More Potatoes Planted

On Saturday morning (6:15am!) I planted out the Maris Piper 2nd cropping Potatoes. Apparently they should be ready in 8-10 weeks and can stay in the ground till Christmas. I used the same planting method as I did with the April planting of potatoes: digging a trench, filling it with manure, covering with newspaper, sprinkling a layer of grass clippings and then placing the potatoes on top and covering with earth. (See above) There are two rows of 17 potatoes. Strangely, on the same day I planted this next lot of potatoes I also dug up most of my previous potatoes. I managed to dig up about 2 and a third rows (out of 4) and came home with 3 very heavy Iceland-carrier-bag's full of potatoes (see below). A few of them had started to be eaten (possibly by slugs) but mostly they were in very good condition with a good mix of small and medium sized potatoes.


Over on the 2nd plot the Squash plants are going completely crazy - one big mass of leaves (see below). It makes it very hard to water them as you can't tell where one plant ends and the next one begins. I did put a small cane at the base of each plant when planting them to try and identify where to water them - but it's impossible to see those canes now. So next year I'll need to use much longer canes to mark out the position of each plant.


The squashes themselves are growing really well and all 3 varieties have got fruit: Festival (shown below left), Sweet Dumpling and Butternuts (shown at the bottom of this post). I also noticed that the pumpkins are just beginning to change colour from green to a slightly yellow colour (see below right) as they start to ripen towards orange.


The Butternuts are doing extremely well and although the plants are much smaller than the other squash varietys, each one has anything up to about 8 butternuts on it. They're starting to grow to a fairly decent size as well (see below).

Weeding Session

I had a big weeding session on Saturday. There were some weeds (including bind-weed) to remove from the cabbages, but the main task was to weed the new plot which is taken up with the Squash, Courgette, Pumpkin and Tomato plants. As you can see above, the plants have really taken off now and it all looks a lot better now that it's been weeded. There are more courgettes to pick every time I visit, the squash plants are just starting to form squashes and the pumpkins are starting to get quite big - take a look at the biggest one so far, below.



We've been picking french beans for about a week now, and there's at least a good handful every visit at the moment. Various salad crops are also being picked and things are generally growing well. The biggest disappointments this year were the broad beans (just not very many of them) and the Parsnips. Completely disaster with the Parsnips as there is only 3 seedlings out of a total of 4 rows. They usually do so well, so I'm disappointed about that.

Back home, the first runner beans are nearly ready for picking, a few tomatoes have appeared and the cucumber has loads of flowers and small cucumbers. There are also a few peppers growing (see below left) and the aubergenes have some amazing purple and yellow flowers (below right).

Autumn Seed order

Over the weekend I placed an order with Marshalls Seeds for a few Autumn items:

Regency Cabbage
Maris Piper Potato
High Vigour White Pearl & Pink Lady Garlic
Swift & Electric (Red) Onion
Griselle & Springfield Shallot

The Cabbage is for sowing in July (if the seeds arrive in time!) for picking in Autumn. The Potatoes are a late second-cropping variety which can be planted July/August to be ready for digging up at Christmas. The Garlic, Onions and Shallots (2 varietys of each) will be planted in the Autumn.

Planting Leeks and pulling Garlic

On Saturday I planted out the Leeks. They were sown in May in two rows and had now grown large enough to plant out. (See below left for the leeks in their rows before being planted out) I used the handle of a rake to make holes, then dropped a leek in each hole and filled the hole with water to bed the roots in (see below right). There are now 6 rows of leeks, giving a total of about 110 leeks.


The leeks were planted into the space where the Broad Beans and Garlic had previously been. So before planting out the leeks I pulled up the Garlic and dug over the whole area. The crop of Garlic is not bad, some small bulbs and some a decent size. They're now drying off in the plastic mini-greenhouse at home (see below).


Since the first row of peas has now been completely picked, I sowed a new double-row of peas in its place. I used a variety called 'Ambassador' which is intended for July sowing. Hopefully this will give me a late, second-crop of peas.

Day at the allotment

I had a day-off work to spend at the allotment yesterday. I dug up the first potatoes of the year as you can see from the above photo - those were all from one plant. As you can see from the photo below (left) the potatoe plants are all starting to die off now, so it's the right time to start digging them up. The cabbages and brocoli that I planted just a couple of weeks ago have gone absolutely crazy and now look far too squashed together (below right).


I sowed 3 more rows of carrots (2 of Autumn King, 1 of Sytan) and constructed fleece tunnels over them to try and prevent carrot fly. The tunnels were purchased from Lidl at £1.99 each, although they came with clear plastic which I didn't use as all I wanted was support for my sheets of fleece. As you can see below, I put 5 arches over the seeds and then covered them with fleece. The 3 rows of carrots I had previously sown are coming along well in their fleece tunnel (see further below left).



The main task of the day was to sort out the raspberries. They were swamped with long grass and bind weed which I removed. I'd been meaning to put together a support system for the raspberry canes for years now and finally got around to it yesterday. I put in 6 wooden posts, 2 each end and 2 in the middle, then strung garden wire between them at 2 different heights (above right). The fruiting canes were then tied to the wire to stop them from collapsing under the weight of the fruit. This should make it much easier when picking the raspberries.


The Sweetcorn and French Bean plants (above left) are all growing well and the French Beans are starting to form their first beans. The lettuces, spinach, spring onions and radishes (above right) are all growing well and the first radishes were picked. I also sowed some more radishes and spring onions and planted out some lettuces that were started off in seed trays at home. On the new plot I planted out a cherry tree that my sister gave me for my birthday.

Patio Update

In addition to the allotment, the vegetables growing back home on the patio and in the back garden are doing well. The cucumbers (above left) are climbing up the trellis quickly and have started flowering and forming small cucumbers (see further down the post). The runner beans (above right) are all at the top of the canes and flowering well (note also the orange B&Q buckets with holes drilled in to aid watering). The tomatoes in growbags (below left) and in the hanging basket (below right) are also growing well and a few are starting to flower.


There are also 4 tubs on the patio (below right) which between them contain 3 aubergene plants, 3 pepper plants and 2 chilli plants.


The peppers have quite a few flowers on them (below right) and the aubergene plants are just starting to form flower buds (below left).

Raspberries and Courgettes

I went to the allotment last night to do some much needed watering, after a very hot weekend, and pick a few things. The Raspberries continue to fruit well and I picked another bowl full. Over on the new plot, there are a few golf-ball sized pumpkins starting to form (below left), and the 'Festival' squashes are also starting to form (below right).

I also picked the very first Courgettes of the year. They were a little smaller than I normally would have picked, but I could resist picking them - particularly the yellow one as it is the first year I've grown that variety. It looks as though we are about to be inundated with Courgettes.