Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

The romanesco is being eaten slowly. It has formed rather open heads which I am cutting like broccoli, and is rather coarse but edible in small quantities.



The Oh Happy Day tomatoes are ripening slowly in the growhouse.



Plenty of fresh growth on the runner beans, but I doubt they have time to produce flowers and pods now. The alyssum planted underneath is still going strong.



Very bare looking fruit bushes and leaves need raking up.



Not at the allotment, but I couldn't resist posting this photo of my satsuma and lemon trees. They are sheltering in the greenhouse and I am rigging up some lights in the garage, where they will be moved when I have created some space for them. The greenhouse gets no sun at all in mid winter and I think they need decent light in order to produce flower buds. This year's fruit was already on the trees when they arrived.

[Penellype]

December

A very wet allotment on a damp and miserable day.



Runner beans have now been cut down and the tomatoes outside the tunnel have been removed. The grass needs cutting but is far too wet, with no prospect of it drying out any time soon!



Not a great deal of change here, apart from the flooded grass at the bottom end.



The spinach under the small net is being picked in milder weather.



Leaves from the silver birch need clearing up.



Tomatoes have been removed from the growhouse. Paths either side of the nearest bed are under about an inch of water.

[Penellype]

In the tunnel

The top of the tunnel was opened when snow was forecast and has been roughly closed again to deter pigeons.



The central heads of the broccoli have been harvested and sideshoots are growing. The plant furthest from this end has a bad attack of aphids and I am spraying them with dilute washing up liquid to try and get rid of them. The central head of that plant was inedible and I will probably find the sideshoots are the same.



Strawberries need trimming and a general tidy up would not go amiss!



PSB and parsnips from the shed end. The green in the bottom right corner is a kohlrabi that needs eating.



Beetroot on the left is growing well.



Spinach at the shed end of the tunnel is growing but full of slug holes. I am hoping there will be something to eat off this in the spring.

[Penellype]

More photos



Cherry and blueberry have lost their leaves for winter...



As have the gooseberries and currants.



Younger PSB is growing slowly. A few small beetroot left which want harvesting as they don't like being frosted.



The beetroot sown in early July are disappointing - all are rather small, and some have not bulked up at all. Maybe they just had too much shade from the large tomato plant that was in the other half of the bed, or maybe July is a bit late for this variety (Boldor).



The romanesco doesn't like being cold and wet. I might get a couple more pickings if I am lucky.

[Penellype]

More photos



Spinach near the raspberries has slightly less slug damage than the plants in the tunnel.



Parsnips in the tunnel should be ready to eat.



PSB sideshoots starting to grow.



Beetroot Lutz Green Leaf in the tunnel. These were sown mid June and are much bigger than the Boldor in the raised bed.



My attempt at chop and drop around the runner bean roots. Runner beans are perennial, so I am hoping that if it is not too cold this winter they may re-grow, and I have covered the crowns with leaves to insulate them. I'm not hopeful though. Some of the alyssum is still alive.

[Snoop Puss]

Looking very tidy for the time of year, Penellype. You put me to shame... I'll be following you more closely next year, as I'm hoping to get going again in earnest and you really are an inspiration. Thanks.

[Penellype]

Looking very tidy for the time of year, Penellype. You put me to shame... I'll be following you more closely next year, as I'm hoping to get going again in earnest and you really are an inspiration. Thanks.

Thanks for the kind comments - it looks untidy to me! There are more weeds than I would like, partly due to a sudden flush when the rain arrived, and partly due to unfortunate timings when the decent weather arrived when I had other things I had to do. I was going to make a better job of cutting back the roadside hedge, cut the grass one more time and tidy out the shed and woodshed, both of which are rather chaotic. The strawberries should have been trimmed months ago!

[Snoop Puss]

We're always more critical of ourselves than others would be. Looks good to me, seriously.

[Nicos]

Looking fantastic to me too!
You really are an inspiration Pen !

[Penellype]

Looking fantastic to me too!
You really are an inspiration Pen !

Thanks Nicos, I don't feel that way! I'm currently trying to motivate myself to plan what is going where next year, as I need to get on with things like hotbeds in January. Suddenly that is next month...

[Penellype]

January

Bitterly cold in the wind this morning so fewer pictures than usual, although to be honest there isn't much else to see.



Grass edges have been trimmed and the raspberries have been mulched with part-rotted leaves from the leaf bin. The bluebells under the hedge are growing.



The nearest bed has been emptied of rotted horse manure which has been put on the bed next to it. The empty bed was filled with fresh manure just after Christmas and needs topping up with a layer of compost. I would normally do this in mid January but given the weather forecast I thought I had better get on with it! The romanesco behind does not like the frost and is fairly inedible now.



The spinach has been badly chewed by slugs and there is not enough of it to eat. One of the 2 beds behind will be made into a hotbed later, probably the one with the net over, which currently still has some very small beetroot in it, which probably won't survive the cold.



PSB is growing slowly and there is more beetroot that needs removing and eating if edible.



The flooding has gone now.

[Penellype]

In the tunnel

I have to decide whether to fold the net back on the tunnel to protect it from snow. It looks very marginal in this area, and opening the top lets the pigeons in and they have been known to eat the broccoli, so I am dithering at the moment.



The PSB is being harvested and is still being sprayed most days with dilute washing up liquid. Even so, some of the florets have aphids in them, particularly those from the plant at the shed end. The fleece is covering the beetroot Lutz Green Leaf to try and keep the frost off, but I may harvest it all (there are about 4 left) and try to store them in the garage, as I don't think fleece will be effective at the forecast -6.



The strawberries still need trimming. I might move the cold frame (which has only one lid panel) onto the hotbed and cover it with plastic sheet. Not decided yet. It is rather small - the cold frame is 4ft x 2ft, the hotbed is 6ft x 3ft, but I could put it at one end.



Another view of the PSB. I got the camera angle wrong and missed off the parsnips at this end.



I must do something about the bricks that have disintegrated in the frost.



The spinach at the end of the tunnel is now growing better and less damaged than the outside lot. However, there is still not enough to eat.

[Penellype]

More photos



The parsnips are dying down. I was concerned that they may not grow well here because of all the roots from the hedge, but they seem to be doing ok and I have started eating them.



The PSB is producing plenty of sideshoots in among the leaves



The romanesco doesn't look at all happy and really needs removing.



I've tidied the grass edges and need to remove at least some of the self-seeded forget-me-nots under the hedge



The fruit bushes are all looking very wintery. I really should mulch these with leaves, as I did with the raspberries.

[Penellype]

February

Very little more to see this month, so not many pictures.



Despite the mesh over the leaf mulch, the birds are managing to pull it all over the grass.



The new hotbed has been topped up with compost from the old bed and is ready to be planted soon. I need to find a cover that is not too shredded!



The spinach under the green net has been absolutely shredded by slugs. I'm hoping it still has enough leaf to have the energy to grow some more in spring.



PSB under the net is growing slowly.



Not much to see here, but at least the water has drained away for now - this grass was under water a couple of days ago.

[Penellype]

In the tunnel



The PSB was harvested quite aggressively at the beginning of January and has now been left to grow sideshoots, which are nearly ready. I have been spraying it every couple of days with dilute washing up liquid to deter/kill aphids. During the cold spell we had a night at -7 and all the leaves wilted, revealing several large aphid colonies on the undersides of lower leaves which had clearly evaded the spray. Hopefully those have been dealt with, but it is impossible to see.



Hard to see, but the strawberries have been trimmed and mulched with Strulch, The ones nearest to the cold frame have been removed as these were the oldest at about 4 years.



The PSB from the other end. It keeps dropping an alarming number of leaves (I picked them all up yesterday!).



Another view of the strawberries. The beetroot under the netting has survived the frosts.



The spinach in the tunnel is in much better shape and is producing a few new leaves very slowly. I have not harvested any of this recently.

I noticed this morning that one of the wooden supports at the road end appears to have rotted through at the base. I need to get a post anchor similar to the one I got last year for repairing the other end when I replaced the netting.