Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

In the tunnel:



The kale has been netted as the pigeons were eating it. The romanesco plant beyond produces some edible shoots and has been left to see if there are any more, but it looks unlikely. The 3 PSB plants are struggling badly. Meteor peas have been planted down the middle of the tunnel - these have been mulched with compost from the old hotbed.



Plenty of new growth on the strawberries. The bigger leeks (Oarsman) at the far end are just starting to bolt. The Northern Lights beyond them are growing better now.



Finally some signs of flower shoots on the PSB at the end of the tunnel.



Leeks and strawberries from the other end.



This view shows just how poor some of the PSB plants are. There is a pile of compost beyond them which has come from the old potato buckets - this will be spread when the brassicas come out.

[Penellype]

Early with the photos this morning:



Rhubarb is growing well and the blackthorn is flowering, but no sign yet of buds on the apple and pear trees opening. The net is still off the top of the tunnel as I am not yet convinced that the threat of snow is over.




The old hotbed is now half empty, the compost having been used for buckets of potatoes. Strawberries in the growhouse are growing well.



The hotbed cover has been opened for the day. There are 8 cauliflower plants in the bed behind.



The overwintered spinach is producing plenty of new growth. 8 buckets of potatoes (4 Lady C and 4 Desiree) under the cover. I have mulched the buckets with Strulch to keep moisture in and prevent weeds.



The nearest bed is ready for parsnips and cauliflowers. The parsnips in the bed behind are about to bolt - these are very mixed this year, probably due to lack of water in the hot weather. I have calabrese, kohlrabi and turnips in the greenhouse ready to make use of this bed.

[Penellype]

More photos



Spinach and lettuce in the hotbed. I am just about managing to keep on top of the grass. The gap in the row of spinach was probably due to a slug which I removed from that area a couple of weeks ago.



Onions in the hotbed are growing well.



A better view of the Oarsman leeks.

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Last year's forced rhubarb is re-growing despite being ignored during the summer drought.



More rhubarb in the shady corner near the woodshed.

[Penellype]

In the tunnel



Brassicas are still not looking at all happy, although I have managed to harvest a few small romanesco florets from the greenest plant.



Strawberries are beginning to produce a little new growth. The Oarsman leeks have been excellent, but there are not many left.



The PSB plants have been netted to protect them from pigeons. They are starting to look a little happier and might manage to produce a few shoots if I am lucky.



The kale is growing slowly.



The Northern Lights leeks do not look at all happy.

[Penellype]

Photos taken on 1st March



The bluebells in the hedge will be flowering soon.



2 trays of strawberries have been moved into the growhouse.



Spring bulbs starting to flower and the buds on the blueberry bushes are breaking.



The spinach under the net is growing very very slowly.



The last of the calabrese died and has been removed. The parsnips in the bed behind are beginning to grow again.

[Penellype]

More photos



The brassicas in the tunnel are looking very sorry for themselves, although some are doing better than others. The cover has been removed from the romanesco for the moment as it was being shredded by the wind. The nearest plant had its bud eaten by slugs last summer but has produced 2 heads and a further shoot. I don't know how much bigger these will get. The kale in the middle was put in to fill a vacant place left by a cauliflower. The next plant is the same variety of romanesco as the nearest one, but looks very unhappy indeed, whereas the one next to it looks ok.



Not a lot happening with the strawberries. The leeks are slowly being harvested.



The broccoli at the end of the tunnel doesn't look too bad compared to the rest.



A better view of the leeks, which have since perked up a bit after milder weather.



Several of the calabrese plants have died and been removed, but this one is producing sideshoots which might be edible. The staple next to it was one of several ripped out of the weed matting by the wind.

[Penellype]

February photos (taken 1st Feb)



Not a lot has changed here.



The hotbed has been filled, covered and sown with spinach and lettuce. Normally I sow beetroot as well, but this year I an experimenting with planting onions in half of it in an attempt to avoid white rot. The onions have also been planted. The cover is open as the weather was warm.



The spinach sown last year is still alive but hasn't grown much over winter, if at all.



The romanesco plant and 2 of the calabrese were completely dead and have been removed. The remaining calabrese have small green shoots but whether they will produce anything edible remains to be seen. The plastic bags on the bed behind are covering where the beetroot was, to stop the cats using the bed as a litter tray.



The hotbed is growing a good crop of grass from hay seeds mixed in with the horse muck. Weeding this takes ages and it grows back as fast as I can pull it out. The lettuce in the 2nd row from the left have just started to germinate. A couple of the onions have started to sprout too.

[Penellype]

More photos



The parsnips didn't mind the frost, but I don't hold out much hope for the remaining beetroot. As usual after rain, the paths next to this bed are flooded.




The Oarsman leeks (left) are faring much better than the Northern Lights.



The Florence fennel still has green shoots but the stems appear to have rotted.



Under its plastic cover the romanesco looks reasonably happy. Small flower heads are starting to form.



The calabrese looks very sad indeed and a couple of the plants look completely dead.

[Penellype]

In the tunnel




The plastic cover seems to have protected the romanesco from the worst of the weather.



The strawberries look a bit brown but should recover.



Most of the leaves on the PSB look dead but the tops are still green.



The Oarsman leeks went floppy in the frost but seem to have recovered.



The kale continues to grow slowly but I haven't harvested any yet.

[Penellype]

January photos (taken 1st Jan)




The runner beans have been cut down - I was hoping to overwinter the roots, which are still there, in the hope that they might regrow, but I rather doubt it after the very cold weather. The 2 trees in the buckets are the minarette apple and pear that I have had at home under the arch for 3 years. They were desperate for repotting and were not producing any fruit so I have brought them down to the allotment where they will get more sun and potted them up. If they produce fruit I will plant them, although I am not yet sure where, if they continue to sulk I will probably get rid of them.



The nearest bed now contains the contents of both hotbeds, ready to be used for buckets of potatoes. The nasturtiums have been removed from the growhouse bed.



All looking very empty here - the hotbed will be filled in mid January, weather permitting.



The spinach appears to have survived the frost.



The calabrese is looking very sad but there are a couple of greener shoots near the bottoms of the plants which might possibly grow.

[Penellype]

More photos



Everything looking very wintery now at the bottom of the plot, but the ground has soaked up all that rain really well. When the old raspberries come out, probably after next summer's crop (if any), I may put 2 more raised beds here - if I can find some that don't cost an arm and a leg. The raspberries have taught me that growing at ground level here is probably not going to work. The alternative would be to use this area for buckets of potatoes. I have plenty of time to think about it.



The rhubarb that I dug up and chucked in a bucket behind the shed thinks it is spring.



The compost area and blueberry bushes have more light now that the hedge has been cut down.



Romanesco plants look reasonably happy under their cover.



Proof that there is something vaguely edible in amongst all those tattered and yellowing calabrese leaves.

[Penellype]

More photos



The romanesco is starting to develop heads so I have covered it with plastic sheeting to keep the rain off as last year bits that got cold and wet turned brown. Now I just have to hope that it isn't full of aphids. The whitefly on the brassicas seems to be disappearing, probably more due to the time of year than my spraying with SMC oil. The aphids are fewer too, but there are still enough around to be a real pain.



Florence fennel down the centre of the tunnel is growing slowly and a couple are nearly ready to eat as baby fennel.



The leeks are doing well - there are 2 varieties here: Oarsman on the left and Northern Lights on the right. The Oarsman have grown into some of the biggest leeks I have ever grown, but I haven't a clue whether this was due to the weather or the fact that I mulched the bed with old hotbed contents before planting.



The strawberries are gradually taking over more and more of this bed. I can't bear to dig them out, but I am going to have to curtail them somehow if I want to grow anything else!



The kale is slowly recovering from the initial slug attack and hopefully there will be enough to eat some soon.

[Penellype]

December photos



A couple of significant changes here. The new raspberry plants have arrived and have been planted alongside the grass path. I hope I have left enough room for them - the distance between the path and the plants is the same as for the old plants, so hopefully they will be ok. The intention is to leave the bean tripods where they are for next year as the raspberries won't be in full flow. I want to try overwintering the bean plants, as I have heard this can be done and these are Stardust, which does not appear to be available any more. The plants still look green enough and have small beans on, but I doubt these will grow big enough to be edible now that it is getting colder. The 2nd tripod had a different variety of runner bean (Firestorm), which died back faster, and some climbing french beans which died a while ago - these have both been cut down, although a little greenery and a few tiny beans remain on the Firestorm.

The other very noticeable difference is the hedge beyond the tunnel, which has been cut down to match the height of the roadside hedge. This has included cutting down several trees, which is sad. I had been warned of this back in the summer - the people in the house next to the allotment wanted the trees removed because they were shading their solar panels. I have always said I am the most unobservant person on the planet and I got proof of this when I went down to the allotment the morning after the hedge was cut. I walked straight down that grass path and past the compost bins, and only noticed something had happened when went to open the compost bin and saw it was covered in bits of hedge clippings! I then looked up and saw that the top 20ft or so of the hedge had disappeared. Not really something you could fail to notice when walking straight towards it, unless you are me.



The courgettes have died and been removed and the bed covered in plastic to keep the cats off. The compost from this bed will be used to top up the other beds or mulch the tunnel as crops are cleared, making room for a new hotbed. The nasturtiums behind are mostly surviving the cold so far, although some leaves now have wilty bits on them and I suspect I will be taking them out soon. The net has been taken off the bed behind to make harvesting parsnips and beetroot easier. The parsnip I have pulled so far to try (new variety) was disappointingly woody. Hopefully I just got a bad one, but it is possible that with little or no water all summer they are all like that. My horse likes parsnips, so he can have them if they aren't nice.



Rather an empty scene this side, the french beans having been removed from the bucket, the melon has gone from the hotbed and the potato buckets are all empty. Some of the hotbed compost has been used to mulch the raspberries. There is one rogue lettuce growing in the hotbed, but it is being shredded by slugs and I doubt it will be edible. The tiny beans on the runners are too small to see even this close up.



The spinach is still producing a decent crop of leaves. The parsnip foliage is visible behind.



The calabrese is looking distinctly ragged, but is producing some shoots, which I am eating when I can be bothered to pick out all the grey aphids and slugs. This has not been a success this year, which is a shame as it is the last of the Sakura, another variety that I really like that has disappeared from the seed catalogues along with runner bean Stardust, cucumber Cucino and carrot nantes frubund. Some of the remains of the beetroot crop are visible behind - this has done ok this year although a few plants did bolt in the heat.

[Penellype]

More photos



The raspberries are looking a lot better than I expected although they are not very tall. They must have heard me say I was going to remove them! I will probably keep them 1 more year as the new ones almost certainly won't fruit next year.



Water! Its a very long time indeed since there was any standing water at the allotment.




Courgette Defender is still trying to pretend it is summer.



As is runner bean Stardust.



The growhouse is empty except for self seeded nasturtiums.

[Penellype]

More photos - inside the tunnel



I have finally managed to get the weed matting down along the east side of the tunnel. Romanesco, calabrese and PSB on the left, Florence fennel growing slowly on the right.



Strawberries have been removed from the path. Summer leeks have nearly all been harvested. The trays at the far end are to catch water, and won't be needed for much longer as all the bins except the 2 in the tunnel are now full.



Kohl rabi and PSB at the shed end of the tunnel.



The PSB on the west side in particular is looking very sick indeed after aphid attack.



The leeks on the other hand look very happy, although many of the summer ones at least had leek moth damage.