treat myself to a `proper` one up there. Punkin plant is ready to go in the ground - still need to get some manure and black plastic yet though so I can plant it in the `weedy bed` ... maybe with my sweetcorn next to them??? Also got my courgettes, cabbage, cauli's, leeks and tomato's in here...



With the compost bin cleared out of all the `stuff` I was throwing in at over the winter I can now actually use it for composting! Currently though it seems to be getting full with weed leafs and grass. So to try and balance it out a bit I have enlisted the help of my little boys rabbits (Rosie and Jim) all there bedding and `toilet` area is only being filled with straw now, so once a week I get a bin liner full of starw and poo which rather then leaving out for the bin men I'm pilling on the heap... in return for there efforts I shall repay them with any greens that are going spare! :)