All in flower!!

It's all go up the allotment! Runner beans have shot up, flowers in bloom and a small toad was discovered on one of the pallets! It's mildly exciting...!

Anemone

The sunflowers have been hard work this year - weathered, eaten, poor growth but these 2 made it and I'm quite proud!

Hopefully some yummy seeds await?

Sweetcorn doing very well!

Squashes (and weeds - oops!)

Runner beans shooting up ever higher!

I had to pull up the rhubarb before it seeded over the whole plot! Quite pretty seeds tho.

If there was ever an allotment miracle it would be this lettuce. I found it sat quite tall and plump amongst the bed that was the slugs' favourite eating venue. We planted about 50 lettuce seeds here and all were destroyed - apart from this little one that made it! I took it home before anything else noticed it!

Must remember to put a net on the cherry tree next year - the birds got there before us!

Huge brocolli - not long now... maybe?

Tomatoes that have not turned red just yet!

Shared Apple tree with the neighbours.

The toad...hopefully feasting on slugs!

Day Twenty...?

We've got a truly fantastic crop of strawberries growing at the moment. Me & Karl have scoffed most of them already! They are really sweet and look very red! We've got 2 teepee pea canes up and 1 runner bean teepee too. Squashes have started to pop up really nicely and the broccoli has so-far survived under nets and surrounded by slug pellets. (They work really well!!)
The tomatoes in the green house have been moved outside under plastic and I've also moved the sunflowers which were housed indoors as well. I'm thinking that this was perhaps not a good idea as they have already flopped over and don't look very happy. (Fingers crossed they perk up a bit!)
I've also brought my aubergines out to plant in the greenhouse but we've run out of room for them so we are hoping to clear out the greenhouse at some point to make more room. The broad beans are ready for eating and are growing really well. Black fly has been a bit of a nuisance but otherwise - everything is doing remarkably well!

Yum!

Runner beans in tee-pee.

Really superb greenery!

Squashes

Brocolli

Runner beans!

Tomatoes & 2 Sunflowers ready to go outside.

My aubergines. I'm so proud!

Broad beans ready for eating.

Tomatoes under plastic to keep in heat and protect from birds.

Slugs and Snails

We probably spent the best part of an hour last night in the pouring rain removing around 100 slugs, snails and other varieties of slime from our precious plants. The death bucket was brimming with water after several days of constant downpour and the slugs were escaping!
We have lost several broad bean leaves, about 20 Marigolds, a handful of sunflowers, all the carrots and a number of parsnips to these buggers so we are now going to get slug pellets. I have even found a small amount of slug damage on my tomatoes at home in my mini greenhouse!
Not amused.

Not entirely organic, not what we planned but we're angry gardeners....and that's quite scary!

Day Nineteen

We have runner bean frames now! Woo-Hoo! I'm sure we'll have to stick nets over these fellas soonish but it's looking sturdy and promising. Karl has a good feeling about the beans so fingers crossed!
Karl has made a lovely sitting area from all the woodchips we collected the other week. It's amongst the potatoes so it's in quite a nice area next to the greenhouse.
Strawberries are flowering so we are looking for some straw now to protect the fruits from slugs.
New hoe and rake generously given to me by grandad is much appreciated as they are superb for breaking up soil - rake is quite a scary looking tool but it works a treat! :)
We've planted 4 of my tomato plants in the soil in the greenhouse floor (it's an experiment!!) and I planted the large Rosemary (from dad) in the herb section of the allotment. We've got some mint as well but we haven't found anywhere for it yet.
The mini greenhouse that I've got at home is absolutely brimming with greenery so I think this will need to be emptied into the allotment at some point. Tomatoes are growing like mad and the courgettes are trying to escape!

Runner bean frames

Another view of the greenery

Scary rake

Sitting area

Strawberries in flower

Potatoes growing up! (3 tyres high)

Day Seventeen & Eighteen

I'm ill. But I'm still digging!!

Got the worst of a cold this week which isn't any fun but I still managed to get some work done at A21. (Most of it down to Karl tho as he's put in 500% more work than me!)

• Everything has been watered - twice. Plus it rained.
• We've taken about 7 wheelbarrow loads of wood chips from the top of the hill to the plot. It was FREE!
• Dug the trenches for the runner beans. (put decomposed composting material and newspaper in trenches to keep soil very moist and full of rotting nutrients)
  
• Karl planted sunflowers, red onions plus some other flowers. (sorry - can't remember name!) Plus some Pink banana Squash?!
  
• Trimmed the rhubarb. (Going to make crumble I think?!)
  
• Made some more space for potato growing. (half finished)
  
• Moved the broad beans further into the frame as the birds are pecking at the sides by the netting!
• Kindly received 4 courgette plants from A23. Currently in my mini greenhouse.
• Had more mulch dumped at the front of plot for weed control.
• Had wellie compliments from neighbour. :)

Back at home I've moved half the tomatoes into the mini greenhouse into grow bags and put the other half in the kitchen.

Phew!

Day Sixteen

Only a small trip this weekend to the allotment to dig the patch for runner beans and to plant my broccoli seedlings. Karl has been pretty thorough with the digging recently and I have continued digging the plot today as well - seems to go on forever!
I planted my broccoli seedlings out under plastic bottles in the patch where the spinach and asparagus were laid and pulled out a few slugs which were hiding under the rhubarb. Speaking of the rhubarb - it definately needs a good trimming! It's got flowers shooting up on huge stems and it's quite imposing on the patch it's sitting on. Looks like we'll be giving it a trim this week?
Karl has also planted his broccoli out but it's looking a little wind damaged. We're keeping fingers crossed tho.
On a sad note - all the marigolds we planted the other week have been eaten!! They were all gone when I looked at the parsnip patch and it looks like slugs took a liking to them. Luckily I have some seedlings on the go in my new mini greenhouse at home!
On the good side - the potatoes are doing really well!

It's all green!

Potatoes growing fast!

Rather large rhubarb!

Broccoli seedlings

Day Thirteen, Fourteen & Fifteen!

Easter! Hurrah! 4 days off to do the allotment!

I have to admit that I wasn't an early bird this Easter and Karl certainly put a lot of work in this weekend which puts me to shame a bit! We've been chatting to the other plot holders seeing as the allotments are certainly busier than what we have been used to! Plus we have been helping out shifting mulch from the bottom of the hill to our plot and one of our nearby neighbours. Absolutely knackering work but it's fun riding around in a trailer and building up a bit of muscle!
I'm pleased to say that my home grown tomatoes are something to brag about (they are stunning!) and the broccoli and rocket are doing some pretty impressive growing too. I've used old strawberry boxes as make shift propogators and they definately make seeds sprout quicker with the added warmth.

Tomatoes (Money Maker)

Broccoli & Rocket

Down at the plot we bought in some bamboo cane - 20 canes from 6' to 8' tall which we'll use to make runner bean frames. Hoping to do these when it stops raining this week! I carried them up the hill on my back as they're a bit fiddly otherwise!

The resurrected broad beans have flourished nicely - they are a little slug damaged but nothing severe - the coffee has done quite a good job!


Rhubarb is everywhere! Really amazing how quickly it has grown - you can see the leaves unfolding from their buds from within - looks great!

Karl grew some broad beans at home but growing in seed trays means that everything grows up in an unsupported manner whereby in the ground there is enough space to spread the roots. These beans have had plastic bottles for support as they just flop over otherwise.

It's looking quite green up at plot 21 now. We tidied up the perpetual spinach at the front and Karl put in a couple of trenches for some asparagus crowns!

We have created quite a congested bed near the greenhouse with rows of parsnips (3 varieties) mixed in with Marigolds (to deter carrot fly) and lettuce in the middle. It's going to be interesting to see how these come up! Karl also put in some carrot seeds so it should be interesting to see if these make it or not?
On the potato scene - the picassos and adora (I think?) have sprouted ever so slightly on the top of the soil - hopefully I'll get some pics next week as they're quite tiny at the moment!

On a slightly gruesome note - coffee death trap is working well. Everything we put in the coffee bucket dies into a squishy mess. I've even made a trap for the ground out of a water bottle with a coffee mixture in it and two holes in the sides so that the slugs can just walk in. (This is then half buried in the soil) Don't know if it will work but I found plenty of baby slugs sleeping in the spinach and I dunked every one in the bucket. I think I have overcome my fear of touching slugs but I still don't fancy picking up the very large ones!

The sunflowers that I planted the other week unfortunately got battered in the wind. They did not take well to the greenhouse and they suffered even more in the ground. I've put in replacement seeds to see if they shoot up. The remaining sunflowers in the house are now ridiculously tall and keep falling over which breaks their stems easily. I think you definately have to grow these from the ground as they are really tricky to maintain otherwise.

Companion Planting

The rain has stopped briefly this week but it's still a bit chilly and there was a small amount of frost on the car this morning. This worried me slightly as I wanted to move the tallest sunflowers out of the kitchen. (They are over 2ft tall!)
Karl had some floppy broad bean plants which have come from seedlings and we tried out some companion planting with maris piper potatoes below each broad bean plant. Bob Flowerdews book on organic gardening has sparked off this idea for us. We've used plastic bottles to hold them up as they can barely support themselves.
I've tested out 4 sunflowers in the greenhouse to harden them off - we'll see on friday if they kick the bucket or survive the chilly spring!

Rain :(

This week we will mostly be in the pub!
(discussing seeds, cloches, slugs and future pond prospects!)

Can you guess the weather for the weekend? Well...at least it's not freezing!

Caffeine & Slugs

I've recently read an article in New Scientist which talks about how caffeine affects slugs and snails (our enemies!). I thought I would post it here as it's quite fascinating!

Dilute caffeine solutions repel and kill slugs, say researchers in Hawaii. The chance finding could lead to a new environmentally friendly way of controlling the crop pests, the team says.

Robert Hollingsworth and colleagues at the Agricultural Research Service in Hawaii were field-testing caffeine as a toxin against a non-native frog. But they discovered that 95 per cent of large slugs were killed by a spray containing two per cent caffeine.

The team then tested lower concentrations of caffeine on cabbage leaves. At a concentration of just 0.01 per cent, caffeine reduced slugs' feeding by one quarter. A cup of instant coffee contains about 0.05 per cent caffeine.

Bill Symondson, a molecular ecologist at the Pest Management and Ecotoxicology Centre, Cardiff University, says the finding is interesting. "Slug control is extremely important economically - more so than any single insect in the UK. There is very little public tolerance of slugs. People make a huge fuss if they find one in their lettuce."

Uncoordinated writhing

The researchers say that they do not know why caffeine killed the slugs. But they suggest it may act as a neurotoxin, since sprayed slugs fell to "uncoordinated writhing" before dying.

"Caffeine is present in coffee and cocoa beans to protect the plant against insects, but it is pure chance that it has a toxic effect on molluscs. It could be very useful because coffee is not likely to harm people so it's far better than spreading the traditional products, which also harm insects," Symondson told New Scientist.

Luckily enough there is a huge pile of coffee at the allotment for everyone and we have covered the soil around plants most at risk to slugs with some coffee already. With any luck it should work! Fingers crossed!

Day Eleven & Twelve

WOW! It's a miracle! The broadbeans are Alive-O! They sprouted under the fleece after we forgot about them and assumed they had rotted! They look fab! We've built a temporary shelter to keep the birds off them from an unused greenhouse table frame and some netting. We had a very productive weekend this week as we manged to get a lot of jobs done. Karl has planted some shallots and also some onions with the garlic already growing nearby. I've moved all the top soil to the back of the allotment to make space for a sitting (and drinking beer!) area by the greenhouse and to also put some built up tyres which we will grow potatoes in. I cleared the weeds by the greenhouse and moved back some plastic to expose the soil to some sun. We'll put mulch down here at some point but not until we've shifted the weeds which have slithered along during the winter under the plastic. Karl has done a fabulous job too getting the ground ready for more planting as he's growing more seed at home for future planting out. It's going REALLY well!
We even visited another allotment off Colchecter Avenue (near Newport Rd in Cardiff) and saw some damaged garlic from some rather hungry rabbits! Karl has been swopping potatoes with a colleague and I think we're about ready to get the potatoes seeded in the tyres after some rather good advice. (Cheers Jimmy!) I forgot to mention that last week that Karl has sorted out the compost bin at the front of the allotment and it looks pretty smart!

Broad beans!!

8 piled up tyres ready for planting potatoes in. 4 varieties: Desire, Pentland Javelin, Picasso & Adora.

New compost bin!

Day Nine & Ten

Last week and this week I dug the ground for a couple of hours. I tried to make a bed but realised that the bind weed and couch grass have already taken over the allotment again after we dug the majority of it up back in January! It's an absolute nightmare! Stones seem to also be breading from somewhere....every movement with the fork or spade brings on a "clang!" as I hit each one. (I ended up tidying up the greenhouse instead!)
The good news however is that home growing from seed is going fantastically well! I think I'm addicted to growing anything I can from seed! I've got 8 tall and strong sunflowers on the go plus some tomatoes (moneymaker) which have just sprouted! (12 have popped up so far)
3 Rosemary cuttings are rooting in very slowly and I have some rocket & lambs lettuce seeds which I don't currently have space to grow at the mo. (Think my housemates will kill me if I plonk yet another seed tray on the windowsill!)
Predicted rain tomorrow but only a couple of weeks until the clocks go forward....not that I'm counting! (26th by the way for BST!)

Edit: I've just been given a tip about growing lettuce. Apparently they don't have large roots so you can simply put a pot in the ground for it to grow in and then when you want to harvest it - just pull up the plant and keep it indoors inside the pot and then it won't wilt.

Sunflowers

Tomatoes - The first seedlings!