Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

Tuesday was a horrible day weather-wise, with frequent rain and a strong, gusty wind. I didn't visit the plot at all.

Yesterday was much better, although there was still a cold wind. I nipped down quickly first thing to check that nothing had blown away, and secured some of the bubble wrap round the water butt, which had slipped. Otherwise everything looked fine, although one of the bolts holding the growhouse together had been shaken loose and fallen out, so I replaced it.

While checking everything I noticed that there were quite a few small weeds appearing, mainly willowherb and goose grass. I went back around lunchtime and spent quite a while picking up leaves and pulling out tiny weeds. There is always more to do but I feel I have done something useful.

I would have harvested some veg for tea, but on Monday night I broke a tooth (thanks to a stone in a mince pie), so I had to go to the dentist at 4pm and I knew I would have a frozen mouth for the evening. The menu has consisted of scrambled eggs, mashed potato, tomatoes and soup for the last 2 days, so I am looking forward to being able to eat some solid food today!

[Penellype]

No time on Thursday and yesterday was quite full too. I managed a visit to the plot at lunchtime and trimmed some of the dead leaves off the strawberry plants, weeding the troughs as I did so. Everywhere was very wet after overnight rain, so there wasn't a great deal else I could sensibly do apart from cut a few calabrese shoots for tea.

One thing I really must do is make decisions about what is going where next year as it will soon be time to start sowing things. I normally buy seed potatoes in January, but I have loads of potatoes left and I may grow some of them rather than buy more, as they didn't show any signs of disease. If I am going to do this I need to count out what I need and put them aside so they don't get eaten.

[Penellype]

Not a lot happening at the moment, mainly due to poor weather and ongoing issues elsewhere.

It was cold and wet on Saturday and apart from dashing down between showers to grab a leek and a couple of carrots I didn't visit the plot at all.

Sunday was even worse. A long and sorry tale of computer updates failing to install, a broken computer and internet connection problems ate up the whole day, and spilled over into today (still not completely resolved). I also have an ongoing issue with a broken bathroom fan (2nd visit by electrician, still not fixed) which entails waiting in half the day as they won't give you a sensible time. As a result I have not managed to get to the plot since Saturday.

[Penellype]

Yesterday was freezing and foggy, but I felt I ought to go down to the plot and check that it was all ok. It seemed fine and I pulled a few carrots for tea before retreating back home where I could at least keep nipping indoors to warm up.

I've been planning what goes where for next year, and specifically which buckets at home are going to house which crops, which has a knock on effect on what I plan to grow at the allotment. There are plenty of buckets of compost, but I like to avoid duplicating crops within 3 years, so planning is essential. I identified 2 buckets of potato compost that could be used for carrots and looked dry enough to sieve (although still frozen on top), and sieved them ready for spring. Often the compost shrinks as it rots down, and the buckets end up only 3/4 full, needing topping up, and some have had this done several times, meaning that keeping track of what was grown in it when is difficult. I identified 3 of these which will eventually go to the allotment to top up one of the raised beds. When you have 40 buckets, some with carrots or brassicas still growing in them, some with and some without copper tape, and a few with no holes in the actual base (only around the edges) which I don't use for potatoes as I like their roots to grow through the holes for extra water, planning what to grow in which bucket is something of a juggling act! Anyway, it is done and I am happy with the plan (for now).

[Penellype]

Finally, after several days when I could do very little apart from pull a few carrots and parsnips either because of lack of time or grotty weather, today I managed to get a whole hour at the plot, with some lovely winter sunshine as a bonus.

The first job was to walk round and check everything. Not a lot has changed really. Everywhere is very wet, the slugs are enjoying eating the brassicas and the bluebells in the hedge are starting to show above ground. I went round the tunnel pulling dead leaves off the broccoli, brokali and calabrese and removing as many slugs as I could find. I also removed some weed seedlings and picked up a few dead leaves. I harvested a couple of carrots and a leek for tea.

I then spent a while having a good look at the raised beds with a view to moving some of the contents of the hotbed. This is not as easy as it sounds for various reasons. Some of the beds still have crops in and of the empty ones, one was earmarked for parsnips, which don't want copious quantities of partly rotted horse muck. Another is for buckets of potatoes which I grow on a base of fresh muck to provide a little bottom heat. I want to use some of the hotbed contents for the onions, but their bed still has a romanesco plant in it which is stubbornly refusing to grow a head. I need the romanesco out and a lining of cardboard in before the compost to try to prevent white rot. I came to the conclusion that the only bed that was ready for topping up was the one that grew tomatoes last year, which will have early peas in this time, so I dug out 3 trugs of compost and spread it on that bed. By the time I had done that I felt I had done enough for today in any case.

I may have to rethink where things are going a bit, because I need to get that hotbed emptied fairly soon so that I can fill it with fresh muck for next year's hotbed in January.

[Snadger]

Now the days are lengthening we will hopefully start to see stuff growing again.

[Penellype]

Not a great deal of time this week, so all I have managed to do is harvest some carrots and calabrese. Hopefully by the end of the week the weather will be a little more helpful (it drizzled/rained most of yesterday).

I've been taking stock of what I did and didn't eat and intend to grow less of the things that tend to get left uneaten, mainly brassicas. What I was thinking of when planting 3 PSB plants last summer I have no idea - I will be overwhelmed with the stuff when it starts flowering!

[Penellype]

Very little gardening time over Christmas although I did pinch 10 minutes or so on Boxing Day to cut back the crocosmia foliage under the front window, which was looking really messy.

I also made a couple of short trips to the plot to harvest carrots from the tunnel - these are now finished. They have done much better than I expected with plenty of nice carrots and only a little fly and slug damage. There were some split ones, probably due to the sudden change from dry to wet half way through the summer.

[Penellype]

No time over the weekend and as I have no more carrots down there (although plenty at home) I didn't even visit the plot.

Today was sunny and after waiting a while for it to warm up I went down to see how things were and check everything. I picked up quite a few dead brassica leaves from the tunnel - there should be some more brokali ready to eat soon. I then wandered round looking at everything and decided to move the top layer of what was the potato bed (which was 3 layers high) onto the next door bed which was only one layer high. There was a reason why I didn't do this earlier in the year but I think there were always plants in the way so I couldn't. The raised bed layers are awkward to handle by myself, but not heavy and I soon had it sorted. The courgettes will go in the old potato bed next year (they will like the thick layer of 1 year old horse muck) and the potatoes will go in the old courgette bed in their buckets, probably on top of a layer of fresh muck.

The main sticking point at the moment is the romanesco plant in the bed next to the hotbed, which I really want out of the way as I need to prepare the bed for onions by removing some of the compost, laying cardboard and covering it with the contents of the hotbed. The romanesco is at last developing a head and I think another couple of days will do it as the flowerhead grows very fast once it starts. I decided to make a start by removing the stumps of the other 2 plants and digging out half of the bed, the contents of which went on the half empty parsnip bed. This bed is the one that gets wettest, so it seems a good idea to top it up, and as one end is empty I can pile the compost on that until the parsnips are eaten. This bed is doing a straight swap next year - the half that grew parsnips will grow summer leeks and beetroot, the half that grew leeks and beetroot will grow parsnips.

I'd taken some thick cardboard down with me and lined the empty half of the onion bed with it, putting the rest in the shed for later. I may start putting some of the hotbed contents on that half tomorrow, or I might decide to wait until I have lined the whole bed, depending a bit on the forecast as it may get really quite cold and freeze at the weekend, which could put a stop to things for a bit.

[Penellype]

Yesterday I didn't have a lot of time, but I did make it down to the allotment to pull a couple of leeks for tea. There wasn't a great deal I could get on with as I was waiting to harvest the Romanesco, which I did today - I wanted to take some to my Mum and for it to be as fresh as possible, hence the wait.

Today it was all systems go with the onion bed, but I took some photos first:



The rhubarb in the foreground is breaking its buds. Lettuces and spinach in the growhouse are growing slowly, but the strawberries in there really shouldn't be doing this at this time of year:



I'm starting to think that I may actually get to eat one of these!



The huge romanesco plant under the white net.



Partly harvested parsnips and a dumping ground for the compost from the bed being prepared for onions.



Photos in the tunnel were nearly impossible due to low sun, but the PSB and more romanesco are doing well in the shade of the shed.

[Penellype]

I then set about removing the romanesco, which had a really nice head:



Having pulled the plant out and shredded the leaves for compost I removed the filling from the raised bed, piling it up on the parsnip bed:



I then lined the bed with cardboard and threw some water on it to soak it:



Then I filled the bed with compost from the hotbed, being careful not to dig too deep and include any soil that might be infested with white rot:



The hotbed still has a bit of compost in it - this will be moved to buckets to grow potatoes in later. There are also a few beetroot left at the far end, which may or may not be edible.



Rather pleased that I managed to get all that done today.

[Penellype]

A gorgeous day yesterday. I spent a good hour finishing emptying the hotbed. There were a few beetroot still growing in it from the early spring sowing - some of these germinated very late. 2 of them were a nice size, one was huge (I may see if the horses like it) and the others were very small or slug damaged. I cleared these then dug out the compost from that end and filled 4 30 litre buckets for potatoes - unlike the other end, this area didn't grow tomatoes last year.

I finished it off by scraping up the bottom layer (3 trugs full) and putting it on the bed that will be growing courgettes. I covered this with a piece of weed matting as it won't be needed for a while, and also found a large piece of bubble wrap and covered the pea bed with that to warm it up and encourage any weeds to germinate before I plant the peas.

Finally I watered the plants in the growhouse and trimmed dead leaves off the strawberry plants in there.

The next thing to do is fill the hotbed with fresh horse muck, which is a job for the weekend.

[Penellype]

Plenty of nice weather over the weekend, enabling me to crack on with filling the hotbed. It takes 24 buckets/trugs of fresh horse muck, which equates to 4 trips from the stables. I managed 3 of these on Saturday (as well as mucking out) and finished off yesterday with the final load.

Having trodden down the muck in the bed I needed compost to make a planting layer on top. The local garden centre sells 3 x 40 litre bags for £10, so I went to get some, but they were closed. I decided to wait until today rather than battle my way into the shopping centre on a Sunday afternoon.

[Penellype]

Went back to the garden centre yesterday and got the compost for the hotbed, which is now topped off and covered with polythene. The plan is to let it heat up for a couple of weeks, then put up the plastic cover and sow spinach, lettuce, carrots and beetroot as I did last year.

Apart from a quick visit to collect my loppers on the way back from the shops I didn't go back to the allotment yesterday as there were some jobs I wanted to get done at home.

[Penellype]

Yesterday was pleasant enough although rather windy. I wanted to sort out the shed as I had just dumped the buckets that I use for the horse muck and the compost sacks in there, too tired to take everything out of the shed put them in their proper place at the back. It didn't take long to restore order so that I could get at what I needed again.

The daffodils are showing along the west hedge, and the grass had grown across in amongst them so I spent a while weeding and cutting the grass back so that it was clear of them. Cutting grass around bulbs is always a pain, but I like the daffodils and hopefully the grass won't get time to invade the hedge from where it is now.

Other than picking up some leaves from the pink blueberry (which has decided it is just about deciduous this year after being evergreen last winter), I didn't have much time for anything else.