Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

Yesterday was not great, with drizzle or showers for much of the day. I went down to pick a couple of cucumbers for lunch and noticed that the water level had dropped below the level of the grass path, although the paths between the beds were still flooded. There wasn't much I could do really and I soon went back home.

Today was a bit different - a nice sunny day, but unfortunately full of appointments and phone calls. I only managed one trip to the plot around lunchtime, when I wanted to check that the tomato cover was ok as it had got quite blustery. It seemed to be fine and I picked several partly ripe tomatoes to ripen at home. I also found a couple of decent calabrese spears which I brought home for tea. Everywhere was still very wet and squelchy and I thought it best not to paddle about in it too much.

[Penellype]

A fine morning yesterday and a decent spell at the plot, mainly tidying up. Quite a few leaves had come down in the wind on Tuesday so I picked those up and pulled out a few weeds on the way round. I cut off a couple of branches of ash that were overhanging the wood shed area and chopped them for the compost bin, and pulled out some couch grass and a couple of bits of horsetail from under the west hedge. I also removed the dead honesty plants, scattering the seeds under the hedge to grow for flowers in 2021. There are some that I did this with last year that will flower in the spring.

Having done all that I cut a cucumber and some salad leaves and picked a tomato that was turning red that I must have missed on Tuesday. I had a final walk round and noticed that the foliage on the carrots in the tunnel was being seriously eaten. I'd noticed before that these were looking a bit chewed, but assumed it was slugs as most were near the soil, but these were higher up, and I soon saw why. I removed about 30 brown caterpillars from the leaves. I think these may be dot moth (if so, I am lucky they are on the carrots and not the spinach), if not they are something similar. I certainly don't want them pupating and hatching out in the tunnel next year.

I'd hoped to get back in the afternoon, although really there isn't a huge amount to do now the horsetail has stopped growing. It turned out to be rather showery, so I stayed at home, nipping out to do small jobs like deadheading between the showers.

[weegie]

Parsnips don't normally get affected as badly as carrots by carrot fly but I have heard that the maggots can damage the surface of the roots and let in canker, which parsnips are susceptible to. I also have a problem with cats using the raised beds as litter trays, so the netting also keeps them off.

Thanks for the explanation. I'll have to wait and see how mine do in the end.

[Penellype]

No gardening time on Thursday, although I did nip down first thing and check everything and pick some cucumbers and courgettes.

Friday was always going to be difficult. I was expecting a delivery which I had to be at home for, and the carrier wouldn't give me any clue as to what time it might arrive, not even "not before 8am". It had been windy over night, so as soon as it was light about 7.30 I went down and checked that my tomato cover had not blown away (it was fine) and picked a cucumber for lunch and a bag of spinach leaves for tea. I had a quick look at the carrot foliage but couldn't see any caterpillars - they were probably still sensibly asleep. It was already raining a bit and was forecast to do so at least all morning.

I waited in for the delivery, which arrived mid afternoon. By the time it was all sorted and signed for there was no time to do any gardening at all.

Today I have an electrician coming this morning and I'm busy all afternoon. If the electrician gets his act together I may get to the plot at lunchtime, but I'm not banking on it. Like yesterday I will be going to the plot when it gets light to collect some food for later in case I can't get there at all. Tomorrow looks horribly wet, so I may not get anything done this weekend. It doesn't really matter as apart from keeping the fallen leaves under control and cutting the grass (which is currently far too wet) there isn't that much that needs doing. That's why if I need to make appointments that keep me at home I try to do it at this time of year.

[Penellype]

As expected the weekend was almost a complete write-off.

I nipped down to the plot first thing on Saturday and picked a cucumber, a melon and a few of the tomatoes that were turning red. The electrician was late and by the time he had gone there was no time to go to the allotment. I did manage to cut the grass at home, which was still really rather wet but getting desperate.

As forecast, Sunday was wet all day. I nipped down in the drizzle first thing and picked another cucumber and the last of the bigger melons (there are a few small ones that may or may not be edible), checked for caterpillars on the carrots (none visible) and removed loads of slugs from the leeks. I thought slugs didn't much like the onion family, but there were far more slugs on the leeks than on either the beetroot or the broccoli next to them. By the time I had fed the slugs to my friend's chickens and dealt with the horses I had had far more than enough of getting wet and gardening was off the menu.

[Penellype]

A better day weather-wise although everywhere was very wet. I had to wait around for phone calls in the morning and by 11am was sick of it and went to the plot anyway.

There were a couple of jobs that I really wanted to get done, the first being check the carrots for caterpillars. I removed another 10 or so - they are really hard to see as although they are dark brown on green foliage, they hide underneath along the central leaf vein.

The next urgent job was to remove the dead and yellowing leaves from the bottoms of the brassicas as these harbour slugs. As some of these were under wet nets this was not a particularly pleasant job. I also removed some dead rhubarb leaves and cleared up the fallen raspberry leaves and the leaves on the path near the compost bins.

I then checked round the strawberries, removing a couple of mouldy ones, harvested a cucumber (the plants are looking rather worse for wear now) and the last 3 melons, 2 of which are very small. I removed the melon plant as it was completely dead, then went home to see if I had missed the phone call I was waiting for. I hadn't.

Having waited in half the afternoon, I could see rain approaching on the radar, so I went back to the allotment to pick a couple of small courgettes for tea and a few ripening tomatoes. I took off 3 over-large courgettes and attempted to remove some of the dead looking courgette leaves, but these were revoltingly slimy and I decided they could wait until I removed the whole plants which I expect will be very soon.

Still no phone call, so I am once again waiting... If I added up all the time I spend stuck in the house waiting for people to arrive, phone calls or Skype messages, I'd probably find it added up to weeks each year. Yes I do have a mobile phone, but I find it bulky to carry about and it restricts me bending down if it is in my pocket. If I put it down at the allotment I will almost certainly leave it there. I also regularly forget to charge its battery for days on end, so it is not a good way for people to communicate with me and very few people have the number as a result. So I just have to put up with waiting for phone calls at home.

[Penellype]

Yesterday was another very frustrating day. We'd had yet another 9mm of rain over night so everything was still very wet and soggy. The electrician was supposed to phone in the morning but didn't and by 11am I had had enough and went to the plot to check everything. I removed another 8 caterpillars from the carrots and decided I would have to start harvesting these in preference to the ones at home as I could see slug damage on a couple of the root tops.

I walked round pulling out a few weeds and raked the leaves off the grass path near the west hedge. Then I picked a cucumber and a couple of tomatoes from under the cover (one had botrytis on the calyx and will probably rot before it ripens) and went home for lunch.

Still no phone call, so I went back to pick some baby fennel and pull the damaged carrots for tea. One of them looked ok but the other had considerable carrot fly damage and was only about half edible. How carrot fly have got at them in the tunnel I don't know, but this is very disappointing and capped off a fairly depressing day.

More rain today and still no word from the electrician.

[Penellype]

The rain had cleared by yesterday lunchtime and I nipped down to pick a cucumber for lunch. After lunch, having finally managed to book the electrician for first thing on Friday, I was able to spend a pleasant hour at the plot. I went round the raised beds and tunnel removing as many weeds as I could, and also removed some more dying rhubarb leaves.

A couple of the strawberries had turned red but had slug holes in so I took them home to eat along with a bag of spinach leaves and some carrots, which again had some carrot fly damage.

[Penellype]

A busy few days, with no gardening time as usual on Thursday and appointments on Friday. The electrician's "5 minute" job took most of the morning and the thing STILL isn't working properly. All I had time to do at the plot was pick a few ripening tomatoes, some cucumbers, a courgette and some carrots.

Yesterday was slightly better and I managed half an hour clearing up leaves and collecting slugs. Everywhere is still very wet and any thought of digging anything has to be on hold for now. I pulled another 3 carrots and picked 2 more tomatoes and that was it for the day.

[Penellype]

Sunday looked like it was going to be a good gardening day, and as always the plan was to do my friend's garden in the morning and the allotment in the afternoon. I went down early and picked a couple of cucumbers, some lettuce and a couple of small beetroot for lunch, then went off to the stables for the morning.

It was still nice and sunny at lunchtime and I had a few things to do before I could go to the plot. At 2pm, when I was ready to go, the sun went in and it started to rain, just enough to be unpleasantly wet. It continued to rain or drizzle for most of the rest of the day.

Its a good thing things are not growing that fast any more otherwise the whole place would be completely out of control after being ignored as much as I have had to ignore it in the last couple of weeks.

[Penellype]

Another day when the plans went astray yesterday.

The first job was to find out if I needed to get the electrician back, but thankfully it turned out that I didn't. I also had various meetings and other jobs that took up most of the morning, so apart from a quick visit to collect a couple of small cucumbers and partially ripe tomatoes, I didn't get to the plot. I wasn't bothered - the forecast was dry, and the sun was out.

I was about to go down and clear some leaves when I noticed the sun had gone in and it was drizzling. I'd forgotten that in York an northerly wind and a dry forecast usually means rain. The rain got heavier and any thought of spending time at the allotment disappeared. I managed to nip down quickly between showers to grab some carrots for tea, and that was it.

[Penellype]

A better day today. A decent visit in the morning saw me clear up the leaves from around the compost bins (there will soon be more), pull out a few weeds and pick some cucumbers for lunch. I cut back the dying stems on one of the plants, but left one stem which has some small cucumbers on it, just to prove to myself that they are not going to get any bigger now! The other plant is only slightly less dead, but still has some edible sized cucumbers on it.

The experiment with the copper mesh around the baby veg is progressing rather as expected - the slugs have found the kohlrabi in the part without the mesh, and they are looking increasingly shredded. The 2 plants that germinated inside the mesh are much less damaged. The fennel is fine in both areas, the carrots have a bit of damage but not much.

I spent much of my gardening time in the afternoon at home, potting up cauliflower seedlings, weeding and deadheading, and visited the plot only briefly to pick a bagful of slightly red tomatoes, a courgette and some carrots.

[Penellype]

Yesterday's job was to pot up the blueberry into a 30 litre bucket. I'd already got the ericaceous compost so it was simply a case of getting on with it. Hopefully now it is in a bigger pot with some fresh compost it will produce bigger blueberries next year. If not, I may need to get another bush so they can cross pollinate (which is why I have 2 at home). I am hoping the pink one will do the job.

Having done that I removed one of the 2 courgette plants as its stem was rotten and it was clearly finished, then I walked round looking for horsetail and pulled out a couple of pieces. There will be more!

Finally I harvested some carrots and a couple of leeks - I wanted to see how far into the stems the leek moth has got. I was pleasantly surprised - unlike the summer leeks which had considerable stem damage, the 2 Oarsman that I pulled had only superficial damage to the leaves. Maybe this is a different kind of caterpillar.

[Penellype]

Yesterday was basically a rush to get everything under cover or harvested before it started raining, as once the rain started the forecast was for about 30 hours of persistent rain followed immediately by frost.

I went down quite early and picked a large bag of Oh Happy Day tomatoes that were hinting at thinking of turning red, the last of the courgettes and 3 edible sized cucumbers. I was going to remove the courgette plant, but it still looked alive and had a small courgette forming, so I thought I would leave it and see what happens. I covered the bare half of the bed where the other plant had been with a net to keep the cats off. I then went home to bring in the begonias and rearrange the front fence at home.

A while ago I bought a roll of copper sheet which I've always intended to use to protect mushroom trays of salads from slugs. I took that down and cut it in half to make a mat that filled a good part of half the growhouse and put the trays of lettuce and spinach on it to protect them a little from frost and rain. I was going to put another of the pots of strawberries in here too, but there wasn't really room so it went in the tunnel where at least it gets a little more frost protection than being completely outside.

I picked 4 Ferline tomatoes from under the cover (2 of them had minor slug damage) and as it was starting to rain I went home.

I will be lucky to see the allotment over the weekend as it is forecast to rain all day today (adding to the 30mm we have had already). The horses have come in for the nights now (they are out at night in summer) so my weekend mornings are spent mucking out rather than just visiting them, and tomorrow I have a long standing appointment which will mean an early start and no gardening. Thankfully we are forecast a drier week next week, although it probably won't be long before the rain comes back again.

[Penellype]

Apart from a very quick visit on Sunday morning to check water levels (just below grass level on the lower paths), nothing at all got done over the weekend. Hopefully the water level will have gone down a bit by the time I get a chance to go down there today.