Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

Yesterday morning I collected up the water from a couple of mm of overnight rain. Doing this reminded me that every time I try to get behind the compost bins I have to duck to avoid being hit in the face by elderberry branches - this is particularly bad when they are wet and heavier. I decided to trim them back a bit. There is only so much of this sort of thing my arms can cope with, so I'm going to have to do it in several sessions as there are at least 2 big elderberry trees in the hedge, but I made a start. Like the ash I cut back yesterday, elderberry wood is fortunately very soft, at least when young.

Having done as much of that as I could cope with, I collected a cucumber and some lettuce for lunch and went home.

I went back after lunch to give the onion and pea beds another dig over to remove more horsetail roots. It always surprises me that I can dig over an area 3 or 4 times and still find pieces of root that are over a foot long. There weren't that many, so hopefully I am making some impression on the wretched stuff. By the time I'd dug the area (about 2m square) I was tired, so that was it for the day.

[Penellype]

More rain over night, which meant everything was wet in the morning. I decided to harvest the potatoes at home while things dried out, so I didn't go to the allotment until after lunch.

I collected up the rain water then tidied up the bottom of the roadside hedge, removing any newly sprouted horsetail and cutting down the long bits of grass and some nettles. I'd intended to do all of the hedges, but I'd had enough of working on the floor by the time I'd done most of the roadside.

Instead I cut down a few more elderberry branches and chopped them for the compost bin. Then I picked some calabrese and beans for tea and 80 Red Alert tomatoes and went home to freeze some of them.

[Penellype]

No gardening time yesterday, although I did pick a cucumber and a head of calabrese.

Today seemed an ideal day to treat the allotment with slug nematodes, which arrived yesterday. It was cloudy and when I looked at the radar there was a large mass of rain bearing down on York. I reckoned I had about an hour or so and then the rain would water the nematodes in for me.

The first few times I used nematodes they dissolved nicely in water and were easy to water on with a coarse watering can rose. Then they changed something and changed the instructions, and I now find it impossible to use a rose on the can - it gets blocked and falls off. I find it really difficult to distribute the nematodes evenly as a result, but I did my best. I used up over a dustbin full of water in the process, but was confident that some of it would be replaced fairly quickly. I went home thinking I just about had time to load up the car for a trip to the tip before the rain arrived.

When I got home I looked at the radar picture and found that the rain had carefully avoided York and was trundling south. The sun came out briefly as if to taunt me. There must be something about the geography around York that causes rain from a particular direction (roughly north west) to avoid Haxby, as this has happened before. At least I managed my trip to the tip without getting wet, and it did rain a little during the afternoon.

[Penellype]

Quite busy with other stuff today so just one visit to the allotment.

One of the things I had been meaning to do for a while was fill in alongside the white boards that I buried between the raspberries and the grass a while ago. I had quite a lot of soil left over and I knew it would settle quite a bit, which it did, mainly when it got flooded. I put some of the soil back, trimming the edges of the grass and pulling out a few weeds as I went. It used about 1/3 of the leftover soil so I may need to do this again later.

After that I pulled out a few weeds in the tunnel and removed some old leaves from the broccoli. There is still no sign of flower heads forming on the romanesco, which continues to produce large numbers of new leaves. I've not grown this before but the packet says harvest September to October.

The next job was to dig over the onion and pea bed area again. This time very little horsetail root came up particularly from the onion bed part, so I decided to put the raised bed edge back in position, but I left the weed matting for the path rolled back for now.

Finally I harvested a beetroot and a couple of large tomatoes and went home.

[Penellype]

Yesterday was always going to be busy so again I had just one session at the plot. I decided to dig the old strawberry bed over again as there were quite a few weed seedlings and some bits of horsetail poking through. Before I started digging I removed all the dead rhubarb leaves, which exposed a bit more soil to add to the area I was digging, although I couldn't get too close to the rhubarb because of its roots.

I got about half of the strawberry bed dug and a reasonable amount of horsetail root out before I ran out of time. I took some lettuce leaves and 5 large tomatoes home with me. The lettuce (salad bowl), which was from the plants in the balconniere trough in the tunnel, was very disappointing. As I have been doing before, I'd harvested some of the outer leaves, which still looked very fresh and green, and the plants show no sign of bolting, but the leaves were so tough that I didn't want to eat them. I will try some leaves from the middle of one of the plants today, and if they are also tough and leathery I'll ditch the plants. Its all an experiment at the moment and I have plenty more lettuce.

[Penellype]

Main job today was to finish digging what was the strawberry bed. Frustratingly it was foggy/drizzling first thing (the sort of drizzle that gets you very wet), but I went down as soon as it stopped because I knew it was going to get warmer and more humid as the day went on. I took with me some fennel and spinach seedlings to go on the shelf in the tunnel.

I made good progress with the digging and decided to continue down the side of the tunnel when I had finished the strawberry bed. I did half of the path down the side of the tunnel before I got too tired and hot to do any more. There were pleasingly few bits of horsetail root, but enough for me not to think I was wasting my time. I harvested a cucumber (and removed a huge one that I had missed) and one of the lettuces to see how much of it was edible (the middle few leaves were, the rest was not to my liking) and went home.

Having done some less tiring jobs at home I went back in the afternoon and pulled out all the horsetail I could find round the edges of the plot and in the grass. Surprisingly the grass was reasonably dry as it was warm and breezy, so I decided to mow it. I also went round and trimmed off the long bits.

The broccoli in the tunnel were starting to lean a bit, so with gales forecast, I banged in a couple of stakes and tied them up. Then I removed some dead leaves from the bottom of the romanesco, pulled out a few weeds and harvested another 50 Red Alert tomatoes and 7 huge Crimson Crush. The Red Alert are nearly done now, but there are still loads of large fruit on the Crimson Crush and Oh Happy Day. I'm considering getting another small freezer to store them all in, and next year I will have to be MUCH more selective about how many plants I grow, as I will probably have 2-3 years supply of frozen tomatoes from this year's crop despite giving loads away!

These are just the large tomatoes - left to right Ferline (4 plants, grown at home), Crimson Crush (4 plants, 2 at home and 2 at the plot) and Oh Happy Day (2 plants):



There are 60 altogether - I've already eaten or frozen quite a lot and there are loads still on the plants.

[Penellype]

My plans for yesterday morning were scuppered by intermittent drizzle, so I spent the time deciding on and ordering a freezer and sorting out the garage so that there will be room for it (more to do). I was pleased that I had cut the grass yesterday instead of leaving it for today as planned, as it would probably have been too wet.

The weather cleared after lunch and I went down and finished digging the path next to the tunnel. I trampled it all down after digging as we are due very heavy rain both tomorrow and Sunday and I didn't want it turning into a quagmire again. Sunday is scaring the pants off me at the moment - as well as the rain many of the weather models (but not the Met Office) are seeing a very strong storm, probably the remains of hurricane Florence. Today's GFS run has base wind speeds of 44mph (about the same as the peak gusts here yesterday) and gusts of 74mph. I'm hoping it is over-doing things as that sounds horrific with trees in full leaf. I also don't know how the tunnel will cope with those conditions.

Anyway, after I had finished digging I harvested 10 large tomatoes (and counted those remaining on the plants - there were about 100), a few beans, some calabrese and a cucumber. I also found 2 more huge cucumbers that I had missed so I took those off.

I was wondering where I was going to put all the tomatoes when I met a neighbour on the way home, who relieved me of some of them

[Penellype]

With gales forecast for around the middle of the day, I went to the plot as early as I could. I made sure everything was secured, mostly with bricks, then cut off some more of the low elderberry branches and chopped them for the compost bin.

That done, I went round the whole plot checking for horsetail and removing any I could find. I checked the raised beds, paths, hedges, grass, compost area, rhubarb, tomato bed and tunnel. It took me about an hour and as far as I could tell there was no visible horsetail left. This is the first time I've been able to do all of it including the tunnel in the same session. No doubt it is because the stuff is slowing down for winter. I need to go round again removing all the annual weeds, but that will take rather longer!

By the time I'd finished it was getting quite windy, although the plot itself is nicely sheltered by the hedges. I suspect when the leylandii hedge is gone it will be rather more exposed to the sort of gale we had today, which was mostly from the south or south west. I have mixed feelings about the leylandii being cut down, but as it is going to happen I will just have to go with the flow.

I used the windy part of the day to get jobs done at home, including freezing more tomatoes. When it started to ease at around 5pm I went back to check everything was ok, which it was. I watered the seedlings on the shelf and the fruit bushes which are in pots, as well as the beans which always need plenty of water. Everything else should be fine as we are due quite a bit of rain tomorrow. I harvested a huge marrow from the hotbed for my brother, who has a fairly large family who might eat it. He can have some tomatoes too.

[Penellype]

Things are not going to plan today.

I was expecting the plot to be very wet after over an inch of rain yesterday and last night. I went down early to collect up the water because I could see that showers were already gathering on the radar.

The big water butts were about full, but I had an empty dustbin from when I did the nematodes, so I started tipping the water from the dustbin lids (full) into this. That was fine for the lids to the east of the shed, and everything in the tunnel, but the 3 lids along the compost area were full of leaves and elderberries, as was the wheelbarrow, which was more than half full of water. I didn't really want a load of decaying leaves and stuff in the bins over winter, so I tried to fish them out. I didn't sleep well last night due to the gales, and I certainly wasn't thinking straight when I put my weight on the wheelbarrow handles to lean over and get the leaves. The barrow tipped up and the water came out, all over my feet and into my boots.

After this piece of sheer genius, and with very wet feet, I decided that I would not bother trying to clean up the water in the bin lids. I threw it away and turned the lids the right way up so they don't get full of bits again. I don't need that much more water now anyway, and it is due to rain heavily again on Sunday.

I thought I had better pick what I needed before I left in case the weather was unhelpful this afternoon. I picked a cucumber and some lettuce for lunch, 5 large tomatoes and a courgette and squelched my way home. I was right about the weather - it has been very showery and with gusty winds all day.

Something I could do was order some cauliflower plants for the spring. Last year I bought 6 Maybach from Marshalls, and they were very good. However this year they seem to only sell packs of 16. Who on earth has room for 16 large cauliflower plants? Even if I had room for them, there is no way I could eat them all in the short time that they are ready for harvesting. I decided to phone and see if they did any smaller packs. They don't, so I asked them to send feedback to whoever makes these decisions to say that packs of 6 are much better.

I can't find the plants available anywhere else, so no cauliflowers next year . This won't do, so I dug out an old packet of Snowball, which says it can be sown in September or October to overwinter in a cold frame. If I can get the damn things to grow in the first place (doubtful), I can put them under the plastic tunnel over winter along with the winter lettuces. I sowed plenty so that I can pick the best plants, and also sowed some Rouge d'Hiver lettuce.

[Penellype]

I did get back to the allotment yesterday evening, after I found a dry pair of boots. I wanted to harvest the rest of the Red Alert tomatoes as they were looking very sorry for themselves and the fruit was being eaten by slugs. I picked a bag of fruit in various stages of ripeness and cut the plants down before I ran out of time.

This morning I went down before going to the stables, as I suspected there would be quite a few slugs and snails about with it being so damp. I collected up what I could find and did a bit of weeding, then brought home some of the Crimson Crush tomatoes and some lettuce for lunch.

This afternoon I went back and cleared up the tomato bed. I'd brought with me the net from the old fruit cage (which was a bit smaller than the one I have now), as I thought it might do for the parsnips, which were bursting out of their net. I used the stakes that had been supporting the net over the tomatoes and hammered them in so that the fruit cage net fitted nicely, giving the parsnip leaves a bit more height. A couple of bits of the seams I'd sewn with string had come apart so I used some of the fishing line I'd bought earlier for the tunnel to "sew" them back together. The door flap wasn't needed for this and was a piece 1m by 2m, so I laid it on top of the tomato bed (having pulled out a few stray bits of horsetail) to stop the birds from pulling the compost about.

[Penellype]

Yesterday felt incredibly cold and even at lunchtime I was not too hot in a padded jacket. Inevitably this is something we are going to have to get used to for winter, but it always feels worse when the weather gets suddenly colder at this time of year. I gave the early morning session at the plot a miss, and got on with things at home where I could keep nipping inside to warm up.

After lunch I got on with it and did some more weeding along the roadside hedge, including removing bits of horsetail that had sprouted since Wednesday. I then trimmed some of the top of the hedge in the wildlife corner including removing a few more elderberry branches. There is just a bit more to do from the road side of the hedge, mainly leylandii.

Having done that I removed the old lettuces from the balconniere trough in the tunnel ready for the next lot. The seedlings needed draining and the balconniere compost was very wet so I decided to let things dry out before transplanting them. I also had some turnips to plant out and as these were in loo roll innards they were a bit less soggy. There were 8 of these, which I planted in the tunnel. As an experiment (and because I was short of copper rings) I planted 5 with a copper ring round and 3 without, then sprinkled slug gone round all of them. It will be interesting to see if the combination of copper and slug gone (which has worked nicely with turnips so far) is better than slug gone on its own. If the 3 plants without copper disappear it is not a disaster.

Finally I harvested 6 large tomatoes and a handful of runner beans and went home to freeze yet more tomatoes. I already have more tomatoes in the freezer from this year (48 portions) than I froze in the whole of last year (37), and I feel like I have hardly made any impact at all!

[Snadger]

I've said it before and I will say it again " You are an inspiration Pen"

If there was a Member of the Year as well as a MOM you would be my prime candidate.

[Penellype]

I've said it before and I will say it again " You are an inspiration Pen"

If there was a Member of the Year as well as a MOM you would be my prime candidate.

Thanks for the kind words Snadger

I don't feel much like an inspiration - especially not this morning when I tripped over the hoover and fell flat on my face! I probably don't do a great deal more than most people who have an allotment - you have more than 1 and I couldn't cope with that. I find writing up what I do on here helps to keep me motivated and straighten out ideas in my head. Its also useful to look back and see how things are changing, because when I see it every day I tend not to notice differences.

[Penellype]

Another cold start yesterday with a minimum around 5, not quite cold enough for ground frost. Again I stayed at home most of the morning, finishing clearing the space in the garage for the new freezer. While I was doing this, and trying to find a home for a box of nets, I nudged the power connection to the inverter for the solar panels by mistake. The inverter started flashing red. I pushed the connector in as hard as I could, in case it was loose, and the inverter flashed green. It usually has a steady green light, and I haven't a clue what flashing green means. I dashed indoors and checked the meter under the stairs. The red light was on - not generating power. There followed several minutes of complete panic while I tried to find the instruction manual for the inverter, which I did, but it was totally unhelpful with no guidance about lights at all, just a mention of various error messages. I'd not seen an error message so I went back to look, and found the green light was now on. Checking under the stairs showed the meter was also on, and generation had resumed. Panic over, but lesson learned - do not attempt to store anything too near the inverter!

After that bit of "excitement" a quiet walk to the allotment seemed a good idea and I went down and did a bit of weeding and tidying up. There were a few slugs and snails lurking under things which I collected into a jar for the chickens. I was going to plant up the lettuce seedlings, but I had forgotten to bring some newspaper to line the mushroom tray with, so they had to wait. All the turnip seedlings had survived the night, with and without the copper rings.

For the first time for a long time there were no tomatoes to bring home - the cold nights have slowed them down. I picked some lettuce, a cucumber and a beetroot for lunch.

I'd been intending to go back in the afternoon, but work and unexpected showers got in the way.

[Penellype]

Yesterday morning's job was to pot up the lettuce seedlings. These are a hardy winter mix from Chiltern Seeds, which I have not grown before. I had 12 seedlings in modules, most of which look very similar and are probably a cos variety. I planted 6 of them in the balconniere trough that the Salad Bowl had been in, adding a bit of bfb to the compost first. The other 6 went in a mushroom tray - this is a different type from the moulded black plastic ones that I planted the Warpath lettuces in, and has a lot more holes in, so I lined it with newspaper to keep the compost confined. It will be interesting to see how it goes - the Warpath are growing very well in the black trays.

I was back at lunchtime with Geepee who had come to help remove the miscellaneous bits of mesh that were embedded in the leylandii hedge. Some of these were held in place with stakes that were quite tricky to remove, and once we had got them out we could see there was more wire mesh further back. This appears to go through into the other plots too and we decided the people who come to cut the trees down will have to deal with that.

Now "all" I need to do is sort everything out, clear out the wood shed and decide what I want to keep and what can go to the tip. At least the road works appear to have finished (they were there in the morning but not at lunchtime) which means that I can park the car near enough to load it. Frustratingly the tip is closed on Wednesdays and I am busy on Thursday so it will be Friday before I can get rid of it all.