What I did today 2022

[Bren In Pots]

Dismantled and washed the cucumber self-watering system and used the old compost for some lettuce plants.
Tidied up remaining courgette plants then pulled up and composted the bolted lettuce.

[Jungle Jane]

Picked more tomatoes,removed more leaves. Remaining peppers changing colour I’ll leave them a bit longer. Little cucumbers growing on a few plants,at the end of the heatwave the cucumbers were putting out sideshoots,some of the cucumbers are formed on these. Only one out of three butternuts are successful veg for harvesting,second plant has a little squash but the leaves are all limp & dying,the squash is a bit soft,the third plant has nothing just leaves & a flower. The heatwave/drought wasn’t good for them or the runner beans. Two courgette plants still producing,pick them soon. Brocolli plants two are under netting & two plants are very holey not under net. I’ve got more in pots rooted into a big container of compost,spares under netting,I’m thinking of planting them out soon,I have a bit of space in the soil,here’s a photo of them,they look a bit squashed where the netting was left over them untouched for about two months

[Bren In Pots]

Removed 2 finished cucumber plants from the GH, the remaining plant has 4 cucumbers on so will see how they do.

[Sweet savory]

Cleared the runner beans as part of grand tidy up before winter. Cleared away 6 year old diseased rasps. I need to think about where to put the row next time.
Sowed a line of garlic cloves on the plot just before the rain came.

[Plot70]

A large punnet of runner beans and three cucumbers.
Also a handful of raspberries.

[nick the grief]

Today I have been mainly doing a bit of planning of the new plot and ordered my Shallots, another rhubarb plant (Stockbridge Arrow) and a goosgog (Lancashire lad). And I've done a seed order that the allotment site gets a bit of money from to help the funds ...I know how to creep ...apart from that I've been watching the rain

[Sweet savory]

Planted out the first 6 spring cabbage and cloched. Watered each hole well as it is still so dry here.
Pak Choi put in a spare tub. Moved 2 leeks that were on the edge of proposed autumn onion bed (they had just been there a few weeks as no space elsewhere). Trimmed tops and roots again and popped in permanent place.
Sowed more late lettuce vars and more spinach to fill in the rows. The spinach hasn’t germinated very well although watered and I put this down once again to exceptionally dry conditions. However the chard sown at the same time seems more resilient so if the second lot don’t come on I will infill with chard. Roll on rain at the end of the week!

[annie8]

New netting arrived, so I transplanted the red cabbages and planted out the jerome cauliflowers into the bed and covered with the net. Also moved some of the purple sprouting broccoli, to leave them enough space to grow.

[Sweet savory]

Potted on 5 pak Choi. Sowed autumn onions. Sprayed the whitefly on the PSB with soapy water. Found a baby squash and put a tile underneath more in hope than expectation. Planted out 4 lettuce.

[peanut]

Picked and dehydrated apples, the bits were m/waved and frozen.

Peanut I’ve not tried toms only apples and fruit leathers, I’ll have to give them a go.

I'll let you know how they turn out, given this first batch are the tasteless gartenperle, they can only improve! I've got lots of other varieties to try which I'm hoping will be much better.

[Bren In Pots]

Picked and dehydrated apples, the bits were m/waved and frozen.

Peanut I’ve not tried toms only apples and fruit leathers, I’ll have to give them a go.

[peanut]

Today I've harvested all my Gartenpearle toms, this is the first time I've grown them and I haven't been overly impressed by their flavour so they've gone into the dehydrator. They're the first thing I've dehydrated, my sacrificial toms if you like. Plan is to turn them into tomato powder.

[Jungle Jane]

Yesterday I was removing some grape leaves to expose the fruit & there was more fruit hiding I didn't know about,a nice big bunch pruned the forsythia a bit more up a ladder,it’s grown tall but the birds have liked it,problem is,our cat jumps into it (above fence height) it’s near the bird feeders,they see him in there & fly off,I tell him to get down & he does,he’s a good boy but sneaky also pruned the honeysuckle a bit,pruned the lavender & put the old stems under one of the melons like straw. I’ve got a pepper plant right next to my rosemary that hasn’t had any pest on it,the smell of the rosemary must hide it from the moths,the lavender smell should stop any snails.

[annie8]

I haven’t seen any blight yet this year,maybe because it’s so dry. I mulched my squash & some broccoli with my pile of saved grass cuttings after we had all that rain the other day,I found a big cocoon within the grass pile,maybe a moth? I don’t know,I just left it there,as there’s only one it probably isn’t a pest. The grass hasn’t grown here this month,hasn’t needed mowing but it’s greening up now after that rain. I’m really surprised it survived the drought,the roots aren’t that deep are they

From what I have read grass is remarkably resilient and can recover well after even very dry spells once it gets a bit of rain. Surprised me too.

[Jungle Jane]

I haven’t seen any blight yet this year,maybe because it’s so dry. I mulched my squash & some broccoli with my pile of saved grass cuttings after we had all that rain the other day,I found a big cocoon within the grass pile,maybe a moth? I don’t know,I just left it there,as there’s only one it probably isn’t a pest. The grass hasn’t grown here this month,hasn’t needed mowing but it’s greening up now after that rain. I’m really surprised it survived the drought,the roots aren’t that deep are they