New Bean Frame Preview

This will be the new bean frame.I'm considering growing all the runner and frenchbeans in the same bed.....any advice?

Fruit Netted

I've at last netted the fruit to try and stop the birds getting too much of it while we are away next week. In theory.

Comfrey Update

The Comfrey is ready for cutting for the next liquid feed.

I've cut the haulm of Lisa's and my potatoes today - I need the space in the GH for beans and squashes. No need to spell out whose is whose! We're intending to harvest them tomorrow. 

The overwintered onions are swelling in the recent rain. 

The Gooseberries are getting larger. 

The seedbed frame is full of salad etc. 

Broccoli on the Wane

I decided it was time to get rid of the Broccoli today in order to prepare the bed for the runner bean frame. (As planned ever since I saw the arrangement on the Saunders' website in January)

Horsetail Carnage

After digging up the Purple Sprouting I needed to do the best I could with the horsetail which seems to be everywhere this year. I may grow the runner beans through GCV to try and keep them at bay as much as possible.

Done & Dusted

....and here it is ready for the bean frame. I may dig the compost heap into it first though.

Potato Update

I cut holes for the potatoes today and dug out what convolvulus I could from beneath it.Paul grows potatoes in his GH at home. Planted on Feb 14th and harvested on his birthday 16th May (yesterday). He grows up to 6 in a bucket at different levels!

Very Small Bean

After all that pampering I think I picked the first broad bean pod a little early!

Squash Seedlings

There's nothing quite so satisfying as a GH full of squash plants - it's now Sunday and these were sown last Monday!

'Ello 'Ello 'Ello

The pigeon police are keeping a close eye on the rubbish in the car park situation...

Sandy Sweet Peas

These are the roots of one of the sweet peas in the GH that had grown through the pots into the sand tray. I had been thinking of getting rid of it but it looks as if it is doing quite a good job.

Brassicas Rehoused

The brassicas are in their new home and protected with a cage of fleece and wire netting. As you can see from the gentleman in the background it hasn't as yet attracted a right lot of attention. I'm very pleased with it though. It is tied together with wire at the corners. I might put some vine eyes into the uprights to attach the wire to instead though.

A Closer Look

Will this deter the little blighters? Time will tell.

Ready to Go!

This was what the brassicas looked like on the way in.

Onions

I've planted out the onions from the modules in the GH. I laid them ot in position first . It saves a lot of time. I think I mentioned before it was my Uncle Peter's advice many moons ago. I'm doing it not because I'm terribly on top of things but because I'm desperate for the space in the Gh with all these squash etc germinating in the study upstairs. The rootball of the onioms had grown right into the sand tray as had the sweet peas I mentoined earlier.. Verdon's onions from modules were planted out a while ago and look really healthy but they are nearly all flowering. It will be interesting to see how mine get on.

A touch of glass...

I like a car with a touch of glass!!! I tidied and so on today but had to curtail my jobs due to a flat tyre. I also broke a pane of glass in the greenhouse by the potatoes just when frost is being forecast for today and tomorrow. I think it will be all right though.

Brassica News

This is the Brassica bed under preparation. I dug & weeded it, added chicken pellets, cultivated it with the claw, raked it, put some manure on this end of it, covered it, used hooks to secure it, and cut the requisite number of slits in it for Brassicas. Then I left it as it 's too windy for the poor little things.(If you're interesed I've got pictures of each stage of the process.)

Brassica Update

...and here are the Brassicas desperate to get in. These pictures are all from Friday but I didn't plant them out because it is so windy.Tim urged me to go ahead but I decided against it.

Goblin Stew

There's nothing quite like it for a hungry fellow down the allotment! Seems a bit hard on the poor little goblins, though.

Naughty Blackbird

Doesn't it know the string is a crafty way of protecting young seedlings from the likes of blackbirds and such? Is it having a laugh or what? If you ask me it's like one of those tabloid reporters getting in to Buckingham Palace - they just want to prove they can do it without causing any real damage.

Small Tortoishell

This butterfly was basking in me strawberry patch. I think it may have been up to something....

Groundcover Mystery

Something seems to have burned the groundcover where the manure heap used to be. Could it be roundup? Or just fire?

Production Line

Meanwhile at home the production line rolls on....

Brassica Butterfly Protection

This is what I spent most time on today. It's to protect the brassicas against butterflies. My cunning plan of tying the corners up with string doesn't look too promising in practise. I think I'll make it a bit more sturdy by screwing it to 2 by 2's in the corners. Then to think about the top.....

The big news today though is that the seeds I sowed earlier in the week (I think it was Monday are germinating already! I put them in the study with the electric heater on thermostat and Bob's your uncle. When I think of how I've waited weeks for squash to germinate in an unheated propagator outside...

The squash and sweetcorn I put in the bathroom cupboard to pre-germinate are also germinating so I'll probably pot those up and get them straight into the GH.

Must get some beans, crown prince etc. sown soon.

Cold Frame Bed Update

I weeded the cold frame bed yeserday evening while Sue took the dog for a walk as I mentioned in yesterday's post. Things do seem to be flourishing. I should be thinning them out by now I know but I just can't bring myself to do it.

Scary Garlic

This is a new strain of genetically modified garlic incorporating DNA from Charles Atlas. Tim was so inpressed he's used some comfrey liqiud on his disappointing specimens and reported an upturn in their fortunes just one day later!

Here Comes the Sun...

I hope the fashion police weren't on patrol today . If anyone spotted me I might be getting a letter.There was an item in the monthly newsletter on one occasion clarifying the ladies' dress code after Sue had spent an afternoon in bra and shorts. Some people really do make mountains out of molehills.....

Lord of the Rings

At last I've got my ring culture going! The hardest part was deciding on an effective yet harmonius combination of container and ring. In the end I settled for black plastic buckets from Focus at 99p each ( I just didn't fancy orange ones from B&Q) and Sankey tomato pots upside down with the bottoms cut out for the ring. There is about 4 ins of gravel in each bucket and the pots are filled with multi-purpose compost topped with an inch or so of gravel as a mulch. The canes are held pretty firmly by the gravel and compost. The idea is to water from the bottom and feed from the top so the roots of the tomatoes grow down into the gravel and remain moist. Time will tell if it is effective or not.

Tomato Growing

Pretty maids all in a row! ( sorry I don't know what's got into me lately.)

Super Chard

How about that for a healthy plant from the GH ready to plant out! I'm hoping the missing pane of glass will have helped to harden it off. If it gets really windy or cold I'll put fleece or cloches over them (if I get round to it, probably the day after the damage is done as per usual). I'm already regretting not putting any slug control powder down. (Why is it so hard to write "slug killer"?) What a lot of brackets (he added needlessly.)

Chard (in a different context)

And here is one in situ surrounded by protective plastic. The variety is "Diversity" from Vidaverde. There are several different chards all mixed in together and the idea is that you try them out and save seed from your favourites. I've planted 11 today so it should be interesting.

Lettuce and a Geranium

I also managed to weed the sandpit bed and plant some lettuces and a geranium while I think about its long-term future. I am minded to sow Salsify in longish pots to plant out rather than sow in situ now I have seen the weeds that appeared in the cold frame bed. (some of those were carrots though so I'm keeping those. In fact there were a couple of ossified - or do I mean mummified or dessicated - carrots in the soil when I got it so I think it must have come from a place where they grew carrots....or did they? (Yes they did stop being silly).

Goodness It's a Gooseberry!

It always surprises me how early the Gooseberries begin to look like they're getting ready for picking. Two years ago I was laid low with labrynthitis while Sue picked 56 pounds of gooseberies from two bushes. If ever there was a good time to get labryinthitis.....

More Asparagus

We are getting some lovely Asparagus this year. For the first time we are getting enough to feel like it might be worth the space it takes up. On GW on Friday the grower said that "Sparrow Grass" really gets going in its 4th year, which is about right, I suppose.

Fartleberries on the Move

The Jerusalem Artichokes (known locally as "fartleberries" with a glottal "t") are really getting going now. I'm planning to put some of their relations the sunflowers in their midst. As the slow worm is neither slow nor a worm, so the fartleberry is neither from Jerusalem nor an artichoke. It is a member of the Compositae or Daisy family.

Update

Sorry no picture.This week I've been busy so it's mainly been popping in and watering in the greenhouse. There seem to be some little potatoes in my pot.

I have been sowing seeds today - courgette, squash and sweetcorn. I pre-soaked the sweetcorn and 12 of the 18 courgettes to try and aid germinaton. I left six to try and see if it made any difference. They are all currently up in the study with the heater on a thermostat to help get them going. It said 6-8 days at 70-75 degrees on one of the packets.

I really need to get down and weed if I'm not called in tomorrow.

Phil

Phil came to have a look this afternoon. He has been planting Garlic in containers (at his house) and planning a 40th birthday celebration.

Potato Planning

I got the Maincrop Desiree in this afternoon. As you can just see from the next bed the allotment is suffering from a bad dose of horsetail. I'll have to dig out as much as I can and then go back to growing as much as possible under plastic or carpet to try and keep it in check.

Creeping Convolvulus

I am very worried about the convolvulus in the rasberries.

Aaargh!!!

I pulled back the plastic and got rid of as much as I could. It looks bathetic and rather feeble exposed like this, a bit like that Dalek in Dr Who last night.... only far more evil. There are very few records of Daleks causing problems down the allotment. Maybe Dr Who could have put it to good use ordering it to exterminate convolvulus...

A well-made bed...

After digging the horsetail out as best I could I covered this bed with groundcover. I nearly got some great carpet at the tip today. I was at the plastic bottle bank when I saw a woman with some at the non-disposable waste skip. I started to run toward her but felt a little sheepish and stopped. Looking at it I didn't think it would be wide enough so didn't pursue the matter further. Hoewever, when I saw it in the skip it was perfect! Woollen, clean, neatly tied with string and plenty wide enough for a bed. However, the bloke I asked wouldn't let me have it. "We're not allowed to give people things from the skips". Is the world going crazy or is it just me? (rhetorical).