Too Cold, Too Hot = Never Happy!

I'm sorry. I've moaned about the weather so much recently and today was absolutely beautiful; blue sky, hot temperature and no wind! But I'm still moaning. It was too hot and I had to hide a lot! I'm really sorry!
I'm not sorry that these lovely strawberries didn't make it home as they were delicious!

We spent most of the day talking to all the other plotholders, with a little bit of gardening in between chats. It was great to be alongside so many fellow growers. I managed to pass on all the remaining chard seedlings and a spare courgette plant which is better than us planting up the surplus and just wasting it on our plots. We already have four chard plants - each different colours and Jamie doesn't even like the stuff!

This is one of our rainbow chart plants - still tiny

The picture below is of the chinese radish seedlings - you can see that the flea beetle has got to every leaf. The swede growing next to it (not under cover) has slug damage, but I'm hoping enough seedlings will survive otherwise I may sow a few more.

Plot 3 is more than half dug and has 2 pumpkins, 1 courgette and 2 Bush Delicata Winter squash.

2 wrapped up pumpkins and my UV-blocking sun umbrella

Oh yes, and Jane (the previous tenant) left her little bit of fencing, as well as her table and chairs, so we put that alongside the path. Isn't that cute :-)

Picket fence by the courgette and winter squash

 Salad lunches from the plot started last week. Unfortunately I've eaten all the available radish, so it's just varieties of lettuce, chives and fennel leaves at the moment - I do add shop-bought ingredients too! It'll be a while till we have any tomatoes, peppers or potatoes to add - but at least we're on our way...

I love my salad spinner!

Planting! And Sunshine!

The sun shone for much of the day and by lunchtime the wind had ceased so we were safe to do quite a lot of planting, including this row of  Russian Giant sunflowers along the back of Plot 7. There are 7 plants which range in height from about 20 - 50cm at the moment.

Plots 7 and 3 have each gained Defender courgettes, with pots which may make it easier to water once the plants get big. They're planted on top of a hole filled with manure, for moisture retention and nourishment.

Plot 3 has the first of its Jack of All Trades pumpkins, plus a Curry plant (herb) which we bought yesterday. It really does smell of curry and you can apparently add it to vegetables and rice for flavouring. It's very pretty with silver leaves and it gets yellow flowers which can also be used in cooking.

Curry Plant

This pumpkin plant has rather a long stem and given that it's been such a windy year we're protecting it for a while with a netted cloche. Hopefully it will soon be big and strong enough to not need the protection.

We planted out the two grafted Lizzano tomato plants - they're happy outside in pots but the pots need to be tall as they trail and get huge (at least they have over the last couple of years). The top pot has the bottom cut out of it, so the plant has all that soil (plus manure) to grow roots into.

Lizzano Tomato

Jamie's sown the Rocky cucumbers, at home, for planting out later. We're hoping they'll grow up a trellis.
I planted some asparagus pea plants on Plot 3 and transplanted some spare lettuce seedlings that haven't really got a home - better to put them in Plot 3 than compost them...

Asparagus seedling

We found this little nettle weevil in my hair when I got home! Cute!

Bye!

Wind, Stupid Wind and Wind

Ugh! Windy weather - too windy! Cloches are blown about, compost bin lids turn into frisbees, broad beans are leaning and, most irritatingly, my hair gets in my face and bugs me!

However, I'm on leave and Plot 3 needs digging, so that's what we did (when I wasn't hiding in the greenhouse during yesterday's rainstorm).

At least there was no rain today and it was a bit warmer so we got a lot done (which is why I didn't take many photos). Plot 3 is quite well protected by the trees, but still anything put down today was blown away.

We picked up a free petunia from the Hungerford Wyevale Garden Centre yesterday, so that got planted up in a hanging basket that someone had left in the communal area for re-use. We figured Plot 3 needs a bit more pretty-ing up than the other plots at the moment and I'm pleased to say it's survived the wind so far!

This is the dodgier side of the new plot. There are a lot of raspberry plants, including some yellow-fruited variety, but it has a lot of grass and other weeds that need clearing. Still, it looks like we'll get more raspberries from this plot than from Plot 8 where I think I've managed to pretty much destroy our plants with my pruning technique :-(

This pheasant egg wasn't a victim of the wind - more likely a magpie by the way its been pecked out.

Helicopters were flying back and forth yesterday - I thought they looked a bit arty in this touched-up photo, with someone else's beanpoles to prove they're over the allotment site!

We're still picking rhubarb for our desserts but had to chop another flower off the Victoria rhubarb, which has nearly finished its season - the leaves are beginning to collapse. So, we're eating the Raspberry Red now - a couple of long stalks is enough for the two of us.

Here's my latest ChainMail article - all about the wildlife that we share our allotment life (and veg) with - I really must make my next article more positive!

Marsh Lane Open Day
15th August 2pm BBQ, tombola, produce, stalls

A Frenzy of Activity

We had a lovely bout of rain this morning and it made the ground good to dig. The last quarter of Plot 7 is now dug and the beanpoles are erected over a trench filled with mushroom compost. 11 Scarlet Empire runner beans have germinated, we're hoping they'll be joined by one more!

This is a small video of our friend Malcolm's compost bin - the ants have an amazing nest in there! Hope they stay on his plot and keep away from our strawberries. We have our own ants - they tend to be red!

These are our year 3 strawberries.

And this lovely little bunch is on our year-old plants. We're hoping we get to eat that big one very soon.

Digging, Earthing, Feeding, Living!

Aah, a few days off work are always welcome and particularly at this time of year. The bird life is amazing around the site at the moment. The kestrel nest is situated near to plot 3 and there was a huge commotion there the other day when magpies were trying to get at it. The kestrel parents were not happy! And today the kestrel and a heron were having a fight! I wouldn't have thought a heron would be interested in a kestrel nest, but that's what seemed to be the problem. The swallows and martens swoop overhead and they too have fights with the naughty magpies. And the crows argue and chase the kites away - it's all action!

We had all day to work on the plots, with a break at lunchtime when we went home for a rest.

We got a lot done. We're pleased with how the digging is going on Plot 3, away from the hedge roots it's much easier. So we should be able to get the pumpkins and squash in the ground fairly soon.

We earthed up and added potato fertiliser to each row of spuds and to the two potato bags. We fed all the strawberry plants with Tomorite and sprinkled a bit of vegetable fertiliser around the broad bean plants which have quite a few flowers which the bees are working well, so I hope the beans aren't too far off.

Lots of the recently sown seeds have germinated but no sign of any leeks yet, I think they're always quite slow to appear.

This is the only flower in our wildflower bed, currently surrounded by seedlings. Actually I think it's a weed, not something I sowed, but it's rather pretty, so it gets to live :-)

These are our chilli (which is going to be too hot for me to enjoy) and sweet pepper plants. Now housed in the greenhouse.