Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

While I was there I took some more photos of progress:



Tomatoes and courgette growing nicely under the cover that nearly blew away.



Cucumbers and summer leeks in the tunnel (photo taken into the sun so a bit hazy).



Kohlrabi (rather chewed) and calabrese - the slug gone appears to be deterring the slimy creatures so far.



Leeks, beetroot and carrots along the east side of the tunnel.



A reminder of what the plot would have looked like if I hadn't tackled the horsetail. The man next door has sprayed the far half of this a couple of days ago and it is starting to go brown, but this end appears untouched.

[1Bee]

We had odd results at our plot, too. Everyone's rhubarb (I'm assuming because of the large leaves?) has been flattened. The biggest sufferers in terms of damage appears to be the potatoes, which on my plot have lodged and on everyone elses have been battered and look very ragged and limp.

My only loss was a single sweetcorn plant snapped off, but everything is either blown to an angle or a bit shredded. My brassica tunnel net fought itself free of all weights, but since this year I pegged one side down, didn't otherwise shift, phew.

And the broad beans? Mostly unruffled...

I suspect everything will recover, but not many plot holders have experience of a blow like this in summer, so who knows?

[Penellype]

Large leaved plants always suffer more in gales as the leaves act a bit like sails and get ripped apart. They also lose a lot of water in strong winds which is probably why they are looking limp. Most things will probably recover unless the main stems are broken off. The biggest sufferers from a cropping point of view are plants which have big edible leaves (like spinach) which could well be shredded, and fruit that has been ripped off the trees. Fortunately most of the fruit is still very small and has hopefully therefore survived the experience.

[Jungle Jane]

Do spores come off of your neighbours horsetail & affect your plot? If he dealt with it by covering it or removal would you have less of a problem? Your tomato plants look great!

[Penellype]

I think the spores are produced early in the spring -I haven't seen any fruiting bodies for a couple of months. I dare say there were plenty of spores around from his plot, my plot and the surrounding hedges etc - I doubt that will ever be completely eliminated. However the plants from spores will be (initially) shallow rooted and small, so easy to remove. Of more concern is deep roots invading from underneath. My grass path is full of horsetail so I'm going to get some roots growing in from that, and eventually I will probably need to dig it up and get rid of them. The weedkiller he is using is supposed to kill the whole horsetail plant, roots and all - we will see what happens.

Pleased with the tomatoes so far - they are in a nice sunny position. The 2 at the back are Crimson Crush, the ones at the front are Oh Happy Days.

[Penellype]

Time to take the trugs of horsetail to the tip again this morning, so I went round pulling out some of the regrowth around the edges of the plot and in the raised beds before I went.

In the afternoon I set about the next job, which is to clear the bed that I originally intended to grow leeks in (the one in the photo with the ripped up fleece). I've deliberately let the horsetail grow in this bed for the last couple of weeks so I could see where it was. There were a couple of pathetically small leek seedlings which I dug up and put in a pot, but I am not hopeful they will produce anything edible as they have been there a long time now.

Having removed the shredded fleece I carefully scraped up as much of the contents of the bed as I could, avoiding the horsetail shoots. I put it into the 4 blue buckets that I used to bring the horse manure in, and also filled 3 compost sacks. I stacked these in the compost area for now. I moved the wooden edge of the bed onto the grass near the leylandii hedge and peeled back the weed matting on the path between the bed and the raspberries.

There was a small job to finish off, which was to add another 3 pieces of the lawn edging to take this barrier to the leylandii side of the raspberries. I straightened the edge of the grass and removed any bits that were encroaching on the bed then fitted the edging strips in. I now just need to do the leylandii side with the white boards and the rhubarb end (when it dies down) with the rest of the edging.

This area was dug over twice before I put the raised beds down and the raspberries in. There was some horsetail, which has been making an occasional appearance in the raspberry bed, mainly from under the matting. I carefully dug along the edge of the raspberries, leaving room for the roots. There was some horsetail root but reassuringly little. The path was harder to dig, having been walked on for several months. I managed to get enough of it finished to put the matting back down, although not quite in its proper position. I wanted to get this done today as it may rain quite a bit tomorrow and I would rather work from the matting than stand in a mud bath if it does.

The whole lot took me a good 2 hours and I was tired when I had finished. I'd intended to deal with the fallen spinach and take some home for tea, but I couldn't face it today. While walking home I remembered that I not only had all the watering to do this evening, but also the horses to muck out as the routine has changed this week and they are now in the field at night and stabled during the day (to avoid the flies).

Energy can usually be found after a rest and something to eat, and I got the watering and mucking out done. I even did half an hour's deadheading at home this evening in case the weather is bad tomorrow.

[Penellype]

I went down early, taking some romanesco and kohlrabi seedlings to go on the shelf in the tunnel, collected the water from a very small amount of rain and picked up a few slugs and snails for the chickens. As it was Saturday I spent the morning in my friend's garden.

Today's job was to remove the spinach from the hotbed before it completely suffocated the few carrots that have grown in there. This was a much longer job than you might think because I wanted to salvage any edible leaves. It took me well over an hour after lunch, and I had nearly finished when it started to rain. I'd picked a carrier bag full of edible leaves, and I also brought home a bag of peas and another reasonably sized (but nibbled) cauliflower. There is just one of these left now.

At around tea time a squall line moved through with some very heavy rain, a few rumbles of thunder and some gusty winds. As soon as the rain had stopped I went down to the plot to check on the tomato cover, which had been open. As I suspected it had been blown over, but it hadn't gone far as it was still under some of the bricks. The tomatoes had survived unscathed. As a bonus about 2 litres of water had collected on the polythene, which I carefully transferred to a watering can before putting the cover back in place. This is going to be a pain if it happens every time it is windy, and I may have to remove the cover completely as I can't leave it shut in hot sunshine.

I collected up the rest of the water and checked nothing else was damaged, then went to muck out the horses.

After the squall (cold front, I suspect) had gone the sun came out and it was a very pleasant early evening so I went back to the plot, taking some turnip seedlings with me to join the others. I finished off the job in the hotbed, removing as much of the horsetail that had been tangled up in the spinach as I could. The bed is full of it but even though the carrots and beetroot are ready to harvest now, I don't want to dismantle it until later as it is an ideal place to grow some courgettes.

Finally I had a walk round and look at the place, something I don't get time to do all that often. Everything seems to have grown a bit after the rain. As well as the beetroot, peas, cauliflower and carrots that are ready, there are some nice turnips and the strawberries are managing to produce plenty of edible fruit - I haven't netted these. The onions are beginning to form noticeable bulbs and the 2nd planting of beetroot are beginning to swell too. The parsnips and the carrots in the tunnel are almost big enough to hope that they will survive the slugs, and the sugar peas have flower buds starting to form (about time as they are at the top of their netting). The florence fennel has germinated and hasn't yet been eaten by slugs, although I had to put black cotton round it today as the birds had been pecking in the compost. The Sarpo potatoes have flowers on now and there are raspberries that look big enough to be turning red soon. The gooseberry bush has about a dozen fruit on it (there have been a total of 6 in the past 3 years, so this is progress) and the blackcurrants are starting to turn black. No sign of sawfly in the tunnel so far. Calabrese, cucumbers and leeks are so far undamaged in the tunnel and the tomatoes and courgette plant are doing well. Beans (french and runner) are growing slowly having been a bit battered by the wind. The rhubarb is looking worse for wear but I have stopped eating it now anyway.

On my travels I picked up half a jam jar full of snails. Chickens will be pleased tomorrow.

[Penellype]

Yesterday I wanted to get bed 4 (the leek bed) dug and reassembled. I spent 2 long sessions doing nothing much but digging out horsetail and got the bed dug, the paths either side replaced and the frame back down. As the soil was now much less compacted the bed would not hold all of the original contents, but I levelled off the soil and put the 3 compost sacks full back as a mulch to suppress annual weeds. I haven't put any cardboard at the bottom this time as I want any horsetail left in the soil to grow as fast as possible to show me where it is!

Within minutes of filling the bed Mr and Mrs blackbird were throwing bits of muck around looking for worms. I found the old piece of netting that was hanging in the tunnel doorway and pegged it down on the bed, but they still insisted on pecking around the edges so I resorted to strands of black cotton, which seems to have worked.

I harvested some strawberries, a couple of carrots and a turnip. The turnip was entertaining - I had planted a loo roll innard with 3 seedlings in and surrounded it with one of my plastic rings with copper tape. The turnips had grown - a big one and 2 little ones, but they had filled the space and were completely stuck inside the ring. I had to get a pair of scissors and cut the ring off. it was worth it though - I really like these Oasis turnips, and this one was nearly tennis ball size, with no fly damage and not at all tough or stringy.

While I was putting my tools away I noticed 2 teenage boys running about on the neighbouring plot and rolling on the ground. The saw me and ran off, climbing over the gate, and I could see them waiting at the bus stop, looking over the hedge. I decided ignoring them was not an option, particularly because I had to walk past them to go home. I therefore commented that people spent a lot of time and effort on these plots and please would they think about how they would feel if they had their work ruined by someone. Whether it will make any difference I have no idea. Probably not.

[Penellype]

Not really surprisingly, today I didn't feel much like digging. I spent the morning trimming the roadside hedge again as there was quite a bit of new growth and several large brambles. I also went round the edge of the plot pulling out the horsetail (more to do) and also pulled some out from in amongst the strawberries (a losing battle).

The strawberries are producing a steady stream of ripe fruit with some slug damage. I'm washing these and cutting out any damaged bits then drying them and freezing on a tray. The plan is that when I have enough of them I will make some jam.

[Penellype]

Horsetail day today (what a surprise!). I finished pulling as much of it out from underneath the roadside hedge as possible, and removed what I could see from all the raised beds except the one with the cauliflower and turnips in (bed 6). This bed currently contains one cauliflower and 2 turnips which are all ready to eat. It will soon be dug in a similar way to bed 4 and planted with tomatoes.

There were some bits of horsetail appearing in amongst the raspberries, so I removed as much of these as I could, and then set about what I had intended to do, which was dig it out of the tunnel. I was going to do the road end east side, but when I looked closely I found some growing at the shed end as well, so I tackled that first. Considering I have dug this bit 4 times now there is a remarkable amount of root still coming up when I dig. After about an hour of this I'd had enough and picked some strawberries and peas and a beetroot for lunch.

After lunch I went back and did a bit more, so I have dug about 1/4 of the area of the tunnel today. I felt I had earned my bowl of strawberries and ice cream and an afternoon watching Royal Ascot (with bits of gardening at home in between the races). This is likely to be the programme for the rest of this week, one of my favourite weeks of the year and my nominal "summer holiday".

[Penellype]

Rain! The cold front that is bringing a couple of cooler and fresher days (and chilly nights) arrived this morning and for a short while there was some fairly heavy rain. As soon as it had stopped I dashed down to the allotment to collect up the water (probably a watering can full) before it evaporated. It was fairly windy so everything was soon dry again, but hopefully the plants got something from it.

I did a little more digging in the tunnel before the rain started again, this time just enough to wet me without producing anything useful. I went home for lunch, taking with me the last of the cauliflowers and a bag of strawberries (mostly slug damaged).

With almost no rain in the forecast for the foreseeable future, I swopped my 2 litre water bottle for a 5 litre one that I found in the garage. I can carry 5 litres of water, although it does make the walk to the plot rather harder work than the much lighter 2 litre bottle. I am going to have to remember not to water the blueberry out of the dustbin that I am storing this tap water in.

The rain was a bit of a nuisance as it stopped me from doing as much digging as I wanted to. I'm very aware that the weather is going to turn hot soon, and I'm not going to be able to do so much digging. I wilt at 25C. Hopefully I can get most of the tunnel dug over in the next couple of days and the cauliflower bed done over the weekend - I need that for the tomato plants, but I have to eat the turnips first!

[Jimmy]

I don't think you have made a post here where your not pulling or digging horsetail out.
However see
Would you believe it! A use for the Mare’s Tail! | Craigentinny Allotments
Jimmy

[Jimmy]

Hmm last url points to
https://www.progreen.co.uk/kurtail-gold
Never heard of that, has anyone ???
Jimmy

[bikermike]

I felt I had earned my bowl of strawberries and ice cream and an afternoon watching Royal Ascot (with bits of gardening at home in between the races). This is likely to be the programme for the rest of this week, one of my favourite weeks of the year and my nominal "summer holiday".

I hope you wore a hat

On the subject of everyone's favourite weed, my neighbour seems to be having success with a brew made of white wine vinegar, salt and a dab of washing-up liquid. Obviously it kills everything it touches, but he's confident enough to put some sweetcorn in after it and that all looks fine (better than mine in fact... grrr)

[Penellype]

I don't think you have made a post here where your not pulling or digging horsetail out.
However see
Would you believe it! A use for the Mare’s Tail! | Craigentinny Allotments
Jimmy

I don't think I have gone a day at the allotment without digging or pulling horsetail, at least not since it started to grow! Very interesting link - I've no interest in using it as a spray, but I find it encouraging that the article comments that you can get rid of it by forking over and removing it then keeping it down - that is exactly what I am doing.