Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

Today's job was to weed the tunnel, but it soon became apparent that a more accurate description would be remove loads of horsetail shoots from the tunnel. After attempting to dig a couple of individual shoots up and finding more under the soil I decided I was going to have to dig the lot.

Digging the whole tunnel in one hot afternoon is not a sensible idea. I settled for about 1/4 of it, concentrating on the shed end, which is mostly empty now. I managed about an hour before I'd had enough, so I harvested the remaining 3 Northern Lights leeks for tea and also pulled up the last few small overwintered beetroot, which were starting to bolt - I will see if these are edible tomorrow. This cleared some more space in the tunnel and revealed yet more horsetail. I also removed the flowering stalks from the brokali, which is no longer edible. These want pulling out, but I had run out of energy.

No prizes for guessing what I will be doing tomorrow.

[Penellype]

As yesterday was a bank holiday and the weather was good, I spent a lot of it in the garden and at the allotment. I wanted to get as much of the unoccupied areas of the tunnel dug as possible, and managed a fair amount of it.

Once I'd done enough digging I went over the hawthorn hedges trimming off the new shoots. I also cut the grass (and mowed the lawns at home) and harvested some spinach for tea.

Today was a family day, but because the weather is due to break tomorrow I wanted to get on with putting the top back on the tunnel while it was not raining or windy. I therefore went to the plot as soon as I got home and set about it. I was expecting the job to take about an hour, but it was more like 90 minutes by the time I had got it done. I also harvested lettuce, spinach and PSB for my Mum.

[Penellype]

I wasn't sure how much I would be able to do yesterday with thunderstorms forecast for the afternoon. As it turned out the rain didn't arrive until about 6pm (and we had only one brief heavy shower) so I was able to get on reasonably well.

The first job was to move the strawberries out of the tunnel as they are starting to flower and I have now shut out the bees. These need a proper home, but at the moment they are sitting on the weed matting near the compost bins. I also moved the lettuces onto the shelf that the strawberries were on, then dug the area in the corner of the tunnel where the lettuces had been, moved the potatoes and their cloche up into the corner and dug the remainder of that side of the tunnel. Quite a lot of horsetail came out - this area was hard to dig last year as it was full of rampant cucumbers and large romanesco plants.

To give my back a rest between digging sessions I also weeded the raised beds. There was a disappointing amount of horsetail starting to poke through in several of them, and also among the raspberries. I pulled out the raspberry suckers that were poking through the mesh as best I could - I didn't want to disturb the mulch (or the large number of ladybirds wandering about in it) by trying to dig them out.

By the time I'd done that lot it was lunch time. I was pleased with progress today and picked some lettuce for lunch. I made sure all my trays and bin lids were ready to collect rain and decided to stay at home and do jobs there in the afternoon so that I could retreat indoors if thunderstorms bubbled up.


When I went back in the evening after the shower there was only about a watering can full of water to collect. I need much, much more than that to refill my dustbins, but at least everything had been watered for me today.

[Penellype]

Not a lot got done yesterday, mainly because I had several phone calls to make which involved people ringing me back. The morning's activities were restricted to opening the covers and harvesting lettuce for lunch. The afternoon was quite thundery at first with some heavy showers. I nipped down in between to collect the water and cut some spinach for tea, and apart from going back in the evening to shut the covers and check for water (nothing more to collect), that was it.

[Penellype]

Yesterday was forecast to be wet, but the morning was actually very pleasant. I went down quite early and planted out the peas as they were starting to climb up each other. I then went round and pulled up all the horsetail I could find in what was the wildlife area last year - there was quite a lot of it and it is impossible to dig out as the area is full of tree roots.

Next I dug the patch of soil near the tunnel where the water bin had been standing until recently, as there were horsetail shoots appearing. Despite the recent showers and rain the soil was bone dry here. I removed quite a few roots and several slugs from under the weed matting, which I unrolled to cover the dug area. By the time I had finished it was nearly lunchtime so I cut a lettuce and went home.

After lunch I could see from the radar that there was a short amount of dry weather left and then a couple of hours of rain coming. I decided to sort out the covers over the hotbed and cauliflower bed next to it. The lettuce and spinach in the hotbed are now big enough to touch the cover and the leaves that have been up against the plastic are getting scorched. I've been taking the cover off completely during the day anyway, but I now can't get down there early enough to take it off on sunny mornings before it gets too hot. I therefore decided to replace it with a net - none of the plants in there need very hot temperatures anyway - the purpose of the hotbed was to get the crops off to a good early start. I also want a cover that can stay on during the day to try to keep aphids out (unlikely) and also to protect the carrots from carrot fly.

I took some new netting that came as a freebie a while ago down with me after lunch. The net that was currently over the cauliflowers was rather large - it was a net I used for an older, smaller version of my fruit cage at home. I moved this over to the hotbed, as the normal 8ft wide netting is not big enough to reach the floor over the hotbed, and put the new netting over the cauliflowers. By the time I had done this it was starting to rain so I grabbed some spinach for tea and went home.

As happened last year, the spinach is growing faster than I can eat it and some of the leaves are now bigger than my hand. I love spinach and have no objection to eating it every day .

[Penellype]

I was expecting yesterday to be a write-off due to forecast rain for most of the day. However, I ended up at the stables earlier than usual and having done the mucking out and a couple of essential jobs in my friend's garden I gave up due to the rain. I was somewhat surprised when the rain stopped at about 10.30 and the radar showed there was clearly a dry window. I made use of it at the allotment.

Despite all the rain there hasn't been that much water to collect and I've only refilled half of one of the 3 empty dustbins. I think the problem has been that the bins are on the north and east side of the fence and shed, and all the rain has come from the south and west, most of it hitting the fence and shed rather than ending up in the bin lids. Short of rearranging the whole thing there isn't a lot I can do about that. I just have to collect what I can.

Water collected, I decided to remove the brokali, which had finished, and dig that part of the tunnel. This area was one that I dug and dug and dug before planting the brokali - on the last occasion I expected to find very little horsetail, but counted more than 100 pieces of root that came up. I was disappointed to find quite a bit of horsetail sprouting there, so having removed the brokali I did my best to dig it all out. It sounds so simple - there is a bright green shoot and soft soil, stick the fork in deep, lever it out and remove the whole thing. What actually happens is the horsetail stays put and the soft soil falls though the fork, burying the horsetail. It then takes ages to find the thing, by which time you find several other pieces that you have clearly broken off whilst rummaging about. I WILL get the wretched stuff out, dammit!

By the time I had finished digging the area it was starting to rain again, so I harvested some spinach for tea and went home. It rained most of the afternoon, as expected, and there was a bit more water to collect in the evening. There should be more this morning as we had some rain over night.

[Penellype]

No time for any gardening yesterday as I went to Harrogate Flower Show. Before I went I collected half a bucketful of water from the various bin lids (was hoping for more), opened the growhouse and uncovered the potatoes. There was just time to nip down and shut the covers and grab some spinach in the evening.

Obviously at a flower show there were all sorts of temptations. I bought some Hurst Greenshaft pea seeds as the ones I have are only showing about 50% germination, and a Snowbell plant as I've been looking for one for years. Then one of the last stalls we looked at had loads of young trees, and I couldn't resist a kiwi Issai. As this grows to about 10m and I have no idea where I'm going to put it, this could turn out to be a somewhat idiotic purchase. Its only 6 inches tall at the moment.

[Penellype]

Yesterday was a complete write-off due to having to wait in for an electrician who was supposed to arrive before 2pm but didn't turn up until 3.15. Apart from a flying visit in the morning to open the covers and another on the way to the stables to shut them, nothing at all got done. The electrician didn't finish the job and has to come back tomorrow afternoon, so I probably won't get much done tomorrow either (busy in the morning).

I therefore made the most of today. The morning was dull, damp and cold. I went round the plot pulling out horsetail from under the new fence, the raspberry bed and all the raised beds and paths, and horsetail and bindweed from the roadside hedge. After a break for lunch (for which I took home a lettuce) I went back and dug horsetail out of parts of the tunnel that had not yet been dug, mainly the paths between the beds. I have by no means done all of the plot but my back had had enough.

I also sorted out plans to cover the various pots of strawberries later in the week, as these are now flowering and the flowers will be killed if they get frosted. I hate late frosts.

All of the pots of fruit, potatoes and seedlings needed watering, as did the hotbed (the spinach was wilting in places) and I used up all of the water I collected while it was raining just doing this. Then I harvested some spinach and went home for tea.

[Penellype]

Another extremely busy day yesterday, meaning that there was little time for gardening. I did managed to "steal" about 1/2 an hour for digging horsetail out from near the rhubarb but that was about it. I would have done more, but when I lifted the tarpaulin to dig there was an ants nest under it. I hate ants and have to be feeling brave to tackle something like that. This week has been far too stressful and busy, so I just covered it up again to tackle later. I grabbed some spinach for tea and went home.

No time for any gardening today.

[Penellype]

No time at the plot today apart from opening and closing the covers.

Here are some photos I took yesterday but didn't have time to post:

[Penellype]

More photos:

[Penellype]

Yesterday was supposed to be the day I caught up with everything after a pretty hectic and fairly stressful week. I was expecting it to be cold, but it was also wet - the sort of drizzly stuff that manages to soak you without actually doing any good. I don't normally consider myself a wimp, but I couldn't face going to the plot in 5 degrees and drizzle, so I waited for a drier slot around lunchtime.

The sun was threatening to come out by 11.30 (in fact it never really made it) so I had to go and open the potato cover and the growhouse to stop things from getting too hot. I collected up the water from the bin lids etc and found a few slugs and snails, by which time I was cold and went straight home.

More rain arrived in the afternoon and the only other jobs I got done were collect a little more water, cover the strawberries with bubble wrap and close all the covers. I had to do this at home too.

[Penellype]

Busy weekend as usual, and not helped by Saturday being damp, windy and very cold - all that got done was opening and shutting the covers.

Sunday was better, although nowhere near as sunny as promised by the forecast. I managed a good couple of hours at the plot, during which time I cut the grass where I could (leaving long bits where the bulb foliage is and where there is obvious horsetail). I then removed the 2 PSB plants from the tunnel (bolted) and dug over the area where they had been to remove horsetail.

The white beetroot were also starting to bolt and there was a lot of slug damage which was inhabited by woodlice. I pulled the lot out and selected the best 3 to bring home and try to eat. I dug that bit of the tunnel over as well, so that there is only the area near the door which covers the shelves, cherry tree and the few remaining leeks which has not been recently dug.

I'd had enough by the time I'd done this, so although I'd wanted to weed the raised beds as well, I decided to water everything in pots, pick some spinach and go home.

I tired eating one of the beetroot, but it was fairly tasteless - it didn't even smell like beetroot when I cooked it, so I threw the rest away. I think I will stick to red and my favourite yellow Boldor this year.

[Penellype]

The intention today was to go round the whole plot and weed and pull horsetail, and trim the long bits of grass that the mower didn't reach yesterday. I expected to have most of the day to do this as the forecast last night was for a dry day. This morning's radar picture told a completely different story, with a band of rain just to the north of York, apparently heading my way. I got on and got out there as fast as I could.

To my surprise it didn't start raining, and I managed to trim some of the long edges (I kept having to stop to pull out horsetail) and weed all of the raised beds. I took a lettuce home then went straight back after lunch and carried on with the edges, getting quite a bit more done before it started to rain at about 2pm. I picked some spinach and went home.

It got wetter and wetter through the afternoon and there was no chance of getting anything more done at the plot. I stopped on the way back from the stables and collected about a bucket full of water from the bin lids and trays and put the covers back on the potatoes.

Not sure how much more will get done this week as the forecast looks increasingly wet.

[Penellype]

Today started rather wet. I chose a slightly drier slot to go and open the covers and collect the water from the overnight rain. The radar showed plenty of showers around and I decided it was best to leave the allotment alone and concentrate on things I can do at home. There were plenty of those, including sowing peas and replacement courgettes, melons and kohlrabi which haven't germinated. I also had lettuces, tomatoes and courgettes to pot up and peas to plant out and all of this meant a massive rearrangement of plants including taking some peas and tomatoes to my friend's greenhouse. The job took me almost the whole day, dodging the showers.

There was some quite heavy rain later on so by the time I went to put the covers back on there was more water to collect. I bucketed some out of the water butt into one of the dustbins to allow plenty of room for tomorrow's rain - we are forecast 15-20mm and it is set to rain all day. I very much doubt I will be gardening tomorrow, and as it won't be sunny I will probably leave the covers closed, although I may well nip down to collect the water if there is a drier slot.