Forking Carrots!!

Well this is a poor show – I've not written a jot since for nearly two months!! I have been quite busy working (on Saturdays which is my primary allotment day), holidaying, going to watch motor racing and sometimes gardening.

Most of the carrot crop

Mutant carrots

Earwig nest

With most vegetables harvested now I have started reviewing the year, how to improve things and what to grow next year. It may not come as a surprise that I am quite disheartened with things down on the allotment this year. I have been endlessly weeding but it is utterly pointless. When I go back a week later it is just as bad as before. Added to that the crops have been pretty poor, with the exception of the strawberries and runner beans. Many others are celebrating a glorious summer and gathering bumper harvests. I have forked carrots and potatoes the size of grapes! My two big problems were lack of mulch and irrigation. What I need to do is cover the allotment with about four inches of - concrete - no I mean organic matter!! I have looked on line and it would cost upwards of £50 to get sufficient compost to do half the allotment. (I am thinking of the actual worked area bearing in mind that a substantial chunk is taken up by the soft fruit and the shed area.) However there is then the problem of delivery because the truck can only deliver to an area of hard standing not onto allotments and narrow lanes may be a problem! That means that I'd have to find somewhere suitable for the delivery and then ferry the whole lot by wheelbarrow onto the allotment! Maybe I'll just buy bags of compost from a local garden centre as I can afford (I think its 3 80L bags for a tenner) them and take them down in the car. 

Whatever I decide to do I need to do something to try and combat those pesky weeds first. Do I throw my organic principles to the wind and get some high powered weed killer? It sounds tempting but the whole plot was done the first autumn we had it and the weeds came back with vengeance the following spring. Many of the allotment holders smother the weeds with areas of old carpet, although it does the trick it looks unsightly and is disapproved of by the organic community. I need to use something like cardboard or newspaper to cover the ground then put clean compost on top of that (and maybe cover that to stop even more weeds getting in!). What I can't get away from is the need to dig out the tough weeds like dock and mallow before I do any covering because they will just grow through bigger and stronger. What joy. Some new allotment holders have built raised beds and filled them with clean soil/compost which is a good but pretty costly way of combating the weeds.

'Main Crop'

One of the worst crops have been the potatoes; very undersized and full of wireworm. This has meant some very serious thinking about the cost effectiveness and need to actually grow potatoes, especially maincrop, when I can buy large bags of potatoes locally for a reasonable price all year round. At the moment I am thinking of growing only salad potatoes and they will be in bags at home. This will free up a lot of space down on the allotment for other crops. I currently plan to grow a lot of different beans, try again with peas, different squashes, black kale, Romanesco broccoli, onions, leeks, carrots and parsnips as well as asparagus and a large area for soft fruit.

Saved for seeds

You'd better book a taxi Cinders!

Caged Brassicas

It is not all doom and gloom though, up in the greenhouse the tomatoes and cucumbers have done well with steady cropping rather than a glut. However the tumblers in a hanging basket did not tumble and did not produce well. I may try different varieties next year and maybe find room for peppers and aubergines. I plan to put some of the strawberries in there hoping to get an early crop. Hopefully the greenhouse will get a makeover soon as himself has brought home some twin wall glazing from a dismantled structure. Two sheets are quite big so they will replace half the roof and back end then smaller pieces will do the other part of roof (with the vent in) and sides. All we have to do is work out how to attach the sheets to the frame. It will make a real difference to the warmth in there when it is done.

I'm off!!

 
The small greenhouse nearly blew away a few weeks ago – both zips ripped apart and the whole thing filled with wind so I had to remove the cover from the frame, it nearly took my youngest flying off to Denmark as a gust caught it just as I released the last tie. Fortunately the zips were easily repaired and torn ties reattached. The edges are now weighted down with bricks to prevent the wind getting underneath so much.


Soon it will be time to clear the tomato and cucumber plants out of the greenhouse and put the pots in for the winter and start buying and sowing seeds for the next season. Circle of life!

Disemboweling Daleks

Sad Blueberries

Last time I wrote I was waiting for rain to arrive. Well it did eventually at about eleven pm – better late than never I suppose! We have had some heavy thundery rain and showers since then but still the ground is dry. Once again there is the possibility of rain later – its always later never now! One day I may well sit here bemoaning the persistent rain stopping me getting outside and doing things but I don't think it will be for a while yet!


Recently I saw an item on local news about the amazing blueberry crop being harvested by a Norfolk fruit grower – huge clusters of berries looking more like grapes – I am envious, I'd be over the moon if my bushes produced even half that amount. I really must re-home them and give them lots of attention.

Dalek innards

When I return to the allotment I shall be digging over the early potato patch and putting in some brassicas, kindly given to me by a neighbour, and trying out some late broad beans because the harvest has been so terrible from the early ones. In preparation for this I dug out some compost from the 'Dalek' by the kitchen door. It has been working away decomposing for over a year and I'm quite pleased with the results. It is fairly dry and very crumbly but some egg shells have survived. It is fine for digging in on the allotment and will finish rotting down in its own time. 'Dalek' number two is now filling up mainly with vegetable trimmings from the kitchen plus some lawn mowings and shredded paper. I don't put in any of the garden weeds because I don't think the heap gets hot enough to kill them so they go into the brown bin for the council to deal with. Hedge trimmings and prunings also go to the council because without a shredder to make them digestible I'd be left with a lot of sticks.

Silver Y Moths

The Escallonia

 By the kitchen door there is a huge mature Escallonia Macrantha which last year attracted large numbers of bees, it just hummed all day. This year the bees have been joined by a
cloud of Silver Y moths. I didn’t realise just how many there were until I came home one evening and saw a halo of moths over the bush. I have tried to photograph them but not had much luck. Maybe I should have tried to video them instead. The blooms are waning now so the bees and moths are starting to go elsewhere for their nectar fix. Who knows what else will turn up next year.



 

Non Standard Fuchsia

Not Alpines but still pretty

The pots in the garden are doing quite well. The sweet pea wigwam had some lovely blooms, again coming to an end now. My rescued tall fuchsia is doing very well, last year it had been decapitated so I gave it a good home. I am thinking of training it into a proper standard, just a rather short one. Remember the old sink by the front door? Well I didn't manage to replant it so it just has some annuals in it but they look very colourful.
 

Buddlea hits the bottle

I have been trying out the irrigation spikes around the garden and in the house. The one I bought have taps on to adjust the flow – all I have to do is get the flow rate right! The two cheeseplants upstairs are very glad of them as they now get a continuous supply of water. I have tried them out in some outdoor pots and the new border. I am taking five bottles down to the allotment to water the squashes, It could be more but the boys are not drinking the fizz fast enough - I have sixteen spikes!!

Irrigation is the name of the game

 I believe this is a cloud raining

I am sitting here waiting for it to rain. The weather people said it would be raining here by about four this afternoon. Unfortunately the sun is breaking through the white cloud. According to the BBC Weather App on my fone the rain may now arrive at 6pm. I hope it can explain its tardiness!

Get me a drink! I'm stressed!!

I went down the allotment yesterday afternoon (Hungarian GP Qualifying to watch today) and cleared more weeds. It is actually looking pretty weed free at the moment. During the week my apprentice went mad with the strimmer and cut down the overgrown weeds around the edges. Actually he is far better with the strimmer than I am – boldly strimming where no one has strimmed before! So it looks very tidy, for a couple of days at least.

Weed free - for now

The strawberries have just about finished now, not too bad considering the helter-skelter weather we have had so far this year. Plans to rearrange the fruit area are afoot (well abrain actually as they are all in my head) The blueberries are very unhappy because the soil is not acid enough for them so they will be dug out and put into pots of ericacious compost and kept at home because pots need a lot of watering so I’ll be able to keep an eye on them. They will be replaced by the new blackcurrants which are in a pot by the greenhouse. I will move the strawberries which were heeled in last year to a permanent place in September, they will be near the fruit cage but I'm not sure exactly where. There is a vacant bit of land on the north side or the area where the squashes are on the west side.

I have been digging more taters still pretty small and many have something inside – most likely wireworm – so about half of many potatoes end up being thrown away. I will photograph some and get it confirmed before I can decide what action to take. The broad beans are still producing moderately well. I'm going to try a late sowing when I've finished taking out the early potatoes in the next few days.

Neat and tidy for a while

I have bought some new tunnels to protect crops – they are made of fairly thick fleece on wire hoops – really easy to use because the hoops are already attached so they just need stretching out over the crops. I was thinking of getting netting versions but have decided to get some irrigation spikes instead, well I have plenty of chicken wire which works perfectly well. 

Bottle and spike irrigation

They fit onto the top of 2L drinks bottles (we get through lots of them) then just push the spike into the ground and the plants are watered automatically. They should be much better because all the water will go directly to the roots. My only concern is how far the water will or will not spread. All the ones I've looked at show one bottle per plant – not very practical for my needs. Still its got to be better than no watering at all! I'll try out a few and if they prove effective I'll get more – the allotment could be invaded by bottles!

 

More room for seedlings etc

Back at home we have a new arrival! The mini greenhouse I wanted was on offer so I went ahead and bought one. It is deeper than I thought it would be but does just what I wanted. It is home to seedlings, cuttings and salad leaves at the moment and over the winter will house various pots. I just need to get rid of the ants nest under the concrete where it stands otherwise everything will be infested!

Since I started writing the sun has come out again so I checked the weather online; we now have no rain until 8pm!! Even then it is only a 'light shower'!  We have a slight sea fret instead. I despair!!!!

Rain!!

Rain Courtesy of BBC.co.uk & the Met office

   The poor allotment is absolutely gasping for a drink (as are the mozzies - ouch!), crop yields are down and distressed plants are running to seed. I checked the long range weather forecasts on the BBC website and it may only be a few days ahead but I was overjoyed to find this in the forecast for the early hours of Wednesday(July 24th) morning. Just look at all that rain – and even thunder right over North Norfolk! Perhaps I wont need to do a rain dance after all! The actual forecast was somewhat different – it said light rain shower. I have just checked again and the thunderstorm has vanished and it varies between light or heavy showers – well at least it does at the moment. Still my hopes are raised that we will get some sort of precipitation at last! Saturday was grey and drizzly all day – such a relief for the garden!

Not so Bumper Harvest

I went down to get some potatoes yesterday – at the biggest about the size of a tennis ball – and came back with a bagful of potatoes, broad beans, peas, chard and a pot of strawberries. It raised my spirits a bit. However a lot of the broad beans are like Pooh Bears head – just filled with fluff; the peas were almost the entire crop and just enough for two portions; many of the potatoes could be used to play marbles! Many of the onions think they are for picklung so have stayed very small. The Ruby Chard is doing well though. If the weather is on the turn for a few days things could improve. It has got me thinking about improving things for next year – I know that I need to put a lot more organic matter into the soil and I need to mulch a lot more. I have also been thinking about some sort of irrigation system so that I can water directly to the roots of the plants – a lot of research is needed.

My Russet at last has fruit

 

Saw these near the allotments

Up in the greenhouse things are much better because I go and water regularly. The tomatoes are now all equal sized, my home grown Moneymakers took a while to catch up with the shop bought Gardeners Delight. The two cucumbers are doing well and embracing the cheeseplant which is spending the summer in the greenhouse. I have grown some Rainbow Chard from seed and was planning to put them down on the allotment but they are now happily growing in a big tub in the greenhouse. There are also a variety of salad things, I buy those trays of living salad (lettuce seedlings) from supermarkets then once all are cut down they go up to the greenhouse to regrow. I also have a bowl of mixed leaves to add variety. With all these salad things growing the greenhouse is quite full so I am planning on getting one of those mini greenhouses to put in a sunny place near the back door to use for salads and to overwinter potted plants.

Around the garden things are going ok but many of the flower seeds have either not come up or are way behind where I'd expect them to be. I may well buy annual, biennial & perennial plants rather than seeds in future.

Sea Fog lurking on the marshes

Wood Pigeons are New Superfood!*

EAT ME!!!!

All you carnivores out there go and eat Wood Pigeons – they are marvellous! They are free range, live very happy lives and have a very healthy diet – mostly strawberries and pea shoots from allotments. There are thousands of them about so there are plenty to go round. Just think of all the pies, casseroles and roasts you could have and how many gardeners and farmers you would be making happy. Eating wood pigeons would be a great service to the nation – go on tuck in!!!*

( * I made that up - I just want rid of them by fair means or fowl!)

Where to start?

I've not posted anything for a while because of various things – weather, work, holiday and working on the allotment. When I went down the allotment after our holiday I found a weed choked thirsty mess. I had to come up with a plan of action otherwise I would have just been jumping from one job to another and not really achieving anything. I decided to start at the bottom end where the peas and beans are. 

Look No Weeds!

The first job was to weed the peas which had been grown in bottles. They then needed support so I used some plastic plant support along one side and tried to encourage them to grow up this. Then I hoed out the weeds where the field peas should have been growing. After that I carried on with a hoe down and worked up towards the potatoes. This was done on a very hot day and turned out to be more tiring than it sounds. My weeding was interrupted when I went up to the shed for something and found wood pigeons eating my strawberries so I harvested the fruit then changed the chicken wire tunnels to make them more pigeon proof. 

Sickly potatoes

The dry weather is causing great distress to the plants with spinach and onions running to seed early; broad beans plants are about half the size they were this time last year; French beans are tiny – barely two inches long and goodness know what is happening to the potatoes – the earlies and salads are all turning yellow and dying off and I don't think it is because they are ready to be dug up. Before I went away I replanted where seeds had failed to germinate – mainly Scorzonera and Chard – There is still little or no germination, it is very disheartening. Equally disheartening are the peas which I rescued from weeds only to have the plants stripped of leaves by pigeons. More mesh has been put in place to protect what remains. 

Small rewards

Today I chanced it and put in some Speedy french bean seeds where the field peas should have been. I also finally planted out my pumpkins, it was cool and cloudy so they should be able to settle in ok. The combination of very dry weather causing distressed and undersized plants and crops and masses of choking weeds has got me down today. Weeds wouldn't be so bad if they stayed away but wherever I clear space and plant seeds all I get is more weeds! Pigeons eating and crapping on everything don't help either. I had to fish a dead pigeon out of the half full waterbutt today as well! At least its one less pest! Next time I go to the allotment I shall take the big strimmer and get on top of those weeds. If only making it rain was as easy. On the bright side I have again come home with a box of beautiful jewel red strawberries!

Before we went away I went on a Master Gardeners day at Holt Hall and visited their wonderful vegetable gardens. The garden has been in cultivation for over 100 years. There is an old hot house where melons were once cultivated and next door is a marvellous greenhouse where strawberries and tomatoes grow in one half and seeds are raised and potted on in the other half. A poly tunnel was full of early crops of potatoes, carrots, beetroot and courgette. The best part is the walled garden where different methods of cultivation are used. There are raised beds, no dig beds, 3x3 metre garden, wild life area, a pond and much much more. It was a really inspirational visit and I came away with a lot of ideas. Holt Hall gardens are open every third Sunday (the next one is 21^st July) and free of charge – well worth a visit.

The Exquisite Walled Garden at Holt Hall

Summertime and the weedin' is easy

Slowly but surely

This morning when I went down the allotment it was a pleasant summers day, a bit blustery but warm in the sunshine on the sheltered allotment site. We had rain overnight so the ground was nicely moistened. By the time I left the allotment about two hours later the clouds were building up for more rain. The wind became more blustery and after about another hour of building there was heavy downpour and a clap of thunder. This all blew through pretty quickly and now we have sunshine again for a while. It’s really great to be getting some rain, am I the only one to be so happy about it?!

My Neighbouring Plot

North of the Path

This year's trend

The south side of the path

Holding back the tide of weeds

Down on the allotment things are getting growing, especially the weeds! The French beans are recovering from their sunburn but still not looking as happy as they could be. The results of last weeks hoeing meant that there were only a few small weeds to be pulled out from among the Carrots and Scorzonera. I filled in the gaps in the rows of carrots with seedlings given to me by a friend at work. The Scorzonera can be planted right up until the end of May so as we are running about a month behind schedule I chanced it and put a load more seeds in then covered them with the cloches to keep them extra warm and speed things up. Where the spinach had been planted out there was some space under the chicken wire so I filled in more gaps with new sowings of seeds there too. Down at the Chard I cleared out all the weeds then raked it ready to put in more Ruby Chard on one row and Spinach Beet on the other row. There is still room for the Chard seedlings which are in the greenhouse but not yet big enough to plant out. Sadly it looks like one of the Butternut Squash plants hasn't survived. However there are several pumpkin seedlings growing in the greenhouse so I'll plant them out when they are sturdy enough. It was a brief visit to the allotment today, there is still some clearing to do and the edges need strimming but I needed lunch and I knew the weather was very changeable so I only planned a short visit.

Did I miss the Wassailing?

Once again I seemed to be the only person down there – I say seemed because I can't see every plot from our plot. I don't know when other people do their allotment work because nearly every time I go down the place is deserted! (Perhaps they are trying to tell me something!!) However there are always signs that work has gone on. I took some pictures on the walk back top show you all. You will see that there are still a lot of derelict plots overrun with weeds which makes it difficult in the ongoing battle with weeds that everyone has. You will also see that there is a trend for blue waterpipes to be used as cloches. I'm old school and stick to chicken wire (no not literally!).

Whether the weather be good......

Gardeners, like farmers, are always complaining about the weather – too hot, wet, dry, cold – and rightly so! Those of the population who are not trying to grow crops just don't understand how important it is to have the right amount of rain and sunshine to make everything grow and produce food. Last week I went to the allotment in scorching sunshine. This week it was back to cloud and low temperatures. I planted out French beans and they got scorched by the sun, now they are shivering and parched. We have had no rain for about two weeks and the free draining soil has drained and turned to dust with a concrete crust. The effect of this capricious weather is that most crops are way behind where they should be and many seeds haven't even germinated. Even the weeds are struggling!

 

The Bean Arch

Last week I took my apprentice (the advantage of being a Master Gardener!!) to the allotment  and he did a marvellous job of digging over the weedy area and clearing it (Gardening skill went up a notch). I have been able to clear the backlog of seedlings from the greenhouse at last. The climbing bean arch has been constructed and beans planted, Cobra on one side Scarlet Emperor on the other. The four surviving Buternut Squash plants are planted along with the Dwarf French Beans, sprouted parsnips, onions and leeks. That has just about filled the area cleared by my apprentice. I have also added another row of mixed potatoes (destined for the compost bin at work) they are a Jamie Oliver taster kit including Sarpo Mira, Majestic, King Edward and Pentland Javelin. Yesterday I went and 'puddled in' the leeks. I theory You dib a hole drop in the leek and fill the hole with water. I practice the soil was so dry it was like digging on a beach above the high tide line so holes couldn't be dibbed because they kept collapsing in on themselves. I had to pull the soil aside with a trowel then very quickly drop in the leek before it filled with soil.

Tidier Strawberries Sad Blueberries

At least they all got a good watering. The Butternut Squash were gasping so I had to give them all a good drink, I may try fitting reservoirs to them using large cola bottles pushed into the ground. I then went for a hoe down – along all the rows where seedling should be sprouting. There were very few of anything; Carrots, Scorzonera, Chard or Field Peas. Fortunately the other day I sowed more Chard seeds and Carrots can be sown at any time but the Scorzonera, like parsnips should have been sown much earlier. I have little to lose though so I'll probably put some more seeds in cells in the greenhouse then transplant them and hope they grow big enough to use by the end of autumn.

Weed free for now

 

I also removed the protection from the Asparagus as it has grown very tall then I set about weeding around them again. I found that disappointingly few of the many Calendula seeds have sprouted, maybe they will come up if the weather settles down to what it should be. The fruit 'cage' (it has no mesh at the moment) has been weeded so now I can see how well the strawberries are doing and how poorly the Blueberries are fairing – I think I may move them back into pots of ericacious compost and keep them at home. The only things which seem to being this dry spell are the strawberries (well mulched) and the herbs.

4 Moneymakers 2 Gardeners Delight

Up in the greenhouse all is growing well. The tomatoes are in big pots (I found some other suitable ones) and the cucumbers in terracotta bowls. All are sitting in gravel trays to keep them watered. On the bench more seeds are growing, salad leaves and radishes to go by the back door and biennials for next year. 

Bowl of Cucumber

 

Also growing are spiders! In the top of the pot bag was a clump of spiderlings. That wasn't much of a problem so long as they stayed put. They didn't. One day I went to work in the greenhouse and the spiderlings had moved up to the bubblewrap roof via the tomatoes and made little cobwebs everywhere! On the next visit they had all gone – I have visions of not being able to get in there one day because of all the spider webs!

Spiderlings