Strawberry Sort out

I've been up to the allotment today - woo hoo! A Sunday without kids and it isn't raining!

I've dug over a little patch, and I've planted some (but not many) broad beans. I'm not a bean of any form fan, but from what I understand they are good for the soil, and I've got to get this crop rotation malarkey sorted out!

I also gave the strawberries a good looking at. Weeded out the bed and played a huge game of 'Whose Runner Is It Anyway?'! Blimming heck they've set out a good few runners! I've taken some and planted them so that I have a new set of plants next year. I'm going to pass the others on to people, but don't know who yet!


I have 3 different varieties of strawberries 'to provide a long and bountiful supply of strawberries' supposedly. I think next year there may well be lots of strawberries! Hmmm.... The 3 types are (from top to bottom in this picture): Christine, Alice & Flamenco. Christine & Alice were totally runner mad. Flamenco didn't have any runners I don't think. The Flamenco plants are smaller than the other 2, but it still had strawberries growing! The Flamenco is supposed to be the all season producer, and Christine is the early season producer. I think next year will be when I see what they are really like for produce etc

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!

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!

Daffs in! Potatoes Died :-(

The title says it all really.

I wasn't expecting much from the potatoes really - it was the wrong time of year, but it was worth a shot. It means that I can now use the potato bed for the strawberries when they arrive - always a silver lining.....

The raspberry canes that I put in are looking healthy, so that's good. The picture in the previous post was actually taken today, so they have been in 2 weeks and are looking healthy.

The blackcurrant cuttings are also looking healthy. The buds are green, so that's good, and I'm assuming that spring is when they will spring. Can't wait to see if they do!

And I should have some daffs for the kitchen in spring!