Snadgers Penultimate Plot

[Snadger]

I went into an "Olde Worlde" hardware shop which I frequent to buy some rngshank nails for a fence I am building and spotted in-date seed packets at 60p each.
I bought a packet of cucumber seeds which according to the packet you can sow n June.

I have no cuke plants so stopped off at the allotment and sowed six modules at two seeds per module. If they come to nowt I've wasted 60p which I can just about live with.

Watered the stuff in the greenhouse and made sure my shed door was secured but not locked.It was wide open when I arrived as I had forgot to shut and secure it when leaving yesterday.

[Snadger]

Last nights and today rain appears to have added about 35mm of water to my IBC container.

Whilst I was at the plot I made a second sowing of different dwarf French beans in modules as the first lot I sowed have rotted. Either duff seed or too cold for them methinks.

I also noticed that, what looks like 100% of my mange tout peas have germinated which is better than the 50% germination achieved with my Early Onward peas.

[Snadger]

I took a large bag of vegetable waste from the kitchen and added it to the dalek. I also spread a large bucket of wood ash from the woodburner over an area recently dug over and will make it ready to accept brassica plants in the near future.

As the germination was erratic on my row of peas I decided to dig up the stragglers and create half a row about 8 foot long by transplanting them. I also sowed a small packet of seed I had in between them to thicken up the row. This left me with about 12 foot of empty space in the row.
In this half row I planted 2 cauliflower plants (that's all that germinated outdoors) and 5 indeterminate brassicas as the label has disappeared. I am hoping they are Calabrese plants but they appear to be Brussel sprouts. I have a labelled row of sprouts ready to plant out as well and can't imagine why I would have sown another variety?:

After my outdoor forays, which included a bit of hoeing weeds I retired to the greenhouse. Inside I gave my tomatoes a feed and tied them to the canes taking off any side shoots as I went. I potted on one Tigerella tomato plant from a 3 inch pot to a 5 inch pot and stopped it after its first truss to see if I can get a few early toms.

I need to buy some more compost before potting on some squash plants to grow along the greenhouse staging

[Snadger]

It was quite windy at the plot today and my courgette plants were taking a bit of a battering so I put in some sheets of Perspex on the windward side to try and deflect the wind.
Put stakes in at the end and the centre of my broad beans row and stretched string (Nylon washing line) either side of the row.
Took the bottom leaves off my tomato plants in the greenhouse.

Did lots of hand weeding, including pulling grass from fenceline.

[Snadger]

Chuffed to bits with how my Autumn planted Japanese sets are doing!

There are two rows of Troy, two rows of red onions and two rows of Senshyu.



I've only had about half a dozen that went to seed which have left gaps I have stuck spring planted sets into gaps. These are only my Autumn planted sets, I have the same amount in a different area of spring sown sets and then a bed of seed grown red torpedo onions. Should have enough onions for this year anyway!

I was full on tidy up mode today. Mainly hand weeding and hoeing. Late sown cucumbers are up in greenhouse so hopefully will get a crop from them.

I have put a piccie of strange happenings with my Oca on another thread. I appear to have a wide flat stem (faciated methinks)? Cripes knows what this will do to the crop below ground. I'll just have to wait and see.
Gathered a few worms from under the cardboard so maybe a fishing day tomorrow for a change of scenery.

[Snadger]

It was a bit cold, overcast and breezy so after cutting my Cousins lawn and painting my fence at home I headed to the allotment. I was given a shopping list off OH so as the allotment is close to a shop I could kill two birds with one stone.
I had some garlic chives in a large pot for a couple of years so I decided it must be congestion which was causing them to grow poorly. How right I was. On tipping out the pot the soil ball as just a mass of roots. I didn't realise how many roots these things put out. I chopped up the rootball and put five clumps back in the pot with some fresh compost. I also put a single clump in each of four small pots and dug a hole on the plot and put the remaining clump at end of a row of swedes.
I watered the outdoor courgettes and climbing peas and beans as they looked a bit dry.
I took up the remaining cardboard around my raised beds and hoed off any remaining weeds.
I am pleased with progress on the plot and its getting a lot easier to keep on top of it now the majority is planted up.

[Snadger]

Not much happening on plot today. just called in after a fishing trip, mainly to water stuff that needed it.

Made a mental note that I need compost to plant squash and cucumber plants, need to sort out debri netting frame for when I plant out rest of brassicas, need some straw to keep strawberries off soil and I need a frame and enviromesh netting for carrots.

I also need to think about sowing some kales and spring cabbage, Mooli plus fennel, so I have stuff ready to go in as other crops reach maturity.

I have leek seedlings which should be just about ready to plant as the tatties come out and soon the Japanese onions will be finished and more land will become available.

[Snadger]

Planted two large pots up with two types of squash. These will be grown, and trained along the greenhouse bench.
I then planted out eight Brussel sprout plants I had grown from seed. The hard part was rigging up debri-netting supports to cover these and my row of swedes.

A rather novel cover for a spring cabbage that the pigeons had started to decimate was made with three canes and an upside down hanging basket

[Snadger]

Here's a few piccies of the plot I took yesterday. I will find out today whether the last one with the hanging basket covering a spring cabbage has deterred the pigeons.

[Snadger]

Didn't get to the plot yesterday as it was a miserable day and the stuff in the greenhouse didn't need watering.
Went today to check everything was ok and because the ground was easily workable and it was forecast to be sunny later, I did loads of hoeing, leaving the severed weeds on the surface to hopefully shrivel up and not re-root.
Watered the toms in the greenhouse and put the Oca in its large pot outside (As advised by a vine member)
I have some leeks, that though still tiny are hardening off in the area they will eventually be planted.
My Japanese onions are starting to worry me as they are still growing and are huge. I have visions of them splitting/bursting.
Before I left I gathered a punnet of large ripe strawberries which will be enjoyed with cream by me and OH later today.

[Snadger]

Today, I put some black fly screen mesh over my carrots, hopefully to combat carrot fly. I had ordered white mesh but received black for some reason? At under £2.00 I wasn't going to argue though!



Its fastened with a sticky backed Velcro strip around the perimeter so should keep those pesky carrot flies out. It also is slightly big for the bed so this will hopefully allow me to raise it as the carrot tops grow.

While I was in a photographic mood I thought I would take piccies of various beds with leeks, beetroot,sweetcorn and red torpedo onion seedlings as an aid to memory for next year.







I inherited these beds and am still undecided whether to keep them for next year? Te one advantage they hav is that I have also inherited double glasing which fits over the top of them turning them into cold frames if need be.



Last one is of my super duper Japanese onions which I am extremely chuffed with.

Oh no it isn't, I am only allowed to attach five files.

[Snadger]

Sod it! Here are my super duper onions!

[mrbadexample]

Looking good Snadger.

[Snadger]

Looking good Snadger.

Well thank you kind Sir!

[Snadger]

Called at the plot today just to water up. OH wanted some onions for cooking so even though mine are far from finished growing yet I took half a dozen home after removing leaves which were dumped in the Dalek.
I have enough onions to keep us going for a year so utilising a few immature onions will save me having to buy any.