Mr H's Plot

[Mr H]

Update - Week 3

Well my updating has not kept up to plan. Work at the plot though continued over the last two weekends.

Week 3
As hoped I managed to plant my asparagus crowns and my early charlotte potatoes.

No sign of the peas coming through but then it was only a week

Carried on with tidying up and started planting my herbs out.

1 rosemary bush
1 thyme
1 parsley
1 sage

Starting to look good as I fine raked two of the beds that I will use for the brassicas and roots.

[nickdub]

Yes that's the plan. Although the perimeter fence is only waist high so not sure that will keep the deer out. Some of the plots are fenced to about 7 feet high!

I will be putting some sort of walk in fruit cage around the gooseberries, raspberries and strawberries - although reckon I have a few weeks grace on that.

I have Roe deer getting in my garden quite frequently, 7' is an absolute minimum to keep them out, 9' would be better.

They don't like onions, potatoes or courgette plants - more or less anything-else including small fruit trees are on their menu.

[nickdub]

Looking very good from the photos - your certainly going to get some lovely produce.

You mentioned "Tomato - Alicante - hopefully to grow for outdoors" - sorry to me a nay-sayer but I think I'd advise rethinking this . It takes an exceptionally warm year to make growing tomatoes outside with no protection at all worth the effort. You need some sort of temporary greenhouse structure as a minimum, or failing that I'd swap some produce from your other plants with neighbors who do grow tomatoes - you could put a lot of effort in and get very little back otherwise.

[toomanytommytoes]

Bush tomatoes (Latah and Urbikany) have done very well for us outside for the last 4 years. This year we're also trying early vine tomatoes which do well outdoors in areas of North America with similar short seasons. Any mid to late season varieties go in the greenhouse.

[Mr H]

Update - Week 4

Two short visits this weekend.

First to take the strimmer over and give the grass paths around the plot a tidy up. Watered the peas and the herbs

Second was there a little longer.

Made a second sowing of peas - the first are beginning to show
Also sowed a drill of lettuce and one of raddish

Added some posts for the thornless blackberry ultimately to clamber over some wire. Wire still to be added

[Mr H]

Have enjoyed harvesting the PSB and savoys that the previous allotmenteer left us

[Mr H]

To Do:
Plant out the beetroot seedlings that Mrs H bought.

Keep an eye on the Alicante seeds that have already germinated and look like they need potting on already. Ditto the courgette seeds. Both of these are currently on the windowcill

Worried about the tarragon, the seeds have germinated and gone really leggy but super fine within 10 days. Think they've come on too quick

[Mr H]

A long overdue update

Well I've kept busy at the allotment but not managed to find time to keep up to date on here.

The last two months have seen both successes and failures.

Most of the failures have been thanks to the local wildlife and my naivety. The deer got to my strawberry plants just as they were coming into flower. I didn't replace the net covers properly after weeding them. Lesson learnt. Said strawberries appear to have recovered and we have some fruit but not as much I think as we would have had.

Deer again got to the raspberry bushes and ate the new growth so only a few flowers showing now. At least I know now they are early flowering but again we won't get much harvest.

The most upsetting though was coming back from a week on holiday to find the birds had raided every single gooseberry on all three bushes. They weren't even ripe. Again lesson learnt - The fruit needs a fruit cage for next year.

Successes.

8 out of 9 asparagus plants have feathery growth. Not huge amounts but at least 8 of them are alive. It's their first year so we weren't expecting much.

We've been eating radishes a couple of times a week for the last month. Plenty more on their way. It's the first time I've had any success with radish.

Charlotte potatoes look like they are ready to start lifting this weekend, can't wait.

Beetroot. The seedlings bought by Mrs H are about golf ball size and we've had our first of them. Delicious sweet yellow ones. Very pleased with them. The seed I planted (Boltardy) really needs to be thinned this weekend, hopefully they'll then swell up.

Turnips. Need thinning desperately, got a couple of pea sized turnips. Why do I hate thinning?

Onion sets, looking good.

Silverskin onion seeds showing good growth but probably should be thinned too. But I want plenty to pickle so thin or not to thin?

Early peas are almost ready to give first harvest, need a couple more weeks probably but we should have continuous crop from there on.

Dwarf beans are now showing, but only planted at very end of May.

Lettuce, are great although the plug plants were much better than seed. We will have continuous cut and come again lettuce now until they bolt.

Tomatoes, hmm. Not sure I'm good with tomatoes outside. Have two each of four varieties courtesy of swapping some with the neighbour. Bit of an experiment to see how well they grow outside.

Baby sweetcorn, on it's way but I was late getting them into the soil on account of them going into the last area of the plot that I had to clear fully from the previous tenant. They should catch up though.

Courgette, I have three plants all with flower buds on them, now please can we have some sunshine?

Wow typing all that I realise how much I've actually done since 10th March! No wonder I was ready for the week on holiday.

[Mr H]

Another update.
Not been so busy at the allotment. Lots of short trips to use the hosepipe.

Harvesting
Charlotte potatoes are excellent with an average of 600g power plant. Really dying off now so may have to harvest and store some. Excellent taste though and very happy with my first potato crop.

Early peas have also cropped well. only ended up with two full rows but we've had a couple of meals off this and there's more to come. Another tick in the box.

Beetroot are coming to an end but we've eaten loads. Seed grown ones not so successful.

Turnips not so good.

Lettuce are bolting now. Radishes are still coming although some are huge.

DFB starting to flower so looking good.

Tomatoes are flowering and starting to set.

Kale and PSB now transplanted for Autumn/ winter

Overall happy with first summer harvest

[Mr H]

Other news

The parish are happy with what I've done so far and confirmed I can have a second plot.

So exciting.

[Mr H]

Things to do

Transplant leeks grown from seed

Paint my shed

Clear out pile of rotting wood left by previous tenant

Renew fence

Construct a better fruit cage

[Mr H]

Things to do

Transplant leeks grown from seed

Paint my shed

Clear out pile of rotting wood left by previous tenant

Renew fence

Construct a better fruit cage

Well I'm back, fortunately I've done a lot more at the allotment than I have on here. So what's been happening?

Well, I took on a second plot late summer 2019 and it was more work than I initially envisaged. That's a bit unfair actually. The plot was not in a bad state at all, 1/4 is an established fruit cage, unfortunately I took it on too late to benefit from the fruit. The cage itself is in a reasonable state, there is a membrane over 95% of the floor and the fruit bushes; undetermined currents, gooseberrys and blueberries look healthy. There's a large established asparagus bed, can't wait to start harvesting that. 1/4 was additional fruit bushes mostly currant of some variety I think plus autumn raspberries all surrounded by grass. The rest was covered in tarpaulin.

I want to keep all the fruit and of course the asparagus and keep the rest of the space for overflow of my normal vegetables. This is where things got a little out of hand. I peeled back the tarps and underneath it looked pretty good. I dug it over and removed a load of bind weed, so far so good.

Then I went on holiday at the end of August, followed by some weekends where family commitments took over and then a couple of weekends of heavy rain. When I finally got back to the plot it was a forest of weeds. The grass was knee high, the nicely dug over bed was again knee high weeds and I had a letter from the allotment management saying if I couldn't keep the plot in good order I would lose it. Not a good start.

Intensive care needed, I hand weeded half the dug over area, planted leeks and garlic in it and so it looked cared for. The other half I recovered in tarpaulins to squash the knee high weeds. I cut back the asparagus ferns, a little early but I had to show I was doing something and finally took a strimmer to the grass.

Next was to plan how to tackle to the rest - I'll detail that later

Things to do:
Paint my shed - one year on and I have bought the paint but not managed to actually paint it yet
Clear out the pile of rotting wood left by previous tenant on the original plot
Renew the fence on the original plot
Construct a fruit cage on the original plot.

I've come to the conclusion that I obviously prefer my time at the allotment to be covered in mud rather than DIY for which there's always an endless list at home

[Mr H]

Psb

Planted purple sprouting broccoli on my original plot last year from seed

Grew them on and finally transplanted them into their final position in the brassica patch, even gave the soil a lime treatment, following all the good advice from my neighbours

Put up mesh against the cabbage whites which flocked to the scene in abundance

Replaced mesh with netting to keep the pigeons off over the winter

Plants grew tall and strong and look healthy. BUT..

Here we are the start of February and there's not a single broccoli floret, purple or otherwise, in sight.

Maybe I'm just impatient but I had expected some veg to harvest by now.

Will leave them in place until the end of March but by April they have to be out as I need the space for this year's beetroot.

[Mr H]

Potatoes

After last year's successful trial, first time I'd ever grown a potato, we are aiming for close to self sufficiency this year.

I have two large patches, one on No 19 and one on No 7 already dug over and manured, going to let the weather settle it all in.

A visit to the local farm shop and I have my seed potatoes, safely brought home and in cold storage until the end of March

24 Charlottes
36 Red Duke of York

The charlottes stored really well last year, in fact we just ate the last one last week so I am hoping that I can repeat that this year.

Charlottes are our family favourite either in salads or with oodles of raclette cheese. The Red Duke of York should give us tattys to mash and roast.

If they all crop as well as last year then I should get about 30kg of spuds by July

[Mr H]

Garlic

I planted my garlic in the autumn - a total of three varieties

Sadly I lost the labels of two of them and the third were ones we bought on a market stall in Spain on holiday and decided to give them a try. The Spanish cloves were large, juicy and sweet so if I can reproduce them here then I'll be pleased.

All of them sprouted fresh green shoots and are overwintering nicely, so far so good, at this stage there is little difference between the shop bought garlic to plant and the market bought garlic to eat. We will see how they go.