At last I've got my plot!

Final post on this blog

2011-01-24T16:10:00.004Z

As I have almost given up the allotment entirely I have started a new blog where I will post about my gardening at home. It is called Lilymarlene's Edible Garden and can be found here
http://lilymarlenesediblegarden.blogspot.com/
For those who followed me here, and commented, I would like to say thankyou.....and hope to see you at my new blog as and when it really gets going.

Today's harvest

2010-07-01T12:35:00.004Z

Here is today's harvest from my kitchen garden. We had the large broccoli head last week, but these little sprouts have come since....so I picked them.
The cabbage hearts were solid so I cut them too. I left the stalks in the hopes of another picking of leaves later.

I thought it might be a good idea to look at the climbing beans carefully as I could see one bean hanging....what a surprise when I got all those green ones.....Climbing French Bean "Hunter". Always a reliable doer in the garden.

And the purple "Cosse Violette"....surprised to find them ready too. Not many yet, but they are only halfway up the arches at the moment.

And the very last of the peas. I would re-sow but have no suitable late ones.....! Better look at the seed catalogue....

I went briefly to the plot and harvested three whopping heads of broccoli "Marathon". I think I will have to freeze some of it as there is only so much that even greedy veg eaters like us can eat before they begin to go yellow!

I also picked the last of the broad beans (Sutton) that came from plants sown this spring. They had a bad case of blackfly (neglected by me as I didn't get there this last week...!)

I saw the plotter who is diagonally next door to me. She had heard that I am wanting to give up half of my plot and has now spoken for the lower half (next to the hedge, where the shed is at the moment) for her daughter who is coming home after doing some gardening courses. They won't want it yet, and I still have crops in there so we are all happy.
I will move the shed and the compost heap to the upper part of the plot (the less shady bit and the part where I have the fruit already, so was reluctant to let that bit go!)

So.....a productive day in more ways than one.

Progress at the plot

2010-06-22T12:28:00.001Z

I took advantage of the shade this morning to at last get my carrots and beetroot sown. I also watered everything copiously, and harvested the broccoli.
I am mighty pleased with these. It is my first foray into growing them and I honestly thought they would be difficult. I don't have much luck with cauliflowers so thought this would be a similar story...but no!
I believe that I should get some shoots now I have harvested the tops. We'll see!

I noticed that one of the potato haulms was very yellow so decided to see what treasure lay underneath. I dug and dug and couldn't find anything. I was expecting either Foremost, or Charlotte....but couldn't see any spuds at all. I was mighty surprised as the tops were quite big. Then I noticed a little round stone...a bit bluish...picked it up. It was a spud....a dark blue one.
Now I didn't remember getting any blue seed potatoes, nor planting any. But I did notice that this plant had different coloured stems to the rest of them...they were purple...these were green (I think they were). I can only think this was a rogue that I didn't notice when I planted them out.
If I em ever tempted to buy some blue seed potatoes to grow I will remind myself how difficult they are to see against the soil when digging them up!

At home I gave the plants in the greenhouse a thorough going over...pinching out the excess branches on the tomatoes, and cutting off some of the lower leaves to enable the poor aubergines some light and room to grow. Any day now I will begin harvesting tomatoes as some are quite big already.
I trained the cucumber and melons.
I noticed that the Black Beauty Courgette in the tunnel is at last managing some female flowers....there are dozens of male ones but only one tiny female...with a 3 inch long courgette behind it. I don't think it likes being under cover.
The Parthenon courgette is producing daily.
the cucumber is laden with beautiful 6 inch fruits. These are perfect for us...a meal in one cucumber.

Now I have had enough of the sun and the heat and will sit in the shade knitting til it cools down later...

Spud harvest

2010-06-21T14:04:00.002Z

The spuds in the pots were flopping about so I decided to empty one pot to see what was going on. Basically I hadn't watered them enough as the soil at the bottom was solid. The pots have a reservoir in the bottom but I wasn't giving them enough to fill it!

Anyway, although not an amazing yield I was delighted to get a sizeable haul from the pot. From 4 seed potatoes (about 200g total) I got 1.5kg of spuds. Charlotte. They are various sizes with the tiny ones being the size of my thumbnail. If I had watered properly they would also have grown....to mke a huge crop.

I have three more of the self-watering pots and have given them a good soaking today hoping that the spuds grow a bit more before we need them.

These were an experiment to see if I could transfer much of the spud growing to my garden here at home. I am pleased with these results and the knowledge gained.

Onion Harvest

2010-06-21T09:55:00.000Z

Radar! Also a good haul. This is only half of the harvest. I sowed the sets fairly close as we don't need big onions (only two of us) but some are still very big.
Some of these sent up flower spikes which I removed. These will not store well so will be used first.
These were sown last Autumn, weeded regularly, and watered copiously this spring.
I used to grow all my onions at the plot, but I got White Rot one year (as did almost everyone else) so I just do them at home now and don't seem to suffer with it now.

At the end of the row are two sets of "Shallot Grise" which I dug up to see if they are ready. They seem very titchy to me so I will leave the rest until I the tops are even deader than they are now. They were at the edge of the bed which could account for the small size but I am still loth to dig the rest up if they could put on a bit more growth. (Perhaps I planted these a bit close, but I did follow the recommendation on the pack.)

Garlic Harvest

2010-06-21T09:29:00.002Z

Well I must say I am pleased with these! For comparison I have put a purchased garlic bulb at the bottom of the picture. Over 60% of mine are bigger!!!!!
These are "Albigensian Wight". I bought the bulbs at The Garlic Farm here on the Isle of Wight and although my results are not as big as theirs I reckon they are not bad for a home harvest.....!
They were planted last Autumn, weeded a few times, and watered a lot this spring. Some are a bit over blown and will have to be used soon, but on the whole I am very satisfied with my haul!

BTW the photo is clickable if you want to inspect the picture more closely!!!!!

What a Difference a Day Makes!!!

2010-05-23T13:35:00.001Z

When I went to my plot yesterday for the first time for two weeks (!!!) this was the sight that greeted me. Weeds flourishing in the beds and the paths grown over. The path between my plot and the neighbouring one, was 18" high in grass, and it was a job to get in the shed.

I spent hours weeding the spuds and earthing them up, weeding the cabbages, weeding and tilling the bed for the squashes and pumpkins, weeding and tilling the bed for the carrots and beets. When I had done all that it looked better but not pretty.
Then I heard John, a friendly man who spends a lot of time helping different plotholders, strimming. He seemed to be going from one to another. Aha! I thought. My husband is not well enough for the strimmer at the moment, and I can't start the bally thing, so I asked John if he'd do mine as well for a consideration. He said he would....for a very nominal price (hubby has told me to give him more when I do pay him) but that he couldn't do it until today as he hadn't enough petrol.
I went to the plot after lunch for some rhubarb for gifts, and this is what I saw. An immaculate job. I raked up the worst of it, pulled the rhubarb and am now home to sit in the shade. Very happy with my plot after having been so disappointed yesterday and worried that I'd never catch up.

I think I'll be giving up half or even all of the plot this autumn. It is getting too much for me to do as well as the garden at home. But I don't really have enough by just gardening at home. So sharing the plot might work. We are not allowed to sub-let, but the council are turning over the plots to the Parish Council and I am hoping that they will allow me to just keep a half, and supply someone else to have the other half.

My Little Bit of Paradise

2010-05-21T15:49:00.000Z

I have spent a lot of time in the Kitchen Garden these last few weeks and thought it time to show it off. There is still a mountain to do but it has come a long way already.

Picture that won't come out in my earlier post

2010-04-25T05:32:00.000Z

Update on the allotment.

2010-04-24T17:46:00.001Z

These two photos show the state of play at the allotment at the moment.
The second photo (starting from the back of the plot) shows the broccoli bed...under the net, flanked by broad beans...planted out two weeks ago and doing well.
Then the leek bed...still producing, although they are beginning to get that hard rib through the middle.
The next bed nearer to us is the one with the autumn planted cabbages. A lot of these are running to seed, and none have hearted up yet.....!
In the foreground is the new brassica bed started two weeks ago. I was a bit miffed to find that some had already been eaten because I forgot to net them. I have now so hope the rest will be safe.
Over against the fence the gooseberry is doing well, as are the Autumn Bliss raspberries and the rhubarb. See the other photo too for these.

There is still a lot to do at the plot.....maincrop carrots and beets to sow next week when I have cleared some more ground. And later all the pumpkins and squashes and courgettes will go in the beds at the top of the plot.

State of play in the Kitchen Garden cont

2010-04-24T16:00:00.002Z

I also turned the compost "Daleks" into one another, and whilst it was empty I netted the bottom of the left hand one that I use for peelings etc. I am fed up with the rat interest here so this should stop that.
I must recommend this incinerator to anyone considering buying one. It disposed of a 4 ft pile of branches and twigs in 3/4 hour yesterday....and most of it was green!

State of play in the Polytunnel

2010-04-24T16:00:00.001Z

The new beds I bought for the polytunnel (actually DH bought them as my anniversary present last September...38 years!) are wonderful. They take an awful lot of filling ....! This one is a little over half full, and will have another layer next winter.
The tomato plants are happy here...I fleece them every night at the moment, although I believe we don't need to for the next week as the nighttime temps won't be so bad. I have also planted aubergines and peppers in this bed....with french marigolds to keep away the pesky insects.
You can see that I have part installed a dripper ystem. Must get on with the installation.

The staging in the middle holds all the plants for the archways over the garden paths....beans, peas etc. Also all the plants for the other tunnel bed are here....cucumbers, courgettes, babysweetcorn etc. These will soon be planted out. I started the melons indoors this week.
I am thinking of getting gravel for the floor.

State of play n the Kitchen Garden

2010-04-24T15:48:00.003Z

Look at this lovely find! I have been looking at Rhubarb forcing pots online and balking at paying £60 plus carriage (exhorbitant to the Isle of Wight) and when I went to our local Thompson's Garden centre yesterday I was delighted to find they had a special ofer. £29.99. I had to have one.
I also got two rhubarb plants to have here at home. I may be giving up my plot this autumn if I feel that I haven't done it justice this year, so I will need to have more fruit here at home. I have already planted some raspberries in the bed near the fence on the opposite side of the garden, but now I have ensured the rhubarb supply too.
I am assuming that it is possible to force each rhubarb plant on alternate years without exhausting the plant....hence my purchase of two. They are both Victoria.
Around the rhubarb are various salad plantings....making the most of the space before the rhubarb crowds them out.

Here you can see my asparagus bed. I have had three nice handfuls so far this season and feel sure there will be many more.
Behind them you can see some of the spuds in bags and pots that I am trying out this year.

Here are 4 of my deep beds. At the back you can see the broad beans. Flowering madly, and still no blackfly. These were autumn sown in a bed that ius very shady all winter, so I am grateful that they are as good as they arew. Variety Sutton, so I have not staked them.
The bed in front of that is empty....waiting for the sweetcorn and some french beans.
The bed in front of that is my shallot, garlic oniuon bad also planted up with sets last autumn. I have almost 100% survival in this bed even through the nasty winter we have had. They look very healthy and I keep them weeded.
The first bed has some brassicas and various squares of seeds. Not much coming up yet so I may have to resow.

These other deep beds are (from front to back of the photo) srawberries....three varieties, the earliest are already flowering.
The second bed has the last PSB plant and awaits other veg.
The third bed is more onions....Radar and Red Baron (?).
The fourth bed is all spuds...Vales Emerald.
Behind that against the fence are four new raspberry plants, the old vine along the fence, and in the corner are two younegr vines.

This time last year I was laid up with a very bad back. This year I have slowly done the work, taking care not to repeat last year, and have got on top of it early. Now the weather is warming up I should soon start to see the seeds germinating....

A lovely afternoon.

2010-04-08T21:45:00.002Z

The weather was absolutely perfect for gardening today...and I made the most of it for as long as my back lasted out.

Tesco's had some good raspberry canes for sale yesterday. So I bought 4 of Glen Cova and after soaking them as per the instructions I planted them along the fence in the kitchen garden at home. The aspect is west facing, exactly like my plot raspberries, so I should get a harvest. They are a summer fruiting variety, so no fruit this year....but I can wait.
I have undersown them with Limnanthes Douglassii(?) "Poached Egg Plant".

I also dug up the last of the leeks at home and clared that bed apart from one PSB plant which is still going strong.

In the Sq Ft bed I have plnted out some Calabrese "Mammoth" plants, also some Cabbage "Grand Duchy". Between these I plnted out the modules of beetroot, with calendula seeds, and sowed some more Parmex carrots (the trial ones from Wilkinsons) and scattered some Nigella "Love in a Mist" seeds around them. (Alys Fowler recommends this combination.)

Also sowed nasturtiums, some Cup and Saucer Plant seeds (I have a feeling these should have been in warmth, but the seed packet had no instructions. If they fail to germinate I will try again!)

I also sowed chives along the path, and pot marigold, and sage.

Spuds in....well some of them!

2010-03-25T05:39:00.000Z

A little late I managed to get the first earlies (Foremost) and my salad potatoes (Charlotte) into the ground. It was rather claggy and shouldn't really have been dug etc but I stood on some boards to minimise compaction of the soil.
I will leave the Desiree maincrop 'til the traditional planting day...Good Friday.
The photo shows how much spring digging I still have to do. Actually I don't dig any more as these are deep beds but a bit of tidying up is called for. Usually I use a hoe, with a fork for the big weeds, although most of them just slip out without a lot of resistance. I pulled up 18" long dandelion roots with just a little bit of twisting last week.

I must say I've had enough of the rain now. I really enjoyed last week's sunshine but it seems to have gone away. The long range forecast for this part of the UK gives SLEET for next Wednesday....as well as rain most other days......sigh!

Allotment progress.

2010-03-16T11:44:00.002Z

A truly beautiful morning spent at the plot.
First I harvested the Brussels sprouts and pulled up the plants. There were lots of small ones still on them but I wasn't sure they would come to anything. Bed now cleared and ready for something else.

Picked and tidied the PSB. Weeded all round it, re-netted it.

Dug up some leeks, tidied the bed.

Manured the raspberry bushes.

My back feels like it is snapping so I have come home for a sit!!!

More seed sowing

2010-03-16T07:29:00.002Z

Sowed these yesterday
Courgette "Black Beauty"
" "Midnight" for the plot
" "Soleil" for the plot
" "Black Forest" (a climber for my new arches....an experiment
" "Parthenon" (doesn't need pollinating so trying these in the tunnel for an early crop...an experiment)

Cucumber "Sunsweet"
" "Bush Champion"
" "Burpless Tasty Green" for the arches.
" "Crystal Lemon"

All are in the propagator on the sunroom windowsill.

Busy morning

2010-03-15T13:00:00.001Z

It was very warm and sunny so I felt it was a good opportunity to get some big jobs done in the kitchen garden. These arches have been cluttering up the sun room for months but today they have finally been installed.
They run more or less East to West so the beds on the left in the photo will be quite shady once the various produce grows up and over the arches, so I must make sure to only put the sun lovers on the right!

These arches are my latest experiment for the climbing crops such as beans, sweet peas, tomatoes etc. I find wigwams less than satisfactory because I can't get at the stuff in the middle....

Planned crops for this year on these arches are
Borlotti beans
Runner beans
Climbing french beans
Sweet peas
Outdoor cucumbers
Squash
Courgettes
I will report on my success/failure....!

I have also filled the shallower of the two tunnel beds with a compost/vermiculite/John Innes 3 mix. I covered it all over with the empty bags to dissuade Scooby from using it as a toilet.
I took the photo during a dullish moment. The sun is out again now so I'm going back out!

This morning..

2010-03-10T16:32:00.000Z

This morning was the first time for ages when weather and opportunity coincided and I was able to get to the plot. The raspberries needed pruning and clearing round so a good hour was spent on that, Tomorrow I will go and spread some of my well rotted manure around them and then just wait for the harvest!
I also pruned the gooseberry. This was very fruitful last year and I am hoping for another good year.

Here are also some photos of the Kitchen Garden at home. These show that the beds are ready for the off....some are already full(onions, garlic, shallots and broadbeans, and some are just finishing with last year's broccoli and leeks. The strawberries, salad bed and the asparagus bed are all cleaned now. I also sprinkled a good dose of pelleted poultry manure on the relevant beds.

Still lots of tidying to do, and the bean and sweet pea arches are half built and need installing....but on the whole I am up to date out here.

Still plenty to do at the plot. The soil is wonderfully workable at the moment, but it is still too cold there to sow and expect reliable germination.

More seeds sown

2010-02-26T15:29:00.002Z

Not a very interesting post....more for my own records than for entertainment...

Seeds sown today....
In propagator on sunroom windowsill
Celery "Greensleeves"
Celery "Giant Red"
Celeriac "Prinz"
Petunia "Duo" Mixed
Coreopsis "Quills and Thrills" Mixed
Carnation "Chabaud Giant Mixed"
Aster "Spider Chrysanthemum Mixed"
Marigold "Spanish Brocade"
Marigold "Safari Bolero"
Marigold "Bonita Mixed"
French Marigold "Orange Flame"
Fr Marigold "Glowing Embers Mixed"

Stevia Rebaudiana

And in modules in the tunnel
Beetroot "Boltardy"
Beetroot "Chioggia"

Also Sweet Peas "Fragrantissima"

It was very pleasant out there as it is very sunny today, and the chilly wind (which is drying the soil at last) put me off being outside. So a lot was done but I didn't get cold!

Some seed sowing done....

2010-02-25T15:14:00.002Z

We are undergoing quite a rainstorm at the moment so it was with great pleasure that I retreated to the polytunnel to start sowing the seeds that don't need heat. The noise of the rain on the taut plastic was pretty loud, but otherwise it was OK out there.....dry and windfree!

I sowed 2 rootrainer sets of Broad Bean "Sutton". (Does anyone else feel that these could be made of better quality plastic. I won't be buying any more of these as the inserts only last a couple of seasons before they become brittle and crack. They cost enough to buy, and the materials can only be a small part of their production costs. I might write and moan at them!)

Also sown.....
Celeriac "Monarch" in modules. I think I might bring them indoors onto a windowsill as I think they need it a bit warmer than the tunnel.
Shallot "Matador" seeds. Hoping to produce my own sets!
Cabbage "Earliest of All"
Brussels Sprout "Evesham Special".
------ditto-----"Red Rubine".
Also some Sweet Peas...."Mixed Spencer"
and "Wiltshire Ripple"

The seed sowing didn't take long, but the hunting for all the stuff that usually lives on the staging....(pencils, dibbers, scissors, pots, etc etc etc that I had tidied away in ordewr to re-organise the tunnel) seemed to take forever...

Ready to go.....

2010-02-24T13:31:00.001Z

This morning I was at last able to install the new Link-a-bord beds that have been sitting in our hallway since I was given them for our Anniversary (38th) last September. Don't they look good.

Yesterday I had help to level the ground in the tunnel, and lay the weedstop fabric (Gardman....bought on special offer at Wisley last year.) I also laid (with help) some excess carpet down the middle to help prevent wear on the weedstop fabric. (I laid the carpet upside down as I think I'll be able to sweep the back of it. Happily it is white and the reflection should help the plants thrive. Unhappily it is so bright in there that I have to either squint or wear sunglasses!!!!)

The staging has all been washed and returned to the tunnel and I am ready to go now with this season's seed sowing. I will be getting some fresh potting compost this afternoon and will start on the seeds tomorrow.

The new beds need filling and I'm mulling over the options.
Option 1...buy some compost at £35 a bag (huge builders bag) from the council and add my own compost to it.

Option 2.....buy in bags ready made "compost" from the garden centre.

Option 3....buy peat, vermiculite and manure (processed and clean) from the garden centre. I know this uses peat, and will be expensive, but it is the mix recommended by Mel Bartholomew in Square Foot Gardening.

I favour option 3, and will price it up this afternoon. No hurry to do it as I have nothing ready yet to go into the beds.

Seeds sown.

2010-02-21T07:44:00.001Z

Had a very productive afternoon indoors yesterday as the weather didn't live up to its promise.

I now have tomatoes, aubergines, peppers and chillis sown. Also some parsnip seeds are pre-germinating on tissue paper (I have read that doing this, then putting the shoots into modules, does away with the uncertainty of parsnip germination and ensures a full row first time......we'll see!)

I also washed and bleached all my old plant labels....this saves buying them again!

And I sat and planned the beds for this coming year.

Gardeners' Chat Shed

2010-02-20T13:41:00.002Z

http://www.gardenerschat-shed.net/

This is a useful on-line resource with just over 100 members so far. The members have been asked to recruit more members.....so how about it?

The Year Begins!

2010-02-18T10:07:00.003Z

Yesterday was lovely weather here on the Isle of Wight and I snatched an hour and a half to start on some of the deep beds in my kitchen garden.

I dug up the last of the Xmas spuds (Charlotte.....planted last July). Four plants worth of spuds. A useful harvest of a quarter bucket. Not fantastic but enough to justify the experiment.

I also pulled the carrots (little round ones...Early French Frame) sown last July. These will be a welcome addition to our dinner tonight. They overwintered well.

There were beets too, and some Mooli radishes. I think they might be bullets now but I believe they stand longer than other radishes so I'll wait to pass judgement til after I have tried them at lunch today.

I tidied both beds and have left them til planting and sowing starts in earnest later in the Spring. I won't start too early as it usually disappoints.

On my afternoon dog walk I strolled through the allotments. There was one very keen plotter taking advantage of the sun to dig. My plot was too soggy but I will soon be able to get on with it. The weeds are beginning to appear so sowing time can't be far off.

My spuds (from Alan Romans) are chitting nicely on the windowsill and I'll put them in at the plot when the chits are an inch long and sturdy.

I also intend to do some in bags again to see if I can master that technique. DH wants me to give up my allotment and just concentrate on the kitchen garden here, but I don't really have enough room for spuds, or fruit, here and am loath to act too soon on his suggestions. If I can master the bag technique then I could have quite a few lined up along the alleyway round the house and satisfy my need to grow them here. We could also put the fruit bushes in with the flower beds.....

There is a new series starting in March on BBC2, fronted by Alys Fowler, on "Edible Gardening". She will be showing how she gardens with veg and flowers together and manages a meal a day from that method. It will be an interesting watch and I'm sure would help me to downsize without really giving up any crops. A new challenge which will require ingenuity but perhaps be more manageable as I get older....

And some may remember me mentioning how thrilled I was to discover that there would be a new show starting this year....called the Edible Garden Show, at Stoneleigh, from 19-21 March. I bought tickets for two days, and booked a non-refundable hotel room, and started getting excited. Then two weeks ago I got an e-mail to say that it has been postponed 'til next year. Major disappointment! As I can't get a refund on the hotel. I will go anyway and visit Ryton Organic Gardens instead. On the way up from here I will also go and explore some of the countryside just north of Bicester where Flora Thompson grew up (that she based "Lark Rise to Candleford" on). These are things I have long wanted to do, so I am not so disappointed about the show.

They said that stallholders were reluctant to come forward due to the recession. I thought that now would have been a very good time for such a Show as almost everyone is talking about growing some vegetables....

I promise to take some photos soon!

Sorry everyone

2009-12-28T08:32:00.002Z

I have had to add word verification to my blog as I am getting so much spam. Hope it won't bother you too much....

The snow has gone but....

2009-12-25T12:42:00.000Z

Just wanted to post a photo of my winter pots by the front door.

Marina di Chioggia

2009-11-28T13:00:00.003Z

Have compared my long storing pumpkin with my seed packets and decided that it was this one.
Marina di Chioggia. I got the seeds at Wisley but Franci seeds are available in lots of places.
Googling these found this info on the seed (My packet is in Italian so not much info on there)

"Very old, rustic pumpkin from near Venice. Thick, knobbly skin and sweet yellow/orange flesh. Rich in Vitamin A which helps keep eyes and skin healthy. Also contains mineral salts (Calcium & Phosphorous). @9. Sow Mar-end Jun and harvest till the end of November."
Another site has a picture http://www.flickr.com/photos/kthread/4103587009/
And another describes it here as very long storing http://www.gardenharvestsupply.com/product/marina-de-chioggia-garden-squash-squash-vegetablesTheir picture shows a more warty pumpkin than mine was.

This is hard to believe....

2009-11-03T14:09:00.001Z

These were the sum total of the squashes I harvested from the big compost pile on the bank, under the tree, where I sowed the pumpkin plant given me by a friend earlier in the year. He didn't know the name of the variety. They are 6 inches diameter....not large, but they were under the giant beech tree that borders my plot and cuts out light and water from half of it so I wasn't actually expecting much. Next year I'm moving the compost bays to this site....!

This, however, is what I am finding hard to believe...! This is one I grew last year in one of the deep beds on the plot, I had it on the windowsill in the sun room all year. This faces north so only gets sun morning and evening (suits me as I hate too much sun). The windowsill is a good place for plants, warm and bright but not too hot. I took this photo five minutes ago. I'm amazed at how well it has kept....a whole year on the windowsill with only an occasional dusting. I thought it was about time we ate it!
So, I cut it through expecting it to be like concrete....but not so. It cut very easily and inside was still beautiful! (See next picture). I will eat this over the next week or two. DH doesn't like pumpkin, which is why it just hasn't been used up to now.

I wish I could remember which variety it is. (It is 11 inches diameter). If I could I'd choose to grow it again forever as its keeping qualities are wonderful. And I am sure it will still taste good.

The ones on the windowsill from this year's poor harvest have soggy stems already so I know they won't keep. I will likely have to freeze the flesh withinn the next few days.

No action at the plot today as I have a bad head, and it is intermittently raining.

A truly beautiful morning

2009-11-02T12:47:00.000Z

Too nice today to hang about indoors, especially as the weather is due to deteriorate tomorrow til who knows when. So I went early to the plot to start on the spud beds for next year. Whilst there I thought a lot about the layout of my plot and have decided that over this winter I will re-organise it somewhat.

Firstly I am going to site the shed at the N end of the plot. I get so little sun in winter on my plot that I must maximise what does come. The hedge and the shed being on the S edge of the plot makes it very gloomy for most of the winter in the part of the plot that should get the most sun.
So...I will move the shed to the top of the plot, and cut the hedge to 3ft high, and move the compost bays to the bank....under the tree where nothing will grow.

I will also take away the path down the middle of the plot. I will still have the long 3'6" wide beds running across the plot...but they will now be 18ft long instead of being in two halves. I shall re-instate the historical path down the RH side of the plot...between the long beds and the bank. This path was obliterated by the previous plotholders but I can soon tread in a new one.

I spent an hour or so weeding out the docks and other pernicious weeds that were in the path between the two beds that will be the spud beds and forked through the two beds on either side to find the bindweed roots that were beginning to take over the bed. When I took over the plot I deep dug the whole site and dug out a mountain of white roots. It has lasted well.
The soil was so soft it was a dream to dig today. The beds (where I never tread) were so soft that no foot pressure is needed now to dig. On the bit between the beds that was path for the last 3 years just required a bit of foot pressure on the fork to free the roots of the docks etc. Truly a "knife through butter" day on my plot.
This bed will have manure spread in the spring and spuds will go in in March.

I noticed that the Brussels at the top of the plot were ready so I picked half a carrier bag from 6 plants, and tidied up the lower yellow leaves to the compost heap. I also picked a cabbage.

My husband also came to the plot for half an hour and strimmed the paths. I raked up a lot of grass and strewed a lot of it over the spud beds to keep light away from any tubers near the top of the soil.

I'm glad I have a plan to get the sun back onto my plot. Now I have to find the energy to do it.

Experiment a success!

2009-10-31T17:54:00.000Z

Back in July (19th) I tried some later planting of spuds to get a so-called Christmas dinner crop of new potatoes. They were Charlotte, from Mr Fothergills. There were 15 tubers and I put them in one of our deep beds in the Kitchen Garden here at home.
In September the tops were all brown so I cut them down; but left the spuds in the ground under a good layer of grass mowings to keep out light.
Today I dug up one plant's worth and was pleasantly surprised. The plate above shows what came up, and the weight of the product of that one plant was 1.1kilos.
I have no idea if that is good or bad, but I am pleased with it and feel that the experiment was worth trying.
I haven't tried potatoes in the deep beds before as I was worried about earthing up and getting the soil all over the paths. I didn't do much earthing up but did put lots of mowings on the bed to build it up.
They were so easy to dig up. I pulled up the rotten stalk stubs I'd left in to show where they were, then just felt around in the soft soil til I found the spuds. I finished off with the fork but most of them were found just by feeling for them

Have a look at this!

2009-10-30T14:43:00.001Z

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skippysbackyard/4049891087/sizes/l/

How would you like an allotment here.....
It is somehwre in N England and I pinched the link from Skippy's Vegetable Garden Blog

More jobs done today....

2009-10-30T13:21:00.001Z

A well used morning in my kitchen garden. I decided to continue the Autumn tidy up here at home.
Firstly I cut off the yellowing asparagus tops (bed nearest the tunnel). Then I cleaned the bed.
I strimmed the grass between the beds.
I moved the pots back to alongside the tunnel.
I tidied up the incinerator area, and piled the next lot of garden rubbish into the barrow ready for a fire later today.
Don't the compost "Daleks" look pleased with themselves? They are all stuffed to the top with goodness waiting for a bit of worm action.
I have some work to do in the corner by the tunnel here under the plum tree. I am going to move the barrels to the other end of the tunnel so that I can get round this side to clear away the brambles. The area under the plum is full of pernicious weeds that need properly clearing away.

Also this morning I sowed some winter salads in the spare row of Sq feet (under the fleece tunnel in the second photo). Spinach, lettuce, spring onions, rocket and mizuna.

This far bed needs a lot of attention over this winter. I want more fruit in it.

And this photo shows what needs doing in the area just by the tunnel. DH has started clearing the brambles from behind, and I need to clear the clutter away from in front of the tunnel to make a nice corner.

There is also lots to do inside the tunnel to re jug it with my new plastic deep beds. It is going to be rainy within the next week....perhaps I'll get a chance then...

Broad Beans

2009-10-30T06:14:00.002Z

Just for my records....
Sowed the broad bean "Bunyard's Exhibition" that I got from Alan Romans (99p for 31 seeds) in the last empty bed in the back garden.
I have ordered some "Aquadulce Claudia" (a bigger pack, from Kings via the allotment society) for the bulk beds at the plot for feeding the freezer (!), but the little bed in the back garden will be handy for picking for meals.

I am hoping for a full day gardening today as I'm sure there can't be many more days of this Autumn mellowness left.

I love the smell of bonfires....

2009-10-27T13:46:00.002Z

This afternoon DH cut the brambles away from behind the tunnel and I have started a fire with the "proceeds"! I love the smell of an Autumn garden rubbish bonfire, where the stuff to burn is all vegetation. Shirtsleeve weather again. Very pleasant!

I also weeded out the Sq Ft salad bed. There are a few empty squares which I will have to think about what to put in them, or even whether to just fertilise and leave 'til spring. There are a number of good salads still left in there, and some small brassicas which will do a meal each when they fill out. The beans are finished as are the red radish. The mooli look good.

This morning I went to the plot and had a good look at my projected rotation for next year. Where the spuds were this year will be the cabbages next; where the carrots and beets were this year will be manured for spuds next year; where the beans were this year is where the carrots and beets will be next year; and where the cabbages were this year will be where I will have the squashes etc. next year. That should work!

I also harvested the last of the carrots (a bucketload), and cleaned the bed. And the last of the beetroots....another bucketload for pickling, perhaps tomorrow; and cleaned the bed. And the pumpkins; and cleared the vine to the compost. All in all a VERY productive morning.
It is beginning to look much more cared for at the plot.....At Last!!!

Now to walk the dogs...

Compost....and a bonfire

2009-10-26T16:53:00.002Z

A today was shirtsleeve weather here on the Isle of Wight I thought it the perfect opportunity to turn the compost. I have 4 "daleks". I slipped the first one up from its contents, stood it next to the pile and then refilled it using a fork.....well mixed. I repeated this with the others then went inside for a good sit!
The exercise has compacted the 4 overflowing "Daleks" into just over 3....freeing up space for the product of the autumn clear-up. I still have two front beds to sort out, and the Sq Ft salad bed.

After my coffee I went out and emptied the incinerator of about a foot of ash. Then refilled it with a goodly layer of paper, dried everlasting sweet pea stems, lots of twigs and finally the thick stems from cabbage etc. This burnt very merrily. It never ceases to amaze me that whatever way the wind is blowing, and wherever I station myself to tend the fire, the smoke always chases me round.

After lunch I started it off again with all the brambles I cut from behind the compost bins.

Then I strimmed the grass areas of the Kitchen garden.

After that I walked the dogs through the allotments, digging up some spuds and cutting a small cabbage for dinner. I am hoping to get to the plot tomorrow to continue with the autumn clear-up there. Lots of harvesting to do....hundreds of beetroot for pickling, carrots to dig up, pumpkins to bring home....

The versatile cucumber.....

2009-10-24T08:52:00.003Z

The amazing cucumber

(This information was in The New York Times several weeks ago as part of
their "Spotlight on the Home" series that highlighted creative and fanciful ways to solve common problems.)

1. Cucumbers contain most of the vitamins you need every day, just one cucumber contains Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Folic Acid, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc.

2. Feeling tired in the afternoon, put down the caffeinated soda and pick up a
cucumber. Cucumbers are a good source of B Vitamins and Carbohydrates that
can provide that quick pick-me-up that can last for hours.

3. Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up after a shower? Try rubbing a cucumber slice along the mirror, it will eliminate the fog and provide a soothing, spa-like
fragrance.

4. Are grubs and slugs ruining your planting beds? Place a few slices in a small pie tin and your garden will be free of pests all season long.
The chemicals in the cucumber react with the aluminium to give off a scent undetectable to humans but drive garden pests crazy and make them flee the area.

5. Looking for a fast and easy way to remove cellulite before going out or to the pool? Try rubbing a slice or two of cucumbers along your problem area for a few
minutes, the phytochemicals in the cucumber cause the collagen in your skin to tighten, firming up the outer layer and reducing the visibility of cellulite. Works
great on wrinkles too!!!

6. Want to avoid a terrible headache? Eat a few cucumber slices before
going to bed and wake up refreshed and headache free.
Cucumbers contain enough sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes to replenish essential nutrients the body lost, keeping everything in equilibrium, avoiding both a hangover
and headache!!

7. Looking to fight off that afternoon or evening nacking binge? Cucumbers have been used for centuries and often used by European trappers, traders and
explores for quick meals to thwart off starvation.

8. Have an important meeting or job interview and you realize that you don't have enough time to polish your shoes? Rub a freshly cut cucumber over the
shoe, its chemicals will provide a quick and durable shine that not only looks great but also repels water.

9. Out of WD 40 and need to fix a squeaky hinge?
Take a cucumber slice and rub it along the problematic hinge, and voila, the squeak is gone!

10. Stressed out and don't have time for massage, facial or visit to the spa? Cut up an entire cucumber and place it in a boiling pot of water, the chemicals
and nutrients from the cucumber with react with the boiling water and be released in the steam, creating a soothing, relaxing aroma that has been shown the reduce stress
in new mothers, and college students during final exams.

11. Just finish a business lunch and realize you don't have gum or mints? Take a slice of cucumber and press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue for
30 seconds to eliminate bad breath, the phytochemcials will kill the bacteria in your mouth responsible for causing bad breath.

12. Looking for a 'green' way to clean your faucets (taps), sinks or stainless steel? Take a slice of cucumber and rub it on the surface you want to clean,
not only will it remove years of tarnish and bring back the shine, but it won't leave streaks and won't harm your fingers or fingernails while you clean.

13. Using a pen and made a mistake? Take the outside of the cucumber and slowly use it to erase the pen writing, also works great on crayons and markers that the
kids have used to decorate the walls!!

This may be a waste of time but.....

2009-10-23T12:19:00.001Z

When we got back from holiday I found that an order for little plug plants (that I had expected my dog sitters to take in and look after) had been held at the post office for 9 days as they had been unable to deliver it! I collected them thinking I'd just have to bin them when I got home.

They were wrapped in sets of 5 plants in greaseproof paper, all within a little cardboard box, and they all looked very dead! So I put the whole lot in water to see what would happen. This was two weeks ago. Since then I have noticed a distinct greening of the little leaves and today investigated further and found that 13 of the 20 plants had been resurrected! Today I put them out in a patch that isn't requiered 'til next spring....just to see.

There were 4 cabbage "Excell", two Caulis "Carol", 4 Sprouting Broccoli "Aquilles", and two Calabrese.

They are very tiny...poor little things.

I also sowed two rows of Peas "Meteor". These were packed for year ending 2006, for sowing bt 2007. I soaked them and they were showing signs of sprouting so I have sowed them rather thickly. We love pea sprouts in salads so I'm prepared to thin them if they come up too close together.

This may all be a waste of time.....but we shall see!!!!

How about that then.....?

2009-10-22T15:20:00.000Z

The arches were ordered yesterday, and today they arrived.....8 of them. £8.99 each, free P&P...what a bargain! I've put one together to see what's what and it is a simple job to erect them. I've put one in place (there will be two straddling the path at the end of each bed) and pushed it about 6 inches into the soil. It will go in over a foot, and that is what I will do when I put them in for real as they are very high. I might not be able to reach my beans without a ladder!!!

The span is 4'7" which is just right, as it means they reach from 1ft. into the bed, across the path and 1ft. into the opposite bed leaving a perfect stretch of soil for planting within the arch.
It'll be a simple matter to run strings over the hoops each spring for the beans etc to twine around.

I was very surprised at the quality for the price....

Anyway...if anyone is interested I got them from here...they have a sale on at the moment.

www.ukgardensupplies.co.uk/acatalog/Arches.html

I won't do the rest until the spring....no need!

Also, you will notice the net curtain covering the vine. We are eating grapes every day. The grapes are not huge, the biggest about thumbnail sized, but they are sweet and juicy.

Onions in!

2009-10-21T15:35:00.000Z

The state of play in my back garden veg plot. The eight beds are now weeded for the winter and I have also given the strawberries their Autumn haircut. (back lh bed) The front Sq ft bed (front left) is empty apart from some marigolds (I always leave them wherever they come up because they cheer me up!) and some of that salad I got in Cyprus....tasty!
The back netted bed has broccoli in it and some red cabbage still hearting up....nicely!
The front bed with the white labels now has shallots at 4"apart(25 "Grise") and Garlic at 4"apart(24 "Albigensian Wight") and "Radar" onions in.
The back beds here are (middle front) the spuds which I put in in late July. Tops now dead and cleared. I'll dig these when I need them. Behind that is the other onion bed...Red Onion "Electric", White Onion "Bianco" (these were so beautiful...healthy and so white) and the rest of the net of "Radar". I have put all of these at 2" spacing . There are only two of us and a 4" spacing produces huge onions that are too big for us.

The front and back rh beds are empty at the moment, except for a couple of volunteer leeks. I will be putting the broad beans in one and some Meteor peas in the other.

Next year I am going to do all the climbing stuff a different way. I have ordered some metal arches which I will install to provide an arch over the path between the front and back beds. I will grow the beans, sweet peas, climbing courgettes, tomatoes and cucumbers up these. This will eliminate that difficult to get at weedy spot within the bamboo wigwams that I find such a pain to weed....and always leave leave!. It will also ensure that all the produce presents itself well for picking....! And...it should look nice too. We shall see.

The sun was shining...

2009-10-16T15:00:00.003Z

The sun was shining so I had to go out and do my back garden. I have cleared or weeded three more of the beds, and planted up my pots with bulbs. These are to put round the front door next spring.
I harvested two beautiful red cabbages which the creepy crawlies were just beginning to attack(three more left in the beds for later), and a whole bowlful of green tomatoes. The plants had died (I think there was an almost frost the other night) but the toms were still beautiful and shiny. I think I might do "fried green tomatoes" with them.
I cleared the bean wigwams and saved the seed from my "Cosse Violette" French climbing beans, and from the "Inchley's White" runner beans (Heritage Seed Library last year). I haven't done that before so I'm hoping they are successful.
When I'd finished the back garden was in shadow again...so pics tomorrow.

Life is good!

A productive afternoon....

2009-10-13T14:32:00.003Z

No time to go "plotting" today but I did find a couple of hours to start sorting out the back garden deep beds. I have tidied up 3 of them and got them winter ready.
The Sq Ft bed nearest the gate was a bit untidy with spent pea and bean haulms. But there is also a sq ft of those Cyprus salad leaves that I posted about on here a while ago. They are wonderful and seem to be happy even though the weather is not as warm as Cyprus!!!
The bed is weeded and tidy now and ready for next spring.
The spud bed had very straggly tops. These are the late spuds....bought as suitable for harvesting in December. I have left them in the ground for now. I don't know what is going on underground, or how successful they have been. I suppose I should dig up one plant and see.
The bed with the sweet pea and runner bean wigwams, which also had a volunteer pumpkin vine in it has now been cleared. The 8 inch diameter pumpkin that it achieved is now on the staging in the polytunnel ripening.
This last bed was the most awful orangey coloured hard soil when I started it off three years ago. I have piled manure and compost into it every year since and it is now lovely dark brown loam, teaming with life. I might try carrots in it next year....so I won't put any more compost or manure on it this winter.

Have you seen this?

2009-10-13T14:20:00.002Z

There is a new garden show, being held for the first time next March, at Stoneleigh (near Coventry). It is called The Edible Garden Show, and is just about gardening for the table. This sounds like just what I need........reasons....

it's in the spring....before I have my garden set out for the year and in time for me to make changes,
it is just about veg gardening
presumably there will be seeds for sale

I have booked a hotel so that I can stay two days. The tickets are not available yet, but I will post when they are. I have put my name down and they will e-mail when to apply.

To read more about it look here

http://www.theediblegardenshow.co.uk/page.cfm/link=8

Anyone else fancy going? I'd love to say "Hello!" if we are there on the same day......

I usually go to Chelsea, but they don't do very much in the way of veg ideas, so this is going to be on my must do list each year, and I won't bother with Chelsea any more....

Progress.....

2009-10-12T14:43:00.000Z

A beautiful sunny afternoon so I answered the plot's calling me and went for two hours.

First I dug some spuds! Desiree of course.
Then I uncovered the little cabbages from their net and weeded the bed thoroughly. I also sprayed the whitefly.....the blighters were all over the poor little plants. Then I re-arranged the hoops and netting so that it was higher, and secured it all round against pigeons and rabbits.
The leek bed was beginning to be invaded by that weed (I call it mares' tails, but am not sure of its real name) which has roots that go down as far as Australia (!). That is all pulled out, and the soil loosened and weeded out.
Then I turned to the other brassica bed. I noticed that there was plenty of broccoli (stupid me bought some this morning!!!) and a lot had flowered. I've cut off everything that was there and put the flowery bits in the compost and brought the rest home. I think I'll blanch it this evening and freeze it against a "rainy day"!

This bed is next on the list for a thorough weeding.....

After I had straightened up from all that I decided to call it a day. There is still a mountain to do but I am feeling much better about it all.

A little progress....

2009-10-08T21:56:00.000Z

Two hours at the plot this morning brought some order to more of the beds. I finished weedingthe spud bed and the one after it, and came across to the other spud bed and tidied that up.
I pulled up all the pea beans and the bamboo pole framework, and weeded out that bed too. I pulled off the beans still hanging. They are too mature to use green but will make good soup as just the bens without the pods.

So....6 beds of the 18 are now sorted. I will have to green manure some of them for the winter.

Catching up on blog reading.....

2009-10-07T12:33:00.001Z

...but cannot seem to access Allotment Lady from my favourites list. Has something changed? Lottie...if you read this perhaps you can set me right again.....thanks!

Lost the Plot!!!!

2009-10-07T12:12:00.000Z

We got back from a long holiday on Friday, but I was only able to inspect the plot today. It was of course weedy, and there was plenty to do. Nothing had been picked for over a month so all the climbing beans and caulis had gone to seed. But there was stuff to harvest, so I dug two 4ft rows of carrots, and picked some string beans.
I also pulled out a heaped barrrow full of seeding tall weeds that were waving at me cheekily, then properly weeded bed 1. I decided to not worry too much about the state of it but just to plod around the beds weeding systematically....hoping that the plot inspector appreciates that I am working on it.
I was hoping to go back this afternoon to continue, but the rain is here and promises to stay for the rest of the day so I will spend a while in the tunnel (which is also a disgrace).
The postman brought my Van Haag seed catalogue this morning. This is the firm that gives allotment associations whacking discounts. I must compile my list for next year and give it to the fella that does the bulk order. I can do all that later with a cuppa after my polytunnel stint.

Lost the plot....photos!

2009-10-07T12:10:00.000Z

There seem to be three small pumpkins....green skinned.
The raspberries are finished. The weeds are growing!

The beds are all weedy too.

And the beans are over. Lots of carrots ready to harvest and the beetroot have grown big enough for pickling too.

Photos continued

2009-10-07T12:00:00.000Z

Very untidy...lots to do!
A pity about the murkiness but I was able to get stuck in.....
The little cabbage plants are doing well, and the leeks. Malcolm said that the leek moth was active on some plots so I should inspect these soon to see if they are OK.
The caulis had gone to seed, but the brussels sprouts and the little fat solid cabbages in the long back bed are fine.
All these beds need weeding a.s.a.p. I did pull out all the tall weeds before I left and weeded out the first bed (just out of the middle photo ) and I will take some after pics tomorrow. Rain has stopped progress today....

I'm whacked!!

2009-07-20T14:33:00.000Z

Spent the morning AND the afternoon at the plot as DH assures me we are in for a wet week. I will be glad of the rain....but why can't it come only at night? Anyway, all is weeded and hoed so the rain will soak in rather than running off.

I picked (and ate because there were only 8 !!!) the raspberries. These are Autumn Bliss and were a bit early. There is not much coming along so I hope that this was just a first flush with lots more to come later....

The first photo shows the spud bed with all the haulms cut off now, and the rows hoed, earthed up and weeded. Also the mulch that I put down the other day....more to come when we mow the lawns here. I'm hoping the mulch will stop the wind and rain eroding the tops of the rows and exposing the spuds to the light.
The beetroot bed in the second picture. I weeded this out today and went through pulling out anything over an inch diameter for pickling. Those that are left will grow more I hope. After weeding I earthed up the little ones left behind.

I weeded off the paths from the first 3/4 of the plot. These will not be allowed to get into such a state again!!!!

The beans were hoed and the stragglers were wound around the poles.

No sign of the buckwheat green manure yet, but it is early days.
These are the last paths waiting to be done...next week probably.

Over by the fence I have cleared the nettles and comfrey to the compost, and weeded and dug over the soil around the globe artichokes and the rhubarb and gooseberries.
The compost heap on the left was getting a bit high so I moved the bags of manure out of the other bay and have started in the empty one with the beetroot tops and the weeds from the paths.

Home now for a long sit, and feeling very satisfied with my efforts....

An experiment!

2009-07-19T13:12:00.001Z

I have read a lot about setting potatoes in the ground at this time of year to get new potatoes around the new year, and I have been itching to have a go. So when I got my Mr Fothergill's Seeds catalogue about a month ago and saw that they were offering some specially prepared Charlotte tubers for planting now I couldn't resist. They arrived yesterday and as they don't need chitting (see instructions below.....clickable to enlarge the photo) I planted them out in my spare deep bed in the back garden. They said it would be 10 tubers but it was actually eleven and they nicely fitted in the bed at the correct spacing. I gave the bed a heavy dose of chicken manure pellets, and watered each spud in well. Later I will soak the bed when I do the tunnel.
When the time comes I will earth them up with compost from the Daleks, and the instructions recommend covering the bed with fleece after October.

I mentioned that Wet-n-grow wetting solution the other day which I had applied to these deep beds and I have to report that I am thrilled with the results. From resembling a concrete path the bed now cultivates beautifully, and the soil has taken in the recent rain perfectly and was a dream to work. That stuff is well worth the money. I have ordered another bottle as they recommend dosing about once a month. I still have half a bottle but don't want to run out.

I know that with my back problems this spring the writing is on the wall for the plot but I have a while to perfect using the back garden veg plot to the max. I tried the spuds in bags method this spring and wasn't impressed with the results, but am willing to persevere. If I can make a success of that I can get more bags, or dustbins even....we have three spare since we went for a wheelie bin to foil the wretched bin-raiding Whippet that lives here....and line them up along the path to the back gate against the west facing wall and probably end up with as many as I get from the two large beds at the plot.

The other thing I need to do to make the plot redundant is to try to incorporate as much fruit into the garden here as possible. I think I should be giving up some of the flower beds for fruit. We already have some very productive fruit trees, a Victoria Plum and a Conference Pear. We planted a cultivated blackberry this spring here at home, and with a bit of effort I'm sure I could get more raspberries and the gooseberry here somewhere.

Solved!

2009-07-16T14:29:00.000Z

I went back to weed the brassicas this afternoon, and DH came by with the dogs and asked what I was going to put in the newly cleared bed now and I explained that I would probably put it under green manure because I had nothing to put in it. As if by magic a fairy godmother on a neighbouring plot came across with a bunch of leeks which she had over from her plot. So the bed now has leeks in it.

DH noticed the dire state of the paths and brought the strimmer down later....so the paths are now done too. The cut bits do fly everywhere but I'm not raking it off the beds....it'll soon wilt.
I tidied up the large square bed (top left in this picture) and sowed it with buckwheat as a green manure. The seed packet says it is good for places where you only have a couple of months before you need the bed again. These can be cleared before the end of September when I need to get the late cabbages in.

I also put buckwheat in the bed behind the beetroot.
I cut off the dead haulms from the Charlotte potatoes and dug up two of them. The yield looked very good (haven't weighed it yet). I raked up the grass from the paths and strewed it over the spud beds to try to keep the light away and to keep the spuds damp. I will leave them like that til I want them. Looks like we'll have plenty.

Now I have had enough so sit down jobs are calling me....

At last.....the last bed cleared.

2009-07-16T10:22:00.001Z

Two peaceful hours spent at the plot this morning taking advantage of the shade from the large beech tree enabled this much progress. The bed was thick with weeds as it hadn't been touched since last autumn when I dug out the spuds. I took 3 barrowloads of weeds to the compost heap from here.......I'm glad it is done now. It looks small here but it is actually 10ft x 4ft.

It will lie low now until I need to plant the cabbages later....September probably. I am thinking of putting down a green manure crop until then, but if anyone has any suggestions for something that'll be up and gone in 8 weeks I might consider another crop.
This is the next project...the far corner of the plot. There is a stand of comfrey that needs cutting now for mulching and compost, and a whole lot of nettles that also need dealing with. Also....all the paths at this end of the plot need attention. I like to keep them as just earth paths so that a quick hoe round keeps them clear.....but this year hasn't been like that. When I have caught up I will make sure not to let them get away from me again.

We also need to get the strimmer here and do the main paths and the weedy bank.

I saw that the beetroot for pickling seem to be ready....so must get to them in the next few days. And the other end of the brassica bed still hasn't been weeded and the kohlrabi looks ready too.
Does anyone have any suggestions for a tasty kohlrabi recipe? I usually grate it for salad but am bored with that now....

The spuds also are ready for digging. The Charlotte are going yellow, and the Desire have finished flowering and are beginning to turn. I think for both of these I will just cut off the tops and leave them in the soil til we need them. They keep so well like that and I don't need the space as I have nothing waiting to go in.

There is some talk that the Allotments will be given over to the Parish Council to oversee in future. We all hope so because then we may get something done about the untouched plot by mine. I have spoken up for it suggesting that if it does become vacant I would like to move to it as it gets more sun than mine. It won't have the tree sucking out all the water, and it won't have the weedy bank to look after either.
If I get it I will transfer all my fruit from the bank, and push the shed across. The shed on the plot has seen better days and mine is only 2 1/2 years old.

Does anyone know what these are?

2009-07-14T14:32:00.001Z

When we were in Cyprus on holiday last spring we were given this salad everyday. We loved it and I bought the seeds so that we can grow them ourselves.
I've just got round to sowing them and unfortunately the instructions are in Greek and I haven't a clue what they say. If I knew the English name for them I could look up cultivation instructions online.
Thanks....
NB Click on the picture for a larger view

It looks so much better now.

2009-07-13T17:45:00.000Z

I spent a long afternoon and part of this evening tidying the shed, garage, tunnel and kitchen garden. There was such a mess here outside the tunnel....pots and cloches and nets and tools.....all needing putting away properly. All done now and I did a good strim of the grass which had grown up between the pots and stuff. As you can see there is still a lot to do, but it does look so much better now and I feel better about it all.
The bed in the foreground is the one I marked into Sq Ft tthis morning. I have only sown sugar peas and some wonderful beans (Climbing Bean "Italian Gold"....present from a dear friend....coated in some pink powder....I'm hoping that will deter the wretched mice), and some radish "Topsi". I had to use some wetting solution on this bed, and the tomato, cabbage, sweetcorn and bean beds as my moisture meter was registering "dry" on all these beds. Those that I did last week with the wetting solution read "wet" with the meter. All have had the same amount of rain....looks like the stuff works...
In the tunnel the plants look OK except for the tomatoes. These have now had wetting solution applied to the grow bags. Hope they pick up soon. They have been fed, but are not happy. And even though they have been regularly watered until it ran out of the top of the grow bag the soil also registered "dry". We'll see what effect that has. The tomatoes we have had so far have all had pale tops....I believe that is a sign that they were too dry.

Had enough now!!!

A dull photo..

2009-07-13T09:57:00.000Z

I did say it'd be a dull photo!!!

This morning I sowed up a few more of the little sq ft areas. I trawled through my seed drawer and found some little packets a dear friend sent me a couple of months ago. I was so surprised to find that they are recommended for summer sowing. I really must tidy up my seed drawer....
So today I have sown....
Radish "Topsi"
Kale "Cavolo Nero" (Packet from last year)
Broccoli "Romanesco Navona"
Cabbage "April"
Cabbage "Durham Early"
Cabbage "Offenham 2 Flower of Spring"
And into another bed when I have finished my sit down with coffee Climbing Bean "Italian Gold". This last is intriguing. It says it can be sown as late as July so here goes! I'll bet it will be producing it's crop when we are in the US in September. Ah well! The dog sitters will enjoy them.....

The cabbages are a little experiment. Mel Bartholomew (Sq Ft Gardening author) suggests one cabbage plant per square. I think this is a bit close but we will see. I have done as he said and sown a tiny pinch of seeds in the middle of the square....direct rather than starting in pots.....and will see how they go on. I also sprinkled a few more seeds in each of the corners to get some early leaf pickings for salad.....these will be gone before the plant in the middle needs the space.

I just found some horrid holes in my (last week) healthy red cabbage plants. There was also a lot of insect "dust" in the middle of the plant. The others are all still healthy.....so I have sprayed the lot with an organic bug spray and will keep an eye on them from now on.

I am hoping this Square foot method will work better this time. Mel Bartholomew says if the beds are not marked out with something then it isn't Sq Ft Gardening. He is right.....! Marking out all those little squares encouraged me to try lots of small sowings of lots of different veg. If I find this a success then I will revert to just growing the bulk crops on the allotment (spuds, carrots, beetroot, broad beans for the freezer, and fruit) and keep the kitchen garden for our day to day meal stuff.

As an early Anniversary present (In September it'll be 38 years), DH has funded the purchase of some Link-a-bord deep beds for my tunnel. I now plan to take out everything this autumn, level off the floor, cover it with membrane, then install the beds. These have been specially made....2ft deep by the length of the tunnel (4 metres-ish!) and will go along the long walls. In the middle I will have the staging, with the lemon tree in its pot one end, and the dustbin of compost the other. There will be room for paths both sides of the staging. If I mark the beds into Sq Feet just like the garden I should be able to grow as much as I have now in the tunnel, and have good access to it all. At the moment I am struggling to get to it all.
I will have over 50 Sq Ft areas to sow in there. At 4 lettuces per square, or one plant such as tomato, cucumber, melon, pepper, etc it should be very productive. It will be a lot of work installing it, and I'll have to invest in some compost and vermiculite and peat substitute for it, but it will solve the problem of the soil getting stale in there......always a worry. I will also build a permanent climbing net behind the beds.....for tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, and courgettes. I have got some seeds of a climbing one I am anxious to try next year. It isn't self fertile so I'll have to get a brush to help it along, but it will be easier to manage than the huge monsters I have in there at the moment.

So....back to my gardening!

More seed sowing

2009-07-12T17:23:00.003Z

Too late to take a decent photo, but a seed patch with nothing up is rather a boring subject anyway.

After lots of false starts I finally was able to get round to sowing the bed which had the onions in. I decided to really go for the Square Foot Garden method on this bed so have marked it with string into 1 ft squares and sown them.
So...here is the list...
Carrots "Early French Frame"
French Beans, "Duel", "Senesta" and "Safari"
Fennel "Romanesco"
Coriander
American Land Cress
Spring Onions "White Lisbon"
Perpetual Spinach
Mixed Lettuce Leaves
Ditto....Oriental Mix
Basil "Sweet Genovese"
Pak Choi
Beetroot "Bikores"
Radish "Mooli"
Parcel
Parsley "Rosette"
Radish "French Breakfast"
"Ruby" Chard
This bed will mainly serve as a salad bed as I shall pick the chard and spinach as young leaves rather than leave them to grow into winter veg.

I am relieved to have done it.....at last!

Alas for the Mole!

2009-07-09T15:23:00.000Z

Poor little thing. DH thinks perhaps he couldn't find anything to drink....it was very dry on my plot.

While I was weeding the beans I had a blackbird for company....then he followed me to the cabbage bed and kept nipping in and out under the netting. I didn't find any worms though....too dry!
I attended to my carrot bed first. As shown here I sowed them before checking the length of my environmesh. The two rows not under the mesh are tiny as yet, whereas the stuff under the mesh is huge...despite being dryer. They do say that water passes through the mesh, but when I soak with the hose some rolls off....so I bet the rain does too.

The beans that I sowed so late. All weeded now.

I decided to install pots in the ground to help get the water down to the roots as they seemed to be rather dry. As I arrived at the plots today there was a huge bag of plastic pots on the surplus seat. So I took some of them and here is where they ended up.

I had to encourage some of the beans to find the poles. It is very windy on my plot...so I have tied some of them closer to the poles to give them a hint.
The brassica bed. This is 20ft long, and I only managed half of it today.

The cabbage collars continually end up in one corner of the netting as they are easily blown off by the wind. I shan't buy this make again. They are the ones with copper in them to deter slugs. They are so soft and malleable that they are easy to put on....and easy for the wind to whip off. If I hadn't netted the bed I wouldn't have one left now.

As I replaced them I weighted them down with stones....hope it works!

Had enough for the day now. There is still plenty more to do at the plot, as there also is at home, and I hope to have caught up soon.........some hope! One day I might manage to get all the paths weeded too.....

Sweet Peas

2009-07-09T11:58:00.000Z

Today's picking. These were just a cheap "fragrant mix". They smell divine, and have super long (12") stems. I am picking a bunch like this every other day.

At the plot this morning I decided to get to grips with the weeds around the raspberry canes, as it is time to start picking them. I did the far side of them a few weeks ago so that wasn't too bad, but the path between the raspberries and the gooseberry bush and the rhubarb was really overgrown and impassable with 4 ft high nettles. I pulled all these up....not difficult as it is so dry and they very easily gave in. Then to my great surprise I saw that not only was there a small picking of the raspberries to be had (Autumn Bliss) , but the gooseberry bush was laden with fruit. Last year it had not a single berry, but it was laden this year. Is that the power of the manure heap I stacked around its roots last autumn, or due to the nettles that were keeping the birds away? Who knows? But I was glad to pick them. They will brighten up our weekend!

After pulling up all the nettles and having a good go at the bindweed I hoed the paths, then gave the comfrey which grows along the back fence another haircut and mulched the base of the raspberries with the chopped leaves and stems. It makes a wonderful soil conditioner and feed.

I will be going back later as there is still so much to do there......everything needs weeding. I'm hoping to do the carrots and the cabbages. My back is a bit stiff from this morning's efforts but I will keep at it as long as I can. It needs it.

I was sorry to see a mole lying dead by my courgette. I have no idea why he died......very sad.

The Queen has an allotment....like us!!!!

2009-07-07T11:50:00.001Z

http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/news/news_topic.php?id=514&dm_i=4UO,18R6,JK0GT,44P8,1
Click the small picture of the gardener girl to see the video

At the plot today

2009-07-06T15:40:00.000Z

After lunch I went to the plot. The weather seemed to be cool enough for me to work in the sun as there was plenty of intermittent cloud cover. However it was fearfully windy, which was creating dust storms as I worked as the soil is so dry ....so I stayed for an hour and then came home. (I checked with the IOW weather records and we were getting 25mph winds.) I was getting earache from the constant wind in the ears, my skirt kept flying over my head, and I was worried about the big tree. It is a beech and seems sturdy enough, but a branch came off a beech at my sister's house this week and a car was crushed flat! I decided to come again tomorrow instead!

I did do some tidying but there is still a mountain to do here.
I cleared the broad bean bed, and tidied the poor little courgette bed (late sown and only one came up. I think he will catch up as he seems healthy!)
I pulled out the cheeky tall weeds in the spud bed.

I harvested the volunteer spuds in last years spud bed. Enough for two weeks eating I think. The bed will be wanted for winter cabbage so I have a while yet before needing to tidy it completely.

A view of the Brussels sprout and other brassicas bed....netted against the dreaded butterflies. I really should weed that soon.
The bed in front is the last one at the plot still waiting to be cleared for this year. That too will be for winter cabbage....so no hurry.

In the tunnel

2009-07-06T15:22:00.002Z

Onions , garlic and shallots drying in the tunnel .

The big LH bed in the tunnel. Lemon tree at the back.....a few small fruits on it. Next to that a little melon plant, and a cucumber. The big plant up the tunnel frame is a cucumber which is doing very well....a cue every two days at the moment.....just enough for us!
Also in this bed are the early courgettes.....I'm picking two a day from these. They are a self-fertile variety and are doing much better than the ones I tried in here last year.
There are also peppers and aubergines in this bed but they are a bit smothered by the courgettes....
As are the strawberries which edge the path. I think I won't bother with these next year....they haven't done very well this year. They are jut babies it is true as they were just runners last year, but I am re-doing the tunnel this autumn , details later, and I don't think they will fit in as edging plants.

The RH side of the tunnel has the tomatoes , some strawberries along the path, marigolds (french to deter the white fly...it works!), a physallis, 2 tomatilloes, some very sorry for themselves luffas (shan't bother with them again) and some chillies.
The tomatoes were late going in and have a lot of fruit on them, but are slow to ripen. We have had a few, but there are lots to come.
All in all I don't seem to be as far behind as I had feared. I have worked out here for many hours this last few days and am beginning to catch up at last.

Today in my kitchen garden

2009-07-06T15:04:00.000Z

Photos to show the state of play in my back garden vegetable plot.
Here are the bed I cleared this morning that had the peas, beetroot and carrots in sq ft sized areas. I have weeded it and taken out the seeded spinach and radishes. I am ready to re-sow with other stuff now.
The RH front bed is a bean and sweet pea bed. There are also some marigolds that have volunteered their efforts, as well as what I assume to be a self sown pumpkin or squash. I always leave volunteers and am curious to see what this one is. The sweet peas are just a fragrant mix, and they have super long stems. We are getting a huge bunch every two days. I love this time of year....!
The back RH bed is also beans and some sweet peas. There are also onions in there as companions.
The back LH bed is the outdoor tomatoes that my good friend in Kent gave me.....type unknown. They are growing well in spite of having been watered with tap water for some weeks now (we haven't had nearly enough rain!)
The other 4 of the 8'x3'6" beds are shown here. Front LH bed is just cabbages at the moment as the Broad beans and peas which were in there have finished. I have laid today's harvest of onions (gone to seed so for early consumption) and Eschalotte Grise shallots. These latter look very good and I am sure they will taste spectacular!

The front LH bed has the sweetcorn in it.....doing well, and some Hestia runner beans that just grow low (I don't hold with sowing sweetcorn and runner beans together no matter what Carol Klein says....the beans wrap their tendrils round and round the cobs so you can't harvest them without sacrificing the bean stems....the low growing ones are my compromise idea.)
Right at the front of the bed is a huge cabbage (see next photo) which still hasn't hearted up so I am leaving the lovely thing to fill out.
The back LH bed is planted with red cabbage, purple sprouting broccoli, fennel and leeks. All liking each other's company and looking very healthy.
Here is the aforementioned cabbage. The only one of a set I planted out last Autumn. The others just sat there reproaching me and refuse to stop sulking and grow....so out they went to make way for the sweetcorn. Can someone tell me why some plants sulk and others just want to please?
The asparagus bed is being left now til next year to re-coup its reserves. And the empty bed is the one where the bulk of my onion, garlic and shallots which I harvested this week were growing. The bed is now ready for re-sowing....Square foot method ....with salads etc I think. But I am letting it have a week or two to settle and perhaps show some weeds (bindweed was in evidence....I weeded it out but may have missed a bit) and then I'll re-weed it and sow seeds. The weather is a bit hot for salad sowing at the moment...I don't want them to bolt.

Long Time No Post!!!

2009-07-06T08:15:00.002Z

Here I am! The last month has been sooooo busy that I have failed to record my progress here. I have been generally watering everything because of the hot weather, and harvesting what is ready to eat, and enjoying what I have done.....but there was no time for photos and posting.

This morning I thought I ought to have a look at the Square Foot bed I sowed a couple of months ago. The beetroot are ready to pull, and will be eaten in the next couple of days. The sugar snap peas....."Super Sweet" from Kings Seeds...were all of a tangle because I had forgotten to stake them. They were absolutely loaded. I had to pull them up to get at the peas.....which was a shame as I think I could have left them and had a few more. Next year I'll make a wigwam for them....

Some of the other seeds I planted in that bed either never showed or were only sparse.....I should have gone back and re-sown....but life wasn't like that last month. I caught some kind of summer flu that wiped me out for a fortnight, and then we had visitors.....! (DH believes it was Swine Flu, and I am inclined to think he was right. Two days before it came out I was in Coventry.....which is right next door to one of the the hotbeds, Birmingham.)

We harvested one of the bags of potatoes two weeks ago....very sparse results. We decided they needed a bit longer and a lot more water. I harvested another bag yesterday and that was a bit better....still nothing like the results they show in the adverts.......but I reckon there were 10 spuds from each seed potato.....which I suppose isn't bad. This bag was damper than the first so I think we are getting the watering right at last. Next year I will stand each of the bags in an old washing up bowl so that the water doesn't run away before it has a chance to soak in.

The onion bed has been harvested. These (onions, garlic and shallots) were planted last Autumn and have made a middling crop. The shallots are terrific, the onions are so-so....some large (huge actually....5" diameter), some small, and some were trying to flower so we must eat them soon as they won't keep! The garlic was also so-so....some beautiful....some rotted away under the soil.
The bed was very dry and rock solid (the soil at home here is not spectacular...unlike my wonderful allotment. But I had to do the onion crops at home this year as my whole crop got white rot last year and most had to be thrown away. The crop at home was fine.....so that seems to be the way to go. I have started to give the deep beds at home a wetting solution dose once a month so that the water actually goes into the soil and spreads rather than the soil setting like concrete.

Later today I am off to the plot....the weather is dull and damp today so I can cope. There was just too much sun there last week for me to be comfortable....
Pictures later.

Lovely Rain!

2009-06-07T13:24:00.000Z

My...... did it rain last night? I woke at 1.57am precisely to hear it thundering down, monsoon-like, on the roof (we are a chalet bungalow so there is a lot of roof in direct contact with the ceiling!) and I was still kept awake by the noise 25 minutes later. I wasn't sorry because my plot sorely needs it.
I took this photo on Friday after sowing some bean (actually "pea bean") seeds and installing the poles and watering the bed copiously.

I had also wanted to sow some peas in the next bed away fom the camera. I cleared and tilled that bed also on Friday, so it was ready (if a bit lumpy), but the peas looked so shrivelled in the packet, and they were in the last month of their "sow before" date, so I brought them home and soaked them til today. I actually sowed them at twice the density recommended on the packet. If they all come up, which I doubt, I will take every other one to have in salad as pea shoots.....yummy!!!The soil was so soft this afternoon that it was a doddle to put them in (anointed with petrol to foil the mice...!)

Early in the week I must go and net them because so many plotters have lost all their newly emerging pea and bean shoots to the rabbbits. Some said it was mice....! I can net against rabbits but if it is mice then I haven't a hope.

I think I forgot to note on here that I sowed some French beans for the freezer in the next bed behind the broad beans.

I am nearly ready to sigh with relief at having caught up. There is one more bed to clear, and then a load of weeding to do around the raspberries, gooseberry, and globe artichokes. I also want to clear all the weedy between-bed paths and restore them to bare earth. They are so much easier to cope with when I can just hoe them once a week, when I hoe the beds.

Everything at the plot looks happy to have had a soaking last night.

A beautiful morning

2009-06-04T13:27:00.000Z

Perfect weather for me this morning. Not too hot, a slight NE wind, and the lovely shade afforded by the giant beech tree alongside my plot. I worked from 9.30 til Noon and as you can see by the pictures I took just before leaving, the plot was still in deep shade.

I decided to tackle the double width bed where I had spuds last year. As you can see there are lots of volunteers there. I always miss a few when digging up the crop. I haven't the heart to pull them out so I've left them. I pulled out most of the 18" tall weeds and then tilled it with my Wolf tiller, then raked all the weed debris around the plants in lieu of earthing up. In a day or two I will hoe again then put in some courgettes.
These are the last areas to tackle....then I'll feel like I've caught up. I've pulled out the tallest weeds, and am now loosening with a fork and pulling out the others. We are due some rain in the next day or so which will facilitate this!!!
These beds are destined for peas for the freezer.

In the backgroubd you can see Malcolm's new shed. It is a very sturdy biggish one (his B&Q one was a bit small and flimsy). He has stained it black and it has a beautiful red door now.
Another view of the same beds. Still lots to do....

My next stint at the plot looks like it'll be Sunday afternoon or Monday morning..

Evening work

2009-06-02T19:29:00.000Z

I don't cope very well with the heat, so this morning I fiddled about in the back garden for a while til it got hot, then spent the afternoon in our north facing back guestroom quilting. It is the coolest room in the house in summer but looks out across my back garden.
Then this evening I went to the plot when it became bearable. I have dripped and melted but done some useful work.

Here you can see the brassica bed which I planted up one day last week. After the fierce winds have had to keep replacing the cabbage collars everytime I have been near the plot. Today there were two missing.

This evening they looked as though they are all happy and growing away.

The bed next to it is still awaiting attention this year.
I did these beds this evening. After yesterday evening's thunderstorm and torrential rain (felt like a monsoon......very heavy and not at all cold) the soil was a dream to work. The bed in the background which is freshly cleared looks tiny but is in fact 9' x 3'6" . i have a new pack of French beans to put in there when I have a minute.

I also hoed the beds seen here....the beetroot are looking good, and the courgette bed (back right) isn't showing any sign of life yet, but it is early days. The carrots under the environmesh are doing well.

Evening work continued

2009-06-02T19:25:00.001Z

All the comfrey which I cut and put round the little pumpkin has wilted and gone brown, and the little pumpkin has grown since I put him in. I gave him a load of water.
The spuds look good.

I picked a huge bag of broad beans....yummy!
The back of the garden. The comfrey was all along here. I have put it here because I heard that it is good as a weed root barrier around a plot. Actually it is probably holding them my side at the moment...!!!
The raspberries are flourishing but could do with a good weeding soon.

So....I am still behind but am getting there. At home the kitchen garden looks better every day, and the front garden is next on the list. The dandelions in the front border are embarrassing!!!!

Time to water the tunnel...

A fine day for plotting!

2009-05-28T23:33:00.000Z

My husband went and strimmed off the weedy bank by the fence at the plot this morning and after that I went to sort out my new bed for the pumpkin. This is the spot directly beneath the huge beech tree. The soil has small roots from the tree right under the surface, and any attempt at digging is very hard work. The soil here is fertile.....growing copious amounts of nettles and comfrey.

I have wanted to tame the bank ever since I got the plot and having amassed a lot of compost and fibrous stuff I decided to use it as a sheet mulch, and make a huge bed for the pumpkin this year.
We had some cardboard from when we got our new settee from Ikea recently, so I covered an area of about 10 foot square. It looks smaller in the photo but it is 10 ft at least.
First I raked up all the grass he'd strimmed from around the plot. Then I barrowed the contents of one of the compost bays....fibrous stem stuff as well....and spread it about a
foot thick all over the cardboard. Then when my back had had enough I stood and watered it with a hose for half an hour to make sure it was good and wet. Tomorrow I'll put my little pumpkin plant in the middle of it....and watch it fill the space over the course of the summer. When it is in I will cover the mound with comfrey cuttings and other weed tops. This will form even more sheet compost and will also inhibit any weeds that may sprout on the heap.

Before I went home I picked a basket of broad beans, and started weeding one of the still untidy beds which are such a disgrace. The weeds resulting are now in the second compost bay which has now been started off. The first one now houses all the bags of manure I am keeping until Autumn.

In the back Kitchen Garden at home I planted out lots this afternoon. Tomatoes (large Italian beefsteak tom plants from a friend), cucumbers (Crystal Lemon), sweetcorn,
leeks, fennel, and Dwarf Runner Beans Hestia. The back garden in filling up at last and I feel much better about it all now. Tomorrow I have some more to do....netting against cats and birds, and other tidying up jobs.

On Tuesday on my trip to Kent I dropped in at Wisley as usual and visited the veg garden. It was interesting to see how far they are behind our gardens here on the Isle of Wight, and also to see how very patchy their germination was this year. Whole long rows of beetroot with some gaps in germination of at least a foot. I heartens me when I see that it isn't just me....although my beetroots seem to have all germinated....but they were so late going in..!

Brassicas

2009-05-25T16:10:00.001Z

This afternoon was fine and sunny and I had set it aside for planting out my cabbage bed. This is the one I prepared a day or two ago. The bottom end was dug too deeply for cabbages as they prefer firm ground. These will have to be pressed hard home when I next go to the plot. They were too soggy to do it today as I always puddle new stuff in.
The bed now has 6 caulis in the foreground, then 12 brussels (I think 6 of these are cabbages but have lost the label. Whatever they are will be most welcome so no real disasster there!) Behind them are 12 kohlrabi. All netted against pigeons and butterflies.
Between the plants I have sowed rows of herbs and marigolds. This should make for a good looking bed and help ward off pests.
After I took this picture I soaked the whole bed with a hose. The soil was like dust....so it'll pan. I'll have to go and hoe it again pretty soon.

I also sowed some courgettes (Jermor and Midnight) in one of the small beds. I have lost all but three of those I sowed in the tunnel in pots to that pesky mouse, but I'm sure these'll catch up anyway.

The spuds and carrots and beetroot beds are looking fine and were also soaked. This was an easy job once my back was screaming at me to go home.

This morning I spent in the back garden planting out beans started in the tunnel and watering everything. We had a little rain this morning, but not nearly enough. So, as I needed to empty one of my 5 water butts in order to raise it higher, I decided to do it using the Hozelok pump and my sprinkler hose end and it was soon done. The beds are now well watered and hopefully everything I planted out will flourish.

We are now picking outdoor strawberries, and harvesting asparagus and broad beans. Some of the onions are also ready (they are putting up flower spikes so I think they are ready!) There are lettuces ready which volunteered them selves from self-sown seeds from last year. In the tunnel the lemon tree is covered in blossom so I hope that means we'll have a good harvest. Also the fig has 10 or more fruits on it.

Getting there

2009-05-24T05:52:00.000Z

On Friday I found a slot where my back strength and the time available coincided and went to start getting to grips with the plot. I'm about 3/4 of the way there with the beds, but need to spend a lot of time on the bank too.....so it looks like I'll never catch up this year.

I have a load of brassicas hardening off and want them at the plot, so I prepared the long bed at the top ready for them. I'll put them in on Monday when they should be ready to face the great outdoors. It is going to be a warm week with nights when the temperature won't drop too far.

I also should be sowing some squash and pumpkins as the ones I sowed in the tunnel were eaten by mice. I hope it isn't too late for that.

I think I will give up on the sweetcorn this year as the mice had all of them too. I knew they had but didn't have a chance to get any more seed and now I think it is too late.

The spuds are flourishing, the broad beans are being harvested now and there are plenty there for the next few weeks. The carrots are showing (under the micromesh) and I hoed and tidied them. The beetroot are all up and I hoed them too.

Everywhere that I used the hoe the soil was like dust. And digging the top bed was a dream. In the end I went all over it with the Wolf cultivator and the tilth was fine in no time.

I have vast amounts of comfrey growing tall along the fence at the back of the plot. This needs cutting to add to the compost heap and to use as mulch everywhere. I also took a huge builders rubble bag half full of mowings to the plot to mulch the spuds.

I feel a bit better about my plot now but I still have a long long way to go to get it looking like I want it to. We have had a difficult spring with my back "going" and a lot of our secular work coming in all at once....as well as a wedding we were involved in and other projects. I am hoping that life will quieten down somewhat so that I can get back to my big love.

I went to the Chelsea Flower Show last Wednesday. I had a good but exhausting day. I have a lot of pictures which I will sort out and post on here in the coming weeks. The show was much more low key than the last two years, but I liked the fact that the designers were more in tune with how most of us garden. There was less of the expensive marble and other paving that we all look at but can't afford. There was good use of more attainable path materials such as builders' "clunch" (for want of a better word.....sand and other gritty stuff packed down) and old bricks. Also plenty of great ideas for green gardeners....for example a bug hotel to beat all others I have ever seen.

There was also the totally silly, but amusing. The plasticene garden was garish, and manned by some girls who were a bit "slow"! I asked one of them for a plant list and she just looked at me vacantly. Either she was thick, or had no sense of humour. I can't believe that a thousand others hadn't asked the same thing...! Ah! Perhaps that was it....she was bored! Well anyway, it got a laugh from the other visitors around me.

Bally mice!!!

2009-04-28T15:32:00.000Z

Bally mice have dug up and eaten my peas and beans. I have now laid a trap and will resow tomorrow!!!!
I have a new camera and am experimenting to see just how much better the pictures look with a lot more pixels!!! Am quite pleased with what I have learned about it so far but hate the software that came with it....prefer Picasa...

And I spent time at the plot today sowing carrots and beetroot.....now sitting to rest my back. It was glorious at the plot but is chilly here at home where we are feeling the east wind.

Back Garden Progress this week

2009-04-25T15:12:00.000Z

A lot has been done this week. I have managed to sort out a number of the beds which were getting very untidy. And I have set out some of the plants which had been too long in the tunnel. Here is the projected bean bed. Also the one behind for beans and peas. I have installed an irrigation hose in both beds and also put in the sweet peas to start their climb. This year I followed advice and pinched off the top growth.....so far they are sulking!!!

You can still see some leeks and some fennel in the further bed. As the beans are not even showing in their pots in the tunnel yet I have time to eat them before preparing the bed.
The bed in the background here still needs some attention, but the one in the front has been sown with square feet (actually about 16"x13") blocks of various seed...parsnips, beetroots, carrots, peas, spring onions, spinach etc. At one end is a stand of late broccoli, and at the other some parcel from last year.

In the background here is the strawberry/leek bed. The strawberries are covered in flowers so we can expect to be eating some of them next month.
The bed in the foreground is now planted up with some peas, up the middle with the supports, some broad beans to follow those at the plot, and some pointed cabbage...with cardboard collars as I forgot to get any...!

I still have to tend to the paths which are getting weedy. I suppose there is no such thing as a maintenance free path for a veg garden. I don't want concrete, and bark seemed to be less permanent than what we went for.....old carpet with gravel on top. We still get lost of weeds in it so I resort to killing them once a year.

Today I am having a rest from gardening other than the essential watering....my back is complaining...

Tunnel progress.

2009-04-25T15:11:00.000Z

Help from my husband to get the beds ready in the tunnel for planting out, and re-installing the path has paid off and I have started planting out the veg. This bed shows our lemon tree by the back door.....covered in blossom which smells divine....

The indoor strawberries have settled in well. And also you can see the two courgette plants I like to have in the tunnel. This one doesn't need pollinating so should give a good yield. The next photo shows that one of them is already flowering!!!

In the pot in the foreground is the physallis from last year which has come through the winter in the tunnel beds. I am going to plant it out again in here soon.
Here is the already flowering courgette..... Parthenon F1
This is the other bed. I have already started off the tomatoes. I am using A-tom frames with grow bags this year as I feel sure that the soil must be getting a bit tired of tomatoes. I know I should do a big soil swap with one of the outdoor beds but the back wouldn't let me this year. So the toms are in fresh growbags and behind them are two tomatillo plants which I am trying for the first time this year. Also along the back wall are luffa plants, still very tiny, which I am growing for fun...

Close to the camera you can see the tops of the spuds growing in bags. I have 4 bags of these which I am trying for the first time this year. I am hoping that if these are a success then they might solve the problem of lack of space for root crops here at home. I have an allotment for the more space hungry stuff such as spuds, pickling supplies such as beetroot and shallots, fruit, pumpkins etc. If I can get less space hungry methods of growing these then I won't worry so much if I can't do the plot as well. My back being bad for so long this spring seems to be the writing on the wall for the plot. DH has agreed to help support me with my efforts at the plot this summer and if it proves too much then we will withdraw to just the back garden and look at ways to up the fruit production here. Fruit bushes instead of ornamental shrubs seems to be one way to go.

And more...

2009-04-25T15:10:00.000Z

The fig in the tunnel is laden with fruit. The branches have got a bit leggy so I have bought a book which tells me how to prune it for fruit production...
And here is some of the staging just inside the door of the tunnel. Lots of stuff coming on here and on the opposite side of the tunnel.

Shed tidied, and other things.

2009-04-23T21:27:00.000Z

Yesterday I tore myself away from the back garden and went to tidy the shed at the plot. I can actually get to the shelves at the back for my cup and drink when I need it now, and get my seat out and have a rest!
When I arrived at 12.30 the whole plot was still in shade, but by the time I went home just the bit under the tree was dark. As the raspberry canes are in that last spot to get the sun it isn't too much of a problem.
The bank needs strimming....DH went back this afternoon to do it.
This is a better view of the raspberry canes which are coming up nicely now. Also the comfrey along the fence is growing well. I shall soon cut it to add it to the compost bin.
After clearing out the shed I inspected the spud rows....there are two plants up.....

Then I prepared three further beds ready for seeds etc when I have a minute.

The broad beans are healthy and tall and covered in flowers. Should have a few meals off these......

I still have a third of the plot to clear of the winter weed layer, and the last bed has the green manure crop phacelia just about to flower....so that needs digging in soon. That bed is for french beans and for dwarf runner beans. I have decided not to grow stuff that needs tall stakes then I don't have to worry about the wind. I will have all that stuff at home instead.

I also have a lot to do around the globe artichokes and the rhubarb which are on the far part of the bank. Perhaps tomorrow...

I have been spending a lot of time in the tunnel and in the back garden veg area, and I will take piccys and blog all of that tomorrow..

Getting back in harness...

2009-04-19T16:00:00.000Z

Had a tummy upset in the night so couldn't go far from home today. But I did feel like starting to tidy up the back garden.

A few weeks ago I decided to re-vamp the inside of the tunnel with raised beds either side and one down the middle. I had half done the job when my back went out. The tunnel has been a mess for the last few weeks and I was beginning to despair of ever getting it ready for the season.

DH sensed that I wasn't happy with the situation and thought that I ought to revert to a central pathway again for this season so he rotovated away all my hard work and we leveled the soil, and added a central path of spare slabs. I raked all smooth and added a 3 inch layer of manure to the LH side. After it has settled, and I have re-installed the irrigation system (that takes the ewater from the butts fed by the house roof) I can start planting up the beds. I have a number of plants that I have brought on in the tunnel that will fill the beds very soon....
Here you can see some plug plants that I have potted on til they are sturdier. I got them at Wisley yesterday. The ones I bought there 3 years ago did very well so I am hoping to repeat that success. There are 6 plants each of cabbage, cauliflower, calabrese, sprouts and kohlrabi.
Whilst DH was rotovating inside the tunnel I weeded and loosened the soil in the onion bed and the asparagus bed. I have now mulched the asparagus bed anew with fresh grass cuttings. I think the warmth they produce encourages an early crop. It also conserves the moisture.

Then later after a sit down I weeded and loosened the soil in the bed that was outdoor tomatoes and cucumbers last year (no photo). There are some Kale plants at the end of the bed that are still producing so I have left them alone. This bed will be beans or peas this year.

I have had enough now so am cooking dinner. When the football has finished I will sit and knit and watch the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency.......very relaxing.

Hoping to do a bit more gardening tomorrow...

Yesterday at Wisley

2009-04-19T05:50:00.000Z

On my trip to Kent on Friday/Saturday I had two goes at visiting Wisley. It was pouring on Friday so I returned on Saturday. As it is spring I made for the fruit garden display area, and although I'd seen it before this particular one completely entranced me. It is a model allotment with fruit as the main feature.

Along the edge of the plot is this row of trained apple trees. The trunks are trained up for about two feet then along a wire for about 3 feet. They were laden with blossom, and had heaps of manure around their roots but not touching the trunk....lots of tips there.

The plot is divided into quarters by by three cross paths, lined with various herbs and flowers. At one end of the plot are 5 raised beds for vegetables. Nearest the camera is asparagus (already showing, like mine at home) to the left, manure to the right. The next bed was rows of carrots under the fleece, radish, lettuce, and spinach (from memory). The next bed was strawberries, five different varieties. This bed had fixed irrigation hoses. The next two beds are manured and waiting.
Behind the raised beds is a path with fruit bushes trained up and over, making an arch over the path. There were no labels on these plants so I shall have to visit this area regularly to see what they are.

Behind the path is a fruit cage, missing its side netting, with all sorts of fruit bushes within.
Beyond the next path is another fruit area....but I can't remember any more about that bit.
Here is the blurb....click on it to enlarge.

Wisley continued

2009-04-19T05:47:00.000Z

The polytunnel has been used for cabbages and salads all winter, and the other side is waiting for tomatoes etc. It has a goodly layer of manure on it.
In front of the greenhouse are two clumps of rhubarb, one being forced.
Another view up the plot.

All in all a perfect allotment plot. There is no shed, and I can't see that they'd have all the vegetables they would need, but I think they'd probably get enough fruit from these trees and bushes.
Something to aim for...

Spuds in at last.....

2009-04-02T13:47:00.000Z

Sunshine from dawn to dusk (we hope) today and very warm outside, and my spuds were reproaching me from their egg boxes on the sunroom windowsill and I felt sorry for them.
So DH made the holes with the long bulb planter, I ripped up comfrey leaves to put in the bottom of the hole and placed the spud in carefully, sprouts upwards, and DH put back the plug. After all was finished I earthed up the rows a bit.......and stood back and admired our handiwork.
The first two rows are Charlotte, the next two are Desiree.

There is still a lot to do there. The grass path along the plot edges needs strimming; the bank needs strimming; the globe artichokes need weeding underneath....likewise the rhubarb. The top beds need a bit of hoeing and the very top bed needs the phacelia digging in ready for planting up later.
Next door have been and "tidied" up a bit; but there is still lots of carpet everywhere and no soil has been turned yet. Early days I know....
And....as you can see....the shed needs a good spring tidy up. I can't find anything!!! I shal,l do this tomorrow....

Anyway....I feeel relieved to have got the year off to a sort of start. Lots of seeds to sow soonish...tomorrow some and more next week. The soil has warmed up a lot so there is hope that they'll come up if sown now.

At last.........................

2009-03-30T15:16:00.003Z

My back feels great (but still stiff so am using it warily) and the weather was blissful....so we took the Mantis and went to the plot to turn over the beds that had manure on, under tarps, all winter. And the bed that was spuds last year. We are now ready to plant this years spuds when the soil settles a little.

It is warming up a lot at the plot and I really must get some carrots sown, and the broad beans transplanted as soon as possible. The most knowledgeable plotter still hasn't sown his parsnips so I have a little while yet before they become urgent.

Forgot to take the camera so no pics today. Tomorrow I'll have a round up photo taking spree here and at the plot to show the state of play and the mountain of work left to do...

Well I never!

2009-03-30T15:14:00.000Z

It is 30th March and I have just picked two asparagus spears! This is the first year we can harvest these (crowns 3 years old now.....grown at home from seed). I have never had my own before so I don't know whether this is early or usual.
They are outdoors but mulched well with grass mowings.

They are now picked an will be steamed with our other veg tonight to see just how toothsome they are!

First two spears of many many more.....I hope!

Slowly getting there.....

2009-03-29T13:09:00.002Z

My back is slowly recovering. I have spent some time today clearing up the back garden and DH has mowed. The whole thing looks much more cared for now even though there is still loads to do.
We are hoping for some fine days this week and if we get them we'll go and plant the spuds. Also we could do with sowing some carrots and other roots, and I have some broad beans that I started in rootrainers that really need to go out......perhaps later this week.

Carrot fly!

2009-03-19T10:56:00.002Z

I was reading my April issue of Kitchen Garden magazine and they suggest strategies for minimising the attacks from these beasties......
They suggest that we time our sowing, weeding and harvesting to coincide with the lowest levels of carrot fly egg laying and gave this helpful link to the Carrot fly forecast that will be made this year
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/whri/hdcpestbulletin

So I will definitely be checking in there when the forecasting starts in April.....

Digressing....

2009-03-08T10:17:00.001Z

I know this is nothing to do with gardening but Mrs Nesbitt ( http://mrsnesbittsplace.blogspot.com/2009/03/g-is-for-girly-things.html ) posted about her dolls and I couldn't resist showing this photo (I can't do any gardening at the moment....so why not?!!!)

My sister Gillian and I are in the back garden at 4 Manor Road, London Colney, Hertfordshire in summer 1958. We had just been given our new dolls.... Rosebud teenage dolls. Bigger than Sindy dolls; but I don't think Sindys were out just yet although I may be wrong. Mine was called Rosamund....I've forgotten what Gill's was called....Marguerite comes to mind but that may be fanciful.

We lived on a large council estate and loved it. We were there from when it was built in 1952 (I remember clearly the day we moved in although I was only 2.)

Before getting this house we had been living in one room in Napsbury not far away, in the downstairs front room of a semi-detached house. I remember the room with its double bed for Mum and Dad, and three cots for us kids; me, Gillian and Paul, who was born when I was 2 years 3 months old. It was very very crowded.

In 1959 we moved away from here to a house in St Albans that Dad bought (with a mortgage) to get on the property ladder.

In this picture we are wearing dresses that Mum made for us. She used to buy whole bolts of cloth at the market and make our dresses and for our cousin too. So we had a sort of uniform!!! Actually all the dresses (including the gingham ones for school) were made from this simple pattern.....just a bodice, with a gathered skirt, and with bias binding around the neck and armholes. They were buttoned up the back and she sewed all the buttonholes by hand. She was not a skilled seamstress but these were perfectly adequate. This fabric was a lawn, which felt wonderful. These were our best dresses....the rocking horse fabric! I used to sew the hems and hem the binding on with her. I was always pretty useful with a needle, even at that age. When they were let down in length a piece of rick-rack braid was sewn around the worn mark where the old hem was.

She used to do our frocks on a sewing machine that she "won". One day an advertising card dropped through the letter box saying that so many of the postcards that were returned would be entered into a draw for a brand new electric sewing machine. To her immense delight Mum's name was drawn. The machine was a Helvetia and was used from then on to make all the clothes for us girls that she could possibly manage.

Note the haircuts! We always had our hair cut in the week before the new school term (so just three times a year). We had "urchin" cuts at the local Barber's. This was very short, almost like a boy's cut (but they had crewcuts!) and then it grew until the next cut 4 months later. As it got too long we'd wear grips to keep it out of our eyes....! I longed for long hair and plaits but as I was the eldest of what became a family of seven there was no way Mum had time for all that plaiting each day. We just used to run a comb through it and that was that.

Looking back I am so glad we had a "childhood". We had very little in the way of toys compared with kids today, and what we did have merited a special photo! Dad used to go on trips for work. He was a designer who worked for Elliott Automation at Borehamwood, working on the guidance systems and automatic pilots for aircraft, and other technical stuff. He used to have to go to Leeds from Hertfordshire sometimes (to a special packaging firm I seem to recall, although that may have been at Huntingdon.... and something else at Leeds) and the petrol money he was given used to be spent on things for the home like furniture and occasionally on us kids.....as here. Mum still uses the melamine dining room table and chairs which were bought that same year.....goodness!...is it 50 years old now?!!!

Unfortunately I don't still have my doll. When you are the eldest of a lot of kids the toys pass down and are eventually broken and discarded. I have nothing from then except memories and photos....and some small ornaments (two Wade Whimsies ornaments of Disney dogs). This photo of myself and my wonderful sister is a favourite.

I have been smitten!

2009-03-04T12:38:00.002Z

Getting dressed on Monday morning I put my back out! I have acute muscle spasm and the osteopath says it'll be 10 to 14 days before I can expect any real relief. So gardening activities are at a standstill.......
This is just the wrong time of year for this and I am very very fed up about it.....

More weeding

2009-03-01T16:13:00.001Z

A beautiful afternoon and I'll be away for the next two days so I made sure to have some time with my hands in the soil this afternoon.
I weeded out the strawberry bed and put down the mulch mats. I bet they blow away the first time the wind blows! I put the leeks down the middle of the bed last Autumn because strawberries and leeks go well together according to Companion planting gurus Bob Flowerdew and Gertrud Franck.

The next bed along which has the broccoli still in it is also clean now, and I sowed spinach.....4 rows..in there. I have covered it up because the cats love newly turned soil.

I sowed the spinach rows 50cm apart going across the bed. I will try to do a mini Gertrud Franck method on this bed this year. The spinach rows become marker rows, and you plant the crops you want in between them. Then the spinach is mostly hoed down to form a mulch to suppress weeds and to keep the soil damp. Further greenstuff is added on top to form "sheet compost" and this should enrich the soil a lot. With this method it should become unnecessary to add manure. We'll see!
I also cleaned the other two beds along this row. In the distance you can see the bed with the irises in which I will soon be moving to the front garden. They all seem to be alive so I am heartened. It was a very wet winter and I feared they'd rot. There are also a few tiny onions which I grew from seed last year and forgot. I put them in here just to fill the bed up. They seem to be growing so will do for a meal whilst we are waiting for the main crop to come in.

The far bed still has some fennel (now recovered somewhat after the snow and all the deep frosts) and some leeks.

I must get round to spreading some of the manure. I have 8 bags left to spread here....as well as 20 more still full at the plot.

Onion bed.

2009-02-28T14:15:00.000Z

My cold/sore throat is somewhat better today, and whilst DH had his back turned I snuck out and weeded this bed in the back garden. These are my Autumn sown onions, shallots and garlic.

The garlic (nearest the camera) didn't show for months but is away now. I think only two corms have failed....and I did put in everything, even the tiny ones. I seem to remember they were "Solent Wight", from the local Garlic Farm.

The onion sets...50 of "Senshyu Yellow", are also doing well; as are the Shallots "Jermor" (10 of them) at the far end of the bed.

Having pulled out all the chickweed and other weeds I tickled up the surface with the trowel and loosened all tha hardpan skin caused by all the rain we have had this winter.

I'm feeling a bit happier now that I've done some weeding.

It was sunny whilst I was working but the sun went in when I got the camera out.....!

Seed sowing at last!

2009-02-27T13:45:00.005Z

The weather is milder and sunny and I am very very fed up with not being able to do the garden or the plot because I have been laid up with a cold/sore throat thingy. Today though DH "allowed" me to go into the polytunnel as it was very warm in there. So I took the opportunity to sow my February seeds.....!

It was beautifully warm in the tunnel and a pleasure to be out there....except that it still stinks of Jeyes Fluid.

(Top picture from right to left) I have now sowed

a whole rootrainer's worth of Sweet Peas (Spencer Mixed),

one of Broad Beans (Witkiem Manita, I have some already 1 ft high at the plot but these can be a following crop), and

one of Peas (Meteor).

Two small flats of onions....Walla Walla and Rjinsberger.

6 seeds of Sweet Pea "Knee High" (left over from last year)

3 modules of Dill

and I have potted on some plugs of Pulsatilla that came free with my spud order.

In the propagator which I will install indoors on the wndowsill are

Tomatoes (Auntie Madge from the Heritage Seed Library, Red Alert, Costuluto Fiorintino and randywine)

Aubergines (Calliope Hybrid, and Melanzana Violetta di Firenze.)

Tomatillo.

Luffas (loofahs)

Basil

Oregano

So I don't feel so bad about my new season now as I am not too far behind.

I still need to finish re-organising the beds in the tunnel, and setting up the irrigation system. And I am desperate to get to the plot with some pallets to make my bed edges. Next week perhaps.

Polytunnel clean-up

2009-02-19T16:30:00.002Z

As it was foggy and damp first thing I decided it would be a good day to organise the inside of the tunnel ready for the new season. I continued with re-arranging the bed layout in the tunnel and worked myself to a standstill with more earth shifting, but still haven't finished it.

With a very sore back I decided I didn't really want to sit about, so a standing up job would be in order. I started washing down all the staging with a Jeyes Fluid solution....and one thing led to another and I ended up washing all the walls inside and out, and the roof (with a broom, up the step-ladder). I ended up soaked to the skin (good thing it was mild today) and stinking of Jeyes Fluid. But it is done.
So....tomorrow I will go and finish re-arranging the inside....!

I didn't take any photos as it was very very dull. (I heard the fog horns of the shipping in the Solent all day...)

Forgot to take my camera

2009-02-18T14:55:00.002Z

I forgot to take my camera to the plot today so I can't show you that half the plot is now ready for planting up. There are still 7 beds which need a lot of attention. I started digging the (this year's) brassica bed, but given that I had trodden it down well when I planted out the little cabbages etc, and the amount of rain we had in January, it was much too sticky for proper weeding. I like to dig and weed when the soil crumbles and can be shaken off the weed roots...and it was far from that today.
So I did some grass cutting along the edge of the communal path, finger weeded the rest of the beetroot bed, and spread the muck on bed 1 which has had a pile of manure on it since November. When I'd loosened the soil and spread the muck I took the covering off the next bed up and transferred it to bed 1. The next bed had a huge amount of manure spread on it in November and it looks to be in really good heart now.
Beds 1 to 4 are for the spuds this year. Bed 4 still has leeks in...which I will move soon. (I will heel them in in an unwanted (til courgette time) bed as recommended here http://www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/jamie-oliver/jamie-at-home/series-2/episode-2-leeks_p_5.html

More bed cleaning

2009-02-17T22:10:00.002Z

Before and after pictures of today's efforts. I took the top photo yesterday afternoon, the bottom one this afternoon. I managed to clear two beds completely, and to do 2/3 of another and to finish the beetroot bed I started yesterday. The soil was quite easy to work with my long-handled weeding fork, but when I used the proper fork it was a bit too heavy underground.

With the deep beds it is relatively easy to get the weeds out by just loosening them a little with the long-handled weeding fork, then bend and pick them out. For this reason I am thinking of changing my mind and not doing a complete Gertrude Frank Companion planting method, but to use the same system within the beds. But I think I need to edge the beds with timber first.

The plot slopes almost imperceptibly towards the north; and I don't get any sun 'til after lunch. I think this makes the small slope on the back of each bed rather chilly....the plants don't seem to thrive and seem to stay damp. So I am considering partial terracing. I will make plank surrounds (from pallets) to the back 3 sides of the beds and leave the front (south) open. As I dig or weed I will rake the soil towards the north "wall" of each bed. This should level the soil, or even tilt the slope slightly towards the south in each bed. This should help it warm up quicker. Any stones that get raked to the back will be dropped onto the pat behind the wall. The paths will be kept weed free by hoeing as I endeavoured to do this year...mostly successfully.

The potatoes I am chitting are Charlotte and Desiree. I think that the quantity I have of each (30 tubers) would make for 4 rows right across the plot....so 4 of my beds will do for spuds this year. I will take some tubers for using in potato bags starting them off in the polytunnel....for an early crop. The rest will go in the plot as described but I must hunt up some info on how to companion plant them as monoculture doesn't seem to work on my plot. I feel that mixing plants in each bed will be better for the plants.

I hope to spend two hours at the plot again tomorrow....and later in the week will go pallet hunting...

Raspberries

2009-02-16T20:49:00.001Z

A good opportunity presented itself for an extended period at the plot today....the time available coincided with settled weather, and the ground had dried enough to be worked....so off I went. Two and a half hours later I could see where I'd been.

Firstly I cut down the raspberry canes (waving at us in the background on the first picture), weeded round them and spread manure. I also weeded towards the fence and cleared the area where I grow the comfrey for the compost heap . So the second photo shows the state this corner now.
You can see some leafy canes in the foreground part of the photo. These are canes that were escaping towards the fence. I have re-sited them to continue the row. I was going to buy more canes but this "frugal" way of increasing the crop will produce more fruit as early as next year....I hope....without any expense!

The beetroot bed (foreground first photo) seemed to have grown as much as it was going to so I pulled all of them up and weeded that out. I also harvested a load of leeks (right bed disappearing out of shot in first picture) to bring home. I think I am going to have to move the leeks that are left to a holding bed further up the plot as I want the first 10 feet for the spuds under the new Gertrud Frank Companion planting system that I am intending to implement this year. I hope to start at the shed end of the plot and convert that half of it to the new system this year. My husband has started looking at the Mantis Tiller ready for rotovating the parts that have been paths for the last two years.....they are somewhat compacted. The beds don't need rotovating as they are now so perfectly cultivated having not been walked on for two years. (I am beginning to wonder if I am daft considering conversion to the new system as the beds are so soft now. Perhaps I should try companion planting in the existing beds. If I keep them as they are I want to add restraining edges...which means I need pallets to pull apart...etc...etc. Decisions! Perhaps I'll sleep on it....!)

I hope that tomorrow I can go back and do some more....plenty needs doing.

I've been tagged

2009-02-16T19:36:00.003Z

I've been tagged to produce a photo....4th photo in my 4th archive.....

Here it is!

Looking across the Solent towards Portsmouth, from Appley Park, Ryde, Isle of Wight

It has started!

2009-02-11T09:18:00.001Z

At last!! The veg growing year starts all over again. My seed potatoes arrived yesterday from J. Parker's (best price by miles!) and I have set them to chit in the shady end of the sun room.
So we are in business. Now I am waiting for the weather to improve before I set foot on the plot or go near the back garden beds. It has been phenomenally wet the past week, and now is freezing.....so not a good time to be out in the garden, and it isn't good to mess about with soil when it is that cold.

Too wet!

2009-01-21T13:48:00.000Z

It was very soggy when I went to the plot this afternoon. It was too wet to dig or weed, so discretion prevailed over valour and I came home to get on with other things.
I'll try again tomorrow.

Caliente Mustard

2009-01-21T07:16:00.001Z

On Monday this week I visited Wisley and found seeds for this in the shop. Regular readers may remember me mentioning a trial bed that I saw at Wisley a year or so ago (just looked...it was actually March 29th 2007...doesn't time fly!!!).
I was delighted to find the seeds (£4.99 for 200g, sufficient to cover 100sq.metres), with an informative leaflet. I have copied the leaflet here for you....both photos will enlarge for easier reading if you click on them.

I need to study this a while to see how to fit it into my rotation plans. It might be difficult with the new Gertrude Franck method I will be following this year so it may have to wait until next winter. The Gertrude Franck method does actually have some rows sown with mustard if they are for later crops....that may be where it fits in...I'll see.

Seed Sorting

2009-01-15T20:15:00.003Z

I had to be inside this morning to listen out for the phone , so I decided to sort through my seed drawer, and organise it. The polytunnel handbook from Amazon came in a small cardboard package which provided perfect dividers for the drawer.

I also sorted out the seeds I need for the January and February sowings....these are bulldog clipped now.Along the windowsill in our sunroom (north facing so never hot!) I keep the squashes and pumpkins from last year's harvest. We still have 10 left....of all sorts of varieties. I display them like this because they look good and I like to show off!!! The pelargoniums are ones I grew from tiny seedlings last year. They will go into the garden this year and I'll start again with more when they come into the garden centre

So....this is how it looks now! A productive morning! (I should have done some before shots but I always forget.)

A Busy Day!

2009-01-14T22:32:00.003Z

I had a bad head day today but went to the plot anyway. I had a bit of a tidy up.
I pulled up the dead marigold plants around last year's carrot bed. Then I cleared all the little weeds that are already germinating.

Then I pulled up all the Brussels plants. The sprouts had all "blown" and so I chopped up the hard stems with a spade and added it all to the compost. Then I weeded and tidied that bed too.

I also took up the netting over the small cabbage plants. The pigeons had had these even through the nets!. And took up the cloche hoops and the netting from the carrot bed (Jermor sown in the Autumn as they are for that time of year). Nothing except weeds had germinated o this bed!

The leeks are looking very healthy, as are the broad beans.

Over the next few weeks I am going to dig the whole plot ready to start the Gertrude Franck Companion Planting method (see previous post) at the end of February.

This afternoon I spent in the polytunnel. I received a copy of "The Polytunnel Handbook" from Amazon this morning and have decided to use on e of the suggested bed layouts shown in there. This invloves altering the present two wide beds arrangement, and making three narrower beds instead. I took up the strawberry plants that edged the beds and these are now in pots. And I have reduced the RH side bed from 3 ft to 2ft wide. I will be able to care for the whole bed without standing on it, or having to overreach myself. I will reduce the width of the LH bad tomorrow. Then with the excess soil I will create a 2ft wide bed down the middle of the tunnel. This year that will be the tomato bed.

I have ordered some grow Bag Supports called A-tom frames.to use for the tomatoes this year. These are novel in that the grow bag is used hung up on its side in order to get depth of root run, and to facilitate watering. The frame also supports canes to hold up the plants.

This should all make my tunnel experience a bit better this year.

Tomorrow I'll take pictures of all my efforts and the state of play in my kitchen garden, and at the plot.

Try again!

2009-01-12T21:32:00.000Z