Sweetcorn's in the top bed having replaced the mares-tail!!
Celeriac's in as well, next to the peas and beans.
The radishes and spring onions are in with the wallflowers.
We gave the carrots another soaking just to be on the safe side.
Looks like we brought the nice weather back home with us from North Wales. With hot dry weather forecast for the next few days and with a day out planned at Gardeners World Live we decided to do some more watering and also plant some sweetcorn and celeriac. Sweetcorn's in the top bed having replaced the mares-tail!! Celeriac's in as well, next to the peas and beans. The radishes and spring onions are in with the wallflowers. We gave the carrots another soaking just to be on the safe side.
0 Comments
Had a fantastic week in North Wales; wall to wall sunshine and temperatures in the mid twenties every day. Fortunately there was some rain here during the week, but not enough. Spent over four hours mostly watering but also did a bit of weeding as well. Everything is coming along wonderfully. Carrots are still doing well - unlike last year. Asparagus have gone berserk, but our asparagus season is now over anyway so we just have to let it do it's own thing. Peas and beans are OK......... ............as are the tomatoes and potatoes. Thought it was about time the bottom paths were weeded. Another full day today, for the second time in three days. We've had plenty of rain during the last week and we're on holiday next week so need to get as much planted as possible. We planted some wallflowers ready for next year. Screwed in some net-support stumps for netting for the cabbages. Planted a couple more courgettes in the top bed. Planted four cucumber plants in with the beans. Also planted some beetroot along the edge of the asparagus bed. The carrots are doing a lot better this year than they did last year. Trimmed and tidied up some of the soft fruit in the fruit cage that had started to go a bit rampant. Planted some squashes in the sheltered, dry bottom bed. The tomatoes appear to have taken well. The fern, too, is looking very good this year. The fennel has really taken to its new home behind the artichokes. And the artichokes themselves are doing quite well. Poppies as well are looking good. Had a good five hours down the allotment today. The weather started off this morning with a cool breeze and completely overcast sky with the occasional brief shower but by this afternoon it was back to bright and reasonably warm sunshine. The comfrey has come into flower and is attracting the bees. The recent rain and sun has encouraged the weeds to go berserk so we weeded the bottom two beds by the cemetery wall. We planted a number of tomato plants in a couple of beds. Cleared half of the top bed of mares tail and planted five courgettes. Planted a load of carrot seeds alongside the ones already growing. The onions are looking quite good......... The vine is also looking good after the recent warm weather and rain. The blackberry in the small fruit cage is covered in white flowers. Then right at the end we picked some more asparagus and a few stalks of rhubarb for Sunday lunch tomorrow. Finally did what we always said we'd do once we'd both retired; we got up this morning and went straight down the allotment. We didn't actually get down there until nearly 8:30AM but to be fair it's the middle of May, not June/July, and the temperature was still in single figures. If we have a good summer and overnight lows don't drop below double figures we may set the alarm and come down somewhat earlier. We mainly did watering, feeding (with a comfrey feed) and weeding, though we did also plant some mange-touts and some French beans. Planted some mange-tout........ ........and some French beans. The carrots are doing OK this year; unlike last years efforts. Onions are looking good at the moment.......... As are the blueberries. Potatoes are showing themselves. Going to have to mound them up on our next visit. The grapevine is in full leaf now. The seating/picnic area is looking very pleasant. And just before we left we picked some asparagus, which we'll have tonight. Can't get any fresher than that. Just quickly popped down with more garden cuttings. Didn't stop long as shoulder still painful from last weeks fall off the platform. Did manage to pick some more tiny carrots though, and also some fennell which we thought we'd try. Been down three times in the last fortnight, mostly to take bags and bags of garden clippings down for composting. We've been doing some Autumn Spring-cleaning!! Severely chopped back the cherry and the apple tree and have removed the hop that was strangling the holly tree. Also tidied up a couple of beds and the one of the borders, all of wich amounted to nearly THIRTY bags of clippings. I've never seen the compost bin so full. We moved the wallflowers out and have transplanted them in the bed in the front garden and we picked some very tiny carrots - more foetus than baby carrots. Also checked out the celeriac but that turned out to have been a disaster this year. There was a huge amount of foliage, but when we dug them up......... well, see below. This summer is rapidly turning out to be the hottest and driest since we had the allotment in 2006. Came down straight after work and watered solid for two and a half hours. A conservative estimate would be that we used at least 2,500 litres of water. In between filling the water butts we picked a load more soft fruit and the red gooseberries are easily the best we've ever had. The raspberries too are some of the best ever. After three days of fairly significant rain the forecast is for a decent week ahead so we went down for a couple of hours this morning mainly just to keep on top of the weeds; especially the mares-tail, but we also planted some turnips. There'd been another spate of minor vandalism but I suppose it could have been a lot worse. A netting support post had been snapped off, so we now have a couple of beds where the posts and netting have been slightly damaged - annoying but not disastrous. Everything else seems to be coming along rather well thanks to the long spells of dry weather interspersed with light, but prolonged, rain. The dark, dry bit at the back of the rest area is thriving. The potatoes are also doing incredibly well. Will have to keep them well watered in that very dry bed though. And finally some carrots have established themselves.
When we arrived down the allotment this morning (about 10:30) there was only really one parking space left. Must be a sign that the growing season has started in earnest. There had been a new delivery of half-decent chippings so we spent nearly two hours sprucing up the paths. Planted some more carrots and some sweet peas, The carrots are an experiment to see which method grows the best ones as last year we did abysmally with our carrot crop. This year we've tried planting the seeds directly in the soil, transplanting seedlings from plugs directly into the ground, and also planting the plugs themselves with the seedlings in. I fixed a couple of catches to the shed door to help keep it firmly shut and fed the blueberries and goji berry. We dug up one of the rhubarb plants that had gone particularly woody. We also did a bit of weeding to keep on top of it, especially the mares-tail which was running rampant in the top bed. Following the watering last week (about 15 bucketloads) the potatoes are doing great. Then finally, before we left, we picked another few asparagus tips. Second week in a row we've had a decent amount. Carrot experiment!!! Compare these potatoes to last week. ![]() The salsify is doing alright as well. |
Archives
July 2023
Categories
All
|