Its taken the best part of 5 months but finally I’m started to see the first glimpses of fruits appearing on my tomato plants back home. The bright hot sunny weather than we’ve had for the last 2-3 weeks meant that I finally planted moved them outside so they are now getting more than the small amount of sun from my north facing windows!
So far things haven’t quite gone as I’d have hoped and it feels like most of the time I sit down to write something on this blog I’m generally moaning. Either it’s the weather or the slugs ate everything or I’ve not had the time, blah blah blah. So rather than let myself feel defeated I made the decision to have another go. Pea and french bean seedlings germinated in the propagator at home have now been planted out at the allotment.
Spinach has also started to sprout in the seed trays at home too, so hopefully going to get a second bite at these after the first ones I planted all bolted. To try and protect the peas this time I cut off the ends of some plastic bottles I’d been saving up to act as mini closhes to protect them while they grow. Didn’t have quite enough so some will have to make do with mini ones using the cut off ends. Planted out the leeks too. Have had them growing in pots for what must have months and they just haven’t done much so with a couple of them reaching the thickness of a pencil it was time to transplant them.
Strawberries are still going mental with their runners. I’m now up to around 30 new plants which once the last few I placed into pots this evening have taken root should give me enough to take down the plot and plant out into a bed of their own.
Can’t all be good news however and I will have a little grumble. Looks like my brassicas, either cabbages or white sprouting broccoli, which ever survived the initial slug invasion have now succumbed to white cabbage butterfly as they were crawling with caterpillars. Also looks like the blight has struck as well. Made the decision to dig up all my second early spuds. Most appeared alright but some had gone mushy. Was told that anything with blight should be burned. Didn’t know that so hopefully it will not infect anything else. Will wait a couple of weeks before digging up the first of the main crop as still have so many of my seconds that I gave a bag full my chef mate along with 2 bags of runner beans, which are now growing to about 12 inches long!!
Not going to have much time from now until the middle of October with my OU course project but I’m still hoping to get down at some point and make another sowing of carrots, cabbages and broccoli for the autumn.
Decided after all the hard work lately that I needed a treat, and what better way than to go down to by favorite locally sourced seasonal restaurant for crackling Sunday lunch, made even better by the fact that pudding was to be gooseberry fool made using the gooseberries form my own plot. Not usually a fan but it certainly went down a treat. So thanks to Rob at The Farm House, Canterbury. I think the red currents I dropped off have also been put to good use in the summer fruits salad. We are not actually allowed under the terms of the council’s rental agreement to sell any produce that is grown and it is all for our own consumption but we are allowed for gift any surplus we have away. This will hopefully lead to a nice little arrangement whereby I will provide Rob with anything I can’t use and in return he will provide me with some of what ever he makes.
There’s only so many awful puns and jokes you can say that make reference to vegetables but the bean is probably the king of them. Anyway as bad as they are it helps me to come up with names for the posts for this blog. I’m happy to say that the runner beans seem to be doing well. In fact they appear to be doing bloody great. So well that I may have overestimated the number of support canes and possible the height as they have reached the top and are now sending they shooting twining runners out in the atmosphere searching out any thing they can get hold. The slugs don’t appear to have ravished them like they have everything else and they are now starting to produce beans. I managed to pick the first handful today and plan on eating them tomorrow tomorrow or Monday for dinner. There are plenty more well on their way to so this should be one harvest that is bountiful rather than meager.
Well it’s the end of July and it’s been a strange 1st year for me and the allotment to say the least. The weather has been against us, we’ve had the slug invasion and it’s generally been a struggle to try and stay on top of things with what has happened elsewhere in my life.
But, we will not be deterred from the goal of having a truly wonderful productive plot. 1st year is also a learning a curve and we have certainly learnt a few things so far and let’s not forget that its not finished yet. We took control of out little piece of ground in October so we’ve got a good 2-3 months before we can say that the first year has been a complete disaster.
With this in mind we are going to have another stab at getting some stuff planted now for harvesting in the autumn and winter. I’ve just planted out seeds of peas – this time I’m sowing them in modules at home – 25 plants hopefully and I’ll then plant them out once they’ve germinated at which point I’m going to try and protect them when they’re planted out with some home made bottle closhes. We’ve also planted 10 dwarf beans and a further try of spinach. All have been planted together in a single tray of modules under a basic propagator lid. We are also going to give the brassica family another try with some direct sowing of cabbage (golden acre) and purple sprouting broccoli. Finally we are also going to give the carrots another try after seeing Monty Don’s woefully poor efforts on Gardeners World I don’t feel so bad. We’re going to try 2 varieties. The Fly Away which we tried before and another type called Nantes.
Before
After
The big plot tidy up continued this evening. Finally got round to taking down the old half collapsed fruit cage which in turn enabled me to actually get in among the current bushes and get the weeding done. I now know I have red currents and white currents.
By getting rid of the fruit cage the plot now feels a lot bigger as it has been opened right up and you can see through to the neighboring plots. It also lets a lot more light through too.
With the cage gone I’m also hopeful that come autumn I’ll be able to dig up the asparagus crowns and transplant them into a single bed from where they won’t get tangled up in the netting.
Having struggled to find time over the last month or so to get down the plot regularly I’ve certainly failed to stay on top of a few things, weeding being the main one. The weather certainly hasn’t helped. Loads of rain. Not too much sun but enough to make everything grow like the clappers and then there’s been the slug invasion too. Shame the font like weeds. They ate my peas before they had a chance and decimated the cabbages overnight. Anyway enough grumbling. A good 3 hour stint tonight and we’re almost back on track. Need another good session tomorrow and we’ll have broken the back of it. Spoke to my neighbour Adam who tells me that people have been having problem with blight in the spuds. Still living off my first earlies but decided to dig up the 2nds and all seemed good so no worries there. webhosting information . Will try the main crop tomorrow to see how they’re holding up. Runners still going strong. In fact they have outgrown there can supports and are reaching for the sky! Harvested the remaining carrots and beet roots today. The Fly Away fared better than the chantry but still a paltry crop overall. Gooseberries are ready for picking but the apples are still tasting sour. Maybe some cider making is on the cards as not a great fan of apple pie.
Well the weather has been horrendous lately supposedly caused by the “Jetstream” being too far south. Basically I’m making excuses for my lack of time spent down the plot. So managed to get down for a hour yesterday as had borrowed a strimmer from a friend to attack the overgrown path and the weeds at the bottom which are starting to get out of control. No luck. After managing to do about 5 yards the bastard thing packed up and couldn’t get it to re-start. So decided to do a bit a harvesting.
Carrots and Beet roots. Not an obvious combination but nice to see something other than spuds in the harvest bag. Speaking of which I now have glut due to the reduced family size I’m now catering for. All part of the learning curve though. Next year we’ll only plant 2 lots. Some earlies and some main crops. No need or the second earlies. The runner beans are doing well. They have climbed to the top of their support canes and are now starting to flower so hopefully we’ll be picking some in the weeks to come. Beans and spuds. Going to have another try and planting peas. This time though going to plant them up in pots and transplant. Will also have some leeks to plant out soon. The first of my autumn crops
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Have been really struggling of late to find time to get down the allotment or to contribute to this blog, what with being really busy at work and also at home with my studies. I did manage to get down for an hour this evening though and thank the stars I did as the weeds were trying to take over. I spent a good part of about 45 mins going round and pulling up as many as i could and then trying to get at others with the hoe being careful not to take out the veggies.
I was happy to see that the runner beans have been going well and most of them have taken to their cane supports and have started spiraling themselves round. Its going to be spuds and runner beans all the way this year. The parsnips also seem to be doing well, much better than I can say for the carrots. They seem to be a bit thin in numbers and some looking like they they’re ready to give up and die but we’ll leave them and see how they get on.
First Earlies are ready and have been eaten for the first time tonight. Boiled up with some butter and salad cream. Delicious. Going to be eating spuds for a while now me thinks.
