Wettest Summer for 100 Years.... Here's to Next Year

So after the wettest summer for over a century and the second wettest since records began, I'm afraid I eventually gave up for this year and haven't blogged since July... shame on me! But I am now into 'preparing' for the next growing season, and so my enthusiasm is slowly being restored.

Although still raining for the majority of time I'm clearing away weeds and crops which are in the ground.  Turning over the soil when possible and generally getting ready for next year.  I've ordered my garlic and overwintering onions and hope to get these into the ground by the end of the month.

On a happier note, we have a new addition to the family, 'Buddy' our little Bulldog.  We collected him from Wales at the end of July and he's been settling into the family very nicely.

Buddy aged 10 weeks

 

Looking after his toys!

 

Curled up with big brother Diesel

I've taken another video, just for record of how bad the plot got with all the bad weather, like I said, I'm now busy clearing it all away and will keep you all up to date as to progress made.. take a look at the video below..

 

Walk around the Plot with Samson & Delilah's Lottie Antics (June 2012 update)

So after my tales of woe yesterday and feeling rather sorry for myself, for which I apologise, lets face it you don't pop over to hear  me moan; you visit because ya wanna know what's going on.  Well let me show you, June video update, hope you enjoy

June 2012 update

Weather - 4 Year Cycle (I blame the Olympics!) & an Update

I love looking back over people's blogs, specially new ones that I've found, reading what they've been up to and looking at how they've done, or haven't done.  Anyhow, I found this blog and I was reading it, but I had to double check the date, were we in 2012?  No it was actually in 2008 but the weather was very typical of how it has been this season, e.g. April - cold start, warming up towards the end of the month.  May - Lovely warm start with highs of 22.5 degrees Celsius, but wait....it ended with days of rain and temperatures dropping to around 13 degrees... is this all sounding familiar?  June - again typically colder than average temperatures and the result for that year was a cold summer, with temperatures only reaching late teens, not a very good year for growing by all accounts. So, is this what we have to look forward to; a cold summer?  Oh and by the way, they had an Olympics that year too... so I'm blaming it on the Olympics, roll on another 4 years, LOL.

Back to the present day then, I have put on another four roof panels on the bottle house, it is starting to come together.  I'm going to have to sort out some kind of support for the middle supports of the roof.  With the weight of the panels on the back side it is pulling on the middle supports and tilting to one side.  When I have put up the two panels on the front facing side, I have had to put these in the middle positions with a hope to counteract the weight on the supports, once I have the final two in position I will assess it more, but I think to be on the safe side I'll have to sort something out, else I may come down one day and the roof will be in next doors allotment, I don't think they'll be too pleased about that.  Here is a quick picture of how it is coming on.

Six Roof Panels Attached

I've put up my bean supports, and direct planted some French Beans and some Runner Beans.  I have done this down one side of each set of supports, I have also sowed (have I spelt that right?) some Runner Beans in pots in the greenhouse, I will plant out these along the other side of the structure.  Hopefully this will give me differing cropping times, we'll see.  Additionally,  I sowed some Borlotti (French) Beans in the greenhouse, these are to go on the other side of the direct planted ones, these will be left on the plant for picking at the end of the season and drying for stews etc in the winter.  When I pull up my Garlic and Shallots towards the end of the month, I will plant another crop of French Beans, dwarf varieties in the bed which they vacate.  I may even try some in the little polytunnel I have (this isn't ready yet, area still to be dug over and cover put on).

Bean Frames

I've direct sowed some more parsnips.  My first batch which I pre-chitted at home and planted into peat pots were quite successful and these have been planted out and looking quite nice.  Thinking it was going well I tried to do the same again, but only about two seeds germinated, so I tried again, this time none of the seeds germinated.  I've given it one more chance using some free seeds which I got with a magazine only a couple of weeks ago, so the seeds would be viable you'd think.  I've put two/three seeds per station and will thin (hopefully) to one per station if and when they germinate.  I'm not sure with parsnip seeds, they say you have to use fresh each year, but I got the seeds last year but hadn't opened them, they had a sow  by date of 2013 so I thought they'd be OK, but apparently not.  I had hoped to plant out my brassica plants, but the rain came and boy did it come.  I'd dodged the rain all day yesterday and again this morning, but when I returned after some lunch the rain gods were not playing... 

Introducing the Bees

Nothing much more to update you on since my last post, though I have sowed quite a few different pumpkin, squash and courgette plants. Thursday evening is usually my night at the allotment and then at the weekend when I get the opportunity.  As well as doing more squash etc. I've also potted on some of the tomato plants, they are getting so BIG, they must grow inches every day, this lovely weather is doing them the world of good.

I posted a video a few issues ago, giving you a tour around the plot and I am hoping to do this on a monthly basis, but you know how these things pan out, good intentions and all that, but please do keep coming back to have a look.  Hopefully the video works, I think there was a problem with it initially but I have uploaded it onto YouTube and it seems to be working better now.  Anyway, would appreciate it if you could let me know just a yes or no would suffice and then I'll be able to keep at it until it's working properly if things aren't going to plan.

I've just been looking at a video of how plants were in the greenhouse just a couple of weeks ago, wow things are moving along really nicely.  I've been hardening off a few brassica plants, so I might get them planted out at the weekend.

If you did watch the last video, I had to leave you dangling on a piece of string at the end as I had every intention of showing you the bees, but when I got there it was too cold for them and there were very few flying around the hive.  I did however take a quick video of them the other morning...

Come and have a look around..... don't be shy!

So it was great weather over this last weekend, got a good bit done, still some more to do but since we last talked about what i've done for this cropping year here is an update.

• Over-wintering Garlic & Shallots - doing nicely
• Early Broad Beans Planted, starting to make some good growth
• Red Onions & Brown Onions Planted, just beginning to show themselves
• 1st Earlies Planted, nothing showing yet...
• Early & Late Maincrops Planted (thank goodness), along with some Salad Spuds, just planted, wait and see for these
• Pots in tubs at home, shoots coming through... another few weeks before we can have these
• Carrots, starting to come through
• Radishes, coming through...

At home in the greenhouse we've got leeks, cabbage (summer, autumn & winter), calabrese, purple sprouting, beans, turnips, swede, sweetcorn, peppers, chillies, tomatoes, aubergine, cucs, butternut squash, courgette, sprouts, lettuce, beetroot and parsnips (lettuce & parsnips are roughing it outdoors now, ready to be moved into the plot at the weekend.

Well, here is my first video, giving you a quick walk around the plot, i'm afraid at the end I was going to take you over to meet the bees, but they were not flying around so we'll have to complete that another day.  Hope you like it