Traffic lights in the Kale

We have a rogue load of tomatoes growing in the kale bed. Now the kale is looking a little the worse for wear as most of the leaves have been duly lunched upon by various critters, and it also seems to have a bad case of white fly at present. But the toms are doing OK. In fact they are producing some decent vines of fruit. The colour cascade looks like loads of little traffic lights.

Meanwhile, it looks like the poor old courgettes are on their last legs. The leaves are starting to look a little tired and have a covering of mildew.

But they're still churning them out. We're still collecting loads of them for dinners. Soups, stews, grated, baked, or fried. And we expect a few more yet before they finally give up.

We have harvested the two big "George" marrows. These will become our seeds for next year. One will stay in the shed over the winter, the other will sit on top of the cupboards in the kitchen.

Time to start planning next year's bed rotations and crops.

Potting on and harvests

Quite a few of the plants are starting to get a little pot bound. So it's time to move them to larger pots.

The Chillies are definitely first on the list. As you can see they're still in their small pots and are in need of a little more wiggle room. The pots they're going to will probably be their last move. I have two sets of chillies, and although they were planted at the same time, one set was kept in the large green tray (above) with a permanent half inch of water, and some were left in trays which did dry up occasionally. The ones that were kept in the water were twice the size of the others. Which is odd, because I've always been told that Chillies don't like to get their feet wet.

Meanwhile outside, The Wife has been weeding. The New Zealand Spinach bed has been sitting for a while, and to be honest, I'm not sure that it actually sprouted properly, because I have never seen any sign of it. Which is somewhat disappointing really. But we decided that it was best to cut our losses and plan to put something else in there. We're not sure what. But The Wife really went to town and pulled it all... except for some poppies.

She also found a few rogue Tomato plants which she had me pot up as well. Ah well, free tomatoes are always welcome.

Elsewhere on the plot, the Kale is starting to pick up. We're still keeping it under netting, because there are a large number of pigeons flying around (it is London after all) and those "Rats with Wings" love nothing better than to help themselves to tasty Kale.

All of this work was supervised by our resident vulpine, Fiona, who stopped by to check up on us and make sure we were up to scratch.

So, now we're harvesting. First off we have a load of Rhubarb. This is going to be used in a new batch of Rhubarb and Ginger Jam.

Next the Strawberries are still on a major roll. We have loads of them. And we are also harvesting some Micro Greens (Sweetcorn) for dinner tonight.

Woodchips, Weeds and watering

Just as well I grabbed a few barrow loads on Thursday. They're all gone now. That's what happens when you get a whole load of allotmenteers starved for manure and woodchips. It's a somewhat vital part of growing on the allotment.

Anyhow, the pile I did manage to get has been liberally spread around (most of) the goat paths. But before that was done, I had to remove all the invasive grasses and weeds. So most of the day was spent digging out weeds. But now, the plot is looking a little better.

After that, it was case of watering, watering, and more watering. We haven't had rain now for, I'm guessing, about 2 months. The soil is like dust. Whenever you water it hits the surface and then runs away. So the only way you can make it stick is to rake a few small furrows in the soil (when you're weeding) so the water drains into them. Then allow it to filter down for a while, before going back and watering some more.

Mind you, this heat is being loved by some of the plants. Most notably the Chillies. They're coming along just fine since being potted on.

Elsewhere in the greenhouse, our spare courgettes are looking rather yellow. Not only their leaves, but they have also started producing flowers. A sure sign that they're under stress. Most probably from the fact that they're pot bound. I guess I may just pull them all out and throw them in the compost bins.

But one which we threw into a bucket half full of manure, and topped up with compost and kept in the greenhouse is looking really good.

Outside, the netting which I put over the Kale decided that it was going to all fall down. The trough is empty and as such it's rather light. So we've had a stiff wind blowing around the plot and it fell over and took all the netting with it. Well if it wants to fall over, then let it. I dragged one of the other spare trough over to join it and then re-arranged the netting.

At least it'll keep the damned pigeons off.

Kale, Weeds and a visit from an old friend

So I was down the plot bright and early this morning. I'd actually been up since about 5am, but I arrived on the plot about 7am. First job was to plant out the Kale. The last Kale we had (a good few years back) was eaten by the pigeons. So this lot I am determined to protect.

I put the netting over one of the troughs. The Tomatoes are not yet big enough to be put outside, so I'll use it for support for the time being.

After they were done, I started attacking some of the weeds and grasses that were infesting the goat paths between the beds. The plot is looking much better these days.

And of course, The Wife's Strawberry Empire is looking pretty good.

I also managed to get a decent photo of a Bumblebee on the Phacelia. (The others were too blurry)

Inside the Greenhouse, we have the remainder of the Courgettes.

And on the other side there are the Tomatoes, a few sweetcorn, a couple of Sunflowers (need to find a home for them soon), Mint and Chillies. Plus a few Beetroot which survived the ravages of the Mouse.

Up on the top shelf, are the rest of the Sweetcorn. They'll have to go out next week I suspect.

Whilst I was packing up to leave, I noticed some movement out of the corner of my eye. Not seen any sight nor sounds of the foxes for a couple of months. But here she is poking her nose in.

Not sure which one this is, as we've kind of lost track of the fox history. But I wish she was around earlier in the year to deal with that mouse. Anyway, good to see her back.

Warm weather brings out the best... and the worst

As other allotmenteers have already pointed out, this weekend's weather has been a little warm. One of the benefits of being outside of a lovely sunny day is you get a good dose of vitamin D. Of course, it's not just you that gets a benefit. So do the unwanted things... like pigeons and weeds.

My poor kale as sadly passed beyond help thanks to the rats-with-wings. So it's time to pull it to may way for other goodies.

Elsewhere the lambs-quarters has started back with abundance. Time for large amounts of weed pulling. But on the plus side, clearing beds of weeds makes way for more tasty varieties of plants. The Sweetcorn has just gone in... but obviously it needs a little protection from aerial assault. So I extended the netting from the peas to fit. It's not ideal, but it should help.

Yeah, I know that the corn grows higher than the peas would and the frame should be the other way around. Well there is still time to switch it. I'm just trying to make room in the over crowded greenhouse. Talking of which, time to put the first lot of borlotti's out. These were planted in my coffee cup holders and they seem to have started pretty well. Got a few more on the go to fill out the bed and probably take over from the kale.

But one thing is for certain, if this hot weather keeps up, then the plants are going to be needing a lot more drinks of water. Like me. No scratch that, I'll have a nice cool cider please.

End of year roundup

So it's been a busy old year down the allotment.

What has worked well, and what didn't? Well this year I started getting the beds into shape. Still have a few more beds to build and there is the ever present threat of bindweed and brambles. Those I suspect will be an ever ongoing battle. But by having clearly defined growing spaces it's easier to pull what shouldn't be there.

So here is a full list of everything:

• Apples - Good crop. Certainly better than last year. But again infested with maggots.
  
• Artichoke - More blooms than last year. Bees really loved it. One of these years we may actually eat some of them.
  
• Beetroot - Again a pretty good success. New batches of pickled beetroot were produced as well as them being in copious salads and dinners.
  
• Blueberries - Produced more than last year. So they're on their way. Next year they will have to go into larger pots in spring.
• Borlotti Beans - A goodly amount. Though suffered slightly from mildew. There was a sufficient amount that it will be worth trying again next year, with this years resulting beans.
• Carrots - Despite adding sand to this years bags, they came out all deformed. Still edible, where you could actually get something of a reasonable size. But even so, still no a success by anybodies measures.
  
• Cauliflower - Hmmm. They seems to be coming along nicely, then after the rains they suddenly turned to mush without getting to any really decent size. Not sure what went wrong there.
• Courgettes - Yeah, for the third year running these have been a runaway success. Good job we really like courgettes. Next year definitely have to get around to trying my hand in drying them.
• Flowers - The wife loved the flowers this year. Foxgloves, Cosmos, poppies and loads of other varieties. She's going to be taking over more of the plot next year. Guess I may as well try and put up with it.
  
• Grapes - We actually had some this year. Previous years had seen them stolen off the vine (and no it wasn't the birds, birds don't take the stalks as well). They were sweet but a little tart. Suspect they may be wine grapes as opposed to dessert grapes.
  
• Herbs - Hmm. Partial success. The herb bed was just a scattering of various seeds. Unfortunately the haphazard way of planting also resulting in a multitude of weeds taking hold which kind of throttled the herbs. The Basil withered, the thyme seems to have survived though so maybe it's not a great loss. We'll probably rip it out and try anew next year though.
• Kale - Grew brilliantly. Loads of leaves all ready to eat... and then the pigeons discovered it.
• Leaf Beet - Big success. They went to seed this year, so in the bottom of the leaf beet bed, there are hundreds of seedlings. Looking forward to a good crop next year.
• Leeks - Never really amounted to anything. Anyway, they're still in the ground, so maybe they'll pick up somewhat.
• Onions - Slightly better than last year, but still not much of a size. Still two new full jars of pickled onions to replace the ones used up from last year.
  
• Potatoes - Good crop of Maris Peers and Russets. A rogue one popped up in the ground as opposed to the bags.
  
• Rhubarb - The large rhubarb at the front once again produced a staggering amount of stalks. More Rhubarb and Ginger Jam.
• Runner Beans - Huge success. Some were eaten young as normal. But others were left to grow into huge bean pods which resulted in a huge addition to the soups and stews.
  
• Soya Beans - Abject failure. Not one of the 50 beans I planted germinated.
• Strawberries - Big success. The tendency of strawberries to produce runner means that these are slowly starting to take over the plot... which is no bad thing.
  
• Sweet Potato - Despite an early failure these were a reasonable success. Will be bother again? Probably not. The corms that were produced seemed a little on the small side. Plenty of them, but it makes cooking rather tricky. 
• Tomatoes - the smaller cherry toms did really well. But the outside larger ones were less so. For one, the Black Russian ones didn't have much taste. Nice colour, but we won't be growing those again. Cherries however are now a firm favourite.
  

Cooking wise, there we certainly made the most of the abundant berries and made jams galore. Both the afore mentioned Rhubarb and Ginger, and the Blackberry jams meant I was starting to run out of jam jars. The new label printer has certainly help though. Maybe I ought to think about a Plot 30 logo?

Although I mentioned it last year as something to try, I never got round to dehydrating stuff. The courgettes would be a good starting choice, but possibly the apples as well. Really must do it next year.

Anyhow, the remainder of the year will see me pulling and pushing the beds into better shape. Hopefully building some sort of cage to prevent those pesky pigeons getting in and maybe even some sort of strawberry tower. We shall see.

November days and blue skies

Don't let the blue skies fool you. Over night the temperature went sub-zero as evidenced by the ice on the water dip tanks, and the weed mulch bucket. It also took a toll on the last remaining sweet potato plant. Definitely time that this was dug up.

The corm were a reasonable size. Not massive, but definitely sort of edible. I say sort of, because there was a lot of evidence of worm activity. However if they are anything like the normal potatoes that were dug from the ground, then it's not worms which are the major problems, but ants. They do like making their nests inside. They get a decent meal, are reasonably secure inside, and can carve out their nest chambers with ease from the inside out.

Elsewhere on the plot the flower bed has finally stopped producing flowers. It's been a good run and we let the all go to seed. So hopefully there will be more next year. But given that this flower bed was built on top of the old spinach bed, there a still a lot of spinach plants that want keep rearing up. As the saying goes, a weed is just a plant growing in the wrong place. And these are definitely considered a weed. Albeit a delightfully edible one.

Time to attack and pull them out. Some will go for tonight's dinner. Others will grace the compost heap.

The Kale has also come under attack. But from aerial predators. The "rats with wings" (aka pigeons), have take delight at the bounty now before them and have happily munched their way through a whole load of leaves. They seem to have managed to unhook the netting that was being used to protect it. But then again that may have moved in the storms.

Hopefully it'll regrow.

There is still a lot to do over the winter. I spent most of today digging the fox mound. Those foxes seemed to have been very house proud as I dug out some industrial carpet squares and paving slabs. They seemed to have been using those as roof supports. Although technically I suspect they simply dug under the existing, buried, slabs. Either way, the mound is being moved off to the side to become next years courgette mound, and make place for a new long bed which will probably be dedicated to strawberries.

I think I'll have to do a separate yearly round up post as we have had quite a few successes and quite a number of failures this year. It'll be good to make a note of what worked and what didn't.

But our mound of beans has dried off nicely.