Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

Yesterday was a write-off, as predicted. It rained pretty much all day. Nothing drastic, just the sort of drizzle that makes you extremely wet in a remarkably short time.

Today was better, although it was still showery. I went down first thing to take some photos and collect the jar of slugs for the chickens, adding to it first as there were quite a few slugs on the broccoli. I also picked up the raspberry leaves.

After lunch I went back during a dry slot and weeded round the hedges - there were loads of goosegrass seedlings. I also weeded some of the tunnel and harvested a leek for tea.

Today's photos:



This is the tomato bed I dug on Friday. The bucket on the hotbed contains florence fennel which is growing slowly. Near the entrance to the tunnel are the blackcurrant and pink blueberry bushes - the blueberry still has almost all its leaves. At the far end there are some strawberry plants in pots on the bench.



The dug area is the bean bed, which needs more digging as there is still a fair amount of horsetail roots in there. The other 3 beds on the left, including the one with the green net (brassicas) have been thoroughly dug. On the right the hotbed still contains a few beetroot from the February sowing, which are now rather large and probably woody. It really needs emptying. The bed next to it has been dug. The white net covers the parsnips, which are much more floppy than they were. This bed has not yet been dug. The one the other side of it was potatoes and has been dug, but probably needs going over again. The raspberries are losing their leaves slowly.

The council still haven't cut down that damn hedge!



Another view of the same thing. The puddles on the path show how wet everything is, especially at the far end.



From the other end. Brassicas under the green net are swede (left) , turnips, a huge savoy cabbage and some kohlrabi. The 2 remaining rhubarb plants are visible at the far end.



The compost area. There are some strawberries in pots and the rhubarb I planted in a bucket, which has decided to start growing.

Continued in next post...

[Penellype]

More photos:



From the door end of the tunnel - brassicas and leeks are growing well.



From the shed end you can see the beetroot on the right and the lettuces and spinach at the door end.



A closer view of winter lettuces and spinach Amazon.



Romanesco, about 2 inches across now.



PSB Early Purple, already starting to sprout.

[Penellype]

More photos:



Brokali will be ready to eat soon.



Leeks Northern Lights.



Beetroot Boldor (yellow) and Boltardy, a little chewed but still growing.



Turnip Oasis, sown in mid August have been nibbled by flea beetle and are still very small.



Summer calabrese Sakura looking very ratty but still producing some spears. The biggest ones were cut yesterday.

[Penellype]

Yesterday was supposed to be dry all day. In fact all the forecasts had misjudged the track of a low pressure system, putting the northern edge of the rain just south of the Humber. It was further north, and that meant that York got the rain all morning.

After lunch the sun came out so I spent about an hour weeding in the tunnel. I've now completely weeded about 3/4 of it and hopefully there won't be much weed growth in there now until spring. Very noticable is the difference in the number of weeds in 3 quite different areas. The bits around the plants that I mulched with some of the compost out of the raised beds had almost no weeds. The areas that haven't been dug in the last 6 months or so, for example round the beetroot and romanesco (not mulched) have very few weeds. The shed end of the tunnel, which was dug over in the autumn, was almost green with weed seedlings. It doesn't seem to matter whether I am trampling on the soil in the path areas or whether its left untrodden around the edges, the weeds grow regardless. This has definitely reinforced my view that in the long term no dig and mulching is definitely the way to go, once I've got rid of the horsetail (!).

[Penellype]

Monday night was very cold - much colder than forecast, I reckon around -3 (one of the local weather stations said -2.5, the other -4.4). There was white frost and ice everywhere as well as freezing fog, and I didn't attempt to go to the allotment until after lunch.

It was still very cold and my only objective was to finish weeding in the tunnel, which I managed in about 1/2 an hour. I'm now happy that unless anything is lurking behind the plants, I have prevented another generation of seeds and there should therefore be fewer weeds to deal with in the tunnel next year.

By the time I had finished I was frozen, so I went home.

The rest of the week looks likely to be a write-off, with rain all day today, no gardening as usual on Thursday, and gales forecast for Friday. As the ground is too wet to dig anyway, there isn't all that much to do for now.

[Penellype]

As predicted it rained all day on Wednesday and any form of gardening was strictly for those more enthusiastic than me. Yesterday was busy as usual on a Thursday so I was keen to get on with something if possible today.

After early rain the weather cleared up and the sun came out, so I went down to have a look at what was happening. Parts of the plot were under a little water (as are parts of my back garden), so any sort of digging was off the menu. I picked up the fallen raspberry leaves (still some to come down) then checked the plot for slugs and found a few. What next?

The sun reaches very little of the plot at this time of year, but the corner that I allowed to grow wild during the summer still gets a little. I spent a pleasant half hour cutting back nettles that were regrowing in this part of the hedge, and pulling out the rooted runners that were invading the plot. The runners went in the trugs with the horsetail roots but the tops were a useful green addition to the compost bin which has mainly been dead stalks and leaves recently. I can't help feeling that this corner is wasted as it is, but I have to leave access to cut the hedges, so anything I put there has to be moveable. Shelves with strawberries on is a possibility, but I have to remember the problem of watering.

[Penellype]

As expected, Friday night and Saturday were very windy. However, as usual the forecasts had underestimated the shower risk, forecasting a dry and sunny day throughout. In fact the morning was dry but the afternoon soon became very showery, and as a result time on the allotment was limited to a visit on the way back from the stables. All I had time to do was pick up the raspberry leaves (there are still quite a lot of them on the canes) and harvest a huge turnip (about 5 inches across) which I have been meaning to eat for ages. Surprisingly the turnip was not at all hot and stringy as older turnips often are. I still have over half of it in the fridge as I can't eat too much turnip all at once.

Yesterday was a nicer day, less windy and with more sun and no showers, although it had rained quite a bit over night. I was able to spend about an hour at the plot in the afternoon. Given that the forecast from later in the week seems to be for rain, rain, rain and more rain I really wanted to make some progress digging horsetail. I gave the bean bed a prod, but it was very squelchy just a couple of inches down, so I dug over the tomato and rhubarb bed again as being higher up it was drier. Enough horsetail and rhubarb roots came out to convince me that I wasn't wasting my time and energy.

By the time I had finished digging it was starting to get too dull to see properly (around 3pm). I did a quick litter pick round the plot (always some bits of plastic after it has been windy) and went home.

[Penellype]

Frosty start yesterday, and as it gets no sun, the allotment remained frozen all day. I spent some time in the afternoon trimming the hedges (road and west sides) - there was a surprising amount of new growth on the leylandii in the west hedge.

The south leylandii hedge is also in need of a trim, but I didn't want to waste my time cutting it if it is about to be cut down. I therefore rang the council when I got home and asked what the plan was, as its a couple of months since I last asked. I was told that plans would be finalized at the next council meeting on 18th December, which means nothing will happen before Christmas, but that the hedge will definitely be cut down and replaced with a 6ft high wooden fence.

[Penellype]

Yesterday was chilly and foggy at times. I went to the plot in the afternoon and decided that I had better get on with digging the bean bed again even though it is still very soggy, because by the weekend it looks like things are going to turn very wet indeed. I dug the bed over as best I could, removing a fair amount of horsetail roots, and also gave the potato bed a quick dig (almost no horsetail roots).

After I'd finished I decided that I really need to get the hotbed emptied as soon as possible as I need to dig that too, and it needs to be finished in time to build another hotbed by February. There were still 3 large beetroots growing there so I dug these out and planted them in a 30 litre bucket. The top layer of the hotbed was still frozen.

I'd had enough by the time I'd finished this, but at least I should be able to get the hotbed emptied soon.

[Penellype]

There was one job I wanted to get finished yesterday and that was emptying the hotbed. The idea was to split the contents between the onion bed (which will grow onions again next year) and the pea bed (due to grow cauliflowers) - both of these will be needed fairly early in the year. Both of these beds currently have 2 layers of wooden edges, but as I haven't decided exactly what I am doing with the edges yet, I didn't want to fill them higher than the first layer. The level of the hotbed had sunk to about half way up the 2nd layer, so it should fit in shouldn't it?

Err - no. When dug out, the rotting horse muck was very fluffy and seemed to expand. I filled both beds to the top of the first layer, pressing it down gently with a piece of wood, but there was still enough left to half fill the tomato bed (not decided what goes in here yet) as well. Hopefully the 2 full beds will sink a bit, allowing room to top the bed with used compost from the potatoes.

As I expected the hotbed was full of horsetail roots, which seemed to have decided, chameleon-like, to be brown rather than the usual black, and therefore almost the same colour as the horse muck. They were also incredibly brittle and I have certainly not got all the bits out. Hopefully when it starts to grow it will be easy to pull the bits out of the soft compost.

The job took me a couple of hours and it was getting dark by the time I had finished.

[Penellype]

Thursday was busy as usual, but it was a lovely morning and not too cold, so I went down as soon as it got light and spent half an hour at the plot. I moved the edges of the hotbed onto the tomato bed and dug about 1/3 of the area. The soil was not too wet and reasonably easy to dig. When I ran out of time I covered the bed with a tarpaulin to keep the frost off so it wouldn't prevent me digging.

Yesterday was also sunny and warmer than I expected at about 2 degrees. I went down first thing and did about an hour's digging, going over the bit I'd done on Thursday and finishing the bed area. I'd plenty of time but not enough energy to do any more, so I went home for a while.

After lunch I did another session, digging the path between the hotbed and bean bed. This was much harder work because it had been compacted, and I'd had enough by the time I'd dug the 3ft width of the beds. I covered it all up again with the tarpaulin in the hope that I might keep it frost free in case I have any time today before the snow/rain arrives.

[Penellype]

Yesterday was all about the weather. I found myself in a quandary, because the forecasts covered a huge range of possibilities from worst case around 4 inches of snow or freezing rain, to sleet or just lots of ordinary rain. The nets over my carrots at home and on the tunnel and over the raised beds at the allotment very probably wouldn't cope with either that much snow or the weight of ice from freezing rain, so I had to decide whether or not to take them down. Taking down the tunnel net is a once a year job, and I would rather leave it where it is for as long as possible, if only to keep the pigeons off the brassicas.

I walked down to the plot first thing to assess the situation. It was cold, but the ground wasn't frozen and the air temperature was between 1 and 2 degrees, which is cold enough for wet snow but not for freezing rain. The dew point was around -1, which is cold enough for both (the temperature can drop as low as the dew point but no lower, although the dew point can also drop...). I decided that on balance rain or sleet was most likely and I would risk leaving the nets where they were. I picked some lettuce leaves for lunch and went to muck out the horses, intending to come back if it was still dry around lunchtime.

It was still dry, but the wind had got stronger and it was bitterly cold. I'd had far more than enough by the time I'd mucked out the horses, and I decided that I would spend the rest of the day indoors.

The warm front arrived at about 3pm, and to my relief it was sleet and ordinary rain.

This morning was much milder, sunny and less windy. I stopped at the plot on the way back from the stables to pick some more lettuce leaves and a beetroot for lunch. After lunch I went back and spent a good hour digging the path between the hotbed and tomato bed - the weed matting and tarpaulin cover has kept the worst of the 12mm of rain we had yesterday off the soil. By the time I had done this I was exhausted, so having covered the path back up and picked up the fallen raspberry leaves (which still haven't all come down) I went home.

[Penellype]

The plan yesterday was to finish digging the paths as far as possible - there was about 2m of central path still to dig. The forecast was for a nice, sunny day with temperatures between 3 and 5. I could schedule 2 sessions, one in the morning and another after lunch, so what could go wrong?

Well, for a start, it rained again over night, even though it wasn't "supposed" to, and then it froze (down to -0.5). I put my extra layer of clothing on and went down at around 10am. It was sunny after early fog and I didn't anticipate problems.

The central path is tricky as the weed matting from the side paths runs over the top of it, so I had to peel back the side paths at the road end and fold it all carefully back to expose the soil between the pea and tomato beds. It was clear very quickly that despite my attempts to cover it up, the soil was really too wet to dig. I persevered for a while, but despite getting out quite a bit of horsetail root, I was breaking it up into small pieces and probably making things worse. I was also getting increasingly cold and after about half an hour I had to stop. I'd done only about 1/4 of the job. I put the paths back down, picked some lettuce and a few baby spinach leaves for lunch and went home. When I got home I looked at the outdoor temperature. By 11am it had reached a whopping 1.7 degrees.

From the warmth of the house, gardening looked very appealing in the sunshine, but I decided that given the state of the soil and the fact that there is another load of rain coming today, digging the rest of the path will have to wait until things have dried out. I can't actually finish all the paths at the moment anyway because of the way I originally put the raised beds down (something I won't repeat). Because the weed matting is 1m wide and the paths are 2ft, I'd laid out the matting and put the edges of the beds over it to make the paths the width I wanted. I'd folded the matting over so it isn't a whole metre wide, but it was pegged down underneath the raised bed edges, meaning that until I have emptied them I can't lift the matting. As the parsnips are still growing in the original bed, there are 3 bits of path that can't be dug properly until after the parsnips are harvested. As I am putting the beds back I am making sure that the edges are not overlapping the matting, so I can lift it to dig if I notice horsetail growing.

There was another job I could get on with, so I went back to the plot around 2pm, when thankfully it had warmed up a little. I wanted to get the rhubarb that I planted in the bucket under cover so it can start forcing. I'd earmarked the black dalek for this, but it was full of leylandii shreddings. I wanted to mulch the raspberries with some of these and I have been waiting for the leaves to fall so they don't get pulled into the mulch along with any attached pests. Most of the leaves have now fallen and I decided to get on with it. I put down a layer of shreddings about an inch thick , which is all that would sensibly stay put on the mounded soil (I may find they blow about in today's wind). The dalek was still half full, but I decided to put the bucket of rhubarb on top of the remaining shreddings as I have nowhere else sensible to put them at the moment. This job took me about half an hour, and I then spent some time clearing up dead brassica leaves in the tunnel. I harvested a leek for tea.

Today is supposed to be the day that the council decide when and how they are dealing with the leylandii hedge. I wish they would get on with it as I can't plan what to do with that end of the plot until I see what they have done and how much (if any) space there is behind the shed and wood store. These would be ideal places to store things like bags of leaf mould and leylandii shreddings, spare buckets waiting for potatoes etc, which are all currently in the way in the compost area. I'd also like a storage trunk for nets, bubble wrap etc which could live at that end of the plot - my shed is full of this sort of stuff, and to get at anything I have to half empty it first as I can't get inside at all. Come on council, get your act together and let us know what the plan is!

[Penellype]

Wednesday morning was wet, but it did finally clear up in the afternoon. Everywhere was far too wet to do anything much so mostly I did little jobs like deadheading at home. I did make it to the plot to check everything and harvest a parsnip for tea. The intention was to dig one the size of a large carrot, but nobody told the parsnips, and I ended up with one about 5 inches across and 10 inches long, which will last me at least a week. I'm still eating my way through the huge turnip I harvested last week!

Yesterday was too busy for gardening, and it was very showery anyway. It rained again last night and was raining all morning so I haven't been to the plot since Wednesday. There is little point trampling everything when it is all thoroughly saturated. The forecast is for a better day tomorrow (when I am unlikely to have much time) and then rain all day Sunday. After that, fingers crossed, things might get a little drier.

A letter arrived yesterday from the council confirming that the leylandii hedge will be cut down and replaced with a 6ft fence "early in the new year". Sounds promising.

[lottie dolly]

Just want to say,well done Pen on your last 12 months on the plot,you have done brilliant lass,collect a pat on the back for perseverance