Slow Progress

So its been more than a month since I posted. Its been a really busy month with work both the editing and my fabric business so progress on the plot has been a little slow. Before that, believe it or not, it was just too hot for digging; we had temperatures around 30 degrees for several weeks!

I need to take my camera or TK's iPod down to the plot with me to take some photos as my iPhone thinks I don't have any room on it to take photos.

 

So what's been happening this last month?

 

The potatoes are well and truly established. I'm hoping the first earlies will be ready at the beginning of September, although a couple of plants might be ready already.

The first sowing of beetroot and carrots have been thinned and are doing well. Although the second sowing of carrots hasn't germinated much for some reason.

The runner beans have reached the top of the wigwam and the first beans are already 3 or 4 inches long.

We acquired some Swiss chard from a neighbouring plot owner which is just starting to settle in.

 

But the big news was the raspberries. We picked over 6lbs in the end despite the canes needing thinning out and generally needing taking care of. We made some jam with them.

 

Today I finally reached the other side at the bottom of the plot! It feels like I have been digging that section for ages. It was a bit demoralising to come back from a few days away to find it looking quite green again the other day, but a bit of hoeing has sorted that out!

We are now going to make the bottom of the plot a perennial bed. It already has the rhubarb. We will move the two currant bushes down there and I thought we would also put some asparagus in . Rather excitingly, we think we have a small asparagus plant growing in the raspberries!

 

So next post will be a picture post showing our progress, hopefully.

 

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!

 

Earthing Up!

Very excited yesterday afternoon to see a whole lot more of the potatoes starting to poke their way through the surface. The first half of the first earlies were doing so well that we earthed them up last night

 

 

The other half of the row is slightly behind but only by a few days and the good news is that the tips of the main crop potatoes have started to appear too so all is looking good!

 

We planted some runner beans in pots at home a couple of weeks ago. They didn't seem to do much for quite a while so I brought them indoors and of course they all germinated straight away

 

'PING!'

 

 

We have some old bamboo canes so will plant them out shortly.

 

So everything is looking good..........and the only problem is hayfever! Its been quite bad the last couple of days so I may have to take some antihistamines for it. Hayfever and needing to work on the allotment do not mix!

Bees!

Just a little short post, almost a Wordless Wednesday............except its Tuesday...........and it has a few words in it.

I love being on the allotment, digging away, sometimes on my hands and knees. It's so peaceful

Just me...........and the bees in the raspberry bushes

And here is Mr Bee

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.