A Seven Hour Day

Yes! 7 hours on the plot today. Much of that time it was sunny and hot - perfect!

There was a bit of construction going on. Jamie made up the sprout cage; 3m x 1m and 1 metre tall - that's for four Brussels plants with a few summer cabbages too. We're still keeping the potting composts/manure bags on the earth under the cage so that the ground keeps as compacted as possible - just what the sprouts like to stop them 'blowing'.

Then we put up the trellis for the Uchiki Kuri squash - it turned out a bit arty! Hope the nylon rope is strong enough to hold the squashes.

I potted on all the squashes which had germinated. Lots of yellow ball courgettes, should be a few of them to give away soon.

I sowed a row of salsify on plot 8 and put a row of transplanted lettuce alongside; Tom Thumb, Red and Little Gem varieties.

I also sowed a row of wild rocket by the onions and transplanted a couple of little self-seeded coriander plants (not sure how well they transplant though). I sowed some more petit pois as hardly any have grown, but the mangetout are looking good - seems the pigeons haven't spotted them yet!

 

All the while we had Robbie flying around us and eating worms, competing with his nemesis Mrs Blackbird.

We're a bit concerned about our tomato plants, which are still at home in the windowsill. They look healthy at the top....

 

But, at the base the leaves are dying back rather rapidly.

Really want to get them up the plot, but again the weather is threatening to go cold over the next couple of nights..

Three Firsts!

Over the last two days we've been up to the plot in the evening as it's been decent weather - more decent than the grey days have been.
Firstly, Robbie finally agreed to sit on the pot in my hand to eat his worms. He had been for a bath somewhere so looked really raggedy, but so cute!

And, here's our first picking from the rhubarb - barely enough to make our rhubarb vodka but we've made it anyway...

And the first harvest for a small salad lunch... I hasten to add that I did add some other ingredients to my lunch! Including some pickled cucumber that we'd made last year.

We were clearing a quarter of the old-HEAT plot. They aren't having a plot on site this year (shame, they used to provide drinks and cake on Thursday evenings) so HAHA are going to use the plot for some things. Jamie and I are going to grow 'unusual veg' on our quarter - purple carrots, purple kohl rabi, asparagus pea and patty pan squash is the plan at the moment.

Plot 8 takes on another tool - and wins

We had such a lovely day on the allotment today. It was warm (16°) and sunny with no wind - yay! And, look! We finished digging Plot 8! Unfortunately whilst excavating one of five huge chunks of concrete the spade broke :}

Here are the squashes, no sign of the Cornells Bush Delicata yet, but the courgettes look happy and the winter squash (Uchiki Kuri) is getting there,,,

Unfortunately the celeriac hasn't germinated yet, but hopefully it will get going soon. The florence fennel, silverskin and salad onions have all started to germinate as have the mangetout.


Mangetout

We did a bit of clearing up - this potato was a rogue spud from last year. Really don't want a potato plant amongst our shallots!

I've updated the wildlife blog. Obviously with a couple of pictures of Robbie (still refusing to feed from my hand), a moth and a knotted worm!

 

 

Cold Nights

Lucky we covered up; the temperature hit zero in the small hours of Thursday. We saw a bit of frost-burn around the site but nothing too devastating ~apart from for those people who had dared to put their runners out  :-(

The temperatures for Thursday night were forecast to be about 4° so we decided to be brave and leave the strawberries uncovered. At least one seed of each squash variety has germinated and so have some sprouts and cabbages but still no sign of either variety of runner bean. And I think a mouse may have eaten all the peas that I sowed, there are some strange markings on the soil...

Cold sunset

We were chatting with Malcolm and listening to a cuckoo when Paul drew our attention to a barn owl flying gracefully across the site. So lovely to see! We've never seen one on site before. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera ready, but I did (just about) manage to snap it later as we walked home across Freemans Marsh. It had been flying around for a while and then rested on a fence post.

 

Ugh, Frost Risk

Our preferred weather site forecasts that it's going to be 2° and clear at dawn tomorrow. So, we went to the allotment after work and have earthed up our potatoes - covering every sign of foliage. It's such a setback if they get frosted so simply not worth the risk at this point (we don't think!)

We also covered our strawberries - not sure the enviromesh piled on top will actually work, but it shouldn't be a severe frost so they may get away with it...

A few of the seeds in the greenhouse have germinated; some of the squashes and brassicas but didn't have time to check.
Hopefully they and the other little seedlings around the place will get away with whatever frost hits Marsh Lane. And hopefully it'll be the last frost risk till November!