Tag: allotment

Allotment, Sept 26

Wide angle of whole plot
This will become propagating zone at rear. Just sown some winter spinach ( it late, well see)
Grass cuttings today.
Quite a lot of this ancient pile of bramble and rosemary cuttings cleared.
And this plastic sheet retrieved from that pile, where it was serving no useful purpose

Clearing up in Sept

Slowly sorting through the huge pile of cherry prunings, bramble, and other woody stuff. To the right you can just see the cardboard I put over a bramble I dug out. Eventually, I’ll be able to remove that black plastic from underneath.
Removed the beans, which were in the foreground, before the netting. Netting is (semi-)protecting beet-leaf spinach and spring onion (both did, and doing, well). Beyond the netting, courgette has done reasonably (despite early munching by the muntjack). And beyond that, I’ve pulled back the polythene mulch to sort the mess under a little.
Removed the beans from left of the cosmos. Netting further back is protecting spinach and a japanese spring onion. A couple of rows of potatoes remain around where the fork is.
A toad has made his home in the compost bin.

Moving towards no-dig.

Digging in the dark

Up at 05:25 this morning and out to the allotment to dig over. I hope to make it a habit as last year; though I may possibly need to get to bed earlier. Pretty dark still at that time, though light by 06:15 when I went back for a shower.
It’s been a fantastic warm sunny week but a cold snap is forecast; I just overheard some say it’s going to snow over this weekend. All the more reason to get as much of allotment dug as possible before cold and wet arrives. At least it’s very easy to dig and only needs single digging.
The tomato seedlings are all coming on, as are the chillis; not seeing much action from the peppers yet, though. I also planted some cucumber and courgette and those are coming on nicely, as is a tray of flat-leaf parsley.
We’re all well, though both Lola and Neve have been on antibiotics recently: Lola for pneumonia (scary) and Neve for a urine infection (smelly). I got the UTI as well, though it seems to have gone without medicinal intervention.
Basta. More soon, I hope; be good to re-establish the blogging habit as well as the digging habit…

Good growing weather

Nonna and Assunta have been doing excellent work in the garden and allotment. They’ve weeded and cut back everywhere front and back: the front looks great with all the inter-slab weed gone. They tied up the cucumbers and further secured the greenhouse tomatoes which, incidently, are starting to fruit; there are about five little green ones presently. And the courgettes are coming now; we’ve eaten two over so far: more on the way.

Meanwhile, I transplanted half of the kale that started life by the greenhouse to the allotment, at the back where the earlies were. I also planted some oriental onion (bit like spring onion) in one of the failed rows of cumin; and planted out some of the italian parsley; and sowed more corriander.

And then it rained. A lot.

planting with Neve

Neve and I popped over to the allotment to plant some more seeds. She was very eager. We quicly dug over some of the unprepared land; enough to sow a row of (Boltardy) beetroot (next to potatoes) and a row of beet spinach. Then we sowed a couple of clumps of basil in the centres of the two fours of tomatoes. Then we went to get some water and Neve stuck her hand in some nettles – an incident which plauged her for the rest of the day. I showed her how to use dock to salve the sting.

Later we ate more of the earlies in a spanish omlette.

courgette flowers

2011-06-20 05.53.22.jpg

Three of the courgette plants were flowering this morning. Maybe they appreciated the compost that Lola and I took out there on Saturday. We also put some on the tomatoes and cucumbers. This was our own compost, which I also put around the tomatoes in the greenhouse.

Stuff in the allotment is coming on; beans growing, though they still look a bit pale, tomatoes look settled. Potatoes coming on well though no flowers yet and really need weeding every day. Found bindweed wrapped around one this morning.

In other news, this weekend saw me angle-grinding the three steel washing-line poles down and putting up the new rotary line. The view down the garden being dramatically improved in the process. Then finished off the decorating of the corner of the spare room, erected the bed and cut the slats to length. And made some mint syrup.

Stefi and Sofia arrive Friday – still loads to do.

And Danny of next-door-but-one fell off his bike outside our house and broke his arm. Very painful but a simple fracture and he was his usual cheery, albeit somewhat monodextrous, self the next day.

planting out

Poppies, beans

Planted tomatoes in greenhouse borders: 5 San Marzano on the right (Ali’s side), 4 F1 Incas down the left. Should bung a bit of my compost around them; nice foody mulch.

This morning, planted 6 of the Incas in the allotment. The beans, courgettes and cucumber are looking healthier, greener. I put a general food in their water; also sprinkled some blood, fish and bone on them yesterday. Beans are starting to throw out climbers, though they have yet to find the canes.

What is that weed that I am pulling out every day only to find it reappearing by the next morning? Oh, it appears to be Field Bindweed. So I’ve got Hedge Bindweed down with the potatoes, and Field Bindweed up the top with the squashes. Super.