Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

I was going to post this yesterday but couldn't as the site was down. Hopefully I can remember as far back as the weekend!

Saturday's job was to put the net back on the tunnel. I wanted to get this done before it got wet, while it wasn't windy and to keep pea moth off the newly planted peas. Combined with painting parts of the front fence at home and getting the back lawn mowed (both of which wanted doing before rain) there wasn't time for much else. I harvested some rhubarb, broccoli, lettuce and spinach.

I was expecting Sunday to be wet, but it wasn't, which meant everything needed watering again. The amount of water that is disappearing is frightening - about 1/2 a dustbin a day. I'm hoping the forecast of a decent amount of rain this week is right. Other than that, weeding, digging horsetail and trimming new growth off the hedges occupied most of my time. Harvested more lettuce and spinach.

Finally a bit of water to collect on Monday morning - about half a watering can full from all of the dustbin lids and trays. Better than nothing, but nowhere near enough. More weeding, trimming of grass edges and puling horsetail. Harvested a decent handful of broccoli, but most of the rest is now flowering faster than I can use it. At some point, either Sunday or Monday, I cut the grass.

Yesterday was more of the same. The tiny bit of rain we had on Sunday night seems to have caused the weeds to grow incredibly fast and it took quite a while to weed the tunnel. There is also a disappointingly large amount of horsetail popping up, including in the part of the tunnel where I planted the cauliflowers, which I dug over very carefully beforehand. This is where the carrots were last year, and there was some horsetail in amongst, so I suppose I should have expected this. I harvested lettuce for lunch and spinach again for tea - the leaves are growing very fast and are now bigger than my hand.

By evening it had started to rain, but this morning there was again very little water to collect.

[Penellype]

Wednesday was rather showery and I spent most of the day at home - I needed to sow some seeds anyway (cucumbers, courgettes etc). I did visit in the evening to collect the rain water.

Yesterday morning was busy but I spent about an hour at the plot in the afternoon, cutting flowers off the broccoli, brokali and calabrese in the hope that it will produce more and digging horsetail in the tunnel and the bed just outside it. I also took the netting off the cauliflowers in the tunnel as they don't need it now the top net is back on. There was some fairly heavy rain around tea time and a reasonable amount of water to collect on my way back from the stables. I discovered the hard way that one of my boots has a hole in it. One of the previously empty dustbins was now half full.

I was expecting more rain over night, but there was almost nothing to collect this morning. I went down with my camera and took some photos, which I may post over the weekend if I have time to screenshot them and the site isn't too slow. Its driving me nuts at the moment, which is why I am posting on here rather less often. I also pulled some of the leeks, which are starting to bolt. Some are showing signs of white rot too, which is a pain. I carefully cut off the infected parts and put them with the horsetail to go to the tip eventually.

The afternoon became rather showery so I didn't go back until evening, by which time we had had a hail storm and there was another reasonable amount of water to collect (including scooping up water from puddles on the weed matting). I still haven't refilled a whole bin though, and there are another 3 empty ones to go at. Not having to water is a major plus and everything is getting a thorough soaking which is very welcome.

[Penellype]

Nothing much happened over the weekend as I was busy at the stables in the mornings and it was very showery in the afternoons. I managed to collect a dustbin and a half of water from my various bin lids and trays plus scooping water up off the weed matting on the paths. Yesterday was rather less showery but everything was far too wet to do anything constructive. I put the covers back over the hotbed and potatoes in the evening as frost was forecast (it reached -0.3 at Strensall, the nearest weather station).

Today was better - a much drier and often sunny day. I spent quite a while at the plot around lunchtime weeding and removing horsetail around the plot. While I was weeding the raised bed that had the baby veg sown in the autumn, I noticed that the florence fennel has grown rapidly but not yet bolted. The bulbs are now quite a reasonable size, and I harvested one for tea.

[Snadger]

Nothing much happened over the weekend as I was busy at the stables in the mornings and it was very showery in the afternoons. I managed to collect a dustbin and a half of water from my various bin lids and trays plus scooping water up off the weed matting on the paths. Yesterday was rather less showery but everything was far too wet to do anything constructive. I put the covers back over the hotbed and potatoes in the evening as frost was forecast (it reached -0.3 at Strensall, the nearest weather station).

Today was better - a much drier and often sunny day. I spent quite a while at the plot around lunchtime weeding and removing horsetail around the plot. While I was weeding the raised bed that had the baby veg sown in the autumn, I noticed that the florence fennel has grown rapidly but not yet bolted. The bulbs are now quite a reasonable size, and I harvested one for tea.

Can you use the foliage from florence fennel?

[Penellype]

Can you use the foliage from florence fennel?

Yes you can. It tastes just like the foliage from ordinary fennel. I often cut some for salad, leaving the bulb to carry on growing.

[Penellype]

Struggling to update this at the moment with the current site issues. Since I last posted I've removed the old beetroot from the tunnel and finished the leeks, enabling me to have a better go at removing some of the horsetail. I also mulched the strawberries that are in the soil in the tunnel with strulch to keep the fruit clean and repel slugs (which it is supposed to do), did a load of weeding and sowed some carrots in the tunnel. I've also cut the grass and trimmed the hedges again.

Yesterday I noticed some ants which had apparently killed a leatherjacket and were taking it to their nest (presumably). The thing was about 50 times the size of the individual ants, but they moved it a good 6 inches while I was watching. I'm not keen on ants, but I have to admit they are fascinating creatures.

Now that I have a little more water at the allotment I have taken some plants (beetroot and peas) down to the growhouse to make more room at home. Today things were starting to get quite dry again and some of the strawberries in one of the towers had wilted. I've tried growing strawberries in these towers before without much success, but I thought I would give them another go - could well be a mistake. I used about 1/3 of the water I collected from the recent rain watering the plot today. Also harvested some lettuce and spinach.

[Penellype]

A weekend of huge contrasts. Saturday was really hot so I spent some time in the afternoon in the shade of the west hedge, disentangling the daffodil foliage from grass and trimming the grass edge, removing weeds, horsetail and snails as I went. The whole thing looks much tidier (as far as daffodil foliage can be described as tidy) and the grass should now be much easier to mow. I also harvested lettuce, spinach, a florence fennel and some rhubarb and watered everything.

Sunday was freezing cold with a strong and gusty northerly wind. I went down first thing to collect the jar of snails, which I had forgotten to take with me when I went home on Saturday, and found that the wind had ripped leaves and fruiting branches off the raspberries and blown over one of the strawberry towers and the pink blueberry bush. I tried my best to anchor them with bricks and they did stay upright after that. It was far too unpleasant to contemplate doing anything at the allotment during the day but I went back in the evening to water and covered the potatoes and strawberries to protect against forecast possible frost. I was going to cover the cherry with the fleece bag as well, but it was still very windy and I could imagine the bag acting as a sail and pulling the tree and pot over, so I left it. Luckily it only dropped to about 3 last night, but I will have the same dilemma tonight as it is forecast to be windy for the first half of the night then calm down and drop to around 1.

I have now used nearly all of the water from the recent rain, and with nothing useful in the forecast for at least a week I am going to have to start carrying bottles of water down with me when I go. The wind really isn't helping with this either, removing water from the soil almost as fast as I can add it.

[Penellype]

Posting on this forum is becoming nearly impossible and I have had to abandon several attempts to do so. Unfortunately my memory for what I have done doesn't stretch in detail to several days so I have forgotten what I did on Monday. It was probably too cold to do much gardening.

Yesterday was marginally less cold because it was less windy. I did a little weeding and pulled a few bits of horsetail and watered everything including with water carried down from home. I again didn't dare cover the cherry tree in the evening because it was getting windy again - I had already covered the apple tree at home then removed the fleece as it was thrashing about.

Today is colder again with stronger wind and intermittent light wintery showers (graupel, which is soft hail). First thing it wasn't too bad - with 4 layers of clothing and in the sunshine it was tolerable while I uncovered everything. I walked down again before lunch to pick some lettuce, dressed in full winter clothes including body warmer and thick padded coat. By the time I got to the plot and removed my gloves to unlock the gate my hands were blue and I was frozen, regretting not adding my scarf and woolly hat. Unless the sun comes back out I will only be nipping down again for spinach for tea which I deliberately didn't pick at lunchtime so I need to go back and can take more water with me. I hope the wind has died down by this evening so I can cover the cherry, as we are forecast 5 hours of 0 or -1 tonight.

[Penellype]

Wednesday remained cold and I just took down the water and picked some spinach, then stopped on the way home from the stables to cover everything. The cherry had to go uncovered because the wind didn't drop until about 9pm, but the fruit seems to be ok as far as I can tell. The potatoes at my friend's were not so lucky - again I couldn't cover them because of the wind, and the tops of the ones not in the shelter of trees have been quite badly blackened. Hopefully they will recover.

Yesterday was much less cold, probably mainly because the wind had died down. I spent some time weeding, cutting off flowering broccoli stems and removing horsetail from the raised beds and also cut back the nettles in the hedge, revealing quite a lot more horsetail. I really need to go along the road side of the hedge and get it out from that side, but I am reluctant to do so because of the difficulty of avoiding people walking past and also I am running out of space to store it. Our tip has reopened but you have to book an appointment on the website and the booking form says that unless the waste is hazardous or creating a dangerous obstruction you should store it rather than booking a slot, and I hardly think horsetail falls into that category. Our green bins start again next week but I don't have horsetail at home and I don't want to import it - some of the stored horsetail at the plot has spores in amongst.

I took the cover off the hotbed for the final time yesterday - the spinach, carrots and beetroot are hardy anyway and the lettuces are nearly finished. I'm hoping I can do the same with the potato cover at the weekend. I also harvested some fennel yesterday.

Today was again very pleasant and I spent a fair while doing a bit of tidying up. I chopped back some of the new growth of elderberry and ash that I could reach with my loppers and cut it up for composting, and also removed and chopped up the 2 romanesco plants that have finished. I planted out some nasturtiums in front of the row of peas - hopefully these will keep pea moth away. The peas are already flowering and I have been desperate to get these planted, but they are not frost hardy. I hope I am not too late to deter the pea moths, which were quite a pest last year when I neglected to plant nasturtiums. I also harvested some small late broccoli florets and some large spinach leaves for tea.

[Penellype]

Most of the gardening time at the weekend was spent at my friend's. Saturday's allotment time was limited to harvesting lettuce and spinach and watering everything. I took some tomato feed down with me for the potatoes as they are probably running out of nutrients from the bfb I added when planting them.

Yesterday I had a little more time and took down and planted the summer leeks. I've put these between the tunnel and road in a bed that was planted with flowers when I arrived, so I am hoping that it is not infected with white rot. I rigged up a net over a frame made from bits of the cloche frames to keep the cat off and hopefully deter leek moth. I also spent some time weeding and digging horsetail in the tunnel and noticed that the carrots I sowed in there are now germinating.

I harvested another of the florence fennel for tea. This is a complete surprise as it was sown for baby fennel in August last year and was never meant to overwinter. This is the one I harvested yesterday ( I removed the tops as they were full of aphids, which I didn't want in the house). Variety is Romanesco. I do like it when things turn out better than expected!

[Snadger]

Most of the gardening time at the weekend was spent at my friend's. Saturday's allotment time was limited to harvesting lettuce and spinach and watering everything. I took some tomato feed down with me for the potatoes as they are probably running out of nutrients from the bfb I added when planting them.

Yesterday I had a little more time and took down and planted the summer leeks. I've put these between the tunnel and road in a bed that was planted with flowers when I arrived, so I am hoping that it is not infected with white rot. I rigged up a net over a frame made from bits of the cloche frames to keep the cat off and hopefully deter leek moth. I also spent some time weeding and digging horsetail in the tunnel and noticed that the carrots I sowed in there are now germinating.

I harvested another of the florence fennel for tea. This is a complete surprise as it was sown for baby fennel in August last year and was never meant to overwinter. This is the one I harvested yesterday ( I removed the tops as they were full of aphids, which I didn't want in the house). Variety is Romanesco. I do like it when things turn out better than expected!

I honestly thought Florence Fennel would not overwinter without running to seed. (As mine usually does)

[Penellype]

I honestly thought Florence Fennel would not overwinter without running to seed. (As mine usually does)

Same here. I only left it because it looked ok, but I fully expected it to bolt. It may have had something to do with sitting in a puddle for most of the winter as it is in one of the beds that gets flooded. It is elongating fast now and I will be harvesting the last 2 plants today.

[Penellype]

Finding it really hard to keep this up to date due to the time it takes to load. If it hasn't loaded by the time I've made myself a coffee, I have usually run out of time and patience.

This week:
Monday - it rained over night so I collected a bucket or so of water first thing. As everything was wet I decided to spend my gardening time on a visit to the garden centre for bedding plants.

Tuesday- a little more rain early on, but not enough to give anything to collect. Pulled a bit of horsetail, harvested broccoli and fennel.

Wednesday - rather a hot day but got the grass cut. Harvested the last 2 fennel plants which were almost visibly bolting, plus some spinach.A couple of the strawberries in the growhouse were starting to turn red.

Thursday - dug some horsetail out of the tunnel and planted beetroot. Harvested spinach.

Friday - over night rain gave another bucket full or so of water (including me scraping up as much as I could from puddles on the weed matting) but the biggest plus was that everything was wet enough not to need watering. Went round and pulled horsetail from under the hedges, amongst the rhubarb and some bits from the raised beds. Harvested spinach and ate the first 2 strawberries from the growhouse. More are turning red.

[Snadger]

Finding it really hard to keep this up to date due to the time it takes to load. If it hasn't loaded by the time I've made myself a coffee, I have usually run out of time and patience.

This week:
Monday - it rained over night so I collected a bucket or so of water first thing. As everything was wet I decided to spend my gardening time on a visit to the garden centre for bedding plants.

Tuesday- a little more rain early on, but not enough to give anything to collect. Pulled a bit of horsetail, harvested broccoli and fennel.

Wednesday - rather a hot day but got the grass cut. Harvested the last 2 fennel plants which were almost visibly bolting, plus some spinach.A couple of the strawberries in the growhouse were starting to turn red.

Thursday - dug some horsetail out of the tunnel and planted beetroot. Harvested spinach.

Friday - over night rain gave another bucket full or so of water (including me scraping up as much as I could from puddles on the weed matting) but the biggest plus was that everything was wet enough not to need watering. Went round and pulled horsetail from under the hedges, amongst the rhubarb and some bits from the raised beds. Harvested spinach and ate the first 2 strawberries from the growhouse. More are turning red.

Busy as ever Pen. I'm quite jealous about the strawberries as mine are just starting to flower. You seem to have a never ending battle with horsetail.Keep up the good work.

[rary]

Finding it really hard to keep this up to date due to the time it takes to load. If it hasn't loaded by the time I've made myself a coffee, I have usually run out of time and patience.

Don't give up Penellype it a great record of what you do and a very good read, thanks