Well hello. Lots to catch up on. Last weekend we spent a lot of time on the plot which was great and had a visit from K's mum and dad. And this weekend from The Neighbour and Oscar Dog - see next blog.
There is now so much to do. We cast our minds back to a few months back, when it was just digging and grumbling - and to this time last year, when we didn't have much going on other than the potatoes and the raspberries - and it seems like a different patch of earth. Our activities today and last weekend are pretty similar, so think of this as the Plot Omnibus. We took the digital camera with us today so as to present you with a montage of the plot - you can view these in a Special Picture Panorama Spectacular in the blog after this.
Generally, we are very pleased with our progress. There are the highs and the lows - but by and large things do seem to be growing. This is now the list of plants/crops planted by us in the plot, in no particular order. First early potatoes, maincrop potatoes, peas, nasturtiums, kale, purple sprouting broccoli, winter cabbage, broccoli, French beans, butternut squash, courgette, corn (3 sorts), raspberries, strawberries (2 sorts), blueberries, poached egg plant, runner beans, sweet peas, carrots (2 sorts), onions (2 sorts), garlic (2 sorts), radish, rocket, french marigolds, pumpkin.Lessons to be learnt - plant more maincrop and less first early potatoes; plant less broccoli; clear bank over winter; do salad crops at home; more support for peas; re-think beds; decking in front of shed.
We love the peas which are podding, the brassica seedlings in the Pagoda which are fab and the numerous leeklings. Not to mention the flowery potatoes. And last but absolutely not least - the jewel-like strawberries which have been coming over the last 2 weeks. They are bright red and perfect, sweet and juicy. Ants do not seem to like them. Maintenance involves a lot of weeding - some in the beds and some trying to thwart Mother Nature sidling in from the bank. And our first courgette flower has appeared. Blueberries are forming and also the first red raspberry has been spotted. We are particularly pleased with the courgettes which have suddenly shot off, beans and corn - I secretly think that the Magic Compost Vegetable Juice stuff has kickstarted them. They now look happy, strong and thriving.
We think the garlic will go over soon - it is going yellow and most of the elephant garlic flowers have been removed to get even more humungous bulbs. And we anxiously speculate about when to dig up the first of the potatoes as a sample. We decide to do it next weekend. We plant some more corn seedlings in the Pagoda and redo the mousetraps. Unfortunately we had a sad task - a robin had got caught in one. We know this is collateral damage in the great scheme of things but it saddens us nonetheless.
Other work included mowing the lawn (which is looking fabulous) and N making more improvements to the decking in front of the shed. We have erected a temporary barrier for the comfrey as it is getting a bit too enthusiastic. Too late we realise that we should have stopped it from flowering, so that the plant gets stronger. But then the bees would not have come and we couldn't have that.
Second sowings of peas, carrots and radish all showing.
Mouse count = 6
Rabbit = 0
Slugs = probably several thousand
Weather note: generally fine, not too hot, bit cloudy
Much labour this Saturday, as we prepare for the start of summer, glorious summer.
We brought to the plot five paving stones that had been liberated from our back garden - to form a salad bed at home - which were installed, resting on a bed of wood chippings, as an elegant walkway from our gate nearly to the Pagoda.
T
he seedling broccoli were planted in Bed 1 next to their slightly more mature brothers. Much of our salad leaves, which had bolted, was harvested, and eaten for supper. Several radishes were ready, too.
Weeding proceeded, N's delicate fingers being put to rough usage. Carrots and onions now really looking seriously like they should. Especially pleasing as others on the site have had their carrot seeds eaten by mice (rabbits are so yesterday).
K sowed some more carrots and radish, and transplanted the various leeklings (blogs passim) to a temporary site in the seedbed. We hope they don't get too comfortable but better to be in the earth than lolling ungainly-like in containers whilst waiting for space to get free. Also sowed some flower seeds, including poached egg flower - then to be given some of these already growing by Jan and Pat. Always room for more.
Pest control activity on the apple tree which has the ant thing going on. Apparently ants like aphids. The leaves are beginning to look stressed. Borrowed some toxic stuff and blitzed the tree. (We try to be organic as far as possible but sometime you just gotta...)Potatoes getting on well, no earthing up required in N's view (which may turn out to be a catastrophic misjudgment).
Our comfrey thrives - attracting much bee action - although we have a lingering guilt about
simply using it as future green compost rather than cherishing it for its own qualities.
A deck, made of pallets, was installed. It, like all else in the plot, will require nurturing, maintenance and vigilance.
Nice cup of tea and a sit down on our lawn (which we attempted to mow with the mechanical mower).
Traps put down for mice on Saturday, with a peanut butter treat for the doomed. We are
subseqently advised that, although traps are better then poison, cheese is the bait of choice. Mr G: "They're vermin; just small rats." By Sunday, two traps had sprung, but no corpses.
Strimming accomplished on Sunday, when a few more bean plants take t
he place of the weakest on our teepee site. We hope the corn will flourish, especially as it and the courgettes and butternut squash all got a good dose of the Magic Vegetable Water (which is truly stinky).
Weather note: mild, cloudy, soil still soft after the tumultuous rain last weekend
This post there will be no pictures - just didn't take any as there is so much else to distract in the plot. I'll try to make the prose come alive.On Friday 23rd, K nipped up on her own for a quick check on the courgettes, beans and corn, planted the previous weekend. Alas the corn was looking droopy and dry, the courgettes apathetic and the beans looking frankly weedy. Homemade compost mulch was quickly applied around the base of each plant and the first Magic Rotating Compost Juice was applied. And of course water. K was disturbed to find the Pagoda peas had all been munched - by mice it would seem. And indeed there is now a groundswell of negativity about mice. They have been at our neighbours' carrots and peas. And no doubt at our sown corn and beans in Bed D. There is poison put down near our shed and Jan and Pat have even got mousetraps. If it isn't one varmint, it's another.Also Jack Frost has nipped people's potatoes and I hear has wiped out some people's beans. But, strangely, not ours. We must be outside the "frost pocket". That somehow makes up for the frustrated start with the beans and corn.The Saturday was productive. Surprisingly so as we had been planning to go away but a combination of weather forecast and work commitments had sadly scuppered that. We planted butternut squash and mini-pop corn (both of which happily flourishing from home) in Bed D, weeded and strimmed. Two giant pumpkin plants were placed in their new homes - one next to the shed (where the mice seem to have their HQ so we're hoping they don't eat pumpkin) and one in the pallet compost thing. As all our pumpkins came up, we found ourselves in the happy position of having largesse to distribute to our neighbours. Two took a seedling. It is an interesting business, this, the getting of seedlings. You can go to a lot of trouble, do research on-line or in mags, buy seeds off the internet, sow them, they don't come up, you go to the garden centre in desperation, buy some more any old mongrel variety, then your neighbours give you some for free, of an unspecified variety also, so then you have a glut of plants of whose origin you are uncertain. I think the maths does work out in the end but impossible to judge the consequences of not keeping to the original plan. And also how many runner bean plants equals a pumpkin seedling?Thus we acquired some more runner beans and french beans. The former have been imaginatively placed in the Pagoda to climb up twiggy sticks until they get to proper beams to climb on; and the french beans, plus the extra ones we had bought, got stuck into the wigwam which had extra poles in and netting over the top. We should have enough beans - remember we have some at home too.Potatoes are looking very good and were duly earthed up. The garlic is beginning to go yellow round the edges and the elephant garlic flowers are poking up. Methinks it might not be too long before the garlic "goes over" (technical term). We should have around 50 bulbs of garlic, if all works out. And space for the leeks, hurrah.Carrots, onions, leeks and broccoli/cabbage/kale seedlings were thinned. It is most gratifying to see how strong all the seedlings are. It was not easy to choose the candidates for the chop as they all looked healthy, but they need space to grow. The leek and onion plants sown from seed directly into the ground are now also beginning to look defined, thicker-stemmed. (Did we mention the leek glut? We now have leek seedlings from home, leeks in the soil, Mr G's leeks and Sainsbury's leeks.) I worry that I didn't thin the carrots sufficiently discreetly to foil the Dreaded Carrot Fly. We must sow some more carrots and radish. All other salad type crops we will grow at home in a new vegetable patch. In the Pagoda, we are still concerned about the ants. Jan tells me that it is the aphids that they like which are on the tree. We will have to do something about it as it stresses the tree (quite naturally). The strawberries are flowering and some even have fruit. Otherwise the blueberry bushes have flowered and the raspberries are roaring away. We even have flowers on one autumn plant already. Weather note: sunny, cloudy, warmish, fat drops of rain occasionallyAnd then the heavens open on Sunday, so no trips to the plot. And the rain is still falling on Monday. Very good for the dry old plot. Even though we water, it is not the same as good rain.
Apologies for late posting but hopefully our readers will understand - and even perhaps rejoice for us after reading this post.
We were away the weekend before so Saturday 10 May saw us putting in a lot of hours on the plot. Glorious sunny weather made us sweat somewhat but it was worth it.
Because the weather had made everything start to grow (except some notable exceptions - see below), including the border weeds around our pathways, we took drastic action by spreading black plastic topped with (free) clippings to make weedproof paths and borders within the main perimeter. We simply cannot face having to hack back weeds every time we visit. It is a job well done in the end.
We still have to trim weeds nonetheless, with the aid of Pat's trusty strimmer and shears. But a lot less daunting than before.
Aside from weeds, everything looks happy. The first early potatoes are coming through nicely, as are the seeds I planted in the seedbed a while back (purple sprouting broccoli, winter cabbage and kale).
And as for the broccoli and sunflower seedlings, they are terrific. Much better than the ones we sowed at home earlier and moved to the plot, though the broccoli thus transplanted to bed 4 is doing well too. It is covered with enviromesh to defeat the White Cabbage Butterfly.
The peas required some remedial work as we abandoned the twiggy stick approach for a more formal set of small bamboo frames covered in netting. These have been covered by fruit netting, and the peas look heavenly.
Carrots and onions are now beginning to be distinguishable from the weeds. We have diligently hoed the beds to keep the weeds out as far as possible - little and often is the old adage.
The sweet peas planted in the cold a few weeks back are sprouting in the Pagoda and the strawberries are flowering. The summer raspberries are showing signs of growth.
We are concerned about one of our apple trees which appeared to be far too attractive to ants - indeed we have loads of ants and are unsure whether they are Good or Bad. We hope the former.
Another concern are the beans and corn planted by Louis a couple of weeks before. No sign at all of the latter, and only 2 of the beans have appeared. We think Mr Mouse has been at them, because the weather has been too good for there not to be sprouting. We have had to revert to Plan B and sow some emergency beans and corn at home. If necessary we will buy some corn seedlings so that we can still do our 3 sisters planting in bed 3 which now has 4 fat courgette seedlings installed in readiness.
At home we have butternut squash seedlings, giant pumpkin seedlings, various leeks and other goodies donated to us by Pat and Jan, and the good folk of St Stephens Garden Club at the annual bring and buy sale. We proudly conveyed a tiny tray of 4 sunflower seedlings, 2 giant pumpkin plants, 3 modest leeks and 2 courgettes. To our amazement, we actually sold some of these to Mr G though we did purchase some of his amazing leek seedlings. (I can see that we are going to turn into a mini-Leek Farm. We do like a leek. Not sure where they are all going to go.)
And so to our big news. Such is our love of the plot that we chose to include it in our Wedding Day Schedule. Yes, gentle readers, our knot was duly tied on May Day and we happily lurched to the plot - N in his new matrimonial jumper - to celebrate and so our witnesses (The Neighbours) and Oscar Dog could chuck confetti around.
We are grateful to Derek (aka Allotment Association Chair) who kindly took a photo for us after we interrupted his peaceful afternoon. We will probably be chucked off the Association now for unbecoming behaviour. Thanks are due to The Neighbours for being great witnesses and true friends.
We are now Mr and Mrs Plotholder! Vive la mariage! Apres moi la deluge! (Or maybe not.)
These were the spares seed potatoes we sowed next to the comfrey - we retrieved two-thirds of a bucketful. Over lunch with our allotment guest, Mr Perry, they were deemed to be delicious.
