High Summer

 

After last years prize winning pumpkin but less than thrilling squash I am pleasantly surprised by the first Festival squash picked on Monday night. About 5 – 6 inches but aesthetically wonderful. Several more on their way but some time off I think. Other cucurbits are coming along but not photogenic yet. (cucumbers, pumpkins and decorative gourds) 

My sister is very ill and so this and other family issues leave little time for the allotment at the moment but it is still wonderful to be able to sit and think by the chamomile lawn and lavender bush and keep the stress down.  Joan bought an echinacea plant after seeing it on mtp a couple of weeks back but it is in the garden at the moment until I decide exactly where it should go to add to the sense of calm.

It is very reassuring to see that the allotment will produce its bounty even without me attacking the weeds. I just need to remember that I do need to sow or plant first.

Below is a selection of lettuce ( Webbs Wonderful, Lollo Rosso and others), peas (Hurst Green Shaft – not impressed so far), runner beans ( Aintree ), courgettes (Pomodoro and AN Other), beetroot (Chioggia) and carrot thinnings.

The onions will need to be lifted soon as the necks have all gone over. No prizes this year I suspect! 

Summer Selection

I also cut back almost all of my tomatoes in the garden yesterday as the blight had got to them. I’ll try to save those few left but interestingly of the four varieties, only the cherry type ( Red Alert) was least affected. The left over plants that I put in the mini greenhouse look more promising now even though they are still in 4″ pots and on a liquid diet.

New Pickings

Black Red and White currants

Finally decided that I should pick the currents at the weekend.  Not sure about the weight but must be a couple of pounds of blackcurrants.

The Redcurrants were lost at the start of the season. I think the wind got to them or possibly birds right at the beginning. I netted the three bushes quite early and lost very few. I look forward to eating them later.

 

Eschallot Grise

The shallots have dried out nicely so I trimmed them to about 3 ins and will hang them in the string bag. About 1.5 Kg (189 bulbs)  from 12 surviving plants. I lost four to rot and then another before I decided to cut my losses and lift them several weeks ago.

The broad beans plants were all lifted and some left over runner and french beans put in their place as a second crop.

Lollo Rosso and Winter Density lettuces doing well in their nursery between the leeks. Also just sown Webbs Wonderful, Ice King, Mixed Shades and Salad Bowl to give me some later lettuces.

 

Overview

Just to show that there are other things going on – a shot from the North East corner looking up and across the allotment.

In the foreground are Cabbages – Savoy Endeavour, Ruby Perfection and Candice.

Runner and French beans – Aintree and Empress

Onions – Red Baron and New Fen Globe,

Potatoes – Desiree

Out of Shot – Parsnips and Celery,

Middle beds from the bottom:

Peas – Hurst green Shaft ( almost ready to pick)

Onions,

Potatoes – Kestrel

Cucumbers – Marketmore and Burpless

Pumpkins - Crown Prince

Decorative gourds ( some of last years still going strong)

Broccoli, Spinach, Swiss Chard

Far beds:

Leeks – Musselburgh

Lettuces – various

Potatoes – Pentland Javelin

Carrots – Early Nantes and Parmex

Beetroot – Chioggia and Wodan,

Sprouts – Berwick and Cromwell

Lettuces

Sweetcorn

At the top is Sweetpeas, Lettuces, Rhubarb, Sunflowers, Courgettes – Gold Rush, Pomodoro and unknown green, Squashes

I can’t remember all the specifics so I’ll update this later!

2009 – A healthy year

parsnip

It’s been a while since I last updated this so there are a few things to show.

First is this parsnip about a foot long and 5 inches across – the first of many back in October. This was Panache from Marshalls, from my first sowing. Plenty more right up until Christmas but the later sowings were smaller and in 2009 I plan on sowing earlier and in cardboard tubes or root-trainers.  I didn’t notice the mark when I took the picture or I would have turned it round but none of the parsnips were so badly affected by pests they had to be discarded.

gourds

 

I planted a packet of mixed ornamental gourds picked up cheaply just to fill a spot and these are the result. I planted about 30cm apart each way and trimmed them back when they started spreading to neighbouring beds. They look good in the kitchen doing just what it said on the tin.

Ice

When we had that very cold snap at new year I drained the water butts before they split. You can see I just caught them in time since these beautiful ice spirals about 2 inches long spreading towards the middle. Very difficult to photograph and shortly after getting the pics the whole lot crashed to the bottom.

sprouts

These are some still left after raiding on Christmas Eve. The pest damage is only on the very outside and they taste delicious. I’m puzzled since I had two types, Montgomery and Cromwell, which should have been ready at different times but they both seem to be producing together. I did pick some and freeze them a couple of weeks before Christmas just in case I lost the lot.

From the allotment, Christmas lunch included fresh sprouts and parsnips and very tasty peas, broad, french and runner beans  from the freezer. Also desert included raspberries that were as tasty as the day they were picked.

Winter plot

 To finish – a general view of the plot as at 2nd January 2009.

In the foreground are some January King that I suspect may be Jan 2010 before they’re ready!

Under the cloche are Webbs Wonderful lettuces.

Behind these are swedes “Marian”, which we may try soon. The largest is still only about 6cm across and about 12cm long.

In the bed behind are purple sprouting broccoli, turnips that really did not work this year and on the right chard “Bright Lights”.

Further back are the leeks that still need another month or so and the sprouts.

I’m already up on last year as all the heavy digging and manuring was done before the rain and cold. I will need to get out there and replant the broad beans soon as I can see none of the 96 have survived the birds and mice.

The shallots and garlic I planted are looking OK but not up to last years levels yet.

 Here’s to a good, healthy 2009.

A “Corn”ucopia on its way – with luck and hard work

A busy weekend but not all on the allotment. (Ikea trip and helping youngest son David to move house).

Not one of my best photos of the plot but it does show the sweetcorn is doing very well – I’m sure it is because it is where I stored the manure originally. I transplanted a dozen lettuce from the cold frame into the gaps where they will like the partial shade. There is also two rows of French Breakfast radish between the remaining rows and columns, the first of which should be ready by next week. I moved the frame towards the path slightly to make it more usable and put the manure there. Also showing are the cucumbers just starting to climb, the beetroot coming on and the adjoining allotment that could do with a weedkiller! One plot further away is how the plot should look.

The Sugar Lord snap peas have reached a good height and are showing their first pods.

The sweet peas have been beautiful bringing colour and a lovely smell to the rather more usual greens and browns on the allotment.

A wonderful bowl of raspberries on Saturday evening was the reward for removing the last of the leeks to leave some space for the early purple broccoli plants to be planted out. It also gave  motivation to dig the last patch by the compost bins where the manure has been stored, ready for next years leeks to go in.

At last enough French beans grew to about 5″ in the root trainers to go out to join the one that survived the earlier attempts at germination. I might try a further planting of runner beans since Joan found last years seed.

The third set of parsnips (Panache and Hollow Crown) are germinating at last in the seed tray although the ones sown direct have done nothing.

Sprayed all the potatoes, the garlic and the onions with Bordeaux Mixture to try to lessen the effects of blight and other nasties that hit so badly last year. I did dig a good collection of Swift spuds first.

The garlic continues to disappoint after a really good start. I suspect I planted them too deep and they just have not felt the heat. Dug a few of the earlier ones up and cleared the soil off some of the others. One or two had rotted but it does not look like white rot. Lets hope they have not all gone.

The onions on the other hand seem to be thriving. I pulled two White Prince each around 4-5 cms  diameter from the close spaced bed in the middle to give the neighbours room to grow. Reading about cucumber troubles on another blog, I decided to dig a small trench around the four I have planted to reduce the chances of rot at the stem.

And finally, the cauliflowers were attacked by pigeons so on went the netting. I must find the best technique for supporting it. It always seems to take a disproportionate amount of time to fit. 

A busy weekend

A beautiful weekend here saw the Maris Peer early potatoes in on Thursday evening followed by the Charlottes on Saturday. All of the Swift that went in a couple of weeks ago are showing through so they were covered up again.

The sweetpea plants were suffering in the garage so they went in on the end of the runner bean poles put up on Thursday evening. A little close together but hey – who’s counting.

I spotted some Little Gem plants in the diy supermarket at half price and so in they went along with the salad bowl lettuce mix that has been thinking of sprouting for some time.

In also went about 80 sugar snap peas to get some started.

The onions are going very well but I do think I need to give them more space next year.

I’m also pleased that the plot alongside was seen last Sunday and taken up by Shaun and Cecilia. A few nights of hard digging by them got rid of enough dandelions and grass and, thanks to some left over seed potatoes from Bryn, they already have some crops to look forward to later.

All-in-all quite a satisfying week with the plot coming together nicely.