Mid-September!

Sunday 11th

The sudden arrival of a second summer has had a great effect on the garden, and the gardener too! There's still a regular supply of raspberries, rhubarb, lettuce, tomatoes and beetroot, and the snowball turnips, sweetcorn and carrots are beginning to be ready to eat. The gladioli have made a late but beautiful appearance and the climbing roses have excelled themselves.

This weekend saw the clearing out of the main bed, and the harvesting of a disappointing onion and garlic crop. Did I plant the bulbs too deep? Was it too wet? I need to look into this for next year. However, I'm strongly considering not planting this autumn, and leaving it to the spring. At least that way the bulbs will avoid both the potential floods, and the very active mouse population...

Sunday 18th

Today was mostly about harvesting: potatoes, beetroot, turnip, beans, strawberries, raspberries, the one remaining sweetcorn (yep, I lost the rest to mice this year!) and one of the enormous squash! I also caught up with new neighbours, which was fun. I finished up the day by beginning to wrestle back control of the fruit bushes from a tough selection of grasses, hog weed and the splendid Michaelmas daisies - lovely, but pretty invasive. I feel a battle coming on...

Carrot thinings and one of the snowballs

Golden raspberries

Mint medley

The new rosemary... hopefully this one will survive.

Beetroot in profusion, and well-protected carrots.

September!

So...summer happened. What with rain, slugs, more rain and holidays, the allotment was more or less left to its own devices during most of July and August. A few good weeks of sun during August really helped move things on though, and amongst the slug/desiccation disasters there are some good news stories, notable the tomatoes, squash and beetroot.

The netting over the carrots has really helped keep them healthy, and the badger-proof fence has, so far at any rate, kept the sweetcorn safe. Hopefully a few more days of sun will finish the crop.

Here's today's mini harvest: apples, rhubarb, raspberries, a few strawberries, two kinds of tomato and some french beans...

To make up for the recent silence, here's a few pictures of things growing taken last week:

Spring update

Rain has been the predominant feature of recent weekends, so it's made work less straight-forward than I might have hoped. However, with the help of Father Trial and Error we've put a new roof on the shed, rebuilt some raised beds and erected two bird boxes and some insect hotels (Oh yes - these aren't mere houses. Fashioned from bird boxes and stuffed with home-grown bamboo by Mother-in-law Trial and Error, they are a ladybird paradise). I've also managed to give myself a suntan with creosote. Planting has gone well with potatoes, carrots, beans and courgettes going in. Sadly the growing has been somewhat stymied by the incredible slug population boom. After I've written this post, I shall be researching mail-order hedgehogs.

Here's the evidence so far:

Serious concentration

Insect hotels!

Bird houses

Digging out the ground for the new raised beds

Filling the raised beds

Just another shot because I really like them

Planting up the beds: strawberries, cabbage and Love-in-a-mist. A perfectly sensible combination, before you say anything...

Vegetable progress:

 Fun with flowers:

2016!

It seems that once again I was too carried away by the actual gardening to blog about it - this is my first post since June 2015. I am full of good resolutions to blog again this year, time will tell how successful I will be!

So... we had a fantastic harvest last year (highlights were the garlic, parsnips, carrots and apples), followed by a very mild winter. Despite the incredible levels of flooding seen in many other areas of the country, Cripley Meadow hasn't flooded so far this year, and it has been possible to start working from February. Winter casualties were the arch, and the little greenhouse tent but most other things have survived well. The old arch has been replaced with a sturdy new one, more robust but smaller in width, and the remaining bits of the old one relocated to the new fruit area to be used as a netting frame.

New additions since last year are:
1) white climbing roses at the base of the arch
2) a raised bed for strawberries in the flower garden (I know! But I'm running out of space)
3) a chilli tent and watering system down the side of the shed
4) paths down each side of the plot (an AA requirement which has also necessitated the removal of the artichoke bed)

Today was a good day for pottering on the plot - lovely and mild with warm sunny spells, birdsong and good earthy smells. I concentrated on weeding and repairing the greenhouse tent, but also managed to plant a row each of rocket and radish in a raised bed, as well as some nasturtiums, wild flowers and sweet peas in pots. The overwintering leeks, garlic, onions and shallots are looking splendid. I had to replant the peas last week though, as the autumn planting sprouted in the astonishing warmth of December and promptly froze to death in January.

There seem to be more birds around this year, and I had to repeatedly fend off the attentions of an enormous bumble bee today, so it looks like the natural world has had a good winter, and is waking up in earnest.

Here's to another year of fun on plot 129!

6 weeks work, and no time for blogging!

With one of the oddest springs for a few years - warm sunshine, ferocious winds, cold snaps (overnight frosts in June!), downpours and more sunshine - there's been plenty of work to do and not much time to blog! Small disasters in the shape of a collapsing greenhouse tent and a second one demolished in the high winds have put back some of the seedlings, but most things continue to do well. By now, all the seeds planted directly out have sprouted, with the exception of some of the sweet peas. The echinacea is up and thriving, the Jerusalem artichokes are threatening to take over, and the sunflowers and beans are poking through.

Since the last post, I've added a few ready-grown plugs to the plot of cabbage, cauliflower, tomatoes and baby sweetcorn. It looks as though pigeons have been after the brassica, but the plants are strong and it is likely they'll survive.

Here's a selection of pictures showing what's been going on over the last few weeks.

Lots of lovely flowers...

 ...and luscious salad...

...and a promise of autumn fruit...

 

...signs of industry...

 

 ...and tidy sheds (er yes, this is AFTER I tidied the shed...)...

 ...and a very lovely evening to be out gardening!

Mostly planting

What with one thing and another, it's been a while since I could get down to Plot 129. The paths are desperately in need of strimming, and the dandelions are making the most of it, but the garden has really come on in the last few weeks. The lupins and red hot pokers have flower spikes zooming upwards, the herbs are bushing out, and later-developing plants such as the hyssop are coming into leaf.

The onions, garlic and shallots are continuing to look good, and in the raised beds some of the surviving beetroot and carrots are developing nicely. The mixed lettuce is also looking healthy (about three cm high) and we're having our first 'crop' of raddish thinnings in tonight's salad!

Today was mostly about planting, though. Seed went straight into the ground for:
Yellow courgette (Paradour)
Green courgette (Defender)
Squash (Sunshine)
Turnips (Snowball)
Parsnips (White Gem)
Runner beans
Borlotti Beans

The shed area is still a bit too messy after the high winds to sort the green houses out, but that is a job for next week.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from Plot 129!

Lupin

Today was such a lovely day to be out. The sky was black with clouds all afternoon but it didn't rain, and the evening was warm with bursts of golden sunshine. Perfect weather for getting on with spring jobs! Today was mostly a day for weeding - the flower garden, the shallotts, the onions, and the pots. I also got a bit of edging done, so the big bed is looking tidier, and I planted raddishes and mixed lettuce in the remaining raised bed.

Plum blossom

The birds were very active, rustling in the bushes. One particularly inquisitive wren took a good look at me in the shed, but I didn't manage to take its picture - hopefully next time!

In other wildlife news, mice have eaten nearly all of my broad bean sprouts, and made a start on the peas. I may have to give up on broad beans for this year as it is getting quite late to replant them, but I'm considering covering options for the peas.

Rhubarb

On a positive note - the beetroot and carrots are up, and the rhubarb is ready for picking!

Baby beetroot

Plot 129 in the evening spring sunshine