9-10 May 2009 - A little catching up to do

Once again, technical issues prevent photos being added at this time but we couldn't carry on keeping you in the dark. We promise a picture only spectacular soon. We realise too that while there has been much work on the plot, you probably don't believe us given the length of time since our last communique. We have been preoccupied with holidays and garden improvements. Of the latter, we can only reveal at this stage that we are now the proud possessors of a New Greenhouse. This means that not only can crops be started earlier (a source of much anxiety when we spot others' more advanced seedlings) but be able to grow tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and cucumbers. Hoorah! We just have to get the damn thing up now without breaking anything. Perhaps we should dedicate a separate blog to the GH... We digress.

A summary of each bed's contents and progress follows.

Bed 1 - some onions have sprung up from the seed planted a while back (two sorts - red and ordinary). Only some have appeared but we are now the proud possessors of several Giant Onion seedlings courtesy of Mr G, purchased at the recent Allotment Plant Sale (19 April) as well as the overwintering onions. The chard is going positively bonkers in the spring air and we have had lots to eat and some spinach to. The parsnips have failed to come up - I glean from books that parsnips are fairly fussy about soil and it is noticeable that the ones sown in the carrot bed (bed 7) have come up. The shallots are doing their hippy thing.

Bed 2 - garlic is doing very well but again the onion seeds sown are variable - they come up in little patches which is frustrating. May have to rethink the onion strategy. We baulk at sets. It seems like cheating. No matter, we have sown some "emergency" onions in the temporary Greenhouse facility at home for transplantation.

Bed 3 - we have now moved into quadrants for the various broccoli as this bed is quite big. Several spring cabbage seedlings purchased from Homebase are doing very well, as are two cauliflowers (purchased from the aforesaid plant sale) - this is quadrant 1. Quadrant 2 is a daring experiment in direct sowing of seeds cutting out the middleman of the seedbed. Here are winter cabbage, summer sprouting broccoli and red cabbage. They have come up and are looking sprightly. Remedial netting has been applied to defeat the White Cabbage Butterfly, curses on it for being both beautiful and deadly. The nasturtiums are beginning to come up but only a few marigolds so far. No matter - we have sown marigolds at home for transplantation.

Bed 4 - purple sprouting broccoli has been good but now coming to an end. Not so sure it is worth the extremely long wait but tasty nonetheless. We have planted our maincrops there (2 weeks previous). I find potato planting timings a little arbitrary but they were planted before the end of April which is the main thing. We worry about being able to eat all the potatoes ars we are still eating last year's crop (which my sister pronounces as very tasty mashed).

Bed 5 - this bed is still in transition (to use a work phrase). The kale are well and truly spent. We have let them flower both in a homage to their mighty performance and to admire the lovely yellow flowers on these strong yet delicate purple plants. They will, alas, be pulled up soon to make way for courgettes (both varieties now sown at home), beans (ditto), corn (ditto - but as last year I am unhappy with their progress), squash. May be reduced to buying some corn seedlings, chiz. We have had frustrations with sowing peas and mangetout in this bed as for some reason very little has come up. We may have to resort to emergency measures and will probably sow some at home. This bed will soon look very different. A little patch of rocket, sown a few weeks back, is now resplendent though no radishes (unless we have eaten radish leaves without knowing of course).

Bed 6 - we sowed peas there a few weeks back and have patchy success with germination. Application of mousetraps didn't seem to help. Remedial resowing has resulted in a few more plants but we were saved from doom and despondency (we love our peas) by the kind offer of some 14 extra seedlings from a kindly neighbour with some to spare. N had to repair the netting structure which was blown around by the wind but is now looking fab.

Bed 7 - carrots sown at various times are coming up as are the parsnips. N very excited and applies himself vigorously to the thinning process. Might see if I can sneak another row of parsnips in without N noticing - is it too late?

Pagoda - one apple tree (Cox) in better shape than the other, which again has been beset by ants. The first apple tree has blossomed well, as have the loganberry and the bigger blueberry. Little blueberry is still in short trousers. Raspberries, both summer and autumn now getting going, and the seedbed is pretty full of broccoli (various sorts), red cabbage, leeks (two rows) and of course kale. The first lot of broccoli seedlings are now quite big and will need to be moved soon. The sweetpeas are beginning to sprout upwards.

The Bank - first earlies have come up and looking good, with second earlies beginning to show. I sowed some sunflowers on 19 April, but none look to have come up yet, though the Bank is not the most hospitable environment what with the never ending battle with The Weeds. One asparagus of the two crowns planted has made an appearance too. The rhubarb is being eaten by something but is otherwise growing. (These two latter crops can not be eaten this year of course as it is their first year.) The comfrey is about to blossom - these plants are incredible in their rate of growth. Many flowers on the strawberries (which have self-increased due to runners).

Other developments have been the welcome arrangement with a nearby horse stable whereby we can purchase good manure for 25p a bag (proceeds to Association). We now have a lovely stash of the stuff gently maturing in one of the compost areas.

Weather note: mostly typical spring weather, mixture of sun, wind and showers. We have got sunburnt a couple of times up there but have still managed to enjoy our allotment picnics. It has been more dry recently and we have had to water. Otherwise, fasten your seatbelts for the next phase, which will be a positive orgy of planting in Bed 5 and expansion of contents in Bed 3. We are definitely more organised this year - but can we match the success of last year? This must be the gardener's dilemma, and incentive.

Good things: potatoes, garlic, apple tree, various brassica seedlings coming up so reliably, carrots, shallots, sun
Bad things: patchy onions, peas, mangetout, little blueberry, wind blowing stuff about, usual slug anxiety

13 April 2009 - A week is a long time in gardening

Dear Readers, we are struggling with technology on many different fronts, so although there are photos on my (replacement) phone they may take a while to appear on this blog. But appear they will because there is a lot to see so don't tut and give up on us.

Highlights are the shallots which now look like 60s flower children - crazy, man. Their green tentacles/spikes/shoots are well and truly doing their thing, even the slow ones. Other highlights are the fantastic garlic which is going for glory and the onions - god bless them - are showing their tiny heads at long last. And a few peas have risen up.

In terms of the winter crops, the chard is throwing out large leaves and looking very confident. Some was harvested, as was the trusty kale and purple sprouting broccoli. The kale looks as though it will flower shortly so we will let them do that and then consign them to the Great Compost Heap in the sky.

Today we sowed winter cabbage, red cabbage and autumn broccoli straight into the brassica bed (bed 3) instead of in the seed bed. An experiment.

The strawberries got a spring clean (remove dead and decaying leaves) and there is the beginnings of blossom on the two apple trees. The raspberries are going hip hip hoorah and the seedlings in the bed are doing well.

There has been a lot of rain in the last week and that has clearly made the difference. Although the soil now feels warm to the touch and many of our old enemies, the weeds, are making an appearance, there is still the danger of ground frost. But we felt confident enough to remove the covering from the first early potatoes.

And there are many carrot seedlings and more have been sown. And - I think - the first parsnip seedlings are showing. They are notoriously slow to germinate so I hope they are not weeds. The growing season has well and truly got under way and we are ready (ish). Readier than we were last year, anyway.

5 April 2009 - Spring!?

As a well-earned break from dismantling and reassembling our garden shed (to make room for the coming greenhouse), N and K planted our fifth bankside crop: more potatoes, which have moved from the comfort of the spare room (where they've been chitting) to the sunny bank. You should have seen their eyes!

Beautiful weather.

28/29 March 2009 - March winds

Two weekends to catch up on. 21/22 March was busy and so was 28/29 March too. No slacking, no sirree. Due to technical issues we were not able to take photos except the one on the left, which is of the new carrot seedlings in the Rolls Royce carrot bed.

Bed 1 - Shallots are now springing into life. They look like anenomes and are rather exotic looking. Chard is looking good and strong and the spinach is also looking better. Chicken manure pellets scattered to refresh the overwintering onions as they have had a hard time over the winter (predictably). They also got a drink of Magic Juice which hopefully hasn't fermented into some toxic brew since we last used it in September.

Bed 2 - Garlic looking good, no onions as yet.

Bed 3 - Nasturtiums and french marigold sown round the edge. This is supposed to divert the nasties from our lovely cabbages etc.

Bed 4 - Great news. The purple sprouting broccoli is now actually sprouting as it should and is very tasty. We had the first harvest with our neighbours for our Earth Hour celebration - very primeval.

Bed 5 - Kale hanging on in there and we planted two rows of peas in the bit that had previously been prepared for beans. We are flexible and dug the other side of the bed into trenches with kitchen waste for the beans, though there is still an on-going debate as to the sort of beans (french and/or runner) we are planting. Runner beans will definitely feature in the Pagoda though. Sowed radish and rocket in between the kale on the first weekend, and radish, as ever, has won the race to appear.

Bed 6 - We sowed two rows of peas and a row of mangetout.

Bed 7 - Carrots are finally showing their little feathery heads (see above).

Pagoda - Sticky wrappers were applied to the fruit trees. This is the organic way of preventing ant infestation. It traps the little sods. We forgot to mention that we have added a loganberry to our little orchard. So - raspberries, strawberries, apples, blueberries and loganberries will be ours for the munching.

Seedbed - Various seedlings are bursting forth and we sowed another row of leeks. The red cabbage and summer sprouting broccoli are the latest to be displayed. Some are in plastic bottles, others not. They seem to grow nonetheless, though the very first we sowed are definitely looking larger.

Bank - Rhubarb has grown exponentially and is clearly happy. No sign of the asparagus.

We were somewhat diverted by another security incident which necessitated the creation of a working party on Sunday to repair the torn fence and to plant hawthorn whips inside the boundary. We will add holly and there is the prospect of free fence panelling. Interesting that this time we decided to do something practical fairly quickly, although details remain to be sorted out. We have to protect our plots, not just from the wrigglies but from other vermin too.

Weather note: fairly unpredictable - warm sunny spells but windy and cold patches too. And some rain, which is good.

15 March 2009 - You say potato, I say potato

Lots to report on the plot. We made an early start on Sunday as it was so beautiful and spring-like which makes all the difference. We were so busy that we forgot to take pictures, apart from this one which Jan took for us.

Firstly, the bank. N continued to prepare the right hand side of the bank for the following: asparagus, rhubarb and first early potatoes (Arran Pilot which were so good last year). Asparagus and rhubarb both need permanent beds which we prepared with lots of good compost. Asparagus needs a trench which you then splay the little asparagus crowns on (already each producing a spear) then you slowly earth it up as the crowns grow. Unfortunately we cannot eat anything from either of these two crops in their first year. Hopefully they won't be inundated by weeds. At the moment it is the calm before the storm on the Western Front.

The 20 first earlies were planted into two parallel trenches with nice mounds put on afterwards, with only the original potato fertiliser. We didn't manure or compost the trenches otherwise but we are hopeful. We put a cover over them in case of frost. And there will be plenty of space for the second earlies to go in too.

Pagoda - signs of leeklings and broccoli seedlings - first lot sown doing well under bottles. No sign yet of the red cabbage or summer sprouting broccoli. Signs of life too with the summer raspberries which of course were dormant last year.

Bed 7 (new raised carrot bed) - N sowed two more lots of carrots, different sorts (will add names) and added more glass.

Bed 1 - shallots are beginning to do their thing and overwintering onions have survived so far. No sign of parsnips or other onins yet. Harvested some chard and spinach.

Bed 3 - purple sprouting stuff looking like something is continue to happen as reported last week. When does it start to sprout? When does it look like it does on the packet?? Are we mad to continue to hope?

Bed 2 - garlic continuing to thrive, no sign yet of onions.

There was a skip available on site (2 weeks a year now) so we dragged all our old decaying carpet up there as there is now a ban on using it.

Jan and Pat kindly donated us some lovely logs which will be next winter's firewood. The purchase of a chainsaw was mentioned. We may soon be taking delivery of a greenhouse which could go on the patch recently vacated by J & P - but of course will have to check with the authorities.

We pondered whether to sow the peas and mangetout but in the end felt it might be a little too early and covered their intended home instead, to warm the soil. Back at the ranch, much sowing was done - 4 types of tomatoes (I continue to hope that I will manage to crack the Tomato Code), aubergine, chilli and sweet peppers, marigolds and basil. In our garden salad bed, we sowed radish, lettuce, spinach and more chard.

It is exciting to think that we have expanded our repertoire this year with parsnips, mangetout, asparagus and rhubarb. The only thing that worries us is whether Bunny likes asparagus in which case a little fort will have to be made on the bank (where there is of course no protection from Bunny). Potatoes are safe. And possibly rhubarb as well (the leaves are poisonous). We also harvested some kale which is still going strong and even going into extra production. Soon however it will have to go to make room for the next lot of crops in Bed 5. Plus la change, plus la meme chose.

7 March 2009 - Chunder

Dear readers, it is a mercy that I am here to tell the tale at all. We have been sabotaged by Chunder (and worse). It has afflicted the two of us most pitifully but thankfully at separate times, otherwise the bathroom situation would have been unbearable. Happily there was a day between the two onslaughts, yesterday, where we got a tolerable amount achieved on the plot.

N continued to dig up the bank for potatoes. It is looking fab, and much better than hitherto. I pulled the dead dry vegetation and used it to make a rudimentary footpath along the side of the dug bank. He appears to be getting better at digging without incurring after-pain which is good.

The carrot bed is now complete and N proudly sowed a row or two of carrots (Amsterdam Forcing) (see above) "under glass" (see right). I plea-bargained for a row of parsnips at the end.

Bed 1 - the last few leeks were dug up. Some came home with us and others have been fashionably "heeled" (where they are stuck into a bit of earth for safe-keeping). In their place, we sowed a small row of Red Baron onions and a few small rows of Ailsa Craig. We also sowed a few spinach plants for fun. The chard, though moth eaten, is still going and perhaps will be rejuvenated by the spring. No sign of life from the shallots.

Bed 2 - the garlic is looking terrific. It has grown very fast. We uncovered the other bit and sowed rows of Napoleon F1, Brunswick (red) and Ailsa Craig onions. This year we have not started any inside.

Bed 4 - the plants purporting to be purple sprouting broccoli are really weird. It does look as though something purple is happening to some of them. I continue to have faith.

Pagoda/seed bed - sowed sweet pea seeds saved from last year around the netting as it was so lovely before. Also sowed Summer Purple Sprouting Broccoli (seriously) and Red Drumhead (cabbage). The earlier broccoli seedlings have appeared, no sign of the leeks yet.

Bed 5 - last January King cabbage harvested and all green manure finally dug in except for the kale bit, and chicken manure pellets scattered to give the soil some zip. In between the kale I sneakily sow some radishes (free from a magazine) and rocket (ditto). This is how we'll beat the credit crunch.

Meantime at home we have had a slight setback with our plastic greenhouse collapsing nearly destroying every single lettuce seedling. But this is as nothing to The Chunder.

28 Feb-1 March 2009 - K's birthday weekend

Happy Birthday to K! Here are birthday visitors to the plot.

At long last the weather is feeling less inclement. As we had a busy weekend, we only had time to go to the plot long enough to sow parsnip seeds (3 per station, 5 inch apart) in Bed 1. We had to remove the final 4 leeks from that quadrant. Apparently parsnips are slow to germinate and erratic, so we have to sow other catchcrops to mark the spot as it were. We also sowed some more broccoli and leeks in the seedbed (succession sowing, people).

The lettuce seedlings sown at home in the greenhouse have germinated. This is very pleasing.

Also the garlic on the plot is making strong and sturdy progress. Garlic is quite an amazing plant. It grows quickly and strong and is easy to spot and requires no tending apart from weeding. The broccoli seeds planted a couple of weeks ago now have begun to appear but no leeks as yet. The shallots are keeping their counsel so we hope all is well underground.

The previous weekend we spent a good few hours on the plot, mainly starting to dig up the bank in readiness for the potatoes. This was very hard work especially at the other (stony) end where we chose to repatriate the comfrey. They look a little forlorn but they are phenomenally strong and we anticipate that they will adapt after the shock has worn off.

The carrot bed is almost full with soil from another plot and compost and sand. N hopes that we have got near to the ideal "loam" quality required. I remind him that loam is just a posh word for soil and that all we need to do is to remove stones and add some sand for drainage.

We also tidied up the summer raspberries though they look sorry for themselves at the moment.

The purple sprouting broccoli has been comprehensively mauled by something - we suspect pigeons - so the protective cover is put back on (removed because of the snow). There do appear to be some purple bits at the top but it is very hard to see how it will eventually "sprout" like it does on the pictures. Maybe the pigeons have won this one.

To dig up the bank, we had to remove the various ethnic coverings we had put on. Imagine our surprise when the daffodills planted last year emerged, a little bowed but very willing. Today they look as though nothing traumatic had occurred in their first few weeks. Very good. We also had our favourite - an allotment lunch. Listening to the birds and contemplating the growing garlic, we are optimistic for our second year on the plot.