Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

The hoops have solid bars attached at the bottom which has made it easier to get the hoops the same height. They are also slightly narrower than the pipe, so easier to push into the soil.

[Penellype]

Plenty to get on with today, dodging the rain, but some jobs (eg digging and chopping weeds) will have to wait until things dry out a bit.

After mucking out I took a car load of muck and put it in the potato bed. I then brought 3 30 litre buckets from home and made bucket-sized indentations in the muck for 8 buckets of potatoes. I planted 3 Nicola potatoes in each of the 3 I've got, using the compost from the black dalek with bfb added. I planted the last potato (from a pack of 10) in a MFB that was left at the plot by the previous owner. These were covered with bubble wrap and the new 1m x 2m tunnel (which arrived yesterday) was put up around the bed. The idea is that this will hopefully generate some heat like a hotbed, although there is not the depth of muck that there is in the proper hotbed (if I filled this one that full there would not be room for any potato foliage under the cover). I now need to wait for more buckets to arrive before I plant the remaining 5 buckets of potatoes, all of which are maincrop (Desiree and Sarpo Axona) so there is no hurry.

The other thing that I wanted to do today was move most of the water out of one of the dustbins in the tunnel as it is leaning too much. I filled both the other bins in the tunnel as full as I want them, which leaves the leaning bin about 1/3 full. I now need to find something sensible to put under the bin to level it a bit, but that will have to be a job for tomorrow as I had run out of time.

[Penellype]

Today's jobs were to straighten the leaning dustbin so I could fill it with water (the water butts that catch drips from the shed roof were nearly full) and to measure the gripple wire to see if I have enough for the raspberries.

I brought a trug of used tomato compost from my friend's greenhouse to put on the cauliflower bed, then measured the wire. As this has been wound round into a reel it wasn't the easiest thing to do, and the conclusion was that there is enough, providing I am careful not to pull too much of it through the tensioners. I could really do with another foot or so to give me a bit of leeway, but I am not paying £17 + postage for the privilege. I can always put the posts just a little closer together. Irritatingly I have 3 spare tensioners and I need 4. I have a feeling one of them didn't work properly when I was putting up the wires in the greenhouse, so a new packet of 5 wouldn't go amiss.

The dustbin was reasonably easy to level. I'd simply dumped it on top of the weed matting, which was covering freshly dug soil, so it wasn't at all surprising that it was nowhere near level. I moved the bin and peeled back the weed matting, then collected up all the slugs and pulled out a couple of strands of couch grass root, before levelling the soil and putting the matting back. I put down a piece of board and put the bin on that, then filled it through the mesh with a watering can. There is now a bit of space in the water butts for the next lot of rain.

Checked the hotbed - everything has now germinated. As it was reasonably warm and sunny I took the opportunity to open the cover and remove the bits of wood that I'd used to prop up the fleece a while ago. I also watered the surface as it was looking a bit dry in places.

Finally I pulled out a bit of goosegrass that was growing near the compost area. No weed chopping today - the pile of weeds is a horrible soggy mess.

Photos of current progress (taken this morning):



New hoop support for nets, potato tunnel and raspberry bed at the far end. Rhubarb is almost ready to pick a few short stems.



From the other end you can just see the blackcurrant bush behind the hotbed. There are also the gooseberry and blueberry bushes there, all in pots for now.



Inside the tunnel, with potatoes under a cloche and the shelf with the peas on just visible at the far end.

You can see what a horrible muddy mess it is where I have been walking

[Penellype]

Yesterday was a complete washout, with over an inch of rain here which fell relentlessly all day. I didn't go to the plot at all.

Not a great deal I could do today, but I went and tipped the various dustbin lids of water into the water butts (which are again nearly full) and relieved the pea seedlings of the large amount of water that had made its way in through the vents in the propagator cover. My plot was wet, the one next to it has a large puddle next to the leylandii hedge.

Checked that all was well with the hotbed and potato cover and pulled up a few weed seedlings. The dalek compost bin is getting noticeably warm.

Found a bumble bee near the rhubarb, and picked the 3 largest sticks (about 8 inches long) for lunch:

[Penellype]

My extra 30 litre buckets arrived, which meant I now have enough to plant the rest of the potatoes. As always the Desiree have the biggest chits and a couple of them were getting very long, with leaves starting to open. I therefore decided to plant the 3 with the biggest chits in a bucket alongside the Nicola I planted earlier. This has always been part of the plan - this bed will contain 3 buckets of Nicola, 4 of Sarpo Axona and 1 of Desiree. The Sarpo can be planted later as their chits are still small. The Desiree will be a blight monitor as Nicola and Sarpo are blight resistant. The Desiree's job is to tell me what is and is not possible for future years. For example I've learned at my friend's that attempting to grow ordinary varieties of tomato outside is hopeless, as the blight strikes just before any fruit ripens.

Everywhere was still very wet, but the large puddle on the next door plot had gone. I checked all the seedlings and chopped up some of the pile of weeds, which is slowly getting smaller.

Its raining again, and forecast to do so all day...

[Penellype]

With comprehensively disgusting weather forecast for the weekend the plan was to give the allotment a miss until things warm up. However, while I was mucking out there was a huge gust of wind which sent several fairly heavy things flying across the yard, so I thought I had better check all was still in one piece on my way home. Apart from some dislodged bubble wrap the only casualty was the plastic top covering the pea seedlings, which I replaced.

That was supposed to be it. However, when I went into the garden between snow showers to pick some brokali for tea I found my polythene cover over the potatoes on the floor. This had been clipped to stakes that were buried over a foot in the raised beds, which it had ripped out, and had been weighted down with large drip trays containing several bricks on top of the framework and pinned to the side by buckets of compost. This arrangement had survived this morning's gust. As a measure of the frustration that the weather is causing, when I discovered this the air was blue, and this continued as the snow came down again while I was trying to fix it. I removed the supporting frame and pulled the bubble wrap and plastic over the potato buckets, then weighed the thing down with a 30 litre bucket of compost. If the wind shifts that I will upgrade it from gale to hurricane.

After that bit of fun I decided I had better walk down and check the allotment again. The wind was blasting straight into my face all the way. This time the lid on the peas had stayed put so there was only bubble wrap to put back. To put my mind at rest I tied the top onto the tray of peas with some baler twine. Thankfully the walk home was much easier with my back to the wind, but it was still perishingly cold.

[Snoop Puss]

^That's devotion!

[Penellype]

Sunday was simply too cold, and I didn't visit the allotment at all.

Yesterday was at least a lovely sunny day, if still rather chilly. In between taking my car for its MOT and collecting it later I went down to the plot and checked all was ok. Just a little displaced bubble wrap to replace.

While I was there I chopped some more weeds from the top of the pile, which had dried out in the wind, and then spread the rest out in a thin layer so that they would dry for today. Another one or 2 goes at this should see the pile finished.

Today's job is to put up the raspberry supports, and I chose the day of the week with the best weather forecast. High and rising pressure, almost wall to wall sunshine. What could possibly go wrong?

This...



The black circle is York, the red arrow is the direction the showers are moving. Wonderful. I can't even chop my pile of weeds as it has been showery like this all night (it woke me up flinging sleet against the window at one point), so everything will be wet through again.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[Penellype]

Despite the intermittent rain and soggy underfoot conditions yesterday morning we managed to get the raspberry supports put up:



Many thanks to geepee for yet more help

Quite when the ground will be dry enough to plant the raspberries is anyone's guess.

Too wet to do much else other than check the plants and pull out a few weed seedlings from in amongst the rhubarb.

[Penellype]

Quick visit this morning to see if it was going to be possible to plant the raspberries. No chance. The ground was still a sloppy mess, and the surface of the soil was frozen. I resisted the temptation to dig it in, and spent some time finishing off chopping the pile of weeds, which was still wet, but manageable. All done now. Next I need to see to that pile of leylandii...

Nothing doing tomorrow as I am busy all day, and guess what? Its forecast to rain tomorrow night.

One of these days I'm just going to have to plant the raspberries, wet or not, frozen or not. This weather is just impossible, and I am becoming seriously fed up with it. Currently it is forecast to snow again here this time next week.

[Penellype]

After one of those nights where you wake up every hour or so tossing and turning with your brain buzzing, by 10 to 6 I'd had enough and got up. It was a mild and sunny morning, so why not use it...

I took a couple of buckets of compost down to the plot and spread it on the raspberry bed and hoed it in. Then I took the barrow home and barrowed the raspberries down. They really were desperate to be planted, having been in their bucket in the garage for 10 days, so I planted them out and tied them to the wires. I felt a bit stupid watering them but they probably did need it. Now all I need to do for them is collect some leaf mould from Mum's for a mulch.

[nickdub]

Sounds like a good job, and v hard work in the cold.

BTW watering stuff when the ground is wet as you did after planting is definitely correct procedure, but it isn't so much that the plants need this water (if you do have dry rooted plants its best to soak then in a bucket for a few hours before planting) the point of watering is to wash fine grains of soil down in to best contact with the minute roots of the plants you have put in.

[1Bee]

My rasps are going in tomorrow. Although it's cold, we've been fortunate to have had a few dry days and the soil is now workable. Hooray!

[Penellype]

Sounds like a good job, and v hard work in the cold.

BTW watering stuff when the ground is wet as you did after planting is definitely correct procedure, but it isn't so much that the plants need this water (if you do have dry rooted plants its best to soak then in a bucket for a few hours before planting) the point of watering is to wash fine grains of soil down in to best contact with the minute roots of the plants you have put in.

Thanks - good to have confirmation that I did the right thing. The roots were damp, having been buried in wetted compost for the last 10 days.

[Penellype]

Managed to squeeze in another quick trip to the plot this evening just before it got dark, to deliver a couple of trugs of leaves/leaf mould and spread it round the raspberries. I'm looking forward to the extra hour of daylight in the evenings after this weekend, if not to getting up earlier in the mornings!