Sunday, 27 June 2010
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
22 June 2010 - Long time no see
Dear all - apologies for not posting sooner but usual lame excuses apply, including two weekends away camping. Hairshirt now over. No photos for this blog but we promise that the next one will be a Picture Special.
This isn't to say that nothing has been going on. Au contraire. The celery, winter cabbage, kale, posy (cross between kale and sprouts), corn, courgettes, butternut squash, pumpkin, beans and everything that was in the greenhouse for the allotment is now ensconced on the plot. The brassicas are now surrounded by a lovely tall netted structure which should keep out the dreaded White Cabbage Butterfly, but not, alas, the damned Slugs who have munched where they should not have. Tonight N harvested our first broccoli - looking forward to eating it later.
The peas have come up but not many and in what is now becoming a familiar ritual, I madly sowed some more last weekend. We are not going to repeat the famous harvest of the first year and we put it down to dodgy seed peas and not adopting the N approach to sowing peas - which is loads of them in the row regardless of crowd control issues. We also sowed the remaining runner beans from last year into a wigwam removed from the purple beans. Unfortunately my attempts to integrate them into the fruitcage doesn't appear to have worked. The purple beans are so small that we removed the wigwam - they don't appear to need the support and seem to be humble little plants with gorgeous purple flowers. The borlottis are learning how to twine around their wigwam and being very Italian about things.
The various onions are all doing well, and those in the fruitcage (overwintering) now look readyish for lifting. The shallots have finally made an appearance, though not all came up. As for the garlic, it is truly a tale of two halves. The sickly lot finally expired for no reason that we could see, whilst the others (around 50 plants) look amazing. To my shame, I did not record which garlic was which when they were planted. Ho hum.
Mr Rhubarb has yielded plentiful amounts so far, with various amounts donated to hungry work colleagues. One in my office made a delicious rhubarb and ginger crumble. The overwintered chard is now taller than me, and is flowering. We decide to leave it put to see what happens. Other chard (Rainbow Lights) sown earlier in the year is coming up well and the spinach has been (largely) eaten.
On the fruit front, things are a little less successful. Unfortunately we think we will get no apples this year - because of the late frost while the trees were in bloom. This is a Big Lesson. Next year we will wrap them up. The blueberries, loganberry and raspberries all appear to be OK. The strawberries have flowered and are making fruit, but it seems much slower this year. The plum tree got covered by nasty blackfly and was doused in horrid pest stuff. Fruit does appear to be more problematic in terms of bugs and susceptibility to climate.
In the new J bed, the various carrots and spring onions are coming up a treat, as are the parsnips (hoorah!). We have approx 25 to last over the winter which will be great. And if we put in any to the show, we shall not pull them until the day itself.
On the bank, we planted various squash and two pumpkins. Over time, the squash have been decimated by the unfettered wildlife, but the pumpkins are holding their own. The green manure we sowed earlier has come up but yet to flower. And the Elephant Garlic looks great. We also have several "volunteer" potato plants on the bank, and elsewhere on the plot too. Also a couple of similar strawberry plants that have happily taken up residence in unauthorised spots. No sign at all of the wildflower seeds we sowed - I think they'll appear next year.
All the potatoes have come up, and after the fright of the frost, appear to look very healthy and numerous. We are getting to the end of using last year's potatoes - it is now somewhat of a lottery - and are looking forward to lots of scrummy new potatoes in their place.
Leeklings are coming up in their cosy nursery though we are anxious that we don't have as many as we should have. The ones we started in the greenhouse seem to be ahead of the game.
The everlasting challenge and chore is to keep on top of the weeds. The worst task by far is the fruitcage. It would take strimming every day at this time of the year to truly keep them at bay and it just isn't feasible. We are thinking about applying weedkiller to the bank over the winter in a last ditch attempt at discipline - having tried all the green methods available, maybe it's time to admit defeat. Other plots don't have the same issues as us because we are directly next to wild land. Having said that, we wouldn't want any other plot and love the situation at the far reaches of the site.
Quick greenhouse report - tomatoes, aubergines, peppers and cucumbers all coming up. The tomatoes are an interesting mixture of home sown, donated (thanks Tim) and bought plants. We have completely lost any idea of which kind of tomato is what. The ginger never materialised (sob) and the carrots sown in the autumn appear to be still going with no obvious sign of carrotage. Generally speaking, those plants that we started off in the greenhouse seem to be doing well on site. We've sown some more broccoli for a late summer harvest.
Weather note: various cold and hot spells over the last few weeks combined with the usual quixotic English late spring weather. Certainly a later start to the growing season. Weather is now warm and settled so watering is a priority.
This isn't to say that nothing has been going on. Au contraire. The celery, winter cabbage, kale, posy (cross between kale and sprouts), corn, courgettes, butternut squash, pumpkin, beans and everything that was in the greenhouse for the allotment is now ensconced on the plot. The brassicas are now surrounded by a lovely tall netted structure which should keep out the dreaded White Cabbage Butterfly, but not, alas, the damned Slugs who have munched where they should not have. Tonight N harvested our first broccoli - looking forward to eating it later.
The peas have come up but not many and in what is now becoming a familiar ritual, I madly sowed some more last weekend. We are not going to repeat the famous harvest of the first year and we put it down to dodgy seed peas and not adopting the N approach to sowing peas - which is loads of them in the row regardless of crowd control issues. We also sowed the remaining runner beans from last year into a wigwam removed from the purple beans. Unfortunately my attempts to integrate them into the fruitcage doesn't appear to have worked. The purple beans are so small that we removed the wigwam - they don't appear to need the support and seem to be humble little plants with gorgeous purple flowers. The borlottis are learning how to twine around their wigwam and being very Italian about things.
The various onions are all doing well, and those in the fruitcage (overwintering) now look readyish for lifting. The shallots have finally made an appearance, though not all came up. As for the garlic, it is truly a tale of two halves. The sickly lot finally expired for no reason that we could see, whilst the others (around 50 plants) look amazing. To my shame, I did not record which garlic was which when they were planted. Ho hum.
Mr Rhubarb has yielded plentiful amounts so far, with various amounts donated to hungry work colleagues. One in my office made a delicious rhubarb and ginger crumble. The overwintered chard is now taller than me, and is flowering. We decide to leave it put to see what happens. Other chard (Rainbow Lights) sown earlier in the year is coming up well and the spinach has been (largely) eaten.
On the fruit front, things are a little less successful. Unfortunately we think we will get no apples this year - because of the late frost while the trees were in bloom. This is a Big Lesson. Next year we will wrap them up. The blueberries, loganberry and raspberries all appear to be OK. The strawberries have flowered and are making fruit, but it seems much slower this year. The plum tree got covered by nasty blackfly and was doused in horrid pest stuff. Fruit does appear to be more problematic in terms of bugs and susceptibility to climate.
In the new J bed, the various carrots and spring onions are coming up a treat, as are the parsnips (hoorah!). We have approx 25 to last over the winter which will be great. And if we put in any to the show, we shall not pull them until the day itself.
On the bank, we planted various squash and two pumpkins. Over time, the squash have been decimated by the unfettered wildlife, but the pumpkins are holding their own. The green manure we sowed earlier has come up but yet to flower. And the Elephant Garlic looks great. We also have several "volunteer" potato plants on the bank, and elsewhere on the plot too. Also a couple of similar strawberry plants that have happily taken up residence in unauthorised spots. No sign at all of the wildflower seeds we sowed - I think they'll appear next year.
All the potatoes have come up, and after the fright of the frost, appear to look very healthy and numerous. We are getting to the end of using last year's potatoes - it is now somewhat of a lottery - and are looking forward to lots of scrummy new potatoes in their place.
Leeklings are coming up in their cosy nursery though we are anxious that we don't have as many as we should have. The ones we started in the greenhouse seem to be ahead of the game.
The everlasting challenge and chore is to keep on top of the weeds. The worst task by far is the fruitcage. It would take strimming every day at this time of the year to truly keep them at bay and it just isn't feasible. We are thinking about applying weedkiller to the bank over the winter in a last ditch attempt at discipline - having tried all the green methods available, maybe it's time to admit defeat. Other plots don't have the same issues as us because we are directly next to wild land. Having said that, we wouldn't want any other plot and love the situation at the far reaches of the site.
Quick greenhouse report - tomatoes, aubergines, peppers and cucumbers all coming up. The tomatoes are an interesting mixture of home sown, donated (thanks Tim) and bought plants. We have completely lost any idea of which kind of tomato is what. The ginger never materialised (sob) and the carrots sown in the autumn appear to be still going with no obvious sign of carrotage. Generally speaking, those plants that we started off in the greenhouse seem to be doing well on site. We've sown some more broccoli for a late summer harvest.
Weather note: various cold and hot spells over the last few weeks combined with the usual quixotic English late spring weather. Certainly a later start to the growing season. Weather is now warm and settled so watering is a priority.
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