The one that got away

So, Helen went to the allotment to catch up on the courgette picking and found one that must have slipped through the net - weighing in at just shy of 4lb. Quite the humdinger, ol Goliath.

Here it is next to a "regular" courgette - a smidge larger, then!

Long time, no blog

So much time has passed since I last updated, but this really indicates that we're in coasting mode at the allotment. Picking lots of courgettes still, had loads of onions, we're getting three times the amount of french beans we can eat and loads of tomatoes, mostly Gardener's delight (note: these are ace roasted)

Beginning to make some plans on preparing the site for next year, though we have just bought a few spuds to plant for Christmas. Our pumpkin and squash are doing quite well, though the sweetcorn never amounted to anything, and when we lifted the spuds the other day we found that most had been eaten by slugs - little blighters. Ho hum, this happens. Next year will only go with the Lady Christl first earlies which were ace.

Oh, and still getting beetroot, which I think may have to find their way into some chocolate brownies pretty soon :o)

Overrun with courgettes!

So the courgettes (zucchini) for are going mad - picked something like 20 last week... however courgette soup was nice yesterday - made entirely from allotment produce - and you'd be surprised what you can sneak them in to! Other than that the squash and pumpkin are doing well and the tomatoes are getting there.  More than a couple will find their ways to work.

Had dwarf beans a couple of times this week, very nice! Also some cows have moved in next door to the allotment which should keep the weeds down...

Wouldn't mind some rain....

Did a spot more watering today (every other day pretty much now, typically 30 buckets) so really wouldn't object to some substantial precipitation. However, the allotment is doing quite well. Here's a round-up:

• Courgettes doing fine. Plants something like 3-4 feet across, plenty of happy leaves and some fruit.
• Butternut squash slower but they're an autumn squash so that's ok. One didn't make it!
• Pumpkins appear to be settling in.
• Melons looking pretty happy.
• Beans (runner) ok but running a little late!
• Lettuce &c. doing well - have been harvesting for a couple of weeks now.
• Onions - getting there.
• Tatoes - Harvested some already (Lady Cristl) which made for a nice lunch Sunday.
• Shallots - we have shallots of those (sorry!)
• Peas expired sadly.

So pretty good all things being considered. Took some pictures at the weekend, will upload when we get a moment!

What do you get if you have 26 buckets of 3 gallons?

Sore shoulders!

Went to the allotment again today and did a "little" watering - the 5 squash and 5 courgettes we planted last week are thirsty, so we watered them lots then covered in black plastic (letting the plants out of course!) In the foreground are our leeks which are doing ok, and the beans are out of shot to the left. We also planted sweet peas, real peas and did some weeding.

We had some great red lettuce: which were rather tasty - we had one for our tea and the first of the beetroot...

Then just to prove that Emily comes too:

So a good time was had by all though we're feeling a little sore now!

So we went down to the allotment today and I took some pics. Here's the onions

The raised bed is coming on a treat - I picked a giant lettuce for lunch

The raspberries are bending under the weight of the fruit - we think they will be yellow..

Then we started on the bit that Graeme rotavated the other week. We planted 6 courgettes and 6 butternut squash. I made some rather unconventional tepees (4 canes per tepee) for the runner beans, and Emily earthed up the spuds.

Heres a pic of our neighbours allotment looking up the hill.... I think ours is looking much more the part now ...

One man went to mow...

Next step in taming the allotment - mowing the meadow which has grown around the raspberries. Unfortunately I don't have a 1-mile extension chord for the lawn mower, so had to go shopping. Fortunately Focus had a petrol strimmer with 20% off, which because I bought it today had a further 15% off (bargain) - mostly paid for by my 2am call out last night (boo hiss!)

So one hour or so of two-stroke buzz later the meadow is largely gone but the raspberries remain. Useful for clearing the paths up there too, and much more potent than the old electric strimmer we had. Now planting should be much more straightforward!

Rotavated!

So Alun rented a rotavator over the weekend, so I chipped in and had a go too. Rotavated the plot I had rounduped a few weeks ago and in about an hour and a half had the 300-odd square feet nicely tilled. Now to do some planting...

In case you're wondering what a rotavator is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_tiller

Friday's update

Went to allotment on Friday with a couple of bags of grass clippings, to do a little mulching and found out how things are getting on... the potatoes are coming through, and we have a spectacular crop of dandelions on the uncultivated half of the plot. Something like a dozen plants per square foot, unsurprising looking at the field next door.

So, I then went to get a giant size bottle of roundup and sprayed the lot, will be interesting to see how it does. Quite a lot had gone to seed, so will be repeating at least once...

Onions etc. doing well - now need to dig plots for the leeks, squash and sweetcorn.

Planted spuds!

Went up t'allotment t'morning to plant some spuds - had to re-dig much of the soil which was a pain, but it's at least a little lighter after the dry weather (and volcano ash?) - only planted 15 spuds but took up a surprising amount of space! For reference, they ended up in the onion plot from the previous post - the onions went elsewhere...

Onions doing ok, as are salad crops etc. Weeds currently not too bad. Lots of raspberries growing from previous tenant.

Emily was very good and got involved! :o) Her job was to put the sand in for the potatoes... old play sand to help lighten the clay. 

Onion Plot

Went up to the allotment on friday and started on the onion plot. This proved to be quite hard work as there was lots of couch grass to remove. Hopefully we can keep on top of it ...

The carrot/parsnip/salad bed in the foreground is nearly complete, and looking good.

Things start to happen...

So last week Helen went up to plant some large but unspecified garlic - got it started at home in the kitchen. Going up there today looks like it's settled in OK.

Made a visit to Charlton Park (local garden centre) today, very helpful. They have more varieties of potato than you can shake a stick at, and provided some useful local knowledge. So, on the spuds got:

 - Estima 2nd early, main crop
 - Lady christl, 1st early (recommended in Gardener's World)
 - Winston, 1st early

And got a few alliums:

 - Shallot pikant
 - Onion red baron
 - Onion sturon

(should that be allia?) Anyways, these can go in to the plot we have in March. Went to the allotment afterwards and did some more digging, mixed in 200L of bought compost, 100L of mole hill, 100L of random other stuff into the patch. Discovered that the top patch is probably the most clay, so the next plot should be no where near as bad!

Wheel barrow dead handy, couldn't carry 2 x 100L bags of compost down the hill!

Not been there for two weeks, not a good start...

To be fair the weather's not been on our side - was under a foot of snow for much of the time since the last post, then no chance to get up there this weekend just gone, ho hum. Got garlic ready to go in the ground up there now (sprouting in the kitchen right now - deliberately!) which should be planted in the next week or so.

Still need to get up there and do some digging, so much to do. Then there's the need for second hand grass...

No chance to get there today but...

This may prove to be the way to go for much of the plot:

http://www.allotment.org.uk/garden-diary/465/rain-television-clearing-a-plot/

In essence, wait for weeds to start growing, apply RoundUp (which prevents the production of some key amino acids in the plants, deactivated in the soil) then rotavate. Given that the lower half of the plot is somewhat weedy, may be much more productive than picking all the little blighters out by hand...

Moving compost and planting anchors

Made a "wheelbarrow anchor" today to stop it going walkies. Goes a couple of feet into the ground, should be hard to remove... we shall see! However, picking a day when it was frozen wasn't the best choice...

Thought it would also be nice to take a couple of pictures of the area around the allotment site (though this is from the top of the hill so doesn't include our allotment) then finally started to fill the raised bed (see pictures yesterday) but only got about a quarter full with four full barrow loads...! Makes for a good workout...