Posted on May 26, 2008 under Uncategorized |
I put off the allotmenting this weekend, but it made no difference in the end. Showers ahoy!
I visited a friend yesterday and discussed allotments with her, her hubby, and his Dad! Lots of expertise! Also gifted courgette, tomato, climbing bean and cabbage plants!
So, amid the rain, I pinched off the tops of the broad bean plants. This is to get rid of the nice juicy plants which attract the black-fly. (Should be done when plants start to flower.) Indeed, a few of the plants did have black-fly nestling there, so I squished ‘em good! I was going to wind the runners around the canes, but I have a horrible feeling that they’re not going to recover from last weekend’s frost. I guess we’ll see. Not much happening to them anyway, apart from grim-looking-ness.
I put the squash (including my pumpkins) and tomato (mine and the gifted, much bigger, ones) plants in the greenhouse, where I hope to harden them off. This is a process of allowing them to acclimitise to the cold, wind etc, and get tougher stems, gradually. I think that the absence of this hardening off might have been the death of the butternut squash plants a few weeks ago…
I planted out the pea plants, new broad beans, new runner beans and climbing bean plant in the raised bed. Fingers crossed. It’s windy as well as wet today!
And finally (as John Craven would say) I piled up soil round my jerusalem artichokes. I don’t know if they needed it, it seems to be an optional phase, but I thought I’d give it a go. I was pretty wet through by now, so it wasn’t much fun!
Loukik and I have some pretty exciting news in the offing, so watch this space!
Other tips I’ve picked up:
- cabbages like alkaline soil, so I’ve obtained some univeral pH indicator paper.
- grass cuttings act as a good mulch for things like beans – water well underneath before putting it down.
- tomatoes will benefit from having their side shoots (not the flowers though!) nipped off during growth.
- marigolds are good at putting off nasty pests, especially near tomatoes. I’ll build this into the plans.
- lavender (named from the Latin – to wash) also scares away pests, and borage attracts them away from other things!
Posted on May 23, 2008 under Diary |
Growing potatoes is definitely not a difficult task. They don’t need much water and are apparently happy with most soil types. We planted our first batch of chitting seed potatoes on the 16th of April (around 15 of them) and Helena planted the second batch just last week.
The first batch has made tremendous progress in a month. The shoots are nearly 10 cms tall and they all look healthy (until the frosts at least).
We read up that in order to get a good crop and to prevent the yield from turning green, its necessary to build up soil around the base of the plants. This part confuses me a little. The shoots are covered with leaves completely and quite close to the ground. So, I am thinking that the built up soil may bury the leaves and decrease the growth rate!
Anyway, we wanted to build up the base yesterday but Helena’s allotment guide book suggested that we wait until the shoots are 30 cms tall. I reckon this may just be a couple of weeks away. So, I just dug up the soil around the plants and prepared ourselves.
Further reading suggests that we should build up quite a few times during the plant’s life cycle. This article has a very nice illustration. We may start with a little bit of building up later today.
Meanwhile the artichokes are doing very well. I read up yesterday that Jerusalem Artichokes can grow up to 3 mts! Ummm…. We may have planted these too close to one another.
Posted on May 20, 2008 under Diary |
Loukik and I have been giving the allotment more structure. We managed to get hold of a couple of pallets and broken paving slabs on Sunday, through freecycle. So we have paths etc. I bought some dinky picket fencing to go round our garden area, and installed that mostly too! It’s looking a lot more homey.
Then weeding the herb garden actually made it clear that there are herbs in there, among all the grass that’s regrowing!
I planted lots more seeds on Sunday too: mini beetroot, perpetual spinach, pak choi, brussel sprouts. And sunflowers!!!! I also potted four strawb plants in my strawberry planter!
Today I went to the recycling centre and was covertly allowed to nick a few bits of wood from the timber bin! So I have started to build a frame for my raspberry canes. It helps to point them out as a feature too.
I took the strawbs out to the allotment, as well as planting a borage plant in the herb garden. But, I have a feeling that’s not a great idea. It’s baltic out, and apparently due to drop to 2 deg C overnight. What?!?!?!?! It’s late MAY!!!!! The runner beans are already struggling – the leaves are darker and wilty. BOOOO!!!
Oh well, I guess we’ll see….
Posted on May 14, 2008 under Diary |
My first proper go at the allotment in yonks. I’ve been at the EDEN PROJECT over the weekend, with a friend who got an allotment before me, and so I’ve been very inspired!
It’s been really hot and dry for the last week, and things in the greenhouse are a bit the worse for wear. Poor things.
First off, the herb garden. Mint going mad in its pot, as predicted. Phew. Rosemary has bedded in nicely. Sage and thyme not the best, but still alive. Today, the basil and chives went into the patch, along with some bronze fennel, which is very pretty and which I bought at the Eden Project.
Then I noticed that there were a couple of upright weeds. Except not weeds; asparagus! Oooh! We didn’t even plant them! But it is the season!!!! Yum!
Various plants which I bought a while ago, and which are a bit with the dry at the mo, I planted out in the raised bed, which I had dug over and stuck in some compost and dug that in too. So there are two butternut squash plants and three chilli plants at the far end of the raised bed.
Watering was pretty easy today. Lots of water in the butts. Beans done (looking good!), onions and garlic done (not showing up yet), artichokes and potatoes done (nice shoots – not quite high enough to pile up yet).
Our potatoes we bought a good while ago are finally chitting. So I dug two trenches today for them. It’s a bit late, but I’ll plant them out tomorrow…
I also planted some rocket, pumpkins, peas, as well as a second batch of broad and runner beans, in the kitchen a couple of days ago.
Posted on May 08, 2008 under Diary |
We seem to be having a mini-drought at the allotment. Apparently there’s a leak in the pipes that supply the water butts. So it’s been switched off and the water dwindles fast. But I did what I could.
Excitement: the potatoes and jerusalem artichokes are starting to come up! Wheeeeee!
And my beans just get more and more beautiful!!!!
