Glorious Glorious Glorious! - Oh and the Spuds are In!

Can you believe the weather we’ve had over the last few days, it has been glorious to say the least, not the kind of weather you want to be digging in, but needs must and digging is what I have done. Eventually I have planted the Rudolph, Blue Danube and Golden Wonder potatoes; I must say that it’s a weight of my shoulders that these are finally in the ground. I’ve got a couple of ‘sample’ potatoes (Pink Fir Apple, Markies, Nicola and Cara) which I will plant over the next couple of days and definitely by the weekend, I’m not overly worried about getting these in as they aren’t my main choices, just tasters really so I’ll put them in little areas of soil that have already been dug over and weeded but are ear-marked for flowers or other types but not where potatoes will be planted over the next couple of years so as not to risk spreading disease etc. It’s been 10 weeks since I planted the first tub of my 1st earlies so I had a little feel around in the compost, I can’t feel any potatoes yet so I’m a little worried, is disaster looming? There is plenty of foliage but no flowers so I may give it a couple more weeks before emptying out the first tub.

My tomatoes are fast outgrowing their 5 inch pots so I’ll be potting them on into slightly bigger pots shortly, I’m not sure if they will get into the bottle house this summer or not, but as they are varieties suitable for either outdoor or indoor growing I’ll not worry myself about it too much, same said for the cucumber, aubergine and chilli plants, some of which I can grow on in the ‘plastic’ and ‘walk-in’ greenhouses if I need to.

I’ve planted out some broad beans and lettuces, sown four varieties of carrots and have Turnip (Snowball & Purple Top), Kohl Rabi and seed onions ready for planting out. My French, Borlotti, Flangelot and Runner beans are all making appearances peeking though the compost in their 3 inch pots, they look lovely.

Having spent all Thursday, Friday, Saturday and most of Sunday (until the heavens opened) at the plot and having all that lovely weather I have been able to observe the position of the sun during the course of the day. Most of the plot gets the sun all of the day except where my shed is, which is what I’d hoped when I re-sited it in its corner, the only disappointing bit is the flower area I’m wanting to plant up in front of the shed sits in the shade most of the day also, getting the sun from around 3pm on the afternoon so I’ll have to find some shade loving plants to go there. The good news is the area where the wildlife section is going to go gets the sun for most of the day, shaded a little on the morning but in full sun for most of the time, so I’ll be able to plant lots of sun loving, bright coloured big nectar rich plants there. I’ll also have to build a shade ‘shelter’ for the chucks when their run has been built so they can hide from the sun when they want to as they will be housed in that area also.

On a final note, we’ve been granted permission to plant an orchard on our little community bit, so that is something to look forward to, lots of fruit trees and we are also looking into having some beehives put there.

Rudolph Ready to be Planted (At Last)

I thought I’d never see the day but I can at last get my early maincrop potatoes ‘Rudolph’ planted in the ground, it’ll be my first job on the list for Thursday. I’ll be down at the lottie bright and early to get them in the ground, they had better taste good that’s all that I can say. But it doesn’t stop there, nope, there are still more potatoes to get in before the end of the month. I’m think I’m going to have to take a sleeping bag and sleep in the shed, I’ll need to be down at the plot that much in the coming days that the MEC will start charging me board n lodge, lol.

I’ve had to put down some weed fabric over the area’s that I haven’t got round to digging over /creating beds in yet, this is mainly where the ‘onion/other’ beds are going to go, the weeds are growing at such a ferocious rate and it’s the only way I’m going to be able to control them until I can get things sorted in that area, when I can start the digging, which will be the next major task after the potato beds as I’ll need the area to plant the courgette, squash and leeks out next month. You know what they say, weeds grow in fertile soil, so if my crops grow as good as the weeds, then I’ll be a happie chappie. I’m hardening quite a few things off at the moment, in anticipation of getting them planted out over the next few days, hopefully my plot will actually look productive rather than an area of mud with some raised beds scattered on it.

I’ll leave you will a picture of the inside of the walkin greenhouse at home, most of the plants were out sunbathing when I took this, getting ready for being planted out over the coming weeks at the allotment, but you can still see some turnips, cauli, cabbage, calabrese, some tomato plants, a lily, a couple of courgette plants my hosta and a hanging basket which has been planted with a ‘garden pearl’ tomato plant and some little flowers.

Catch Up

Thought I’d give you a catch up as I haven’t posted anything this last week, it’s been hectic at work and with one thing and another at home I haven’t had the time to post an update, so here goes.

My gate and fence at the plot have been moved/re-built, it really looks good, in a previous life the fence had been knocked over by a manure truck so it stood a bit lop-sided, but with the new fence standing nice and straight and running up to the container it really tidies up my plot. The second end frame of the bottle-house has been built and also one of the doors, I’ll be taking them down to the plot to attach to the posts over the weekend. Still plenty of bottles coming in.

I was caught by the frost, again, but after reading a lot of other blogs, I’m not the only one, still it is annoying. Not too much damage, a bit of blackening of the leaves on the 1st earlies, the 2nd earlies haven’t started to come through yet so they escaped damage and I’ve not got round to planting out the maincrop yet! Most tomato plants in the little greenhouse escaped without too much damage, a few were looking sorry for themselves.

I’d sown a lot of different types of bean in pots last weekend and during the week and have kept these in the little greenhouses at home ready until next month when hopefully it will be safe to plant them out - Borlotti (Firetounge) Broad, Flangelot, Runner, and French. I’ve sown some sweetcorn ‘minipop’ and will sow a batch of ‘applause’ this weekend. More lettuce, some beetroot and some sprouts done. I’ve got some Turnips (Purple Top and Snowball) which I have been hardening off over the last couple of weeks and some Kohl Rabi and Celeriac ready to plant out over the weekend. Some broad beans and peas also ready to put in, I’m going to chance direct sowing of the rest of the peas (mangetout and sugar snap) as I’m never going to be able to gather enough toilet rolls to sow them in. All roll donations will now be put into storage for next year. I’ve also started to sow my courgette and squash seeds, which will be planted out later next month along with the new batch of leeks after that pesky mouse ate most of the first ones.

I’ll finally be able to plant out my early maincrop this weekend, the bed is just about finished and baring a thunderous typhoon IT WILL be sorted, then it’s just the late maincrop to get sorted. I’ve put in a few days holiday next week, then that weekend and then with the weekend after this should see me get them all planted and sorted with very little time to spare, it’s definitely going to be a tight deadline to have them all in the ground by the end of May which is the time limit I have set myself to give a sufficient growing time of 20-22 weeks before the first frosts are expected.

Lots of hard work for the weekend ahead I suspect.

I’ve Grown (Just a Little)

Metaphorically speaking that is. I’ll explain, in our little community area of the allotments, a few of the plot holders have small plots and thereby don’t have much room for things such as sheds, so a small container was put in the grounds for their use. Now this container, which is bright orange (you can see it on one of the pictures I posted the other day) was placed very near my gate and made exiting with a heavy barrow load of ‘whatever’ quite awkward for me. So the nice people from MEC (who oversee our community area) said that I can have my gate moved and gap (after gate being removed) re-fenced, courtesy of them. So this morning a nice handy man came with the MEC rep and had a look and asked how I wanted it, which I explained. Then the MEC rep said “as this little strip (approx 16ft x 6ft between where my fence is now and the container) is not being used and will probably become a dumping area, why don’t we extend your fence to come up to the container”. So it was agreed, this will now become part of my plot and therefore I have ‘grown’. But the drawback is (and there always is one) this is not good ground, all gravel and hardcore and would never be able to have anything grown in it, and I was going to use the fence to train a fruit tree or similar against. Thoughts running around in my head now are, build a wicker fence or put trellis or something similar where the existing fence and good soil is to grow the fruit tree against and pave over the newly acquired area to use as a seating /picnic/BBQ/storage area.

Hoping to get to the plot this evening to do some more of the maincrop potato bed though the weather is awful, raining and cold so not sure if it’s going to be possible.

Mixed Weekend (Weather Wise)

Yet some more digging done but still more to do. Went to the plot again on Friday afternoon/evening and got some more of the maincrop bed dug over. Saturday I mainly potted on and sowed some more seeds. A little mouse or critter of similar stature has found its way into my plastic greenhouse and chomped its way through my leeks, and has had a good dig in some of the other pots of veg in there. Upon reading the back of my seed packets leeks are best sown Jan-Apr, would I still be able to re-sow some more (it’s only a couple of days into May) to replace the ones chomped on?

Sunday me and Caleb spent most of the day at the plot, he played with the other children that were there with their parents, I worked hard. I couldn’t face another day doing the potato bed so I opted for weeding and digging over what will be the root beds for 2010. These are 2 beds which are 32ft long x 4 ft wide, broken down into 8ft x 4ft sections (on plan). When it was all dug over, I re-did the area set aside for the carrots and dug it as finely as I could possibly do, breaking up larger clods of soil by hand, then sprinkled some Growmore over the bed in anticipation of sowing various varieties over the coming weeks.

Weather was terrible on Monday, the majority of the day was lost to rain, but it brightened up a bit mid afternoon so this time was put to use building some more of the bottle house. Speaking of which I’ve finally found out how to share my photo’s with you all from my new phone, so here is an update of what’s been happening so far this year.

First Post Ready

Six Post In!

Exit Doorway & Path.

Pea Bed with Canes and String for Climbing.
The onion bed netted in the background.

Bed with 2nd Earlies planted (Yukon Gold)