Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

Thanks both of you. I like to always have something to eat, preferably a choice. At the moment at the allotment there is PSB, leeks and overwintered spinach which I am hoping will last me until the spring sown spinach is big enough to eat, plus the rhubarb. There is also one rapidly bolting parsnip left, which may or may not be edible. If not, my horse will enjoy it.

What you don't see here, because I grow them at home, are the carrots, which make up a large part of my winter veg. I grow 8 30 litre buckets of carrots and start eating them in the autumn. The first eaten are Sweet Candle, which is not particularly frost hardy. I also grow Nantes 2 and Eskimo, both of which will survive the winter with a bit of protection, and I currently have 3 buckets left. A few are just starting to bolt but they are still edible and I have made some into soup today, also using up some of the stored onions which are just starting to produce shoots now.

[Andraste]

Great pics again. As Snoop Puss says, inspirational. It's perked me up no end to see the changes between this month & last, & given me some optimism that whilst I'm always going to be a few weeks behind you, there will be growth (& hopefully some edibles) on their way soon

[Snoop Puss]

Inspirational stuff, Penellype. Thanks for posting.

[Bren In Pots]

Looking good Pen

[Penellype]

More photos



The blueberry is starting to flower.



Blackcurrant, gooseberry, strawberries and rhubarb against the north facing fence.



The compost area. The green dalek (which had lost its lid when I got the allotment) is full of leylandii clippings, which should make a reasonable mulch,




The 2 square bins are full. The one on the left has year old compost topped up with about 18 inches of fresh horse manure and a couple of inches of last year's hotbed. This will rot down a bit in the next couple of months and I will then plant a courgette in it as this worked very well last year. The right hand bin contains all last years compost which has just been turned, again topped with some of last year's hotbed. I might try to grow a cucumber or melon in here, but I am inclined not to as the lid of the bin makes a useful surface when preparing veg to take home.




The big bin, which is on the right of the row, is now nearly empty.

[Penellype]

More photos



The overwintered spinach in the growhouse.



The first hotbed. The spinach (left) is growing very slowly. Some thinning were cut to add to salad after this photo was taken. The lettuce next to the spinach has completely disappeared (slugs). I have some seedlings which will be planted there when they are a bit bigger. The beetroot (red and yellow) are growing slowly. The onions are doing well. Everything seems incredibly slow this year, which I am putting down to lack of light as it hasn't been particularly cold, but it has been extremely cloudy until recently.




The 2nd hotbed is doing slightly better. The spinach on the left was grown in modules, sown after the ones in the first hotbed, but is already more than twice the size. Next to it are some half pint peas, but only 3 seeds have germinated. I will probably eat these as pea shoots. There are some lettuce seedlings in the next row - these are an all red mix which seem to survive the slugs marginally better. In the middle of the bed are 2 rows of brassica salads (mizuna and pak choi) which the slugs are enjoying eating. I am not sure what to put in the tunnel end of the bed, but I am sure I will thin of something!



A closer look at the cauliflowers, each of which has a collar of plastic bottle with copper tape round it to deter slugs. There is also slug gone pellets scattered about, but it is hard to make out much detail through the net.



The row of peas under the plastic cover. This does seem to be deterring the sparrows but there is some slug damage.

[Penellype]

In the tunnel

The net is still off the top of the tunnel because there is still a possibility of snow (although that seems increasingly unlikely).



The west side of the tunnel has been mulched with compost and is waiting for beetroot and fennel seedlings to grow big enough to survive the slugs.



The east side is waiting for tomatoes and carrots, strawberries have been mulched with Strulch and are starting to grow.




A pile of compost is waiting for the leeks to be eaten. A row of Meteor peas has been planted at the sunnier end of the centre.



Another view of the strawberries. There are also a few in the mushroom tray on the shelf.




The leeks are recovering slowly and the new growth is free of leaf miner, but they are very small.

[Penellype]

April



The blackthorn is in flower and makes it feel more like spring, even though it is raining. Leaves and flower buds appearing on the raspberries. The rhubarb doesn't seem to have minded having most of its roots chopped off and being crammed into buckets. The plastic cover is my attempt at keeping sparrows off a row of young pea plants which have replaced the bean teepees.




The new cover over the hotbed is working well so far. Cauliflowers have been planted under both of the tall nets. Bean teepees have been moved to where the rhubarb was (no beans planted yet).




The cauliflowers are just visible - they are still very small having only been planted out a couple of weeks ago.




8 buckets of potatoes have now been planted - 4 Lady C and 4 Desiree. The compost is 2 year old home made from the bin that grew a courgette last year. The buckets have been mulched with Strulch to keep weeds down and retain water. The cover is cobbled together from bits of an old blowaway greenhouse and one of the rather shredded covers that I have had for about 4 years. I am doubtful that it will stand up to any gales, but I can only try. I am waiting for parsnip seeds that I put to chit to show me that they are still viable, then they will be planted in the empty bed.




PSB under the white net is producing plenty of spears. The overwintered spinach in the growhouse is growing slowly.

[Snoop Puss]

^Even one of those sounds like a result to me, Penellype.

[Penellype]

Thanks for the kind words Andraste. Its good to know people enjoy these updates. I have some more of the wool mulch so I will be experimenting more this summer. I can't decide whether the wool has deterred slugs, increased fertility or prevented cabbage root fly from damaging the roots.

[Andraste]

Lovely pics & updates again Penellype Kudos on the DIY skills & very interesting about the wool mulch's effect on your PSB and Romanesco - I'd be very interested in more updates on your findings there. x


PS Apologies for the delayed comment - only had time to have a proper look today It's court-worthy evidence that I'm quite busy in work atm as I'm normally saying 'ooo yip' at the notification you've posted and jumping straight over to this thread on the 1st of the month!

[Penellype]

More photos



Rhubarb near the woodshed thinks it is spring.




Overwintered spinach in the growhouse is nearly ready to eat.



Spinach seedlings grown in the house and planted in the 2nd hotbed. There is a row of Half Pint peas that were sown next to the spinach but have not yet germinated.



At the other end of the 2nd hotbed is a good demonstration of what not to do with seedlings. These beetroot were grown in the house at the same time as the spinach. I thought beetroot were pretty hardy so I took them to the allotment with the spinach, intending to plant them out a few days later. I thought that the heat from the hotbed would keep them warm, but they are definitely not happy. A few of the red ones (Boltardy) look like they may survive, but the yellow (Boldor) look dead. The empty tray originally held the spinach in the previous photo.



Direct sown spinach in the first hotbed was sown about a week before the spinach in the house. The lettuce in the next row has been eaten by slugs and only 2 seedlings remain. Further down are 2 rows of beetroot (Boldor and Boltardy) which are very small but clearly surviving the frost, and the onions at the far end are growing well. The pieces of wood are slug traps, and I have scattered Slug Gone wool pellets around as a deterrent (after the lettuces disappeared).

[Penellype]

In the tunnel



The beetroot has been removed from the west side (although a little remains in the middle) and compost has been spread over the bed, with a pile at the far end waiting to go where the leeks are.



Strawberries are not growing yet.



The leeks are trying hard to recover from the allium leaf miner attack but they are very small.



The cardboard used to cover where the courgettes were has almost rotted away now.




PSB under the net outside the door end of the tunnel has produced plenty of edible shoots. I like this variety (Rioja) best of all that I have tried. It has nice tight heads which seem to stay that way much longer than other varieties.

[Penellype]

March



Grass is beginning to need cutting, but it is much, much too wet. The rhubarb (bottom left) that was dug up and left on the soil is trying to grow. I have given several large chunks away to friends.



The gales a few weeks ago completely destroyed the old hotbed cover, so I have improvised with a sheet of plastic, some hoops of blue water pipe that I already had, and 2 pieces of wood which I have nailed to the plastic. There is another piece of wood on top of the hoops which is attached to screws that have been screwed into the hoops and when I want to open the cover I tie the bottom piece of wood to the top piece with string. On the north side (facing the camera) the wood is clipped onto the hoops with spring clips to make it more secure. I'm quite pleased with my DIY here!



The 2nd hotbed now has a cover - this one is the same sort of plastic sheet, but draped over the 2nd old frame, which so far hasn't broken. I pinched this from the potato bed. The plastic is clipped onto the frame with 16mm net clips, which are too small to use with the blue water pipe.



The potato bed has lost its supports, but the net is stopping the local cats from using the buckets of compost as litter trays.



PSB and parsnips continue to be harvested from the flooded bed - so far they don't seem to be suffering. The PSB on the right has produced quite a few shoots - this one was mulched with a square of sheep's wool. The one on the left has not yet produced anything edible, although it is nearly there. This plant was not mulched with wool. This is far too small as a sample size, but I find this result interesting, particularly as I had a similar sort of result with the romanesco.

[Penellype]

More photos



Wooden slats holding the bubble wrap above the surface of the compost in the hotbed,



Some of the beetroot is still in the tunnel but whether any of it will be edible is anyone's guess. The leeks are surviving, just about.



Not mch growth on the strawberries yet.



A closer view of the tangled leek foliage caused by allium leaf miner.



A better view of the strawberries.

Not much else to see at the moment.