Busy!

I haven't posted for ages - busy busy!

I have done a fair bit up the allotment though - or at least for the time that I have available, I feel like I've done a fair bit :-) I am sure that Mr. Perfect Allotment next door doesn't think so though! I haven't got any up to date pictures, but I'll try to be good and post some soon.

So a quick update:

• I put my tomato plants into the ground a little too late. They were tiny, but they grew well. I like the bush variety, as I didn't have to do any other work to look after them. I hoed a few times, and that was that. There were lots of tomatoes on them, which was good. Unfortunately, our summer was again wet and non sunny, so they stayed green. I left them on the plants too long, and they were going rotten on the plant. The once that weren't rotten I brought inside, but they didn't ripen. I ate 1 tomato! It was tasty though! I have not given up on tomatoes though - next year has got to be sunny!
• I planted potatoes as a weed suppressant - that didn't work! The potatoes didn't grow, and the weeds were just as hard to dig up!
• My pumpkins went in the ground too late and got slug munched again. Not sure if I'll try pumpkins again - it would be nice to carve up a home-grown pumpkin on Halloween though.....
• Sweetcorn is growing well - a good few cobs there. Not sure when to harvest them - must do some research!
• Leeks are growing - they don't seem very big to me. Hopefully they have time to grow yet.
• Strawberry plants are settling in well. Had some tasty strawberries off them! Next year there should be lots of strawberries!
• The 2 blackcurrant bushes provided me with a cupful of blackcurrants this year - better than the handful from last year, but still not many! I made some syrup out of them, which I was going to use to make gin with, but my big gal suggested having it with porridge, which we duly did - mmmmm!!!
• There are 2 blackcurrant cuttings left after various tramplings etc. They seem fairly healthy, and it's interesting watching them grow. Think that I should try some more for next year.
• After all that prickling, the gooseberry bushes decided not to produce this year - grrrr. Maybe they didn't like all that cutting.
• The raspberry cuttings that I was kindly given last year are looking healthy, but no raspberries this year. Hopefully they should be alright next year.
• The onions & garlic did OK, although I was kindof hoping for bigger bulbs from both. Not to worry, at least they grew and I got something for this year!
• The rhubarb I planted unsurprisingly died. A fellow allotmenteer though dug up one of her plants and gave it to me, which was very good of her. That is growing and looking OK - hopefully there will be some rhubarb in the spring! She has a large row of rhubarb, all very healthy, and she gave me a ruck of rhubarb for eating too. It was very tasty!

So lots went on, and there is lots still to do. I'll hopefully post again soon get on with more digging over winter!

Garlic in the Ground

The Garlic that arrived recently had instructions to put into the ground by early december, or else in the new year. I don't trust me keeping it until the new year, so I wanted to get it in now. Once again though, events are getting in the way! Lil'Girly came down with a bug, so playgroup was out last week. It's Christmas events for the next 2 Wednesdays, so I have to give up a Monday to get the Garlic in. So instead of Christmas shopping, I headed up in the freezing cold (and it was *cold*!) to lift up the mixed lettuces, and put the garlic in.

The garlic variety is 'Solent Wight', and when planted in November it should be ready in July - once the foliage turns yellow and dry. I'm assuming that I can take a couple of the bulbs from this years crop as next years starters. So much learning!


Here's a picture of them before I covered up the cloves. I hope they are far enough apart. I also put them possibly a bit too far in the ground, but the onions sets are showing bulb so I have put the garlic a little lower.
The garlic is in next to the big gal's wall flowers. One of them is flowering - in December! Awww.

The onions are growing well - here's how far they've got. I'm really pleased to think that I might get something useful from the allotment this year!

Strawberries In And Update!

I haven't been up to the allotment nearly as much as I would like over the last few weeks. It has been half term, followed by one thing and another. The latest has been marking - it takes priority over most things.

Today however the strawberries arrived, with instructions to put into the ground immediatly! And so I went to the allotment this savo with the mission of putting the strawberries in. I have put them into the bed that had the failed potatoes. I am a little worried that there may be a few baby potatoes in there even though the plants didn't grow too well. Every now and then I come across some teeny spuds. I hope they don't grow into 'weeds' next year in between my strawberries.


Here is a picture of the strawberry plants as they cam from Suttons in the post this morning. They look very bare and small. Let's hope that they know what they are doing and they grow up big and strong.


The leaflet says that I should remove all flowers for the first year. What! No strawberries next year? I want strawberries! Boo Hoo..... (I think I'm going to be a bit naughty and let a few flowers through....)

In other news.......

The lettuces are still strong, although the frost has taken it's toll. I think the time has come to dig them out. Still, I'm pleased at how well the raised bed/copper tape worked at at stopping the slugs.

Talking of copper tape, on the strawberry bed the tape is hanging off in places (see the strawberries pic). So I definately need to do something to make it stay put.

In the background of the letttuce bed is the onion bed. Can you see a few onions sticking up? Yay - the onions (or at least some of them) are growing. As well as lots of grass. I tried digging up some of the grass, but it looks like it is a little tuft on the top, attached to a huge couch grass root underneath. I think I need the onions to be more established before I have a proper go at digging it all up......

That's all for now, Folks!

Bed finished, Onions in

Today I got up to the allotment for a little bit, and finally finished off the raised bed. That's 3 raised beds in place and copper taped. I am going to have to find something to keep the tape in place as it just isn't sticking to the wood. Can I use nails? Somewhere I have in my head about a nail causing the tape to lose its electric attributes..... It's probably just me being mad though.

So having finished the bed, I put in my onion sets. For the record, these are Early Crop Radar onions, which should be ready for mid July. The 200g bag nicely filled the raised bed, so the quantity was just right.

Seeing as the bed looks the same with the sets in as before, (except for the copper tape) I didn't bother to take a picture. I'll take one when they start to grow.