Strawberries and Seeds

I learned my lesson from yesterday. I went to the plot at 9am this morning to get things sorted out before the heat of the day sends me running for cover. Upon opening the greenhouse, I saw a scurry of movement underneath the stands. Suspecting a mouse I bent down to check it out only to see a flurry of feathers. A male House Sparrow had got in, probably through the open window and was somewhat trapped. He managed to make good his escape though. He may have got in yesterday as there were quite a few bird droppings on the chair and other places. But he seemed just fine as there were places where he could drink from the seed trays.

On the subject of seeds, before the heat got too much I started planted a whole load more seeds into pots and trays.

More Peas, Crown Princes, Tumbling Tom Tomatoes (Both Red and Yellow varieties), some more Kelsae Onions, and some Burpless Cucumbers.

Yesterday when I got home, I recharged my electric screwdriver to help in trying to build the shelves, but even fully charged it doesn't have enough strength to turn the screws in. My old drill used a NiCad battery and as is typical with those things the battery is now dead and won't hold a charge so it can't really be used for this. So I think I'll have to bring my BIG screw driver which allows me to get a better grip. At present the shelves are still in bits, and hence are not really photogenic yet.

Meanwhile the Wife's Strawberry Empire has been neglected somewhat. It's now full of clover, thistles and dandelions mixed in with all the strawberries. These have also sprouted runners which are all over the place. Not really a problem but it does need sorting. I dug everything out, putting all the strawberry plants into a separate bucket ready to be re-planted afterwards.

Before...

After...

I'm sure you'll agree that it is much better, but I will have to keep an eye on the re-planted strawberries just to make sure that they take. They should be OK, as Strawbs are reasonably tolerant of being disturbed.

Oh what a tangled web we weave

Or rather what a tangled web that Couch Grass roots grow into when you're attempting to dig the blighters out.

I've mentioned before about Couch Grass. It's the most common weed that I have here now that I've spent years eradicating bind weed and brambles. Yes there are the odd bramble or bind weed that rears its ugly head and I can pull but as I've managed to get through the plot I've managed to keep things reasonably under control. But Couch Grass is the pain that just keeps on coming.

It can send out rhizomes that go underneath paths, and any kind of mulch. Which is why, when I put down a load of newspaper and wood chips last year, it didn't work as I hoped. Now I am digging through the same area that I covered trying to dig out these roots. The newspaper is long gone. The woodchips have started to breakdown into decent soil, but it is still quite friable. The problem are these roots.

They criss-cross under and over each other. They form a mat underneath that takes huge amounts of work to get them out. They break easily. So thats what I'm doing. I'm grabbing handfuls at a time and pulling them out. I guess this winter is going to be weed eradication as far as I can because I really need to get on top of this before it gets so much worse.

The Council have sent their contractor it to empty the waste areas, and in doing so they also piled up the woodchips to such an extent that they are now pushing over the fence to the woodchip bay into my plot. No real haslle there over than it's a bit awkward to get past. But as you're walking on top of a load of Couch Grass... so what? At least once I get rid of the stuff it's extremely easy for me to replace all the paths without having to truck it about on my broken barrow. But of course, there is the issue of getting rid of the weeds in the first place.

I've done 3m of pathway in a couple of hours and the damn stuff is still there. It's hard going.

Meanwhile The Wife has been tending to her Strawberry Empire and started planting some of the runners from the strawberry beds, into pots rather than letting them plant themselves into pathways.

So now there are loads of little pots dotted about. She's left the runner intact for now as it does help with keeping the daughter plants alive whilst they settle into their new homes. I'm guessing that next year she might want another bed to let them take over. Or they may just end up filling up odd spots where some of the mothers are not looking so healthy. Or she may want some more planting troughs to put them in. I don't know as yet.

Either way, I'd better hurry up and clear these weeds out so that there is room to move around.

The 2021 Courgette Tally:

55

First strawberries of the year

 So today's sojourn to the allotment for watering showed that there were a large number of strawberries ripe and ready for eating. Guess the sunshine has brought them on.

Roll on the smoothies!

Bed Prep for Strawberries

 So whilst we are on this bed prep scheme, it's time to look at the Strawberry Empire. Now our Strawberry beds (we have 3 of them) are also somewhat infested with weeds, but there is also a lot of good plants in there. Fortunately Strawbs are pretty resilient beasties so we decided that the best bet would be to completely fig out the bed, separate out the strawberry plants and re-plant. So that is what The Wife did.

Meanwhile, I got busy with the remains of the wheelbarrow to start putting down more woodchips. The first task was to scrap out some of the existing wood chips from around the Flower Bed as it had composted down into a decent enough soil. The old soil was thrown into the new compost bins so finish breaking down and to infuse it with more nutrients, and new woodchip was acquired and thrown down.

I also put a few more barrowfuls on the main path.

But there is definitely signs of life on the plot. Even the Rhubarb has decided that now is the time to poke it's head above ground.

Of course it too has to deal with grass and weeds. Or rather I need to pull those out. Something for tomorrow then.

A wet Wednesday harvest

Well June is the exact opposite of March, April and May. It's been throwing it down. But things are still managing to churn out some goodies.

The last of the strawberries, some peas, a handful of blueberries, a courgette and an odd little turnip that was accidentally pulled out whilst pulling out the weeds that are sprouting like crazy after all this rain.

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.

Deliveries

Today has been a day for deliveries. Firstly there has been a huge delivery of rain yesterday. Very much welcome indeed as we haven't had a decent rainfall for a couple of months. Secondly there has been a delivery of Woodchips and manure into the bays next to our plot. There was so much manure that it broke the back wall of the bay and it all poured out onto our plot. I didn't bother taking a photo, after all, who wants to see a big steaming pile of shite? If you really want to offend your eyes with a big steaming pile of shite, then you may as well go here.

Thirdly the courgettes and strawberries are now delivering.

We are now only down to two cucumbers (thanks to that damned mouse) so we're getting the 2nd greenhouse setup to handle two large trellises to grow our cucumbers on. They are in large buckets, but we need a good way to water them. The buckets have had holes drilled in the bottom, so at present the water leaks out. There is a back shelf in the greenhouse, but I thought the best way would be to turn it upside-down and put the buckets in between the slats. Except they are just a little too large. Cue the saw.

I cut a little angle out of the slats to allow the bucket to sit better and by using the plastic from the old compost bags, which were so useful last year, we could drop the buckets into the holes and make our own watering trays.

It's also time to start putting our Tumbling Toms outside as they're getting a little pot bound and droopy staying inside the greenhouse all the time. We've put three into one of the troughs.

Others we have put into much larger pots and they'll stay inside the greenhouse.

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.

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.

Planting out, potting on and weeding.

So we have a number of seeds in the greenhouse that are getting pot bound. So it's time to get stuff out of the greenhouse and into the ground. First off we have the Peas.

I'll add some canes and possibly some netting at a later date. For now, it's better for getting them out for the time being as they are starting to go a bit yellow being cooped up in the greenhouse all the time. We planted 40 toilet rolls worth of peas, but only 34 made it out.

Next off there is the second tray of turnips.

I'm not so fussed about whether these make it or not, as there is the main bed of turnips. But we may as well put them out. These ones obviously don't have any holes in the leaves unlike those I showed you yesterday. I'm sure the Flea Beetles will find them eventually.

I also planted out 9 of the courgettes into the Deep End beds. But I forgot to take photos.

Whilst I was doing the planting, The Wife was weeding her Strawberry Empire.

After that she re-potted the Tomatoes and the two remaining Cucumbers. But they'll be staying in the greenhouse.

We also threw away some of the seeds that hadn't taken, such as the Purple Carrots, and the Cape Gooseberries (though we did find 1 single one - maybe). So, now the greenhouse is a little emptier.

Plant more seeds? Maybe. Have to see what we still have in stock. Mind you, it won't be today.

Compost!

I had an email during the week, from the MAGA Committee. I wasn't the only lucky recipient, they sent it to everybody. It was informing us that they have managed to obtain a couple of pallets of compost and they will be selling it for a short time on Saturday morning from 11am.

Considering that the Wood Chips and Manure bays are totally empty, then this is something that is very much in need.

So I duly joined the queue first thing. I wasn't the only one there as there were plenty ahead of me, and loads more behind.

Once I managed to claim my two bags (limited numbers) I wheeled them back on my flat-tire barrow, back to the plot. I really do need to get that tire fixed. Or get a new barrow.

Anyway, I have a lot of plants which are getting to the stage that I need to pot them on. Or plant them out. But I suspect that some of the plants, if they are put into beds, would be severely hampered by the pests. I don't want a repeat of the Slug Party.

I already seem to be suffering from some Flea Beetle issues on the turnips.

But some of the plants in the beds are making a decent showing. The beans have finally broken through and seem to be heading for the stars.

And The Wife's strawberry empire looks like it'll be coming to fruition soon enough.

Mind you, there is a lot of weeding to be done. A lot of little shoots are all poking their noses up and need to be chopped off at the roots. So guess what I spent the rest of my time at the plot doing. Yes, weeding. The planting out can wait until tomorrow I think.

Allotment Week - Under lockdown - Day 8 - More beds to prepare

So I decided to change my focus. Instead of doing the Deep End, which is really hard work, I moved to focus on the bottom three beds of the main bit. This lot was also underwater (was it really just a month ago?) but fortunately these beds are a little more improved over time and are easier to dig. Way easier. The Couch Grass is not as invasive, nor are the beds themselves made of clay.

Needless to say, it took less time to sort those three out, than it did to sort out either of the two beds in the Deep End.

The far bed will be for Beetroot, the closer bed I put some Runner Beans in.

Meanwhile The Wife was sorting out her Strawberry Empire.

We also planted a whole load of new seeds in the greenhouse, such as Cucumbers. This lovely sunny weather is having a good impact on the other seeds are there are sprout and seedlings appearing all over the place. I may have to start planting some of them outside before my holiday period is over.