Dull Day on the Plot

Dull? But the weather was so sunny? No, it's not a description of the weather, but the fact that the most exciting piece of work I did at the allotment was start a new compost pile. That's what passes for excitement here at present.

And here, in all it's exciting glory is...

The compost bin. Yeah, I said it was a dull day. The bin itself is filled with weeds. These weeds have not yet set any seeds and are not invasive so they make a good start. And yes that is only about a foot from the top because I spent a good couple of hours digging the damn thing out. They're mostly a combination of fresh new thistles, lambs quarters and sticky willy. Along with a shed load of other stuff I couldn't even begin to identify. After all, a weed is just a plant that growing in the wrong location.

On the subject of growing, the Grape Vine has started putting forth it's leaves.

And one of the other vigorously growing plant is the phacelia. When I say vigorous, I mean it. It's virtually taken over The Wife's flower bed. Just as well really because the bees were swarming over it today.

Allotment Week - Day 2 - Has beans

So I tried planting out the Edamame back in April (as it said on the instructions). Bad move. The slugs and snails (and weeds) had a field day with them. Yesterday I dug over all the middle beds ready. Today, just a brief trip to the plot, but it's time to put the beans out.

Again it was the old toilet roll trick to get them going. Although I'm wondering how well they'll fare as a lot of the roots had grow out of the rolls and into the rolls adjacent to them. There was some root damage as I tried to prise them apart. Hopefully they'll be OK.

And as promised yesterday, here is the photo of the pink poppies... complete with bumblebee.

Tomorrow, I think I need to plat out the sweetcorn as it's getting rather tall... except the bed that it's scheduled to go into is worse than the beds I dug out yesterday, combined. Not looking forward to that.

 

Allotment Week - Day 1 - It's like Deja-vu all over again.

So I am forced to take holiday. I am carrying over the maximum allowed into my next year, because I haven't been able to take holiday. But that's pretty much the same for everybody.

Anyway, today is the day after rain. Yesterday (and a bit on Thursday) we had a torrential downpour, and boy do the weeds love it. So today I'm back to the same old thing... Digging weeds and beds and more weeds and...

I dug for a few hours until my back and legs started complaining. So I didn't get as much done as I wanted, but sufficient to start planting out some of the things in the greenhouse. The beds I dug were the failed Edamame ones from earlier in the year. Hopefully the replacements will be a little more robust.

But at least the Poppies are liking it. The Red and Whites are thriving around the compost bins.

And the Pinks are starting to come into flower in The Wife's flower bed. Guess I'll have to take photos of those tomorrow.

By the pricking of my thumbs...

So the correct term, before it obtained such lewd connotations, is Pricking Out. And we have a lot of plants that are in dire need of just such an activity. First off we have the Chillies. After a very slow start I thought that we wouldn't have much in the way of chillies this year as nothing sprouted. But I suspect that it was the cold April that caused everything to be slow, and I was almost considering throwing out the tray of seeds are starting all over again. But when May started rolling round, things seemed suddenly trigger into action. And now I have a tray of about 20 seedlings all requiring their own pots.

After I had finished here, The Wife got to work clearing up. As you can see this task was done on a pallet balanced on the end of the flower bed. A bed which was growing more weeds than the afore mentioned flowers. So The Wife started clearing it to plant a few remaining flowers such as Calendular that we had growing.

Meanwhile I was still doing battle with the couch grass around the big beds trying to get a bit of space to start planting out some of our courgettes.

So I don't know if my thumbs are aching from just the digging or the pricking out, or maybe it's simply because in amongst all the grass were a whole load of thistles and my gloves are not the thickest (cheap Wilko gloves, £1 a pair) and the thistle spikes kept digging into me. I certainly don't need to be a great detective to figure this one out.

Flower power

The veggies are prolific at the moment. But that's not all.

The Wife is really happy that all her flowers are blooming. Her flower bed of mixed blooms are showing a variety of flowers. I couldn't even name one of them.

At the front of the plot, the petunias in the trough are in full flower.

And the Sunflower is attracting it's fair share of bees.

A while back, we discovered an albino spider. I expressed a hope that it would survive. I am happy to report that we have found another one. Now either it's the same spid, or one of it's offspring, or a totally new totally new one with the same genetic shortcoming.

Anyway, I am happy to see a unique spid living large down the plot.

Elsewhere we're looking forward to a few beetroot...

... and a really bumper crop of grapes this year.

After the rain comes the weeds

So, we actually had some reasonable rain. It has been one of the driest springs on record. So when the rain gets into the ground, all of those dormant weeds start trying to take over. Which is where the woodchips come into play.

Those of you who remember that earlier in the year I started putting down newspaper with a large helping of woodchips. Those of you with a logical mind, may have thought I was stupid to do so. After all the newspaper will rot and let the weeds grow through. And you'd be correct. But that's the whole point. The newpaper will blanket out some of the weeds meaning that they won't be able to germinate and will die. Those that do manage to grow through have a strong root system. Which means once they poke their heads through I can get a good grip on them and pull them out, root and all.

Take a look at the difference between where I ran out of woodchips...

And where I originally started...

Yes, there is a whole load of grass growing in the paths, but it's easy to just loosen up the paths, get a good grip and pull. Sometimes a piece of root gets left behind, but that can wait until another day.

Then again, if the paths get left too long there are other issues. Way back when... I put down some weed membrane followed by woodchips. But it has been left so long now, that the woodchip has broken down to soil, and the grass has grown though it. As such it is now incredibly difficult to pull the old membrane out without serious issues.

But at the front of the plot, we have our petunias on display again. Hopefully they will distract from the fact that there is a very large compost bin right behind them.

And yes, now I'm home, I can tell you one of the biggest issues that all that weeding and pulling has done. I've put my back out. Bending is now seriously painful. Breakout the icepacks.

Weeds, watering and... waiting?

It's going to be a hot "scorcher" today. That means an early trip to the plot. We were onsite by 7.30am. It was cool, calm, and the birds were singing. Just a perfect time to sit down with a cup of coffee and enjoying the silence (apart from the birds that is). I dragged one of our patio chairs out, and The Wife sat in her usual flowerbed seat surrounded by flowers and the gentle buzzing of a rather large number of bumblebees.

We have our first strawberries of the year.

Only two, but there are plenty of others promised for the future.

Our main job today was more weeding and watering. We won't be back until Wednesday night, so we have to make sure that everything has enough water for a couple of days, through some pretty serious temperatures according to the weather forecast.

The apple tree is starting to form loads of little "applelets". We can't really count them as proper apples because at present all the apples are growing upwards, which is the same as the apple blossom. Then there is the "June Drop" where the weight of the growing fruit makes them hang down, and if the apple tree does not have enough sap and strength, then those which can't make it, fall off.

So whether this year will be a good apple harvest remains to be seen. It's certainly promising a good crop, but we'll see. It's all a matter of waiting.

The Last Compost

Last as in the Compost Bins that is. Not the last of all the compost. I still have the couple of bags that I bought a few weeks back. But those bags will be used for the Tomatoes.

No, todat is a day for digging out the final compost bin. This is the bin that's been here the longest. About 3 years if I recall correctly. So for the most part there is a load of compost in there. However the bad news is that because it's been there so long it's settled and compacted. Which means that digging it out is hard work.

Ok, the stuff on the tops is still fresh. So that simply gets moved en-mass to the new bin area. (The bed at the very front which was the old Chard bed). But the lower levels need to be dug out, sieved and so on. It's back breaking work. Especially in the hot sun.

But when the jobs done, we can relax in the sunshine, guzzle a cool drink and watch the bees humming in the flowers in The Wife's raised bed.

The Foxgloves are just starting to flower, but the borage (I think it's borage anyway) Phacelia (Thanks Belinda) is already in full bloom, and if my camera didn't have so much issues trying to focus on the bees close up, I'd give you a photo of them too.

This sunshine isn't doing the Pak Choi any favours though. It looks like it's starting to bolt to seed already. Guess what we'll be eating over the weekend?

Squelching time again

So the storms have passed, but we're still getting a lot of rain. So much so that once again the plot is underwater. Which kind of puts our plans on hold. We can't dig any of the beds. Movement on the plot is restricted. And we certainly can't get the greenhouses clean because the tap water is still switched off.

So in the meantime, there is very little to do. I did slaughter the other two George's that were at the allotment and I left the seeds drying on a high shelf in the greenhouse, out of the reach of any pesky rodents.

So the only thing I can do is leave you with a picture of the daffs which appear to be enjoying themselves in the weak spring sunshine.

New Life

I have just finished a two hour stint in the Allotment Shop. Needless to say that we did not have many customers at all. Only two. But we did have another allotmenteer stop by for a cup of tea.

I think the weather is definitely keeping people away. And I don't blame them. We've just had two weekends of storms, and it's still very blustery out there right now. Far too windy for any decent working on the plot, even if mine is a bit squelchy underfoot from all the rain.

But there are signs of life. Things are starting to perk up and break through. The welcome yellow sight of the Daffs for one.

And two, the Rhubarb is starting to peek through.

Soon I'll be able to make my infamous Rhubarb and Ginger Jam again. But until then, there is much to be done. Just not today.

More Watering

We're hoping that our tomatoes will actually ripen in the late August sunny weather. But one thing is certain, they won't survive unless they get plenty of water. So that's my job. Watering.

I was so busy watering that I didn't really take many photos. OK, I took one, and that was when we first arrived on the plot. The Morning Glory was in full flower up and over the archway.

The rest of the time was watering for me, weeding for The Wife. We did manage to get a few toms of the rogue plants, but the Ildi and the Sweet Millions just aren't producing. Perhaps a dose of Tomorite might help them along.

Despite having a new sun hat, I was wilting worse than the parched plants and after a couple of hours decided that discretion was the better part of valour and headed for home, with instructions to deliver some rhubarb from a plot neighbour, to a house neighbour.

New Visitor

We haven't seen any of the old foxes for a while now. We suspect they've moved on or, more sadly, probably succumbed to the way most urban foxes do. The average life span of an urban fox is tragically short.

Anyhow, we now have a new resident that we suspect is this years cub. Since she carries the distinctive sharp face stripes and white tuft tail we think she may be the descendent of Billy the Bully. In our typical naming fashion we've called her Francesca.

But even a quick visit for her didn't stop us from trying to fight back against the weed menace. This was after about our fourth wheelbarrow-full.

Meanwhile, I tried to tie up the tomatoes that were outside. They've flopped everywhere and seem to be losing their flowers. Hopefully lifting them and cutting back some of the foliage will force the flowers to set and fruit to ripen.

These are Ildi tomatoes and they produce quite a set of fruits. If the flowers are anything to go by that is.

The Gladioli are putting up a load of flower spikes which keeps The Wife happy.

But we did get a reasonable harvest considering how neglected the plot is. (Plums courtesy of a neighbour)

Attack of the Mutant Daffodil

So the daffs are on their way out. They did a sterling job getting the place all bright and flowery. But sadly now a lot are going to seed and fading away. We still have a couple that look normal...

But we have one which is decidedly abnormal. It's just plain weird...

It's either some sort of mutant, or we've just found a new type of Daff. Definitely going to get the seeds from this one and see if it breeds true.

(Update: So apparently this is a variety is a "Double Daffodil" known as Golden Ducat. I'm still going to see if it spreads seeds or grows more bulbs though.)

Anyhoot, after yesterday's cleaning session, it's time to get planting the seeds for the new year of growing.

The Wife has been busy with her Strawberry Empire by sorting out the old potted plants and either planting them in the beds or re-potting them on.

Meanwhile, I finished up the greenhouse and started planting the seeds. We have planted:

Veggies:

• Courgettes
• Sweetcorn
• Beetroot
• Purple Carrot
• Chilli (Apache)
• Pak Choi
• Cape Gooseberries
• Edamame (Soya Beans)
• French Beans
• Sunburst Squash
• Tomatoes (Ildi and Sweet Million)

Flowers:

• Petunia
• Viola
• Morning Glory (Purple)
• Calendula
• Pink and White Spyder Flower
• Red Daisies
• Red Sunflower
• Foxgloves

We now have no almost no room left in the greenhouse.

OK, so maybe there is a little shelf space left. but we still have a lot more stuff to plant. But that's going to have to wait for a while as we're just too exhausted.

Cold start to spring

So a couple of weeks back, we had nice warm temperatures. In February. But since then it's been a combination of rain, wind or the odd named storm... or two.

So trips down the allotment have been sporadic at best and mostly consisted of dashing in, dropping off the kitchen waste in the compost and then heading for home to warm up. Yesterday the weather was abysmal. But today should have been better. We it started off with a short hail storm, but there was plenty of sunshine promised.

The Daffs are in full flower. In fact this photo I grabbed last week but they're still going strong.

The Rhubarb is also starting to poke it's head out.

But if you think back a few years I had another rhubarb that was given away to friend of mine. Well look how well that one is doing on her plot.

There are many different varieties of rhubarb, and I honestly have no idea what mine is because it was already on the plot when I took it over all those years ago. All I know is that it's a regular guaranteed production which is utilised by me mostly as a jam, in combination with ginger.

We tried growing ginger this winter. We managed to get it to sprout quite well and had a stem some 20cm tall with a couple of leaves on it. But for some reason it never got any bigger and eventually died. Now we did keep it quite warm, in the kitchen, but whether it was too close to the window and got hit by a cold snap I can;t be sure, Either way, our attempt to grow our our ginger failed... for now. We'll try again later in the year and see how that goes.

Meanwhile the George that we kept in the kitchen, on top of the cupboards, had reached the end of it's "shelf" life. So it's time to cut it up and get hold of the seeds. But Muppet here, forgot to bring the knife. Fortunately a shovel does the trick, albeit one that's rather dirty.

Other than that, it's a little cold and windy out to be doing much. I did end up clearing some of the weeds in the onion bed. This bed was a sea of green, so although it doesn't look like I've taken a lot of weeds out, I removed two buckets of weeds.

By the time we'd done that (and had a good old chat over coffee with other allotmenteers) there were some serious dark clouds looming, so we thought that it would be best to call it a day. By the time we got home we had a huge hail storm, which turned the top of the car white as if it had snowed. Just as well we missed that. I can only hope that we get some decent weather soon.

Sunny Day for Cleaning

Well now. There's a surprise. A brilliantly sunny and warm day in February. Just the sort of day to highlight how much work we have to do on the plot to get ready for this year's growing season.

Our two greenhouses are in a bit of a state. They need a damn good clean. But the problem there is that the water to the site is still turned off. There are ways around that of course, but only for the small greenhouse. The bigger one will have to suffice with just a sweep-up for now and will have to face a big wash later in the year.

The big greenhouse has the wooden work bench in it.

The smaller has just plain shelving racks.

The small greenhouse was washed down inside. Easy enough to wash the windows, but trying to rinse off the suds if not so easy. Fortunately a watering can with a rose fitted to the end and large amounts of swinging it around to splash the water up onto the roof panes managed to do the trick. It now looks much, much better in there. It is surprising how much of the bloom from tomatoes gets onto the glass.

The big greenhouse just got a general sweep out.

There was plenty of weeding to be down outside as well. We removed a whole mess of weeds that were infesting some of the paths between beds. As well as starting a new compost heap to deposit said weeds in. After that we liberally made use of the huge wood chip pile to put down a thick layer of chips. These will get more added as they settle.

There are also some other areas which need attention. The willow fence that I made as seen better days. But as the new tenants of plot 29 have seen fit to completely chop down the willow tree, I'm not sure where I'll be able to get replacements, if at all.

I might be able to rescue part of it, but it may end up in the fire.

Slowly but surely, we're bringing the plot back to life. It's going to be a while but I have some holiday booked off in a couple of weeks, so we can get things sorted. Meanwhile, the Daffs are going full speed ahead to bring the first flowers to the plot.