More produce picked including some very decent potatoes.
Well, despite heavy rain and storms being forecast for the last four days we've had nothing, so it's down to water again and this time we need to fill the water butts up.
More produce picked including some very decent potatoes.
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Louise has had her conservatory roof replaced so it seemed a good idea to use the old plastic roofing as new covers for the water-butts. Before and after: The artichokes are looking superb; which is slightly annoying as we don't really like them. These are rhubarb leaves annoyingly left scattered on the path by an adjoining plot holder. We came down today to primarily fill the water butts as it looks like we could be in for a hot spell towards the end of the week.Took the opportunity to do a bit more weeding and generally tidy up. We're going to have to decide before next year what to do with these two dry beds next to the cemetery. Lockdown is continuing but we have had to come down just two days after our previous visit because we have had some unseasonably dry weather for the last two months and everwhere is currently pretty parched. So we watered what is already planted and filled up the water-butts too. The rose in the picnic area is pretty well fully recovered and established now. Picnic area itself is looking pretty "green"............. ...........and the comfrey bed is looking colourful. The artichokes seem happy in ther new home. Everything appears to be thriving in the "nursery" bed. We planted some Viburnum at the back o the carrots. Well Lockdown is still in place with no real sense of when it might end. Combined with the hot, sunny weather though it's proving a great boon for peoples allotments. Each time we've come down in the last monh the car park has been full by ten-o-clock. The potatoes are showing through already, so we've started mounding them up. As the weaher forecast is sill good we thought we ought to fill the water-butts. Much of the wood supporting the compost bin had rotted so fixed what we could and now the lef-hand side is ready for this years composting materials. The beautiul weather is pushing all the plants well ahead of where they normally are by mid April. The cemetery wall is almost hidden by foliage............... ........and look at the dffrence in the comfrey bed and seating area in just three weeks. Three weeks ago. Now. We also picked our first asparagus of the season. (and some rhubarb; but I forgot to take a photo). It's the Easter Weekend coming up and stern Government advice is to STAY AT HOME. Not sure if going down the allotment counts as essential so we're going down today and then not going down again until next Tuesday (April 14th). The weather has been glorious (hence hundreds of people ignorng social-distancing recommendations) so we watered the onions and flowers. All the water-butts were between half and three-quarters full so that was useful, but if this weather continues then we will have to fill them. The onions definitely needed watering. The blossoms coming out nicely on the plum trees. We managed to do some more weeding and give a covering of compost. There's only another three or four beds to do, though that does include the long bed by the top path. We watered and fed the blueberries and they're looking good. Some lovely new growth on the fern. It's certainly taken to it's new home. New delivery date for scaffolding boards so went down again. Once again we're lucky that the weather is very pleasant for March so plenty to do while we're waiting. Continued with re-netting the large fruit cage for a start. Gave the blueberry baths a good soaking. Filled up the water-butts. The way the weather is we might need to do some watering sooner rather than later. Some of the beds needed digging over. And finally got round to re-laying the slabs in the eating area. While we were doing these little jobs, still no sign of the scaffolding boards. Called builder only to be told that his van was in for it's MoT!. Not happy is an understatement, so went home to cancel purchase on Ebay and get a PAYPAL refund - and probably put a few choice words on their website. Ordered some scaffolding boards to finish off the beds so that they all look the same. Weather is forecast nice for the next ten days so.took the opportunity to tidy up the plot. We'd also bought about 50m of netting to re-do the large fruit cage as there were a few holes appearing. Moved and tidied some old wood. Moved one of the water butts to make it more accessible. Scaffolding boards hadn't arrived by 1:00PM so rang up and was told he'd forgotten all about it!! Luckily the day wasn't wasted as bits and pieces to do down there. Made new delivery date for Monday 25th March. And that was it basically. Picked some produce as shown below and gave the squashes a whole water-butt of water as the ground looked very dry.
The rain we had a couple of evenings ago was a tiny fraction of what we should have had for June/July and as we approach August the forecast now seems to be for even hotter conditions. The Met Office has even advised that everyone should avoid going outside in the sun between the hours of 11:00AM and 3:00PM. It's already been drier and hotter overall than 1976, with another week in July and the whole of August to go; it's just not been as continually hot - yet.
Down this evening for more watering. Water-butts have been filled more times this year than all previous years combined. |
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