Where did May go?!

May has been and gone and fingers crossed the same can be said of the frost (RIP sweetcorn seedlings). I think we may have all been fooled by the warmer weather at the beginning of the month and a bit over zealous with early planting. By mid-May we had lost our first batch of sweetcorn seedlings (planted out just a week before) and many people lost their beans and potatoes. Thankfully we had another batch growing in the greenhouse so we will replace them with these. As luck would have it, our beans have since come up and we decided to plant our potatoes through the black weed-stop material, mainly to control the weeds on the new plot and it would appear that this may have saved our potatoes from the frost. They did look rather limp and black in places but have since rejuvenated and would appear to be none the worse for it.

In an effort to get things growing on the new plot we decided that for this year the best plan of action would be to cover the whole plot in black weed-stop material else by the time we had rigorously weeded and removed all the stones, glass and other debris it would most likely be Christmas! So, at the bottom end of the plot we planted our potatoes which should clean the earth whilst merrily producing some spuds; moving up the plot towards the shed, we have now planted out our courgettes, spaghetti squash and butternut squash and behind those we have 50 or so tomato plants. That leaves us with the 2 tunnels which will house broccoli, cabbages, cauliflowers and cavalo nero.



The very back of the plot, against the fence needs some serious tidying so we can move the compost heap over from the original plot. The raised area where the shed sits is unsuitable for growing so we will probably have some pots there this year and think about making some raised beds for next year (perhaps a project for the winter months?).

Meanwhile.... back on the 'original' plot.... the beetroot are almost ready for picking as baby beets and the parsnips, onions and garlic continue to do very well. We have already had a few salads from the beetroot leaves and stalks that we pulled out whilst thinning out the seedlings. There was just enough room between the ill-fated sweetcorn and the beetroot to squeeze in another row of parsnips so we sowed the remaining seeds (31 May). Apparently parsnip seeds do not keep so we had nothing to loose by sowing a few more. The borlotti beans we planted around the wig wams must have succumbed to the frost so we planted some more this weekend (30 May) and a salad mix in 2 rows between the wig wams. Some of the dwarf beans in front of the broad beans seemed to have lost their way a little so these were transplanted into the gaps of the existing 2 rows and we planted another row of dwarf yellow beans (30 May).



Weeds had rather taken over the area to the left of the fruit cage so this took some clearing but once this had been done, we made a start on planting/sowing this area.



We have sown 3 rows of Kelvedon Wonder peas (31 May), some more stripey beetroot, a couple of rows of Florence red onions, some little gem lettuces, mixed salad leaves and Romaine salad leaves that were so successful last year (all sown 23 May). Once our sweetcorn seedlings from the greenhouse are ready we will sow another batch of these besides the peas so we will have 2 sweetcorn beds. After a severe weeding we discovered we have plenty of coriander and parsley and the horseradish is coming up too although we will need to keep an eye on this as apparently it can take over.



The shed has also had a makeover...we have painted it a beautiful lavender colour which also provided us with the idea to paint lavender bushes onto the side panel. Very impressionist lavender bushes, I might add.. best viewed from afar! We also planted a row of sunflowers against the same side of the shed so if the slugs don't snaffle them these should add to the whole provençal effect!





We had our very first strawberries on the second Bank Holiday of May and jolly tasty they were too!

Is Winter making a return?! Surely not?!

Monday 3 May 2010



Well what a mix of weather for May Day Bank Holiday!! We arrived at the plot and within seconds had to take cover in the shed as the rain pelted down. We consoled ourselves with hot tea and cake until the rain stopped and then set to work on weeding the onion, beetroot, parsnip and garlic bed, digging over a patch to plant out the sweetcorn and giving the edges of the plots a strim.

More asparagus spears have appeared but unfortunately the mares tail spears are also rearing their ugly heads. Clearly the mares tail cull we have been doing every year on the 'old' plot has worked as there is noticeably less than when we first had the plot but it is still doing it best to take over. We will get there... eventually!

With the cool wind, it turned out to be quite a chilly afternoon with a mix of sun, rain and even hail stones. It has made us a little cautious about being over zealous and planting out any seedlings too early. You just never know what the weather is going to do this time of year. Only 5 days ago we were basking in glorious sunshine on the hottest day of the year so far and now we are wondering whether the frosts are going to return again! Hopefully NOT!

April 2010 ... time seems to be running away

...but we are just about keeping up!





It is always the same - April is suddenly upon us and it is a mad rush to get seeds in pots and tidy up the plot so it is ready for this year's crops.

The potatoes are all in the ground - all 100 plants! Thanks to our efficient little potato planter Elijah and Ella and Jakob who not only helped with sifting the earth for large stones which would make our vegetables grow wonky but were also on the lookout for slow worms!

18 April 2010

A beautifully sunny day and productive day. As the shed had been moved last weekend we needed to transfer the water butts to the other plot and make a start on preparing the ground where the shed used to sit for our new 3-variety pear tree. We also plan to move the composting area to the new plot onto the raised area at the back of the plot as that ground is unusable for planting. We moved the water butts but the composting area will be a job for the next few weeks. Some heavy weeding was needed on the broad beans bed, we made another sowing of broad beans and also sowed some dwarf and climbing borlotti beans, making a couple of bamboo cane wigwams for the climbers. We have also sown some sweet pea seeds in the greenhouse at home so we hope to plant these amongst the borlotti beans too.



We made another tunnel on the new plot for brassicas so that means that with the 2 tunnels and the 100 potato plants we have already planted we have used up most of the space on the new plot! The plan has always been to use this plot for the bigger crops so we will use the remaining space for courgettes and squash. In the meantime we have covered the remainder of the plot in black weed stop material else the weeds will soon take over!



Another slow worm made an appearance - much bigger than any we have seen so far!



Weds 28 April 2010 We spent the hottest day of the year so far tidying up the broad bean bed and weeding around the beetroot and parsnip seedlings which have come up.



It looks like we are going to have much more success with the beetroot than we have had in previous years so that is good news. We also had our very first crop of asparagus which was exciting!



We put the tubers in when we first got the plot 2 years ago so we have had to be very patient and not crop until this 3rd year. The spears are a beautiful mauve colour (turning green when cooked) and were well worth the wait. We will need to crop quite regularly else the spears will get too long and woody.

We finally planted our 3-variety pear tree in the spot where the shed used to sit. We put in a big sturdy stake to protect and support it and as it has blossom on it already we are hopeful we may get a pear or 3 later in the year.



There is lots of activity in the greenhouse at home too with tomatoes, courgettes, sweetcorn, leeks, sweetpeas, sunflowers, lettuce all making a welcome appearance.



We removed the blueberries from the plot last year they had been planted too close to the fruit cage and were not doing very well at all. In fact we thought that we may even have lost one of the plants. We took them home to the greenhouse for a bit of well needed attention and them appear to have thrived. We are hoping to take them back to the allotment soon and give them the space that they need.