Mike's Allotment Diary: August 2009

Visitor!!!

After some very good teamwork pollarding the tree in the front garden next door Dan popped in for a look as we brought the trailer back.

Rich Pickings!!!

Pics from Today...

Visitors!!!

Cora and Sue cycled down on Thursday. Sue picked a good portion of raspberries...

...and Cora got her ears sorted into the bargain! (It's the time of the year when she is very prone to sticky-bobs.)

Recovery?

The lottie seems to be recovering from the terrible battering it got a couple of days ago on Thursday...

...this is part of the damage. As it happens all the big tomatoes now have blight and I have dug them up and saved all the unblemished green toms in the hope that some of them will ripen ok at home.

Visitors!!!

John & Sue came down for a little look this morning :-)

One last look...

Potato Update...

Presenting the afore-mentioned large potato!

Not so chunky now is it?

Allotment garlic & Mum's Discovery apples too.

Delicious - also featuring lottie purple kale and french and runner beans:-)

Potato Hoggin' Day!!!

I managed to dig the potatoes today - and there was no sign of blight on the tubers - fingers crossed! The title of this post refers to a family 'game' in which Sue & Lisa used to compete to collect the most potatoes. All in good humour of course... all right then it was basically the Eton Wall Game with potatoes and only two participants - scary...

Here we are before I started...

...and half way through. It was a lovely sunny late Summer afternoon and then a balmy evening when I returned later. The girls have been to Alton towers today but I have had just as much fun. (possibly - they are very good at having fun).

We had a good crop of potato fruit as well but of course they won't be eaten as they are poisonous:-) Oh I forgot to mention - the overall size and quantity of the potatoes was much better than usual (best ever actually) - and the largest tuber weighed exactly one and a half pounds on the kitchen scales! (pic to follow).

Back from hols II - more pics...

The turnips and carrots are getting a bit bigger...

...as is the chard but only three of the florence fennel seeds appear to have germinated - let's hope they were three good ones.

The windfalls have been rotting whee they lie whilst we have been away. apparently the codling moth caterpillars crawl out and straight back up the tree to pupate if they are left lying around. Not much I could do about it this week though. I've picked them up now.

There are some lovely looking tomatoes despite the signs of blight on the foliage. I have stripped some trusses and removed diseased leaves and am playing it by ear regarding picking the rest to ripen indoors away fom the dreaded spores.

Back from hols - lottie survives!

Back from a week away and the general view looks ok - but a lot has changed in just a few days...

the only bed not cultivated or covered has expoloded into weedy fecundity!(?)

The chard is lovely to look at...

...the potatoes are beginning with blight - time for action...

There are loads of jobs pending which I will note in a later post to remind myself to do them.

Pics from Yesterday...

Yesterday I sowed pak choi ( green & purple), spring onions and mizuna. The sticks are to keep cats off as they seem to like freshly sown seed soil. Cobbled together a bit - I was going to use string but didn''t have any.

I am using the old slats from a louvred door to label the rows. I plan to paint the ends white for re-using year on year.