15 May 2010 - Potato shock

Jack Frost (and our friend Doone - see below) has been to visit. Yes, in the second week of May, practically everyone's potatoes have been hit by frost. The foliage of most potatoes look like small brown lumps. Ours have also been hit, but not so badly - there are still stalks at least. We worry and ponder. We are told that "they will come back". We earth them up and put the protective environmesh back over them. Frost has also hit our apple trees but hopefully we will still get a good crop. The strawberries seem to be OK. Our plot appears to be less affected by frost than others, maybe because we are bounded by trees. Makes up for the stones.

Another significant incident was the discovery of the still limp corpse of a small bunny laid neatly out on our allotment bank. There were no injuries and the eyes were still shiny. Was it a message? Had Archie (our bunny-killer cat) been at work? We will never know but we rejoiced as there is now one less rabbit to eat produce. Having said that, an exceedingly fat rabbit just sat in a neighbour's plot as we drove by. You win some...

We were honoured by a visit from Doone, a friend from Southampton. She was mightily impressed by the plot, the innovative creative solutions we had devised for raised beds, the fruit cage and the current state of the crops therein. We endowed her with some sticks of rhubarb and had leek and potato soup for supper. She was also taken with the garlic plait which is still looking fab and endorsed my strawberry jam (unlike the judges at the last show, chiz). Here is a link to a website explaining how to plait and the picture is of the garlic we did in 2009 for her future reference. She is now going to get her husband a greenhouse, having seen how fab ours is. We reflect on the contrast between our young, hedonistic selves and the two magnificent, accomplished and high-achieving women shown above.

So as we'd not been up for a couple of weekends in any serious capacity, we had quite a bit of stuff to do - strimming, watering (very dry), weeding and such. Weeding the beds is pretty easy but we have to keep an eye on the weeds that come up round the side of paths. The innovative plastic board solution appears to be keeping stuff out in the fruit cage. As one of us was not feeling very well, the session was not overly strenuous.

We planted out some more peas (more peas more peas more peas) and some mangetout, which were making bids for freedom. They are securely wrapped in mesh for protection. We also install all the leek seedlings into one tiny bit of the fruit cage so they can get established. The carrots are coming up fine and the first parsnip seedlings and kohl rabi (hooray!) are beginning to show. The spinach I planted out several weeks ago is getting into its stride now, though its fascinating to see that the four plants, in a line, decrease in size in order - must be something to do with the way the sun falls.

N harvests some comfrey and we donate some to Jan and Pat. We also put some in a bin and cover it with water. In a few whiffy weeks, it will be Magic Juice Extraordinare.

The giant garlic is holding its own on the bank and (we think) we can see the beginnings of small plants (green manure and wild flowers). We sow some poppy seeds given to us by Jan and think of a row of gorgeous orange flowers in the late summer. Some of the sweet peas that I have hopefully sown seem to be coming up at the side of the fruit cage - but they have to battle the weeds. Shallots are finally coming up and the onion sets appear to be growing well. The onions from seed are still looking little but we are confident. Lots of onions this year. The yellow garlic appears to have recovered slightly.

We are feeding the strawberries and overwintering onions with Magic Juice but nothing else as yet. It still doesn't feel spring-like enough - everyone agrees that it's a different feel this year. We have courgettes, celery, squash and beans bursting at the seams in the greenhouse but it's just not warm enough yet. We reckon the last weekend in May/first weekend in June which feels very late. Winter cabbage, red cabbage, petit posy and cauliflower are also waiting to be put into the earth. I feel an urge to rush everything out so that we can prepare the greenhouse for its next phase of existence with growbags and wire for aubergine, peppers, melon (! still not dead), cucumber and tomatoes (of course).

Shortly after the last blog, we took proud delivery of our 10 sweet potatoes. They looked a little tired and needed extensive resuscitation. Two have succumbed. They are very sensitive to cold so they have been hogging the warmth in the kitchen in root trainers. We hope to put them out on the bank. An interesting experiment if nothing else. As they are tropical plants it is definitely a gamble. If the summer is lukewarm and wet they will perish. C'est la vie at the cutting edge of horticulture.

Weather note: quite cold over the past two weeks. Sunshine and showers.