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!

Raspberry Canes

I have very kindly been given some offshoots from a friends raspberry canes, which I have duly got into the ground. Unfortunately, I didn't get up to the allotment on Wednesday, so I didn't get things done that I was hoping to do. On Thursday morning I dragged lil'girly up, but she was pretty unimpressed at being there in the cold. I therefore created a much smaller area for the raspberries than I should have, and they are crammed in a little too tightly. Oh well, if they grow big and strong I'll separate them some more next autumn.

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.

Grape Vines!

We eat quite a few grapes, so when I saw a grape vine in Wilko's, I bought it. A bit of an impulse buy maybe, but free (ish) grapes? Can't turn that down! I am curious to see how well it grows though. Staffordshire is hardly Mediterranean weather...... It went in the ground a while ago now (June?), and it's looking fairly healthy, so on to next year and some fruit! (hah!)

Another bed in!

I got up to the alotment yesterday for a half hour of digging and finished up the next raised bed. It still needs copper tape around it, but other than that, it is ready for the onion sets. So that's the next job to be done!

Current State Of Affairs

The lettuces are in one raised bed.
The potatoes are in another, but I don't think they are growing.
I have almost dug over some ground for another bed.
The tomatoes are dead (as good as!) and need taking out.

To go in I have onions & strawberries, but the strawberries aren't here yet. I also have some clover that I'd like to try out as 'green manure'. That needs to go down soon.

That means that I need to finish up the raised bed for the onions and get them in the ground. Then work on the tomato area as a green manure area.

The strawberries can go into the lettuce bed, methinks, as the lettuces should be done by the time the strawberries arrive (november?).

Okay, thoughts are organised. Wonder when I'll get up there to get some work done.....

Lettuces

In late August/early September I put my first raised bed with copper tape in. I have planted this with little gem lettuces on one side, girly1's Wall flowers in the middle, and some mixed seed lettuces on the other side. The mixed seed lettuces are supposed to be cut, and then they grow back again.

The lettuces are my first venture into my copper tape trial, so I'm hoping the lettuces don't get munched! So far so good, as I now have a lovely crop of lettuces! My second success of the year!

The mixed lettuces said that they could be cut at 2-3 weeks, and then every 2 weeks after that. I think that's a little ambitious, as they were still tiny at 3 weeks. At 4 weeks I thinned the little gems, but the seedlings were too small for munching really. Last week I thinned again, and had a lovely lot of leaves to munch on!

Note for next year - the seeds go in very thinly to save on thinning later on..... Still on that learning curve!