17/5/15 - It's Been A While! Busy Busy
Good day and thanks for dropping by. It's been a little while since the last diary entry, but that's not because there hasn't been anything going on at the plot. I've spent loads of time up there, but just not enough time to write about it! So, to bring everything up to speed, we'll have a whistle stop bed by bed tour of what's happening.
Bed 1 - Peas
One row of peas are going well, despite probably not liking to extended period of warm and dry weather. The other row that were direct sown, well, they haven't gone so well. I have big gaps in the second row and I am putting it down to mice. Within a week or sow of them being sown, much of the compost had been scrapped, and the peas left on the surface. Not to worry though. next year I shall aim to start all the peas in gutters, rather than half and half.
Bed 2 - Lettuce/Dwarf Beans
We've had evidence of moles in this bed throughout the spring. At the moment, I only have lettuce in there which are growing nicely and should hopefully be harvested in the coming week before the follow on crop of Dwarf French Beans go in their place. I have planted two root trainer trays of beans that have been in the mini polytunnel for the last two weeks. Germination has been reasonably good within only a handful of cells not yet germinated.
Bed 3 - Garlic
More evidence of moles in this bed, with a few plants leaning over too. This may be because of Mr. Mole tunnelling under the bulb, or it could be to do with the local cat population several of which I have caught at various times nestled in amongst the garlic plants! Some of the bulbs appear to be swelling nicely, however in the last week or so, the dreaded rust fungus has started to appear on some of the leaves. I hope to leave this plants in for at least another month before harvesting them, but that will depend on the rust situation.
Bed 4 - Swede and Parsnip
This has been a tricky bed to get going this year, but finally, after a second attempt at sowing, we finally have parsnip germination. It's a bit sporadic which may be to do with older seed. Nevertheless, we have a few rows poking through. In recent weeks, I've also sown two rows of swede and again, this has germinated albeit it sporadically. In the coming couple of weeks I will need to thin out both sets of seedlings, but for the time being, it's just nice to see them up and running. I'm still keeping them under nets though to fend off cats and birds.
Bed 5 - Tomatoes
I'm really struggling with the tomatoes this year. Not only am I convinced that I went too early with them, the constant sun and unseasonably warm and dry start to the year we have had has mean that leaf curl and stunted growth have hit hard. We have at least another full week before any signs of breaking in the weather. There's not much I can do other than keep on top of the watering and feeding and hope that they come good in the end. I think we'll get a much reduced tomato harvest this year though,
Bed 6 - Onions
The onion crops are going really well. The first planting of Bedfordshire Champ are coming on really well. As yet, no sign of rust or scapes/bolting which we had early last year when growing from sets. We're keeping them well watered and fed with liquid seaweed too.
Bed 7 - Broad Beans and Cauli
The broad beans are doing really well, and unlike some other plot holders, at the moment I am not seeing any signs of blackfly on them. They are really close to being harvested. In fact, some of them can be harvested now, and used in salads. Some of them will go to salads, but the rest when harvested will probably be frozen for use through the year. This is another bed that has also had a visit from a mole, so I've made an attempt to implement a control measure. We shall see if it works.
As a result of the mole works, one of the cauli plants has been relocated slightly. I have 2 or 3 small cauli plants in the mini polytunnel which should be ready to transplant soon, once the broad bean harvest has been completed.
Bed 8 - Climbing French Beans
A couple of weeks ago, the structures were finished for the climbing beans, and last week the plants were moved into their beds around the structures. In the time since being transplanted, they seem to have got some good growth going on. They were looking a little pale in terms of their green colour, so they've been fed with some liquid seaweed and chicken manure pellets.
Bed 9 - Leeks
Today has been the day that our leeks have been transplanted. In some ways, they were ready to go, although they were still a little bit thin. I had sown far too many, and I think the seedlings were beginning to get a bit stressed because they were so cramped. The original plan was for a first and a second sowing of leeks to be made, but I have planted up the full bed instead. Each of the holes have had a few chicken manure pellets dropped in to feed the small plants, and then everything watered in very well. I've kept back about 2/3 of the seedlings still, just in case there are issues with the first ones.
Bed Bath 10 - Carrots
The first sowing of Berlicum 2 main crop carrots are probably not far off being ready for harvest. The second sowing in the other half of the bath have started to germinate. They were sown around 3 weeks ago, so I'll leave them a little longer before thinning them out.
Potato Tubs
We're finding that keeping on top of the watering is proving to be imperative with the potatoes in tubs. We've got good string growth in foliage, which means that the full strength of the sun on the compost is being shielded. There are signs of some small surface potatoes in the first earlies containers. The foliage has definitely shot up in the last week or so. We are still a little way off being ready to harvest, so we'll just keep watering regularly for the time being. I'm hoping that the layer of rotted manure in the bottom of each tub is providing all the nutrients they need during their growing stage.
Bed 11 - Garden, Pond and Potatoes
The wall flowers are doing their best to add a splash of colour to the entrance of the plot, but some of the flowers are looking slightly passed their best. The crocosmia and other bulbs are putting on some good growth though, so hopefully they should be able to take over soon. The pond inhabitants seem to be doing well, with sighting of a water beetle being made. The tadpoles, though dwindling in number continue to grow, but as yet show little sign of growing legs as yet. 2 weeks ago, I bought some additional pond plants to try to introduce more oxygen into the water. They seem to be going well.
This years potato experiment seems to be proceeding well. This is the first year that I have tried to grow potatoes direct in the ground. I have foliage in most places, with only one gap to speak of, although there are signs of a late starter beginning to poke through. I've considered the question of earthing up the mounds, but I think I will leave them as they are unless I start seeing signs of potatoes breaking the surface.
Bed 12 - Cucumbers and Climbing Beans
Originally this bed was only intended for cucumbers. The cucumber plants were transplanted out around 2 weeks ago, just after a cold snap. They seemed to have come through well and have started growing. There is even a sign of a single flower on one of the plants. During this week, I have tied the plants to the trellis as they seemed to be leaning away from it, toward the sun.
After transplanting the main climbing beans into bed 8. I had 6 or 7 bean plants remaining, so today I have transplanted them to the other side of the trellis from the cucumber. I just need to wait and see if they will take and grow alongside each other.
Bed 13 - Squash
The two varieties of squash plants have relished this warmer weather, but have also had copious amounts of water, both via their tubes, and direct from the surface. Again, they seemed to go slightly pale, so I have been feeding them with liquid seaweed and chicken manure pellets. This is the first time I have grown on this part of the plot, and I don't think the previous plot owner put much in the way of nutrients or organic matter into the soil each winter. So this might be a sign that I will need to add a lot more to these beds after this years harvest.
All 3 plants seem to have taken well, so I left my 3 remaining backup plants on the sharing bench for others to take.
Bed 14 - Kale and Onions
The Kale plants seem to be quite slow growing, but in the last couple of weeks, they have started to push out additional leaves which hopefully shows that they have taken good root. One of the plants had to be pulled up and replanted because of a mole tunnel, so is a bit smaller than the others. Around the perimeter of the bed, the spare onions that I planted have been a bit slow to put on any significant growth. Some are looking OK, but others have barely grown. These were just spares though, so we'll just take what comes.
Bed 15 - Sprouts and Onions
The sprout plants are doing really well. There's some strong growth going on, and it was definitely a good idea to put metal stakes in place when the plants were first transplanted, instead of having to skewer the roots of the plants as they were getting going. One of the plants did go over earlier this week, so it was brought back up and tied off to it's stake with string.
This bed also has spare onions around it's perimeter and again, they are at various stages of growth like those in bed 14. Both beds 14 and 15 are under argillan enviromesh netting which is much finer than the other scaffold netting used on most of the other beds. I'm hoping that this will reduce the number of pests we will see as the summer progresses.
Spring Onion Troughs
All 3 troughs have been sown now, and the first trough is probably only a few weeks off being harvested. The second sowing of salad onions seems to have stalled in growth slightly, so I've started feeding them. The final trough was sown some weeks ago, but only now am I seeing the very first signs of germination.
Mini Polytunnel
I'm really pleased with progress within the mini polytunnel. Since I've managed to clear it out of most of the seedlings and sowing trays, there is only one more thing to plant in it this week. First though, the carrots continue to do well. The first sowing has grown well, but the second sowings now seem to have caught up (at least in terms of foliage). It's still way too soon to consider harvesting any of them though. That's probably at least another month or so away yet.
The Pak Choi has reacted very well to the polytunnel being left slight propped open for the last couple of weeks though. It's showing strong growth and should be ready to start harvesting next week.
The courgette that was transplanted a few weeks ago is finally starting to get a growth spurt on. Soon after it was transplanted, it started showing signs of powdery mildew on it's first/largest leaves. It is this that prompted me to start leave the tunnel propped open slightly, to improve the air circulation. The plant even has it's first flower on it! I've started feeding it with liquid seaweed and some manure pellets, and it seems to be responding well.
The only remaining things in the mini polytunnel now are two trays of dwarf french beans which will go into bed 2 when they are big enough, some seedling cauli plants which will go into bed 7 after the broad bean harvest and finally two water melo plants. The water melon plants are just about ready to be transplanted into their final position in the middle of the mini polytunnel, so will probably go in the next week.
Polytunnel
Having the use of the polytunnel is a game changer, but it is a learning curve for sure! First off, the strawberries. We have been harvesting strawberries pretty consistently for the last couple of weeks. They have been a huge success. They are already sending out lots of runners, but at the moment, and rightly or wrongly, I have been nipping them off. I want the plants to concentrate on putting their energy into their fruits rather than new growth. I am wondering though if two plants per hanging basket was actually the right way to go. Too late now though!
Elsewhere in the polytunnel, the aubergine plants are putting on some good strong growth. This is the first time I have grown them, and according to my initial plan, they could potentially start to produce fruit next month, but they don't seem big enough to me yet. They are growing well though.
However, on the other side of the tunnel, the chilli pepper plants don't seem to be doing so well. They have grown since going into their quad grow pots, but they just look a bit weak, despite regular feeding with Nutrigrow. I'll just keep them in place and hope that they are just slow starters. On the other hand, the sweet pepper plants are looking very green and lush. There are no signs of any flowers yet, but they are growing steadily.
This year, I think the best tomatoes will be coming out of the polytunnel. I still maintain I started my tomatoes way too early as they all look quite feeble and thin. The beefsteak variety do look much stronger though. It's not too late to buy some from the garden centre to replace them, but I do want to give them every chance to pull it back.
AOB :-)
Elsewhere, our allotment neighbour has decided to call it a day and has given up his plot. It's not a surprise as he hasn't been to the site in over a year. What it does mean though is that I have had the opportunity to reconsider the shed which I gave him the use of when he first took on the plot. The shed is actually on my half plot, and I pay the rent for that ground but at the time, I had no need for the shed, and he had a great deal of clearing to do in order to make room for it on his plot. For that reason, I initially agreed that it could stay where it was, and he could use it from there. Now though, I find myself in need of more storage space, especially with having the big polytunnel in place. So, I have notified the committee that I will take back ownership of that part of my plot, and also possession of the shed. It's about to fall over anyway, but with a bit of structural work inside, I should be able to strengthen it up. I will then be able to use it to store all the quad grows, pots and trays during the winter, freeing up the polytunnel floor space for winter time growing
In the coming weeks, we also have Ross Open Gardens again and I have some ideas on how to present out plot for the event. That's for another post another time though.
