View from the Plot - April 2017

So, what did I get up to on the allotment last month? To some extent it feels like very little, although looking back through my diary quite a lot of sowing and potting on has gone on. I guess it feels like I haven't accomplished much more than more digging because the plot is still relatively empty.

I dug up the remainder of last year's crops last month; the last few leeks and carrots and a lovely big parsnip. Currently deciding whether to make a parsnip cake with it! The purple sprouting broccoli seemed to finish quite abruptly. I think because I missed picking it for a few days, the heads went too far and started flowering.

As far as this year's crops are concerned, the onion sets I started off in modules were planted out and I've gradually been planting the chitted seed potatoes, just one more variety to go out now and they will get planted where the PSB are. I'd left those to flower as the bees seem to like them.

PSB left to flower

I've sown some root crops; two types of carrots, beetroot, parsnip and some radish. I warmed the soil this year and sowed them in the small polytunnels I use for my sweet potatoes and think that made a difference, particularly with the parsnips although come to think of it, I'm not sure the beetroot have germinated yet.

I've also sown some calendula and eschscholzia on the plot and am pretty sure they have germinated.

The first asparagus spear appeared a good week or so earlier than usual. The spears have been a bit sporadic again. Maybe I don't have enough crowns? Not sure. Unfortunately a frost on 26 April put paid to a few of them that were ready for harvesting. I cut those out and am pleased to see new spears popping their heads out of the soil.

New asparagus spears appearing

Weather-wise, the temperatures are still up and down and it feels a bit risky planting anything out at the moment. Another cold night is forecast in the coming week but after that things are looking a bit more promising...

The main problem is a lack of rain. The ground is bone dry, like dust. I can't remember when we last had a decent deluge and I think we're going to need to have quite a few to make any difference.

It does look like the strawberry crop may be a good one though. Although the blackened centres of some of the flowers suggests some were damaged by the frost last week.

Lots of flowers on the strawberries!

On the whole though I have a feeling it's going to be another challenging growing year!

Getting there..............slowly!

Its been a while since I've found a bit of time to post an update on our progress but I can at last say almost all of the plot has now been dug over and that for the first time it is more weed free than full of weeds........

I am realising that even though we have got rid of the worst of the weeds, they keep coming back and Bed 2 that was weed free is green again, mainly because I have neglected to keep on top of the weeds while I continued digging over the other beds.

Although now that the colder weather is here, the weeds are at least taking longer to grow back so hopefully we can put that to rights over the winter months!

 

So from the top of the plot this is where we are now.

 

Bed 1

This had potatoes in this year and I'm really pleased with our harvest.

 

We had been digging up the earlies for a short while. These were the Duke of York variety and they've been ok but I wouldn't grow them again. I think we left them in the ground a bit too long. Still we did get just under 5kg of them from one row.
We also have a row of main crop potatoes, Picasso and these have been really good. A nice tasty potato that has been good for everything. Nearly 8kg from this row.

And we haven't bought any potatoes since the end of August!

 

Bed 2

This has had runner beans, strawberries, carrots and beetroot in it this year. A mixed bag  I know but we have used this bed just so we could have a harvest this year.

We're going to dig up the strawberries and plant new ones in the perennial bed, mainly because they are completely overgrown with grass.

And we had just enough runner beans with just a handful in the freezer. The carrots were small but perfectly formed and we picked most of the beetroot when they were small too. The last of these have been pickled and will be ready in a week.

This bed still has the Swiss chard in it. Never eaten it before so we'll give it a go but we'll probably just dig the plants up when we go over this bed again which is completely green!

 

Bed 3

I finally finished digging this bed yesterday. I had hoped to have had it done by the end of October before the colder weather started but alas we hit a snag. There had been a bit of raised ground in the middle of this bed and when I got to it, I found out why. First off it was where a previous plot owner had decided to have a bonfire.........except a lot of it hadn't burnt properly so there were piles and piles of un-burnt magazines, chunks of wood, you name it. Having dug that out, I hit the next problem............carpet. Yes actual carpet. Not the matting you use to keep weeds down but actual proper carpet. It started in the middle of the plot and went on and on. It took me ages just to find the edges........it went right to the edge of the plot.

And what was worse it had at least 6 inches of soil on top of it and weeds, like mallow, growing through it in places.

 

It was an absolute nightmare and just as I was starting to feel like I was never going to get it up, I had a breakthrough! I was also having to pull it up in bits as it was so large I was never going to be able to lift it in one go.
We then had a stroke of luck as the site had a skip so that a spare plot could be cleared and the manager of the site very kindly took all that horrible carpet and put it in the skip for me!

So having cleared the carpet I was then able to dig the second half of this bed which seems to have taken an eternity!

 

Bed 4

The mesh tunnels arrived in September and so we planted the onions; one row of Shakespeare and one of Troy.

 

 

They took a while to get going, over a month, but are now firmly established.

 

We've planted a second batch with another row of Shakespeare and one of Senshu Yellow we swapped with a friend. These are just starting to sprout now. Its amazing that despite being covered they have still been pushed up in places, must be worms!
As you can see we also have some scaffolding boards for paths now too.

 

Perennial Bed

This is going to be TK's bed as he wants to grow things that keep on growing basically. So he has the rhubarb which was looking really healthy........

 

 

Until we had the storm that never was a few weeks ago.........

 

 

When it took a bit of a beating.

 

We've moved the blackcurrant bush next to it and will move the redcurrant bush in the next week or so.

Then we'll make a new strawberry bed and also prepare a section for some asparagus which I ordered online for delivery next spring.

 

He'll have a bit of space left which we might use for herbs.

 

And the only other news is we have some manure to spread out on a couple of the beds..........four barrows' full for starters.

 

 

So all in all not bad for our first six months!

 

Lucky Lucky

We have just been so incredibly lucky with our plot so far. Thanks to the previous plot owners we have been able to harvest and enjoy quite a few things so far without too much sweat and tears on our part.
We are currently trying to keep up with the strawberries. This was our pick the other day!

 

We also have a couple of currant bushes which now the fruit are ripening we can see they are blackcurrants. However the big surprise was that the other bush was a redcurrant!

We picked some fruit the other day but the birds seem to have pinched quite a few since

The bindweed is already starting to come back but the other growth we noticed just a week after sowing......is the beetroot. Can't beat the taste of fresh beetroot!

 

We still have a lot of work to do. Some of the weeds are very high now and have deep roots, but while the days are long, spending an hour or so digging over the ground is actually one of my favourite pastimes at the moment

 

 

 

 





 

 

The first month

So just over a month has passed since we took over our plot. Seems longer!

 

The early potatoes have had their second earthing up. Think they should be ok now as they are already growing through the pile quite a bit.

We have also earthed up the main crop potatoes in the last week.

 

 

We've cleared another stretch across the width of the plot the other side of the raspberries.

We collected some wood to make a cage/protection around the strawberries but so far we have been picking them just before the are fully ripe and eaten by the birds, so we haven't needed to build anything.

 

 

We planted a small row of carrots and beetroot here a couple of days ago. They were both varieties that could be sown in June so we'll see how they go.

 

On the other side of the strawberries we have put a wigwam together and planted the runner beans that we started off in pots at home.

 

 

The middle of the plot is REALLY overgrown but rather than continuing to work our way down the plot we have decided to start clearing at the bottom end of the plot. We figured that's where the potatoes will have to go next year as the previous plotowners had planted some where we have planted our beans, so we might as well get ahead of ourselves, kind of!

 

We have been quite lucky so far to be able to harvest a few things; the rhubarb, some potatoes and now strawberries. The next thing will be the raspberries which are summer fruiting...........and there are a lot of them!! Not quite sure what to do with them at the moment as neither of us like raspberries!

 

First Sign of Life!

It was  so exciting when we went over to the plot yesterday afternoon! The first signs of growth!

 

Yep, several of the Duke of York first earlies were breaking through the surface. We weren't expecting to see anything for another week seeing as we only planted them a week ago.

Time to start earthing up!

 

We have nearly cleared the area around the strawberry bed now.

 

 

Just need to remove some of the raspberries nearby and then we will try and board the strawberries in and protect them as best we can. They are already fruiting.

We've put up some notices in case anyone wants any of our surplus raspberry canes but not had any takers yet.

 

TK's friend came and helped us yesterday too so I gave them the job of doing some digging, which left me with not a lot I could do. I set them to work on some old earthed up areas as the soil was quite loose there...............and this is what they dug up!

 

 

 Not sure if any of them are any good, but we'll give them a try.

 

Can't believe how lucky we have been so far!

 

Potatoes Planted!

By Friday and just over week since TK turned over the first bit of earth, we had managed to dig over a 5ft strip of ground across the width of the plot. We've kept the parsnips that were already growing there, just in case but yesterday afternoon was spent planting the potatoes we picked up at the Shed Shop last Sunday.

As we are late planting, the potatoes were already chitted so it was just a case of putting them in.

 

 

 

We have two rows planted:

One row of earlies, Duke of York. These were well chitted so not sure how these will do. They are the left row which TK is putting in. The row is split by the parsnips.

The second row is the main crop, Picasso. These looked a bit healthier. Will be interesting to see which are the most successful.

 

 

The next job will be to protect the strawberries that are already on the plot by creating a bed for them. Going to pick up some netting from the Shed Shop later this morning and make a start on that today.