Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

Tuesday
It rained hard just about all day. I walked down at lunchtime in slightly lighter rain and emptied the water into the bins as the trays were nearly full. The bottom corner of the plot was under water. I grabbed a bag of spinach for tea and retreated home as it was also becoming unpleasantly windy.

Wednesday
More water to collect in the morning and the bottom corner of the plot was still flooded, but thankfully the rain had stopped. All the dustbins were now just about full but there was a bit of space left in the blue barrel and water butt.

I spent some time weeding the tunnel and road end of the plot, which were dry enough to work in. While I was weeding the tunnel I noticed some caterpillars (large white) on the brassicas. These immediately struck me as very odd. Large whites lay eggs in clutches on one leaf, unlike small whites, which lay single eggs all over the place. Therefore if a butterfly had got in the tunnel there should be one or two infested plants with serious destruction to the leaves, and the rest should be untouched. I would expect all the caterpillars to be the same size. However there were one or two caterpillars on every single plant and they were a whole range of sizes from about 1/2 an inch long to nearly 2 inches. Even where the larger caterpillars were, the damage to the leaves was minimal and there wasn't much caterpillar poo. I picked off all I could see and continued weeding, very puzzled. After a while I came across another medium sized caterpillar crossing the path between the carrots and where the peas had been. There are no brassicas that side of the tunnel. I then noticed 2 more climbing the netting, one inside the tunnel and the other outside. The only conclusion I can come to is that the caterpillars are migrating from elsewhere and some are managing to get underneath the tunnel netting. I have never seen this before.

Apart from the weeding I emptied excess water out of the trays under the strawberries and ate a ripe strawberry, and harvested lettuce, a cucumber and a beetroot for lunch. I also decided to harvest the single cabbage that had been a spare from ones I'd grown for my friend and had been shoved in between calabrese plants. It had made a nice head but was clearly very slug damaged and I wasn't expecting it to be edible. In fact, having peeled off about half the leaves, the inside was clean and almost undamaged and it actually did me 2 meals.

Thursday
Busy as usual, but nipped down in the morning to harvest beans, a courgette, beetroot and lettuce and collect some water from Wednesday evening's showers. A little rain was forecast for later, but nothing much and I was pleased to see that the flooding in the bottom corner had nearly drained away.

So much for the forecast. It started to rain at lunchtime and got heavier and heavier until the heavens opened around 5pm. By the time I went to bed (still raining) we had had over an inch.

Friday
It rained all day. After Thursday's deluge I felt I had to go and empty the bin lids in the morning before they collapsed under the weight of water, so I chose a time when the radar didn't look too bad, and simply got wet. Unsurprisingly the bottom corner of the plot was again under water. As all the bins were full I propped the wheelbarrow up behind the shed and put away 2 of the 4 drip trays. I then grabbed some more spinach (nearly finished now) and went home to dry out.

Saturday
At last the rain had stopped. I went down first thing and crammed as much of the water from the bin lids as would fit into the bins. The water butt and blue barrel were also overflowing so I left the water from the roof in the bucket and put away the last 2 drip trays. There was still plenty of standing water on the grass and paths in the bottom corner. I waded round it to harvest lettuce and salad leaves, removed another caterpillar from one of the romanesco plants in the tunnel and decided to give it a day to dry out as I had plenty else to get on with.

[burnie]

A very busy week, I too am finding caterpillars here there and every where, but mine seem to be moths rather than whites.

[Penellype]

Where has this week gone?

Sunday
A little more time for gardening. The water level had gone down to just a few damp patches in the lowest area. I sprayed the whitefly with potato water again and removed more caterpillars from the brassicas. I then spent some time digging out couch grass and horsetail as best I could from under the roadside hedge where it was dry. Harvested spinach, beetroot and a ripe strawberry and was about to go home when I thought I would check the melons. The whole growhouse smelled of melon and I found that one of the first 2 (Alvaro) that I netted had turned yellow and was cracking slightly. It came away in my hand so I had unexpected melon for tea

Monday
Another nice day to make the most of. I repeated the couch grass and horsetail treatment along the west hedge and also dug some horsetail out of the path next to the tunnel, although I found that as soon as I got below the top couple of inches it was very wet and sloppy. I also cut down the remaining old raspberry canes, having eaten the last couple of fruit. Removed the inevitable caterpillars from the brassicas, Harvested a bag of runner beans, some spinach, a carrot and the 2nd early melon which had also gone yellow. The beans have hated the wind and a lot of the leaves have wilted and are going brown. Some of the carrots have split, presumably due to a sudden large influx of water.

Tuesday
Appointments to dodge so not a great deal of time. As it was 1st of the month I took my camera down and took photos (will post later). Removed the obligatory cabbage white caterpillars from the brassicas, plus a black and orange one which I can't identify at all:



Pulled out a few weeds and harvested lettuce and beetroot for lunch.

Wednesday
Another busy day full of appointments. I nipped down to the allotment before lunch to grab some beans, a summer leek and a carrot for tea, and found the council man cutting the roadside hedge. Strangely, having made a fuss about letting the hedge grow a couple of feet taller last year, it has now been cut down to its original height. I'm not complaining as its easier to maintain at that height, its just odd. By the time I had cleared up all the bits it was more than time to head back home.

Thursday
No time for anything except harvesting beans, courgettes, beetroot and more caterpillars (which I feed to the chickens at the stables).

Friday
Again not a great deal of time for gardening and most of what I did was at home. Just collected caterpillars and some large slugs which had emerged after Thursday's rain, and harvested beans and a carrot for tea.

Melons:



These are a few of the NINE fruit on the outdoor Emir melon!

[Penellype]

Photos:



Beans have nearly finished and are looking a bit worse for wear. Hedge before cutting!



Melons in the growhouse hard to see because of the sun.



Blueberry bushes looking happy - the pink one has some ripening fruit, the blue one is finished now.



Spinach and lettuce under the net, potatoes have fallen over after the gales. Lettuce and beetroot under the green net, melons and tomatoes behind. The photo from the other end of this part of the plot was too dark to post, having been taken straight into the sun.



Parsnips growing well, beetroot at the other end of this bed has almost all been harvested. Courgettes behind have been disappointingly slow.

[Penellype]

More photos



Raspberries are finished now. Shade is increasing at this end of the plot - this was taken late morning.




Brassicas (romanesco, calabrese, kale and broccoli) are growing well despite caterpillar invasion. Peas have finished.



Strawberries, beetroot, carrots and leeks.




Brassicas from the other end. Cucumbers have some small fruits coming along after a break, presumably caused by the weather.



Leeks are growing well. The green on the floor is moss and algae as it has been so wet.

[Penellype]

Saturday
Very little time and only managed to harvest lettuce and beans and pull off a few caterpillars.

Sunday
I was hoping for a better day, but it was showery so nothing much got done except the obligatory caterpillar hunt and harvesting 3 beetroot. A bird (not sure what variety - small, brown but not a sparrow) had got into the tunnel somehow and it took me a while to persuade it to fly out of the door.

Monday
Forecast to be a mostly dry day, it rained most of the time and I didn't make it to the allotment at all.

Tuesday
Finally some time and reasonable weather. I went down in the morning to pick lettuce, cucumber and beetroot for lunch and check for caterpillars, and saw that the potatoes were rapidly dying down and one bucket was completely brown. I decided to harvest it. The harvests at home have been disappointing this year and I was expecting about 1.5kg per bucket (Desiree). I couldn't be bothered to root in the shed for my tarpaulin so I decided to scoop the compost out with a trowel and pull out any potatoes. It was soon apparent that my estimate was way out. Every time I moved any compost it seemed I met another huge potato and I began to wonder if this would beat my best ever harvest from one bucket of 3 seed potatoes (3.8kg, also Desiree). When I got home and weighed them there were 4.1kg from this bucket:



I went back after lunch and did some weeding, but couldn't resist harvesting another bucket of potatoes. I chose the one at the sunny end of the bed as this was likely to have the biggest yield. I noticed that the bucket was slightly misshapen, so I was a little disappointed that the first few potatoes I found were rather small. I needn't have worried, the bigger ones were lurking underneath, and there were some monsters:



Yes, that is a full sized seed tray. These 2 together weighed over 1kg! The whole lot came to 6.1kg:



I picked some french beans and literally staggered home with an arm under the bag of potatoes as I was worried it would split under the weight.

[Penellype]

Oh dear, I keep meaning to update this thread and get sidetracked. Now its hard to remember what happened.

Wednesday
The grass was desperate for cutting and although it was not really dry I decided it would have to be done. I know I found some caterpillars because there have been some every day.

Thursday
Very little time so just checked for caterpillars and harvested some veg for my family - beans, lettuce, cucumbers, a large courgette and a few pink blueberries. there were 2 ripe strawberries which were a bit slug damaged but some was edible.

Friday
Didn't seem to be able to get much done apart from pottering about pulling out bits of weeds. Probably trimmed some grass edges. Harvested beans, cucumber, a carrot and another of the buckets of potatoes - 4.45kg in this one!

Saturday
Hardly any time but I did harvest lettuce and cucumbers, beetroot, beans and the last bucket of potatoes for a whopping 5.15kg. The total yield from 4 buckets of Desiree (12 seed potatoes) was an astonishing 19.8kg. All 4 of the buckets beat my previous record from 1 bucket.

Sunday
A little more time. I sprayed the brassicas with potato water and checked for caterpillars (still several a day) then did some weeding. Harvested a few beans and the first red tomato (Ferline). Noticed one of the Emir melons looked like it was starting to crack, and decided to take it home to ripen. With hindsight this was a bit early, as it is still not smelling ripe (Friday evening).

Monday
Rather a hot day but I did manage to get plenty done. Went round the hedges trimming back the nettles and brambles and a few late shoots from the hawthorn and leylandii. Pulled out all the horsetail I could reach at the same time. Trimmed more grass edges and tidied up some fallen leaves. Potted up 6 more rooted strawberry runners into another of the mushroom trays and separated the earlier plants from their parents as they had rooted well. Harvested lettuce, cucumber, beans and a courgette, plus a couple more strawberries. Watered everything as things were starting to dry out.

Tuesday
An even hotter day and after a little weeding I had had enough and retreated home. Harvested a cucumber for lunch - after a serious break these are now producing loads of small cucumbers and I am going to have a glut very shortly. Also the first of the Oh Happy Day tomatoes.

Wednesday
Cooler and cloudy. Weeded the whole of the tunnel. Only one caterpillar today (small white this time - most have been large whites). Also some very large slugs appeared and were captured for the chickens. Trimmed the grass edges between my plot and the next one, which is best done on a cloudy day as it is the sunniest bit. Harvested another cucumber, a carrot and some beans. Watered everything.

Thursday
Very little time. Again only one caterpillar - a huge large white. Harvested courgette, lettuce, cucumbers, beetroot and some pink blueberries.

Friday
No caterpillars today - the first time that there has been none since I found the first ones in the tunnel. Went round the hedges digging out couch grass and pulling a few bits of horsetail that were emerging. Harvested cucumber and 2 ripe tomatoes. Came back after lunch and watered everything thoroughly as it is drying out again in the wind. I'd brought with me 2 empty 5 litre bottles which I filled from the water butt and made sure that I used water from there to water the plants (rather than from the bins) so that there is space for water when it starts raining. Did some more weeding and harvested a large carrot that was split but still edible and a few beans.

[Penellype]

Very busy week, more of which later.

Saturday
Apart from harvesting some lettuce and a couple of cucumbers and checking for caterpillars nothing got done.

Sunday
A very disappointing dull and drizzly morning (forecast to be fine) although it did brighten up in the afternoon. Sprayed the brassicas with potato water again - this seems to need doing about weekly and there are noticeable patches that are whitefly free, with other patches on the same leaf that I have obviously missed with the spray and are covered with whitefly. I will persist with this as I think it does help.
Tried to make the most of the warm and dry afternoon weeding, pulling horsetail out of the raised beds and trimming some of the grass edges. Watered just about everything as the ground was beginning to dry out and I have plenty of water.

Monday
A warm and sunny day, which I was determined to make the most of, although it started badly as I had to phone the garage about a problem with my car. I also had a Skype meeting for work and software to test, none of which is compatible with gardening!

I escaped to the allotment in the afternoon and cut the grass, which was becoming desperate. I also trimmed most of the remaining edges, pulling out weeds and horsetail as I went round. Checked in the tunnel for caterpillars - none, although I had found 3 large whites on the honesty in the nearby hedge!

Harvested some lettuce, a cucumber, a carrot and 4 ripe strawberries from the tunnel.

Tuesday
Very little time for gardening as I was visiting my family, which was a shame as it was the last dry day. Checked for caterpillars again and harvested lettuce, cucumbers, beans, courgettes and a couple of tomatoes that were starting to turn red.

Wednesday
It rained all day. I didn't even visit the allotment to collect the water as all the bins were full and the water butts could fend for themselves,

Thursday - Saturday
I spent Wednesday moving furniture around as I had men coming on Thursday and Friday to replace my ancient central heating system. I've been agonizing over this for ages as the boiler was 11 years old (the radiators probably nearer 40) and I didn't want to be forced into replacing it with another gas boiler if it broke down during the winter. I'm trying to rely less and less on fossil fuels and I've spent a fair amount of the last couple of years trying to find an alternative method of heating the water in a house with no sensible position for a heat pump and nowhere to put a tank. I do have solar panels and a storage battery so electric seemed an obvious choice, but everyone I asked told me to avoid electric combi boilers like the plague. Eventually I came across a solution made by Sunamp which uses the same technology as those hand warmers that you squeeze to induce a heat-releasing phase change. As the heat is stored chemically, once it is charged up it loses very little of the power over time, so there is much less wasted heat compared with a water tank. I found a local installer in July and arranged a survey for the next day, but this week was the first time they could come and install it all. I've been very concerned about the prospects of another lockdown preventing them from coming, so I am very relieved that it is now done. However, because the radiators are smaller than the old ones I have needed to paint over where the old brackets were, and because they needed access to every radiator, all the pipework, the boiler, under the stairs and under some floors, the house is still in a complete mess with boxes of stuff everywhere. It is going to take me some time to sort it all out. The Sunamp only arrived yesterday so I haven't had time to assess it properly yet, but it charged up last night and the water certainly comes out hot.

[Penellype]

Apologies for the lack of posts - as well as all the clearing up after having my heating replaced, I've had people round to remove the gas meter and to change the fuse on the house from 60A to 80A to cope with the new setup. Things have also taken off at work with the result that I have hardly been able to leave the house!

Rather than go through day by day (I can't remember in detail anyway) a general summary is that on the days that I have been able to go down there I have checked for caterpillars on the brassicas, but found no more (although I did find an interesting black and orange one on the strawberries), pulled out any weeds I had time to grab hold of, and harvested some cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, pak choi, carrots, leeks and the odd strawberry.

On Thursday morning I went down to grab some veg and take the photos for 1st of the month. I'd not been down since first thing on Wednesday as it had rained all day. Now I'm not the most observant of people, and my brain was preoccupied with work, but there was something I really should have noticed straight away. The clue is in the first photo I took:



I went round taking further photos, noticing several small tree branches near the west hedge. It had been a bit windy, but not that bad. It was not until I found quite a big piece of hawthorn that had clearly been cut on top of the compost bin lid that I actually realized that the huge trees in the west hedge had been cut down to about 8ft:



How I managed to walk round the plot about 3 times without noticing that I have no idea!

I have very mixed feelings about this (the hedge belongs to the house next door and they can of course do what they like to it). On the one hand it makes it much easier for me to cut, it won't drop elderberries all over the plot and there will be more evening sunshine. On the other hand it was a fantastic place for birds and wildlife and an effective windbreak, and its a shame to see it go. Anyway, there is nothing that can be done about it now.

I hadn't time to clear up on Thursday morning, but I did nip down on Friday briefly to tidy up somewhat. Saturday was wet, Sunday was busy, Monday was havoc at work and yesterday morning the man came to change the fuse. I nipped down briefly afterwards and did about 1/2 and hour's weeding, then dashed back home and got swallowed up by work for the rest of the day.

I will post the remaining photos later, when I have more time.

[Penellype]

Photos from 1st October (taken early morning so some photos have problems with low sun)



Rhubarb is dying down fast now. The melons are looking a bit worse for wear but the fruit is not ripe yet. Lettuces under the green net are starting to bolt.



The tomato plants are being weighed down by the weight of fruit.



Salads under the white net are being harvested - the Pak choi is starting to bolt having been shredded by slugs. All the potato buckets are now harvested. The runner beans near the bus have all been picked but there are new shoots with flower buds. Whether they will come to anything is highly debatable but I'm leaving them there for now.



Parsnips and the odd beetroot left under the big white net. The courgettes behind are still producing the odd fruit and the nasturtiums have a new lease of life.



A better view of some of the (literally) heavy crop of tomatoes. These are Oh Happy Day, but the Ferline are very similar.

[Penellype]

In the tunnel:



Romanesco, calabrese and PSB on the right. The plant nearest the door (1 leaf visible) is supposed to be romanesco but is doing a great impression of a cabbage at the moment! Cucumbers in the middle are still producing fruit but it is getting smaller.



Strawberres, beetroot, carrots and leeks. Some of the carrots are very big, but some are splitting.



Brassicas and cucumbers from the other end - the ragged leaved plant is Red Russian kale, but it has been attacked by leaf miner unfortunately.




Some of the leeks (Oarsman) are getting really quite big. The Northern Lights nearer the camera were sown a bit later and are smaller.



The area near the hedge with the telltale bits of branches. There are still a few pink blueberries on the bush - when these are eaten I will take the net off.

[Penellype]

Not a lot has got done since my last post, mainly because of the weather.

Wednesday was a nice day and I spent about an hour down at the plot mostly tidying up. There were several branches that had been cut and were stuck in the hedge, which were now wilting and showing me which they were. I pulled down as many as I could and shredded the softer parts for the compost bin, adding the rest to the pile of sticks in the corner. I was going to cut the grass, but it was far to wet to even consider doing so after a very heavy dew. Harvested a cucumber and a ripe strawberry.

Very little time as usual on a Thursday. Late on Wednesday afternoon I discovered that the balconi tomato plant at home had blight. By the time i had dealt with that and picked most of the Sungold and Ferline at home it was getting dark so I hadn't had time to go to the allotment. It absolutely poured with rain all night and when I went down in the morning about 1/3 of the plot was under water - I have not seen it so bad since the massive deluge the first year I was there when 3/4 inch of rain fell in about 15 minutes. I checked over the tomatoes and picked everything that was starting to turn red, but there wasn't much sign of blight, just a few patches on the leaves that may or may not be blight. The varieties (Ferline and Oh Happy Day) are supposed to be blight resistant anyway. I harvested a couple of courgettes and some beetroot and that was all I had time for.

By Friday most of the water had soaked in, although the usual paths in the bottom corner were still submerged. I had a better look at the tomatoes and cut off anything that looked dodgy, but decided to leave them mostly where they were for now. Did some weeding and clearing up around the drier parts of the plot and harvested cucumber and carrots.

Saturday was busy as usual and rather wet, so all I had time for was harvesting lettuce and cucumber.

Sunday was rather better weather wise. When I checked the melons there was a distinct melon smell in the growhouse and the Alvaro plant was looking pretty much dead. I decided to remove it and harvest the 3 melons (2 large and one about tennis ball size) - the biggest one was the one that was smelling ripe. The Magenta had much more greenery and its 3 fruit were note smelling so I left it where it was. Emir will probably be the next one to go. I also picked and ate a strawberry and 3 pink blueberries and brought home more tomatoes and a carrot. One of the calabrese plants is finally showing signs of developing a head, about 2 months later than expected. Having got half a growhouse that was now empty, I decided to sow some winter lettuce and spinach, so I nipped back down after lunch with the seeds. Whether they will produce anything edible when sown so late I have no idea, but I have the seeds, some of which were getting old anyway, so I may as well try.

Monday was a write-off. I was expecting a dry morning and a showery afternoon, but it rained pretty much all day and I didn't get down to the plot at all.

Yesterday was little better. The forecasts do not handle showers well, and we seemed to be in a constant stream of them off the north sea. It was also rather cold. I nipped down to the plot in what appeared to be a drier patch before lunch, but by the time I had picked 2 small cucumbers, a few tomatoes, a carrot and a leek it was raining and I got thoroughly wet. I decided that it was best to concentrate on things at home, where I can nip indoors if it starts to rain, as I want to get the tomato plants out asap and they all need chopping for the hotbin so it takes a while.

[Penellype]

Wednesday
Again not a great deal of time. I noticed that the melon in the hotbed (Emir) had pretty much died down completely, so I harvested the melons and brought them home to ripen. There were 8 of them:



I find it astonishing that one plant grown outside in Yorkshire can produce 10 reasonably sized melons (I had already harvested 2 from this plant). I will definitely be growing Emir again.

No gardening time on Thursday.

Friday
Rather a cool and showery day so most of my gardening was done at home. I did nip down to the plot to harvest a carrot and a leek and some tomatoes that were hinting that they might be turning red.

No gardening time on Saturday.

Sunday
A little more time and I went round the raised beds pulling out any weeds I could find and picking up fallen leaves. I was hoping to be able to cut the grass, but it was far too wet, having rained a bit over night. Harvested a lettuce and 3 very small cucumbers and found 4 strawberries that were partially ripe so I decided to bring them home to see if they would ripen any more in the house.

Monday
Finally a bit more time. I went down in the morning and weeded the tunnel and removed some dead leaves from the brassicas. The later sown calabrese are finally starting to form flower heads, as are the romanesco. I ate a few ripe pink blueberries and removed the net over the bushes. Went back after lunch and harvested the remainder of the summer leeks and put away the net and frame that was covering them.. The grass was finally dry enough to cut and I spent about an hour cutting it and trimming the longer edges. Harvested a carrot and some more green tomatoes.

Tuesday
A really quite pleasant day, quite warm and much sunnier than expected. I trimmed back the nettles in the hedge then spent some time removing the 2 Ferline tomato plants, which almost certainly had blight. I'd harvested most of the fruit over the weekend from these. I picked as much of the fruit as I could carry from Oh Happy Day - these plants are looking less blighty, but I think I will need to remove these soon too. Also harvested a courgette, possibly the last one, although there are a couple of very small fruit which may or may not grow.

[Ms-T]

Really enjoy reading this thread and the photos....Thanks pen.

[Penellype]

Really enjoy reading this thread and the photos....Thanks pen.

Thanks Ms-T. Sometimes I think it gets a bit repetitive, so glad to hear it is interesting