Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

No time for gardening on Thursday and yesterday was rather busy too, but I was determined to get plenty done as the weather looks likely to deteriorate.

I went down early, taking with me my 5l can of water, which will go with me every time I visit the plot until further notice, as my dustbins are rapidly emptying. Despite the forecast for a showery week we haven't had a drop of rain. I spent a while digging out emerging horsetail shoots in the tunnel and pulling out weed seedlings. I then deadheaded the bluebells at the end of the tunnel as they had finished flowering. I then took the horsetail to the tip as my trugs were full.

After a break, as I had things to see to at home, I was back and went round the grass pulling all the horsetail I could see, before mowing it. I then went home to mow the lawns while everything is dry.

I was back later in the afternoon and went round the raised beds pulling out horsetail. I took the net off the hotbed as the spinach is now too tall and the net was damaging the leaves. I harvested some spinach and 3 carrots for tea. As last year, the spinach leaves are huge - this is one of them, which was 15 inches long!

[Penellype]

Yesterday was busy and it was a case of squeezing in time at the plot as best I could. I went down early to pick up the jar of slugs for the chickens and also took down 2 cucumbers and a melon as they were getting too big for the lights.

The first job was to get the peas and courgettes planted out as they were getting a bit big and hopefully they will get rained in nicely. The peas filled up the bed next to the rhubarb - there was quite a bit of horsetail poking up under the weed matting that I had covered the bed with, so I dug this out first. The Meteor peas nearer the road are flowering nicely.

The courgettes were going to follow the cauliflowers, but as these are showing no sign of producing heads yet (they are supposed to be eaten in May), I decided to use the empty bed next to the potatoes, which I have been digging horsetail out of. I dug the bed over and removed quite a few pieces of horsetail, then planted the 2 courgettes, sprinkling slug gone around them. They should give me all I need, so the 3 smaller plants at home can go to my friend's.

The melon plant was about 6 inches tall so I decided the best thing to do with it was to plant it in the hotbed straight away, as if it gets much bigger I will be in danger of breaking it. It will also (possibly) be a bit warmer near the surface of the bed if we get a cold night. The plant got a copper ring (the courgettes should have had one but were too big to fit it over them) and slug gone, and hopefully won't get eaten. Watering in all of these new plantings used a frightening amount of water, and my bins are emptying fast.

I picked a beetroot and some lettuce and rhubarb and went home for lunch.

From the radar picture I could see that rain was approaching and I probably only had about another hour after lunch before it got here. I wanted to trim the long bits of grass, as there were quite a few thick flower stems which my little mower won't cope with. I went round doing this and picked out any horsetail I saw. By the time I'd finished the rain was clearly approaching and I put out some more trays I'd brought down with me to collect water, gave the potatoes a drink and picked some spinach for tea.

It has rained on and off since about half way through yesterday afternoon, and I went down first thing to see how much water I'd collected. My bin lids, trays and wheelbarrow probably accumulated about a watering can full between them, but its better than nothing and its raining slightly again now. The main thing though is that the ground is no longer completely bone dry on top, although how far in the rain has got is anyone's guess. There should be more water to collect later.

[Penellype]

It rained on and off for much of yesterday morning and I stopped on the way home from the stables to collect the water - surprisingly little (about 1/2 a bucketful) probably because it was also warm and quite windy. I was already late for lunch so I didn't hang about.

The sun came out in the afternoon and it was really quite warm. I spent about an hour pulling out raspberry suckers, putting back the mulch that the birds had pulled off the raspberries and pulling out some weeds. I also put some butterfly netting over the courgettes that I planted on Saturday as the birds had already half dug one of them up. Hopefully the holes in the net will be big enough to let the bees in, if not, by the time they flower they will at least have had some chance to get established.

Finally I harvested the inevitable spinach, a couple of carrots and a small turnip (the first of the year), watered the newly planted peas and courgettes and the plants in the growhouse, and went home to do a few jobs in my garden.

[Penellype]

A good session at the plot yesterday morning, weeding the tunnel and digging out bits of horsetail that were already appearing again, plus the bits that were growing where the leeks had been (I forgot to mention that I harvested the last of these on Sunday). The carrots I sowed in there about 10 days ago are already germinating (fast for carrots) - hopefully the slugs will leave some for me this time!

I also tied some string across the bigger peas to hold them back against the netting - this will hopefully allow me to get between the rows to pick them (they always take up more space than you think) and stop them getting blown over as it is windy.

The forecast was for showers in the afternoon and by lunchtime it was already looking threatening, so I harvested a beetroot and some lettuce and went home.

The showers managed to work their way around the village again, so I went back in the afternoon and dug a bit more horsetail out of the paths near the tunnel and between the hotbeds. By the time I'd done this it was starting to rain so I harvested spinach for tea and went home. I was glad I did as there was a brief but heavy shower with some hail in the mix.

I was back when the rain stopped and collected about 1/2 a bucketful of water. The radar showed a much bigger showers heading this way, and as often happens, it began throwing it down when I was out seeing to the horses. This time there was about 1/2 an hour of really quite heavy rain and I collected a useful amount of water from my bin lids etc on the way home. There were further showers in the evening and this morning another decent amount means that one of the previously empty dustbins is now nearly full. I'm still carrying my 5l can of water down every time I go though - I'm well aware how quickly a bin full of water will disappear when it is warm and dry again.

[Penellype]

Another day dodging showers yesterday. There was some more water in the trays from overnight rain, and a bit more to collect later in the day.

I took the french beans down with me - these have been hardening off in the growhouse at home and are now ready to plant out in the hotbed. As the night was forecast to be cold they can have one more night under cover and then they are going along the back of the growhouse.

I spent some time in the morning digging horsetail out of the path between the hotbed and the peas. There is no shortage of places to dig horsetail out of yet! I harvested some lettuce for lunch - the ones in the hotbed are really bolting now and are also starting to get attacked by the odd aphid and snail.

I went back in the afternoon and pulled out all the horsetail I could find along the roadside hedge and into the wildlife corner. I also cut back the nettles. I was making my way down the west hedge when rain stopped play. I harvested a bag of spinach and went home.

[Penellype]

I was hoping for a dry day yesterday to get plenty done.

The first job was to plant out the french beans and lettuces in the hotbed, along the back of the growhouse. I added a couple of french marigolds between the beans to try to deter blackfly. I find that nasturtiums seem to attract blackfly so I am hoping the marigolds will be better.

Next I wandered round pulling horsetail from the raised beds and along the west hedge where I hadn't finished on Monday. I noticed that the hawthorn, ash and elder in the hedges was growing again, so I went along and nipped off all the long bits. I've had a letter from the council saying that they are going to let the roadside hedge grow another 2-3ft higher so we are not to cut the top of it (my plot neighbour has just cut his). That's going to make life more difficult for me as I am not going to be able to reach to top of my side from the ground .

By the time I'd finished the hedge and associated brambles and nettles it was lunchtime so I harvested a lettuce and a beetroot and went home. The sunny morning had clouded over and there were already some spots of drizzle falling.

In the afternoon I wanted to get the potatoes and fruit bushes fed I carried down my trusty 5l can of feed ready made up and fed the potatoes, currant, gooseberry and raspberries. I need some more feed for the strawberries and some ericaceous feed for the blueberries, so I will need to do that another time.

Next job was to put up the support netting for the cucumbers - these are going down the centre of the tunnel between the 2 posts, which should make them a lot easier to harvest than they were last year against the side of the tunnel. I wasn't going to plant them out originally, but I noticed they were wilting in the growhouse, clearly getting too hot. I decided out was better. I therefore went home and collected a half empty bag of compost as I like to plant cucumbers in fresh compost. I use bottomless MFBs half buried in the soil, so I filled these and planted the 2 plants. They have copper tape round the MFBs and a copper ring each, as well as a sprinkling of slug gone.

I then planted out 24 leeks in the tunnel, mulching them with compost that grew lettuces and spinach over the winter. These also got a sprinkling of slug gone.

Throughout all of this is was intermittently drizzling, and I decided I'd had enough, so I picked some spinach for tea and went home. This sort of rain is annoying as it makes you wet but never accumulates enough to collect any water.

[Penellype]

After no gardening on Thursday I was hoping for a nice day, but it was a bit disappointing and drizzly at times. Enough to be a nuisance without doing any good at all.

The day's job was to get the runner beans planted out as they are growing fast. I had 2 pots with 2 seedlings and 2 pots with 1 each, and I'd thought to make a 4-pole construction, but as I only had 3 8ft poles I decided on a simple 3 pole wigwam with 2 plants at each pole. This went between the rhubarb and the peas and the plants were protected (hopefully) from slugs with slug gone.

That done I spent a bit of time digging out horsetail shoots that were emerging in the tunnel again. The cherry tree is growing and was nearly touching the tunnel net, so I decided it was time for it to go outside. The plan was to put it near the entrance where the blueberries are at the moment, and the blueberries will go in the centre of the tunnel to keep the birds off, but as the blueberries have not yet finished flowering I left them where they were and swopped the cherry with some of the strawberries which will be ripening very soon. The rest of the strawberries will also come into the tunnel as they finish flowering.

As it was raining by this point I picked some spinach for the freezer and went home.

After lunch I took down some feed and fed the strawberries, then did a bit of general weeding and tidying up. I then picked more spinach and some carrots and a turnip for tea.

Everything needed watering in the evening and I have already used up all the water collected from the week's rain. If the forecast is correct I should be able to replenish the stocks next week. In the meantime I keep filling my 5l can and carrying it down whenever I have a free hand.

[Penellype]

A busy weekend as usual, with the weather not very helpful, particularly on Sunday.

On Saturday really all I had time to do was feed the blueberries, pull out a few bits of horsetail that were poking up in the raised beds and water the plants in pots.

I had a little more time on Sunday, but by the time I had finished at the stables it was already becoming showery. This was a pain as it meant I couldn't cut the grass, which I wanted to do both at the allotment and at home. I did manage to get a little weeding done and harvest spinach and carrots before it got too wet to continue and I resorted to dodging showers by potting things up in the garage.

Later in the afternoon I checked the radar and decided I had time to go and water the potatoes and collect any rain water before the next shower arrived. The radar was completely misleading. I opened my back door, stepped outside and immediately retreated as the rain started to lash down. There was no sign of it at all on the radar, although it appeared on there 5 minutes later.

The showers cleared away in the evening and I got the watering done and collected about 1/2 a bucketful of water from the trays. I also pruned the minarette cherry which is now growing fast.

[Penellype]

Still feeling very pushed for time - I have some photos that I took on 1st June, which I will post when I can, but at the moment the priority is to get on with the jobs while it isn't raining.

I'd intended to cut the grass over the weekend, but the showers had made that impossible. However I was determined to do it yesterday. I went down fairly early and went round the grass paths pulling all the horsetail I could see. The plot next door again resembles a field of horsetail, and this is not helping at all as it makes the problem in my grass much worse. Nothing I can do about it so I just have to get on with it. It took me about an hour, by which time the grass was dry enough to cut.

By the time I'd finished the grass it was lunchtime. The lettuces in the hotbed have about finished but there was one big one left, so I cut it and took the best of the leaves home for lunch.

I went back in the afternoon (having cut the grass at home) intending to trim off all the long bits of grass. I worked my way around the fence and hedges, which now look a lot tidier, but I couldn't face any more of the horsetail infested grass down the side of the neighbouring plot. I also find using the trimmer quite tiring and my arms were getting sore (its like lawn edging shears but has blades at right angles to the handles, its old and heavy).

For a change I dug up some bits of horsetail that were sprouting in the path alongside the tunnel. I then picked a bagful of spinach from the hotbed. This is now well and truly bolting, and one of the rows was blown over onto the beetroot at some point during yesterday and needs harvesting urgently. Hopefully I will have time to deal with it properly today.

[Penellype]

Still hurtling about like a headless chicken here at the moment with various urgent and time consuming jobs to do (eg sort out pension, hold horses for dentist). I WILL post the pictures soon...

Yesterday was all about getting as much as I could done before it rained. I went to the plot fairly early and collected a little rain water that had arrived (unforecast) over night. I then brought the remaining strawberry plants into the tunnel as they had about finished flowering. I dug out a few more bits of horsetail from the tunnel then picked a carrier bag of spinach from the plants that had fallen over and went home to freeze it.

The remainder of the morning was taken up with weeding the bed near the hotbin at home, as this had got out of control and was covered with moss and liverwort. It took me some time to clear it and plant out the lobelia, and I mulched it to keep the weeds down.

I wasn't expecting to have much chance of gardening in the afternoon as rain seemed to be lurking, but as I wanted to pick more spinach for tea I went down to the plot, taking a tomato plant with me that had outgrown the lights. This will have to live in the growhouse until there is space for it somewhere!

As it wasn't raining I decided to dig the area where the strawberries had been. This was covered with weed matting and I removed loads of slugs from under it. I dug the horsetail out of the whole area, ignoring the drizzle, and put the matting back. By this time it was really starting to rain and I grabbed some spinach and went home.

Stopping on the way back from the stables in the evening, in a lull in the rain, I collected half a dustbin of water. If I get there soon enough there are puddles on the weed matting, which I can scoop up with a compost scoop. I'm sure the bus passengers thought I was completely bonkers.

[Jay22]

I’m exhausted just reading that Penellype!! Great days work.

[Penellype]

Photos, as promised . Part of the reason why its taken so long is that half of the photos are more than 2MB so I have had to screenshot them.



Huge rhubarb, bean supports (beans are too small to be seen yet), peas nearly ready to harvest.



French beans and marigolds outside the growhouse, melon and leek seedlings inside. The spinach in the hotbed has since fallen this way over the top of the beetroot.



Another view of the hotbed - there are a few carrots left between the 2 rows of spinach.



The blueberry bushes - Spartan on the left and Pink Lemonade on the right. There is rather more fruit than can be seen in the photo.



The compost area is turning into a fruit area. The minarette cherry has since been pruned and the strawberries are now in the tunnel.

More to follow.

[Penellype]

More photos:



The potatoes are growing nicely - I harvested a few of the 3rd bucket along in the front row (Lady C) today, and they were gorgeous. The beds behind contain courgettes and cauliflowers under the white net - these are just starting to form heads now.



Loads of fruit forming on the raspberries. The currant bush is less happy in its pot in the shade, but blackcurrants are not my favourite anyway.



Turnips, beetroot and leeks under the near net, with parsnips just starting to germinate at the bare end. Onions are getting quite big, and more cauliflowers behind them.



The tunnel still looks fairly empty (although there are more strawberries in there now). Also cucumbers in the middle and carrots, beetroot and leeks on the right.



The tunnel from the other end, showing more potatoes (Lady C again) near the door and the marigolds which are waiting to be planted among the brassicas to keep the whitefly away (hopefully).

[Penellype]

Yesterday morning was busy and I only had time to collect up the night's rain, which was a reasonable amount.

After lunch I went down and dug up yet more bits of horsetail in the tunnel. I then carefully weeded round the carrots, beetroot and leeks in the tunnel as lots of annual weeds were sprouting. By the time that was done the grass was about dry enough for me to cut the edge along the sides of the raised beds, which is quite a long job as I need to sort out the horsetail before putting the bits in the compost bin. it looked a lot tidier when I had finished, but the edge along the neighbouring plot still needs trimming and I had run out of time. I picked a bagful of spinach, 3 carrots and 5 new potatoes and went home.

The spinach is starting to suffer from leaf miner - I have noticed some small white eggs on the leaves recently and I think that's what they are. The row next to the beetroot is worst affected and the beetroot has some too.

[Penellype]

No gardening time at all on Thursday.

Yesterday morning I went down hoping to finish trimming the grass edges, but overnight rain (not forecast) had made everything too wet. I collected the water then weeded the peas, pulling out bits of horsetail at the same time.

I then set about cutting down some of the spinach that had fallen over on top of the beetroot. I managed to clear some of it so that the beetroot could at least see daylight and went home to cook 2 large bags of leaves for the freezer.

I nipped back after lunch as I could see rain approaching on the radar, and harvested some more new potatoes, a few carrots and some spinach for tea, and also the first ripe strawberry.

The afternoon was very wet, with fairly continuous rain, heavy at times between about 2.30pm and 10pm. I stopped off on my way back from seeing to the horses and emptied the bin lids into the dustbins as they were nearly full. I also emptied the trays and wheelbarrow. One of the previously empty dustbins is now full.

I went back first thing this morning as it was dry and collected another half dustbin full of water. As more heavy rain is forecast for next week this should take the pressure off water supplies for a while. I brought back a beetroot and another large bag of spinach leaves, but decided not to attempt to cut down any more of the spinach just now as it was dripping wet.