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.

Grape Vine Haircut

We've pretty much left the allotment alone. It's been too cold and damp to do much, but today it was bright and clear, although still a bit cold. So bundled up warm I decided that it was well past the time that the grape vine had a bit of "short back and sides".

Only the main branches should be kept, the rest of last years growth needs to be removed so that it should start sprouting again around May time. So after a short while with the secateurs it looked much better.

Of course now it exposes the fact that the Shed itself is in need of a little bit of TLC. But I guess that'll have to wait until things start getting a little warmer... and I can buy some more wood preservative.

Bundle of 'barb

 It's been cold and wet down the allotment recently. There has been an unseasonably amount of rain. There has also been a delivery of much needed woodchips so I wasted little time in getting a good couple of dozen barrowloads put onto the plot, at least where I've dug out the couch grass. There is still so much digging to do though.

But in the greenhouse there is a lot of work still to be done. Courgettes need to be potted on into bigger pots. More sweetcorns need to be sown to replace the ones that were high up on the shelves and got hit be the frost ages ago.

And outside, despite the cold, things are starting to grow. The Grape Vine has started sprouting leaves. It's a little bit later this year than previous years, but at least there are some flowers on the Blueberries as well.

And finally, the rhubarb is going great guns., It does seem to be loving this cold damp weather. Sadly this year, I won't be making the infamous Rhubarb and Ginger Jam. Why? Because we already have a load left over from previous years.

But at least the neighbours can have a fresh rhubarb crumble instead.

Bit of a hair cut

 I need a hair cut. I haven't had it cut for over a year now. Nor have I shaved. So at present I look like the Wild Man of the Woods. I'm going to have to try and stop the birds nesting in there come spring. But that's not the only thing that needs a haircut.

The Grape Vine hasn't been trimmed since it lost all it's leaves last Autumn. So finally today the weather is good enough for me to venture out (with mask of course) to get to the allotment for a while. Needless to say the Vine was in dire need of trimming. So that was first on the To-Do list today.

So with my trusty secateurs I gave it a good going over. I also fixed the hanging roof board which you can see in the picture above.

Next job was the compost bins. I've been filling them non-stop since, I don't know when. At least a year. And they're now full. So the oldest one I unearth and started a new bin. Some of the large pieces I dug out went into the new bin and the remains I dug into some of the beds which were last seen under water. They were a bit stinky, but the soil was loose and easy to turn. With the new compost they should be OK. I was rather gratified to see a large number of worms so it looks like they'll be OK.

By the time I got round to dealing with those I got the call from The Wife to go and pick her and shopping up. So thats all for today. At least with the weather getting a little warmer and the daylight getting a little longer, I may be able to get down here a little more often. Mind you, there were a lot of people on the allotment so I'm guessing there will be a bit more company down here. Masks at the ready!

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.

Allotment Week - Under lockdown - Day 20 - New life

Seems like everything is enjoying the sun this week. Even the Grape Vine has got in on the action.

This ties in with previous times of the year as well. So, all is on schedule. Apart from the lockdown of course.

I did have plans for doing the rear part of the plot, but because I can't get access to the equipment and parts necessary to build the seating area, it looks like this will once again have to be postponed. No big deal really, after all if we clear the spot right next to the small greenhouse we can drag out the table and chairs for a picnic and barbecue again. At least once restrictions are lifted.

It's all rotten

Not the produce... the paths. This last week has seen heavy rain, and as the temperatures are dropping at the end of summer that can only mean it's mushroom season. And boy are they coming out in force. Almost every path on the plot is sprouting little brown conical caps.

That's the reason I use woodchips for the paths. Well at least one of the many reason. I hate grass. You have to keep cutting it. You can't eat it. (OK technically you can but... meh). The wood chips rot down and make the nutrients available to other plants that need it. ie. the veggies.

Not that we have much veggies left these days. We "cleared" the old sweet corn bed of the stalks that we harvested last week. Well it's not fully cleared as there are some rogue Cape Gooseberries that have sprouted in there, and also buried somewhere in the middle is probably a whole load of potatoes.

Back in June I simply threw a whole load of potatoes into the middle of the sweetcorn bed because I was simply too exhausted in trying to do any kind of work. Threw them in and hoped for the best. There are some down there. But I won't dig them out just yet. I may end up regretting that and I'll probably end up with rogue potatoes in the bed for many years to come. Ah well.

But we did manage to scavenge a few last minute goodies from the plot.

Grapes from the vine (at least the ones which weren't stolen) and the last of the cucumbers. The sweetcorn was from last week. I thought I could leave them at the plot but the damp weather has started to rot the outside leaves so I thought it better to strip them and take them home to dry out a bit. And I still have to get round to making that cornmeal and cornbread.

Maybe this weekend? Nah. Don't think so.

Dead, dead, dead

We had a heavy frost last week. We were hoping the Cape Gooseberries would survive enough to ripen. But no, they took it pretty hard.

The flower bed has also finished.

And finally the grapevine. It didn't really succumb to the frost, it just the end of the line for this year. So it's time to give it a drastic haircut.

Now whilst digging out the root stumps of the Cape Gooseberries, something else died. Alas my poor old trusty fork took one leverage too many.

Good job it's end of the season. But I'll need to get a new fork before next season starts. Wonder if they'll have new year sales on garden tools.

Is it a little Chilli in here?

This summer has been hot.

Let me re-phrase that.

This summer has been so damned hot. So hot that the Chillies in the greenhouse have gone crazy. We have had loads and loads of chillies, and they're still producing.

So today's harvest is very specific. We'll be hosting a BBQ tomorrow, (yes, another one), for a friend who is leaving these shores for Australia. We've also invited a few other friends round too. On tomorrows menu is a salsa, so we need Tomatoes and Chillies...

And a few grapes. Look closely and you might find a few potatoes hiding under there as well. They're for us though. So today has mostly been clean up and plot tidy ready for tomorrow.

So tomorrow around 2pm there should be much joviality and food to be had by all.

Sunday Update:
Yes we had our last BBQ of the year. It went down pretty well, with great food and great friends.

When was the last time you had a BBQ on your plot?

Bucket'o'spuds

So the spuds that are planted in the ground have seen their last. Their foliage is dying... which means it's time to dig them up.

Now normally, we do spuds in bags. In fact this year we have bags and buckets. I've already upturned a few bucket and found that the output was rather low. So I wasn't really expecting much from these. However as you can see, we've got a whole bucket of them. Certainly far more than I expected. So it would seem that the amount of spuds produced is in direct proportion to the size of the container... in this case the bed. But there is also a correlation to the amount of work necessary to obtain them. Bed spuds need careful digging. Buckets and bags can just be simply upturned.

So after the spuds were dug out I planted some of the pot bound tomatoes that were dying in the greenhouse. They were at the very back and as I didn't have any larger pots, they were decidedly sorry for themselves.

Mind you... it's still a jungle in there.

Yes, I know there may be blight issues since potatoes and tomatoes are the same plant family, but I suspect that this heat will keep the blight away by drying out the spores before they can set.

We're also expecting good things from the grapes this year as well.

And our Edamame (Soy beans) are now ready for harvest.

So today's harvest is thus (not including the bucket'o'spuds)

A typical Japanese snack is to have boiled salted edamame and a beer. Well, I don't drink beer, so I guess a Dandelion and Burdock will do instead. Cheers!

How do you know when Sweetcorn is ready?

I'm now at the same dilemma as last year. How can I tell when the Sweetcorn is ready?

There are some who say that it's when the tassels turn brown. Well on some they started brown!
Then there are those who say that it's when the tassels stop being sticky. Some of the new tassels are already not sticky. The rain washed any "stickiness" off them.
There are those who say that you have to pick a cob and test it. That's all very well if you have a field full and can risk losing some of your crop for testing.

I just wish that there was a simple way of finding out.

Meanwhile, the grapes are starting to fill out.

And we upended one of our potato bags to a an extremely disappointing harvest. This is the total of our Red Russets.

Considering that the pallet board is a mere 4 inches across, those 7 spuds are minuscule. Maybe the late frost did more harm to them than we anticipated. Anyway, not all is lost. We do have a few other bags where there is still plenty of foliage. So hopefully we can get some spuds.

But I'd still like to know about the sweetcorn. Or maybe I should just leave them on the stalks to harden and settle for making popcorn.

Pros and Cons of Watering

It's summer and everything is growing and blooming. Unfortunately long dry spells can spell disaster for plants that need a decent drink.

I have tomatoes in the greenhouse, and if I leave them a little to long without a drink they end up wilting. So instead I place the pots into trays.

Watering the plants and then filling the trays helps keep them watered a little while longer.

Which leads to the next big question about watering during hot weather.. what time of day should you water? Personally for me, I've found that watering very early works better. When you water in the evening the surface stays wetter longer, allowing those pesky slugs and snails to come out and slither around. Watering in the mornings, means the water has chance to soak in allowing the veggies time to absorb it during the heat of the day.

My courgettes really seem to appreciate this method as then have really started to produce now.

And the sweetcorn has really shot up. Not bad considering that the start of the year looked like we weren't going to get any.

Even the rhubarb and grape vine is enjoying summer.

Whilst we enjoy some of the early fruits from the blueberries.

Now if only my butternut squashes would start producing too.

The 2017 Courgette Tally:

18

Heat wave

It's been a bit warm recently. Today was forecast to reach 28°C, so with that in mine we elected to get to the plot early before it got too hot to do anything. Obviously first on the agenda was to water the plants as many appeared to be somewhat parched.

Nevertheless, many had been loving the additional warmth and had started to rocket off. Some of which were the remaining sweetcorn which had stayed in their growing trays in the greenhouse. Untangling their roots was a bit of a chore, but I did eventually get them out and put into the second sweetcorn bed. They are so much bigger than the ones that were put out last week.

The beans were also starting to get a little yellow. Possibly from the heat they were in, possibly because we'd been almost drowning them in water to ensure they stayed alive. So they also went out.

The grape vine has also recovered from the late frost and has started putting out a load of leaves. Better late than never, but I'm still not certain what impact this will have on grape production. Mind you, it's not like we get a lot of grapes of it anyway.

And we have our first courgette of the season. Only a few centimetres long and not ready yet. But it offers hope for the rest of the season.