Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

Last night we had the first real air frost of the autumn, with ice on the car and the local weather station reporting -0.7C. This was a good 2.5 degrees colder than any of the local forecasts.

Once things had warmed up a bit by mid morning I went down to the allotment to assess the damage and give the lettuces a little air. The nasturtiums had clearly been frozen - these are very watery and are killed by the slightest frost. The tomatoes and cucumbers looked somewhat damaged but were still green in places.

I set about removing the nasturtiums from the been bed, chopping them up as I did so to use the minimum space in the compost bin. This took me a good hour as they resembled green spaghetti, and there were also loads of green seed pods on the bed, and I wanted to remove as many of these as possible.

By the time I had finished my stomach was insisting that it was lunch time, so I picked yet another little cucumber (which might be the last one) and went home.

I went back mid afternoon when the sun had gone behind the houses and closed the cloche over the lettuces. I also tried to harvest all the tomatoes, but having picked 34 large and medium sized ones and filled 2 bags with them I decided to leave the remainder (which are mostly smaller) for tomorrow.

[Penellype]

Yesterday was marginally warmer. I went down mid morning to open the cover over the lettuces and check the state of the cucumbers and tomatoes. As often happens with frost, the extent of the damage was much more apparent on the 2nd day. The cucumbers were looking very sorry for themselves and all the tomato foliage was going brown.

I started on the cucumbers and removed all but one of the branches - this one looked as though it just might recover and had 2 small fruit on it. I doubt they will grow but nothing lost by trying. I found a very small but just edible sized cucumber in amongst the foliage.

I then started on the huge tomato plants. I cut down the 2 Crimson Crush plants before lunch, chopping the plants up as much as possible so that it would all fit in the compost bin, which is getting very full. I took home about 25 edible sized green tomatoes.

I went back in the afternoon to shut the cover over the lettuces and decided to remove the Oh Happy Day tomato plants. These were if anything bigger than the Crimson Crush and I had to push the compost bin contents down quite firmly to get it all in. It did fit though and hopefully will rot down soon enough to give me more space. It will need to as I still have a courgette plant to chop up and put in there. There were about 40 green tomatoes on the Oh Happy Day. I will be taking most of the green tomatoes to my friend to make chutney, which she likes but I don't.

[Penellype]

Another nice day yesterday once it warmed up from nearly freezing first thing. The morning's job was to clear up the tomato supports, string etc, and remove the tomato roots and courgette plant so that I can dig the bed.

The supports etc were easy and didn't take long, but the tomato roots were huge - not really a surprise given the size of the plants. I got most of it out and chopped up the courgette plant. Fitting this into the compost bin was a bit of a struggle but I managed it. I then tried to dig the bed, but gave up fairly quickly because the very bright sunlight made it impossible to see the black horsetail roots against the black soil. I decided the time was better used removing the tomato plants at home.

I went back mid afternoon when the sun was behind the houses and dug the bed over. This wasn't hard as it had been dug several times before the tomatoes were planted, but I knew there was quite a bit of horsetail still there because it had grown up among the tomatoes. The current plan (which may change) is to use this area for peas and beans next year.

After I'd finished digging I swept up the leaves from the path near the compost bins and tidied up the cucumber supports in the tunnel.

This morning I went down early to take some photos while it was cloudy but not raining:



Yesterday's digging. The bucket on the hotbed contains Florence fennel. You can see how much the hotbed has rotted down over the summer - it was almost full when I made it.



The empty bean bed needs clearing up - there are a few straggly fennel plants left, one of which is bolting. Lettuces under the plastic cover and parsnips and a couple of beetroot under the white net.



Kohlrabi, savoy cabbage, turnips and swedes under the net.



A better view of the parsnips.



The compost area with its new path.

[Penellype]

More photos:



The tunnel from the door end, looking pretty full.



From the shed end, showing that the cucumbers have now gone.



Spinach and winter lettuces in their mushroom trays are growing well.

[Penellype]

Yesterday turned into a bit of a non-event despite some lovely sunny weather.

I was waiting for a parcel, which I ordered on Monday and should really have arrived mid week. The tracking website simply said "by end of day" so I rang them up and asked if there was any indication of the time. They said they didn't have the parcel yet, so I reckoned I had the morning to play with.

I walked down to the allotment and opened the cover over the lettuces, but it was still rather cold, so I went shopping. That done, I then made what I thought would be a short phone call, and had to wait for them to ring back, which took up most of the rest of the morning. I filled in the time by cooking a load of tomatoes for the freezer.

I was stuck at home waiting for the parcel in the afternoon, so I did some gardening at home, and by 3.30 was getting fed up of waiting. I rang the parcel delivery again and they said it would now be delivered on Monday . If I'd known that in the morning I would have planned my day very differently. As it was, all I had time to do was go back and shut the cover over the lettuces and cut some calabrese for tea. Even that was not a success as it was full of aphids.

[Penellype]

Busy weekend - the horses always come in over night at this time of year (thanks mainly to fireworks) and we change to the winter routine, which means I have to muck them out in the mornings at weekends. This, added to the change of hour and shorter days, means a lot less gardening time (and energy).

All I had time to do on Saturday was open and close the cover over the lettuces and harvest a lettuce and a beetroot for lunch.

Sunday was a little better and I managed an hour or so down there, clearing up some of the leaves, pulling out a few weeds and dismantling the bean frame. I'd been waiting for a cloudy day to do this as I couldn't see to untie the knots at the top when it was sunny. I now need to eat the baby fennel that is growing in that bed, then I can empty the contents into the pea bed next door and start digging out the horsetail. The plan is to get that done this week, but I have a busy week with appointments on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, its likely to rain on Friday and I am stuck at home for an indeterminate amount of time today waiting for that wretched parcel (which was ordered last Monday for the precise reason that I had time for it last week and not this week). Such is life!

[Penellype]

Parcel arrived around lunchtime. I'd spent the morning using up 16 of the beefsteak tomatoes to make tomato soup, so the time wasn't wasted.

In the afternoon I dug the tomato bed again, removing yet more horsetail roots. The cat has discovered this bed and is using it as a toilet. I haven't anything to cover the bed with at the moment so I will just have to keep removing the poo. Yuck.

[Penellype]

This week was always going to be busy, and I've had very little time to spend at the allotment.

On Tuesday I had an appointment all morning, but managed a visit in the afternoon. I cleared up some leaves and removed dead leaves from the brassicas in the tunnel, then sprayed the plants with SMC oil again as colonies of whitefly were starting to build up. This does seem to be effective where I manage to get the stuff onto the leaves, the problem being that the whitefly like the undersides and it is really hard to get at or even see some of them. Anyway it must be doing something towards reducing the population as there are fewer of them flying around.

Wednesday was very frustrating. The forecast was for rain in the morning, sunshine in the afternoon and rain in the evening. I had an appointment in the morning so things appeared to be ideally arranged, but the weather had other ideas. As I got home the heavens opened and it rained solidly until it got dark. I did absolutely no gardening of any description all day.

Today, being Thursday, I was busy all day. I paid a quick visit to the plot first thing to harvest a lettuce and give the plants under the cloche some ventilation, but I didn't dare open the thing completely as it was forecast to be a bit windy and I knew I wouldn't be able to get back there before dark. The only other thing I had time to do was empty some of the water that had collected in the bin lids into the bins, which are now all completely full.

Hopefully the weather will be a bit kinder tomorrow!

[Ger-annie-um]

Can you tell me where to get SMC oil? We're plagued by whitefly too and does it work on anything else in the pest department?

Your allotment looks amazing by the way.

[Penellype]

Thanks for the kind comments Ger-annie-um. I bought my SMC oil as a spider mite treatment, from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Advanced-Nu...ermite+control. It works for aphids too.

You need a sprayer bottle and you mix the oil with water at a ratio of 25ml to 1 litre. I use 5ml oil and 200ml water at a time as this is usually enough for one treatment. Give it a good shake before each spray, as oil and water don't mix well and soon separate out.

[Penellype]

A bit more time yesterday.

I started off by clearing up some of the fallen leaves. I've now filled one sack for leaf mould and have started a 2nd. I want to store these out of the way behind the shed, but I'm still waiting for news on what's happening with the hedge, so I've put the sack in the green dalek temporarily, on top of some part rotted horse manure.

Next job was to weed around the edges of the plot, where I'd noticed quite a few goosegrass seedlings. I know from my friend's garden how easy it is to transport the seeds around with you if it is allowed to grow. By the time I had finished it was lunch time so I harvested a lettuce and went home.

In the afternoon I went back and harvested the only edible Florence fennel plant from the bean bed and removed the bolted one. I emptied the compost into the pea bed next door, trying hard not to take any of the horsetail shoots with it. The wooden edge went on top of the one round the pea bed, and the bed is now ready to dig. I dug a bit of it but I was running out of time, so digging will have to wait for another day. It is quite a big area and will take some time as I need to dig the paths over too, and I anticipate that the soil will be rather too wet to dig for the next few days.

[Penellype]

Very little time at the plot today. I managed a visit first thing, to open the cloche over the lettuces. I took the opportunity to check the brassicas in the tunnel for whitefly and spray a few colonies that I had missed last time. I also took the jar of slugs to the stables to feed to the chickens.

On the way back from the stables I called in to pick some lettuce and baby spinach for lunch. I'm pleased with the way the spinach is growing in its mushroom tray on the shelf, and compared with last year's autumn effort in one of the 30 litre buckets (full of holes from slugs by this time of year, and hardly any of it edible at any stage), I'm quite impressed.

All I had time to do in the afternoon was walk down in the near dark to shut the cloche.

[Snadger]

Very little time at the plot today. I managed a visit first thing, to open the cloche over the lettuces. I took the opportunity to check the brassicas in the tunnel for whitefly and spray a few colonies that I had missed last time. I also took the jar of slugs to the stables to feed to the chickens.

On the way back from the stables I called in to pick some lettuce and baby spinach for lunch. I'm pleased with the way the spinach is growing in its mushroom tray on the shelf, and compared with last year's autumn effort in one of the 30 litre buckets (full of holes from slugs by this time of year, and hardly any of it edible at any stage), I'm quite impressed.

All I had time to do in the afternoon was walk down in the near dark to shut the cloche.

What do you spray on the whitefly Pen?

[Penellype]

What do you spray on the whitefly Pen?

SMC oil, as in previous post #602.

[Penellype]

Very frustrating day yesterday.

It was obvious that it was going to rain in the morning from the radar, despite a dry forecast, but the rain looked fragmented and fairly light. I expected it to have passed over and cleared by the time I'd finished mucking out, and definitely after I'd done what I needed to in my friend's greenhouse. I was wrong.

In fact it started raining quite heavily at about 10ish and continued to do so until after lunch, by which time we had had nearly 3mm rain and everything was extremely soggy. I'd intended to do a quick check round at home and then go to the plot for a bit, but it was quickly apparent that my Ferline tomato plants near the hotbin had finally got blight. Not altogether surprising in the damp and often fairly mild weather. I picked all the green fruit and spread it out to dry in the kitchen, then cut the plants down, shredded them and put them straight in the hotbin. By the time I'd done that I was running out of time and daylight and only had time to walk down and shut the cloche over the lettuces (which I'd opened on the way to the stables in the morning).

The lettuces under the cloche are doing noticeably worse than the ones in the tunnel, which are nearly twice the size, although I have a feeling that this could be because the tray in the tunnel was fresh compost while the ones under the cloche were planted in used compost with added bfb. I'm also concerned that they might get botrytis as it is so damp. It certainly isn't doing them any harm to be in the tunnel and I think once I have harvested the last Warpath (not a winter variety), I may well move the rest back into the tunnel and put the cloche away for now. I can always put it back up if we are forecast a big freeze, but I dare not leave it open over night as its shape when open means if it gets windy it catches the wind inside. It could easily break the plastic joints or blow away in a gusty wind if I left it open.

Hopefully the weather will be kinder today and (work permitting) I will be able to get something done.