Planting Potatoes (a work in progress)
Once we managed to get rid of the weeds and grass (mainly couch grass, grrrr) on a small section of this year’s potato plot, we dug two ‘trenches’ to plant the seed potatoes. Last year we had courgettes, beans, kale (what we thought was broccoli!) and lettuce here – if that makes a difference! The potatoes were probably ‘over-chitted’ to be honest (four or five inch sprouts must be too long??) as they didn’t really have enough light while they chitted (aka as ‘sprutting’ apparently!), so it was quite difficult to plant them properly as there were roots sticking out in all directions! Not the best of starts, but we’ll see what happens! We got most of the Swift earlies in, but there’s still loads...
Read MoreSeeds & Potatoes have arrived!
Our seeds and potatoes arrived… we ordered them through our allotment association from DT Brown (works out so much cheaper if you do this!). So we’ve got: Purple Moldovan Garlic (the bigger bulbs in the pic, the others are supermarket garlic which we’ll experiment with) Radish – Scarlet Globe (plus two half packs left over from last year – Scarlet Globe and French Breakfast) Onion – Red Pearl F1 & Ailsa Craig Prizewinner Parsnip – Countess F1 Courgette – Ambassador F1 Broccoli – Bordeaux F1 Leek – Lyon 2 Prizetaker And our potatoes, both earlies, are ‘Epicure’ and ‘Swift’. Just off to work out what ‘chitting’...
Read MoreFrogs & Green Tomatoes
A trip to the allotment for weeding this evening… it needed it!! Tony and Jordan came up to help – we needed them too! We were delighted to find that beneath all the jungle of weeds our tomatoes were actually growing!! They’re little and green, but hopefully they’ll ripen nicely. Lisa’s mum has also given us some smaller tomato plants so we need to get them in the ground once we’ve cleared a few more weeds (she also gave us a green tomato chutney recipe should they not ripen!). Also growing well are the sweetcorn, beans and broccoli, so we’re very hopeful of some good crops there too. The herb garden was very overgrown, but apart from the parsley and the chilli plants everything is doing well, including three frogs, who...
Read MoreTackling the Triffids!
We’ve been rather neglectful of our plot over the last couple of weeks and we’ve been fair-weather gardeners while the heavy rain has been pouring down. Today was the day to tackle the triffids! We made a good start, but there are weeds everywhere… including some massive alliums growing out of our stinky bin bags!! Siobhan cleared the weeds from around the onions and leeks while Lisa made a pathetic attempt to clear the weeds (including nettles and thistles – ouch!) from around the beans and broccoli. Another couple of evenings and we should be sorted.
Read MoreRadishes, Beans & Corn
After so much heavy rain and many sunny spells there’s a lot of green on the allotment! Sadly the plants that are doing extremely well are the weeds, but many of our seeds are taking root too. The radishes are doing very well indeed – they desperately needed some thinning out, which Lisa persuaded Tony to do (he refused to have his picture up because he’s “not a girl!”… hehe). The lettuces and rocket will also need thinning out soon. The sweetcorn is slowing coming along, as is the courgette (his leaves are a little yellow-looking, but he’s growing up fast!). The beans have grown very quickly, they’re not looking too bad, but it looks like the slugs are moving over from the...
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