Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

A much, much better day today. It was a lovely sunny morning and I spent a couple of hours at the plot cutting down the runner beans, which had finished. I wanted to get these down while they were still green as they are much easier to cut up and rot down better that way. I picked a couple of cucumbers and some salad leaves for lunch and a bag of half ripe tomatoes.

I was back after lunch and removed the mildewed and now dead peas from the tunnel. There were several small pods which still contained edible peas, much to my surprise. Having done that I planted out the last broccoli plant where the peas had been. This plant looked dead a few weeks ago and really got left because I forgot about it, but it has survived although it is still very small. Nothing to lose by planting it.

The next job was to remove the summer leeks, which have been devastated by leek moth, but would die anyway if we got a frost. There were 2 reasonable sized ones and 3 smaller ones, giving me a couple of meals worth of leek. While I was in the tunnel I had noticed that the leeks in there also have leek moth. So much for my plan to grow leeks in there next year! More thinking required.

I was going to remove the melon plant and bring the melons home, but I couldn't bear to as it is still clearly alive. I harvested one of the melons anyway, and left the rest for now. I very much doubt it will freeze in the growhouse over a hotbed that still seems to have a soil temperature around 18C. I just have to remember to go and shut it tomorrow.

I'd been meaning to take my camera down as it maybe too wet for photos tomorrow, but the battery was flat so I had to leave it on charge. I went back to get it and took loads of photos. By this time it had clouded over, which makes better pictures.



Runner beans have now gone.



Melons and strawberries in the growhouse. The romanesco under the white net is determined to get too big.



The Oh Happy Day tomatoes are loving the old hotbed.



One of the towers of strawberries, the minarette cherry and the blueberries, now without their net.



The courgettes are still flowering and producing fruit, but the mildew is winning the battle now.

[Penellype]

As expected, yesterday was very wet. I managed to find a slightly less wet interval (still raining but not too bad) to go down and empty the bin lids, which were nearly full. The dustbins are all full now so I turned the lids over and stacked the trays under cover - they will go in the shed if/when I can manage to dry them out at some point! There are still some buckets out because I haven't anywhere to put them while they are wet. Unsurprisingly the bottom corner of the plot was again under water.

I picked the remaining runner beans (a small handful) before I went back home as the rain got heavier again. According to the local weather station we had nearly 25mm of rain yesterday on top of last week's deluges, with plenty more to come tomorrow.

Whether I can get anything useful done today remains to be seen - the weather should be ok, its the water and mud that will stop me.

[Snadger]

Yesterday started very wet, but the rain soon stopped and I went down to collect the water. The weather improved into a reasonable morning and I found myself wandering around a soggy allotment looking for something sensible to do, so I decided to tidy out the shed. Although I did this not long ago, there were various nets and poles that had got shoved in there, and some of the plastic bags that I store string and nets in had disintegrated. I replaced these and spent some time sorting out and untangling string and putting away various hooks and clips in sensible places where they wouldn't get lost.

By the time I'd done that I was running out of time so I picked a cucumber, some tomatoes, a few strawberries and some beans, gave the remaining melon plant a drink of water and went home.

The afternoon was very wet, so I didn't get back to the plot at all.

Today again started very wet but things had dried up by about 10am. However I had to go to the stables and then I wanted to take some stuff including some strawberry runners I'd potted up to a recycling morning in a nearby village. By the time I'd done that it was lunchtime and the sun had come out. I had a quick bite of lunch then went down to the allotment, collected the rain water and went round picking up fallen leaves, pulling out a few weeds and removing dying rhubarb leaves. The melon plant was looking quite sad and some of the stems were starting to rot, so I spent a while cutting off anything that had no fruit on to let more air in around the fruit. One fruit came off while I was doing this so I took it home to ripen. I'd also stopped on the way home from the stables to pick a cucumber, a beetroot and probably the last of the peas for lunch.

Having cleared half of the growhouse I decided to put some of the strawberry plants in there as they are still flowering and have some unripe fruit which will be damaged if it is frosty. The MFBs were too tall to go on the growhouse shelf, which can't be lowered as the other shelf is in the way and still supporting melons. I therefore collapsed the shelf and put one of the trays I use to catch water on the bed. the trouble with this was that it really only comfortably held one of the MFBs. I have bigger trays at home so I decided to bring one of those, which is 2ft square, fits nicely in the growhouse and will take 2 MFBs of strawberries. I will remove the melons before the frost comes, and I will probably use the other shelf for the spinach and lettuces which are currently in the tunnel.

As it was sunny and breezy all afternoon I went back after tea and cut the grass, which did not get done before the rain arrived at the beginning of this week. I was glad to have an opportunity to do this - most of it was dry. I also picked half a dozen fairly large tomatoes. The Oh Happy Day are absolutely laden with decent sized tomatoes, but whether they will get a chance to ripen with the weather forecast to get colder remains to be seen.

I do not expect to be able to do anything at all at the plot tomorrow as the forecast is for rain all day.

Strangely, like you,I have some huge Ailsa Craig tomatoes which will hopefully ripen 'on the vine'

[Penellype]

Yesterday started very wet, but the rain soon stopped and I went down to collect the water. The weather improved into a reasonable morning and I found myself wandering around a soggy allotment looking for something sensible to do, so I decided to tidy out the shed. Although I did this not long ago, there were various nets and poles that had got shoved in there, and some of the plastic bags that I store string and nets in had disintegrated. I replaced these and spent some time sorting out and untangling string and putting away various hooks and clips in sensible places where they wouldn't get lost.

By the time I'd done that I was running out of time so I picked a cucumber, some tomatoes, a few strawberries and some beans, gave the remaining melon plant a drink of water and went home.

The afternoon was very wet, so I didn't get back to the plot at all.

Today again started very wet but things had dried up by about 10am. However I had to go to the stables and then I wanted to take some stuff including some strawberry runners I'd potted up to a recycling morning in a nearby village. By the time I'd done that it was lunchtime and the sun had come out. I had a quick bite of lunch then went down to the allotment, collected the rain water and went round picking up fallen leaves, pulling out a few weeds and removing dying rhubarb leaves. The melon plant was looking quite sad and some of the stems were starting to rot, so I spent a while cutting off anything that had no fruit on to let more air in around the fruit. One fruit came off while I was doing this so I took it home to ripen. I'd also stopped on the way home from the stables to pick a cucumber, a beetroot and probably the last of the peas for lunch.

Having cleared half of the growhouse I decided to put some of the strawberry plants in there as they are still flowering and have some unripe fruit which will be damaged if it is frosty. The MFBs were too tall to go on the growhouse shelf, which can't be lowered as the other shelf is in the way and still supporting melons. I therefore collapsed the shelf and put one of the trays I use to catch water on the bed. the trouble with this was that it really only comfortably held one of the MFBs. I have bigger trays at home so I decided to bring one of those, which is 2ft square, fits nicely in the growhouse and will take 2 MFBs of strawberries. I will remove the melons before the frost comes, and I will probably use the other shelf for the spinach and lettuces which are currently in the tunnel.

As it was sunny and breezy all afternoon I went back after tea and cut the grass, which did not get done before the rain arrived at the beginning of this week. I was glad to have an opportunity to do this - most of it was dry. I also picked half a dozen fairly large tomatoes. The Oh Happy Day are absolutely laden with decent sized tomatoes, but whether they will get a chance to ripen with the weather forecast to get colder remains to be seen.

I do not expect to be able to do anything at all at the plot tomorrow as the forecast is for rain all day.

[Penellype]

Just 2 quick trips to the allotment yesterday to collect water - 11mm overnight again had the bottom corner under water in the morning. There were a few showers through the day as well. I didn't have time to do anything else other than capture a large slug that was crawling over the grass.

[Penellype]

A quick trip to the plot in the morning showed that while it was dull and damp there had not been much more rain over night and the water level had indeed gone down although the grass was still a bit soggy. I checked everything was ok, tied up one of the romanesco plants that had fallen over and harvested 3 tomatoes, a cucumber and 2 strawberries.

After lunch the sun came out for a bit and I took my 2nd strawberry tower down to plant more runners in. The first batch of unknown variety have recovered from being transplanted after looking very wilty for several days. This time I already had the compost and experience of how to do it, so the job was much faster. I used the Marshmello runners from the tunnel and planted 24 of them, leaving the smaller ones connected to larger parent plants and pegging them into the holes with hoops made of wire that I'd found on the plot when I got it. It took me about half an hour to do. I then had to find somewhere to put it.

The logical place was next to the fence, where there is still some space. However, the ground here is not at all flat, so I lifted part of the weed matting, revealing quite a lot of slugs (which I later fed to the chickens) and did my best to level an area big enough for the tower to sit on without falling over. It is still full of bits of leylandii and chunks of concrete, but is getting a little easier to deal with. I then secured the base of the tower with a heavy brick - this has worked at home, but how it will stand up to a gale remains to be seen.

I then went round picking up bits of leaves and a few weeds before it was time to go home. I went back in the evening to pick some courgettes, cucumbers and beans for my brother.

[Penellype]

The rain finally stopped at around 3pm, having dumped nearly 30mm on us. The paths in the garden were awash, but the pond (which leaks and is therefore a good indicator of the water table level) was not full. I scooped up some of the water to fill my dustbin for the blueberries then went down to the allotment to investigate the situation.

The bin lids and trays were nearly full and I collected a whole bin full of water from them and the wheelbarrow. The bottom corner of the plot was flooded, with about 1/2 an inch of water on the grass path and a good inch or more between the 2 raised beds. I scooped up another bin and a half of water from there which goes a long way towards replenishing what I have used over the past couple of weeks (including about 50 litres when applying the nematodes). I didn't seem to have made a lot of difference to the water level, but no doubt it will have drained away by today.

Apart from capturing a few slugs and checking everything, it was really too wet to do anything else.

[Penellype]

Yesterday wasn't a bad day weather wise but was littered with appointments. I went down fairly early to collect the water from the overnight rain and then called back mid morning to collect the trug of horsetail and some bits of sticks that needed to go to the tip (I had to get rid of the leylandii clippings from last week's hedge cutting at home).

After lunch I managed an hour before the next appointment, during which I dug all the horsetail I could find out of the tunnel (4 pieces) and pulled some from under the hedge. There was also some couch grass that needed to come out, but the end of it is trapped under one of the water bins, which is nearly full. I hadn't the time to empty it into the water butt and dig out the grass roots - that will have to wait for another day.

The other job I wanted to get done today was sort out the melons as some of the foliage is looking rather dead. On investigation I found that the Alvaro plant, which has produced 3 ripe melons, was completely finished, with no further fruit forming and the stems dying back. I untangled it from the Magenta plant and removed it. Some of the Magenta foliage is also looking ropey, but the plant is still very much alive. This has done much better, with a total of at least 8 fruit of varying sizes, including 3 that are much bigger than anything produced by Alvaro. I noticed that one of the fruits had a small damaged area in the skin, so I cut it off and took it home along with some beans. I will probably need to harvest the remaining melons within the next week or so if the current forecast of a cold snap proves correct. The runner beans have nearly finished as well.

With rain forecast today there was no need to go back to water. I managed a quick visit first thing today and collected a bucketful or so of overnight rain and a couple of small cucumbers for lunch. It has rained solidly all morning and doesn't look like stopping any time soon.

[Penellype]

A slightly frustrating weekend as Saturday was a glorious day when I was mostly busy with other things, and Sunday deteriorated in the afternoon, when I had the most free time.

On Saturday I managed to "steal" about an hour around lunchtime and weeded the raised beds then cut down some more of the elderberry branches. There are still a few that are overhanging the plot, but they are too high up to reach. They are a nuisance at this time of year as they drop ripe fruit everywhere - my strawberry plants are covered with splodges of fruit and they end up in the water when it rains. No doubt a large number of the seeds will start growing in spring. I also trimmed back some of the leylandii that had missed last time and pulled some horsetail from under the hedge.

By the time I had cleared up the branches I'd cut down I was seriously running out of time. I harvested a couple of small cucumbers and 3 strawberries and dashed home for lunch. I didn't make it back in the afternoon, but I did get the lawns cut at home. In the evening I stopped by to water on my way back to the stables, and decided to pick all the remaining pink blueberries and take off the net while it was dry. The melons were starting to smell ripe again and I located one that was turning yellow and harvested it.

Sunday was little better. It had clearly been raining a bit over night as everything was wet, but there wasn't anything to collect in the trays. I nipped down for half an hour in the morning before going to the stables and weeded the tunnel. From the radar picture I could see a mass of rain approaching, although it faded somewhat as it reached us and wasn't as wet as it could have been, but it was enough to prevent much more gardening. I stopped off on the way home and picked a couple of small cucumbers, 2 tomatoes, some baby leaves and a decent number of peas from the poor, mildewed plants in the tunnel. The peas themselves were unaffected and tasted gorgeous.

I'd been hoping to get back in the afternoon but it was too showery and there were thunderstorms brewing to the south which looked like coming our way (they died before they reached here, luckily). I spent the time making sauce out of the ripest tomatoes, making stewed apple from some of my friend's windfalls and sowing some cauliflowers to overwinter. By evening we were clearly going to get a deluge, so watering was not required.

[Penellype]

Nothing doing on Thursday as usual. Yesterday was another gorgeous day. I went to the allotment in the morning and wandered round looking for something useful to do. There were quite a few large bunches of elderberries hanging over the compost bins, which were dropping fruit everywhere, so I cut off the ones I could reach. I trimmed back a few nettles in the hedge and harvested some baby leaves and a couple of small cucumbers. I have finally eaten or given away the huge number of big ones, but there are loads more coming along.

I spent most of the afternoon at home where there were more little jobs to do, and went back to the allotment to water and harvest some beans for tea. I decided to pull one of the Autumn King carrots to see how things were in that department, and chose one which was clearly quite large. I was expecting it to be forked (as the ones that are big on top often are), slug eaten or otherwise damaged but I was pleasantly surprised. The carrot was perfectly straight, 9 inches long and 2 inches across at the top. It weighed 10.8 oz, much bigger than the carrots I grow in my buckets at home. It is highly unlikely that all the others are the same, but I was very pleased with this one.

[Penellype]

Very little time for the allotment yesterday morning mainly due to hedge cutting, which I finally got done. I nipped down before lunch to harvest a cucumber and some baby leaves.

In the afternoon I spent a couple of hours finishing sorting out the shed end of the tunnel net. Part of it was thoroughly intertwined with tree roots and it took some time with the secateurs to free it without cutting it. Having got the net free and removed all the bits of horsetail, couch grass, bluebell bulbs etc that I could find, the next thing was to stop the grass growing back into the tunnel. this is only a problem on the eastern half of the tunnel as the part between the tunnel and shed is too shady and too often walked on to grow much grass. I had one of the long white boards left over - these were originally along the edge of the grass path between the allotments, and I removed them earlier and put proper lawn edging in their place. I used some for the raspberry bed and the remaining one was just a nice size to fit half the width of the tunnel. I dug a trench and buried it with about an inch protruding, which should stop most of the grass. I won't be able to get the mower right to the edge, but it will stop me from accidentally cutting the net. I weighed the edges of the net down with bricks.

By the time I had finished it was nearly tea time and I watered everything then harvested some beans, 3 large courgettes for the charity table, a few strawberries and a small ripe melon and went home.

The melons are being quite interesting. I have 2 varieties and have planted one of each at both the allotment and my friend's garden. In both places the Magenta have produced more and bigger melons, and in both the Alvaro are either dead or nearly dead after a couple of cold nights whereas the Magenta are still very much alive. The 2 ripe melons I have harvested at the allotment so far have both been Alvaro.

[Penellype]

Thanks for the link JJ. I'm having second thoughts about a blowaway greenhouse as it would probably blow away and/or break in the wind. The Wilko one I use for a fruit cage frame has only had insect mesh on it, suspended from hooks that come off in strong winds, and 2 of the plastic joints are broken. I dread to think what it would look like if it had been covered in plastic.

Yesterday was one of those days when inanimate objects seem to conspire to cause havoc. I'd intended to spend plenty of time at the plot, but... First the light bulb in my desk lamp went. I hadn't a suitable one so I had to go and find a replacement, which took half an hour I hadn't planned for. Then I discovered an urgent email in my spam folder that had been there a few days and needed instant attention involving my printer. The printer had decided to disconnect itself from the wifi and I spent another hour or so trying to get it connected again, eventually succeeding. By the time I'd dealt with the actual job I was trying to do it was lunchtime.

After lunch I had a straight choice between cutting the rear hedge or going to the allotment, and the allotment won. I trimmed the remaining grass edges and decided to start on the grass at the shed end of the tunnel, which is a job I have been meaning to do but not really had time. The tunnel net has been buried and grass, horsetail and tree roots have grown through it, which is great for anchoring the net, but lousy for weeding. There are also a load of bluebell bulbs there, which provide a nice, damp home for slugs in spring. I don't mind bluebells in the hedge bottom, but I don't want them near my veg. I got about a third of the way along before my back had had enough.

I watered everything and picked some beans and quite a few peas. The pods mostly seem to be surviving the mildew but the plants themselves are very badly affected now. Hopefully I will get a few more peas (there are plenty of pods) before they die completely.

The inanimate objects hadn't finished with me yet. When it was time to go to bed I picked up the tv remote to turn it off, and must have pressed something because the screen turned to snow. I had absolutely no idea what I had pressed or how to return it to Sky. It took about 20 minutes of pressing various buttons before I discovered one that produced a menu telling me I was trying to use the aerial connection (absent) rather than HDMI. Problem solved, but not what I wanted when I was ready for bed!

Now I'd better go and get on with cutting that hedge...

[Jungle Jane]

It looks like they’ve been selling them all off at wilko for £2.50 each in this link,some stores might have one left it says to phone to check,there’s another blowaway at wilko for five pounds with more shelves but out of stock,they probably won’t get any stock in till spring,wayfair have a few with some interesting sizes,but it would be good to find some on an end of season sale at a garden centre.
https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-wa...b358dd2e11c898

When I’m looking for something there’s a uk hot deals web page,you can type what you’re looking for & it shows you deals that are going on,good for finding compost too

[Penellype]

A gorgeous day yesterday. I spent a good hour in the morning finishing the edges of the grass path along the roadside hedge, attempting to straighten them, pulling some of the horsetail that was growing in amongst the grass and removing nettles, brambles and couch grass from the hedge. It is by no means perfect, but I was pleased with the result. I picked a cucumber and quite a few baby leaves for lunch.

I went back in the afternoon and did some weeding and removed some of the dying rhubarb leaves, then having had enough of bending down I thought I would dig the area where the peas had been to remove horsetail. I peeled back the weed matting expecting to find lots of horsetail shoots underneath, but there weren't any. Not one. I decided not to dig it for the sake of it, and put the weed matting back to deter the cats.

I'm undecided as to what to do with this bit of the plot. It is rather wide for a single bed, but when I grew 2 rows of peas in it this year they were a bit close together to walk between. The size of the bed was originally determined by the rhubarb, which was too big to make the path any nearer the road. As a result the bed is about 5ft wide whereas my raised beds are 3ft. I find 5ft is a bit wide to easily weed, and that is not going to get any easier the older I get!

I stood and pondered the situation for a while. There are various things that I have yet to find permanent homes for, including the minarette cherry, and the chilean guava. The cherry is next to the blueberries at the moment, but is moveable and really wants more sunshine. I may put the chilean guava where the cherry is as it is a similar sized bush to the blueberries. I could maybe have a row of minarette fruit trees along the side of the grass path, leaving a narrow bed between them and the hotbed. I could leave it as it is and have 2 narrow beds. Alternatively I could get myself a walk in blowaway greenhouse which I could use as a greenhouse over winter and in spring and then remove the cover and net it to provide bird protection for the cherry and possibly my apricot tree (currently at home), which could do with a sunnier spot and frost protection. I have something along the lines of what I was thinking of at home, about 6ft x 4ft which I use as a fruit cage, which would be ideal, so I was confident I could find one that would fit. Ideally I want something that I can move around if I want and that will fit over a raised bed (I'm thinking of protecting the tomatoes), which means it needs to be just over 2m long. I harvested a leek, some beans and a tomato for tea and went home to trawl the internet.

To my utter astonishment, 6ft x 4ft blowaway greenhouses do not seem to exist. I can have approx 5ft x 5ft (really too wide for comfort), and several sizes smaller than that. The next size up is generally a full blown 2m x 3m polytunnel, which is too big and too permanent. That's bonkers - I'm sure I've seen the walk in greenhouses like the one I have in Wilko (where I got it from) but they don't sell that sort of thing in September. I must be missing something somewhere...

[Penellype]

Do you cover your blueberries Penelype as the birds have eaten all mine!

Yes, I find the birds eat them as soon as they start to turn blue unless you net them. As you are supposed to leave them on the bush for a couple of weeks after they turn blue, no net usually means no blueberries.