A few thoughts

Just a quick post. Not had time for any serious allotmenting last weekend or this coming weekend. However, last friday I picked the first row of peas, which was better than I expected. Peas are definitely a much lower yield this year though. Hopefully the latest ones I planted will make up for it. Also picked the Broad Beans which have been a complete disappointment this year - hardly any. Strawberrys continue to be picked, but only a couple at a time (to be expected after moving them over the winter). The Raspberrys are starting to do well, although they desperately need weeding and tying into some supporting wires. Courgettes are starting to form, but too small to pick yet. The Carrots have come through, and although they're covered in fleece I need a better way of covering them. Thankfully I bought some tunnels from Lidl's for £1.99 each, so I can use the hoops from those to better support the fleece covering the rows of Carrots.

Note to self: Start French Beans at home in seed trays next year. Never get enough of them from direct sowing. Also, when sowing Parsnips - sow LOTS of them, complete rows instead of spaced out. Germination has been non-existant so far this year, but hoping they might still make a late apperance.

June update

I haven't updated the blog for a while because I've been away from a computer for a few weeks. So there is quite a lot to catch up on. Having spent quite a few sessions at the allotment over the past few weeks I now have everything from the mini greenhouse at home planted out. There is still some weeding to be done, but apart from that, the allotment is in reasonable shape. The front of the old plot is dominated by the four rows of potatoes (see above). I don't think I've ever had such impressive growth from potatoe plants before - it looks more like one big mass of plants rather than distinct rows. Hopefully this might mean a decent crop of spuds this year, unlike my usual bunch of tiny ones. Looks like the manure has helped them along nicely. The peas have not faired quite so well and the three double rows are very sparse (see below). Those that have grown well have started forming pods and are nearly ready for picking. To try and make amends I've sown all the remaining peas I had left into the gaps, probably too late for anything to happen but worth a try.

I also planted out red cabbages, white cabbages, savoys and brocoli and created a cage for them using netting and bean canes (see below). This is to try and stop the pigeons demolishing them and hopefully ward off some of the butterflys. I was a bit late planting them out and they were looking very wilted when I first put them in, but they've recovered well and look quite healthy again now.

The French beans that were directly sown into the soil have done quite well and are growing nicely. I planted out the sweetcorn plants next to them in a square and they've also grown considerably since planting out a couple of weeks ago.

I've started picking the first strawberrys of the year. I'm unlikely to get a large quantity of them this year since I moved all the plants to a new bed over the winter. The fruit cage around them seems to be doing a good job though. I'm planning on saving any runners that the plants send out to start a new bed on the other plot next year - effectively doubling the number of plants I have in total.

Over on the new plot I've almost entirely covered it with Squashes. Having dug over about two-thirds of the plot (with the remainder covered in black plastic) I put in 4 rows of 9 plants which takes up the majority of the space. There are 9 each of Butternut, Festival and Sweet Dumpling squash plants, plus a row containing 4 courgette plants (2xZuchinni, 1 gold and 1 other) plus 4 pumpkin plants (see below).

When planting out the squashes/courgettes/pumpkins, I dug a hole for each plant, added several spades of either compost from the compost bin or manure when I ran out of compost. Then made a slight soil wall around the plant to help keep the water close to the roots when I water them. I've also been adding a mulch of grass cuttings around each plant to help deter weeds and retain moisture. The asparagus bed that I started in April is doing well. Each of the 10 crowns has sent up a spike which is now growing into a tall fern.

I've also planted out 14 tomatoe plants on the new plot (see below) comprising of some red cherries and some yellow cherries. I have a further 9 plants on the patio at home, including some tumblers in a hanging basket.