Cleaning up and digging out

Apologies for not blogging here for a while. Blogger was playing up recently and I couldn't upload any images. Grr!! Finally managed to post today tho but these photos are from the 17th-24 Sept. (a touch late!!) Okay - progress so far:
We have a gorgeous purple aubergine but I don't know how well it is going to survive in the greenhouse? We also have a bucket or two of manure which is great! We should have the best soil ever next year! I also took up the opportunity to clear out the greenhouse as it was full of rubbish and the plastic from the ground was completely ripped up and letting in bind weed! I filled in all the cracks where the soil had dried and put down mulch. It looks much better!
I have also been sorting out all the tomato plants which have fallen over everywhere and the slugs have been feasting on. We've had some pretty lovely tomatoes this year but eating them quick enough has been a task! They grow too quick! I have also quite brutally trimmed the squashes as they were growing in the road and just taking up far too much space. They grow like crazy!! We noticed a couple of butternut squashes as well but they were still quite small and green. We completely forgot that we had planted some!! We're now getting to the time of year when we eat the last of the produce and collect the seeds. We didn't go up the lotty last weekend (beginning of October) as Karl had 3 parties to go to and I was canoeing the river Wye. We're going back up today (8th Oct) to see if everything is holding up and whether the birds have stolen our sweetcorn or not?! Fingers crossed it's all OK!

Poooooo!!!!

Enormous Vegetables

BIG veggies! This is our first enormous pink banana squash - we may need a big knife to help put this thing in the big oven! Massive courgette/marrows on the side. These are going to be tasty....if only I knew how to cook it? Suggestions please...

Sweetcorn!

Karl left to go on holiday to Turkey today and he left me this little gem on the kitchen table. I instantly cooked it up in butter and delved in. Beautiful!! Hard work never tasted so good!

They follow me...

Just for the record - and I know many of you have seen this picture before - but how strange is it that when I went on holiday - this snail decided to follow! I can't escape them - Arrgghhh!!

A couple of pics

I'm afraid that the allotment hasn't seen much action recently as me and Karl have been a bit pre-occupied with other things. We haven't reglected the allotment as we go up each week to collect tonnes of produce: Mostly runner beans, french beans, marrows, courgettes & tomoatoes. It has been quite successful but we are noticing that the weeds are too much for us the handle! We might turn a blind eye to the weeds for the sake of getting the produce in and then having a major soil turnover once autumn starts to kick in. Summer has become quite bleak and wet since the end of July and the weather has put us off going up there most weekends.
I'm planning to dig up the potatoes this weekend out of the tyres. They need to be taken before the slugs get in! (That's if they haven't beaten us to it!) I'm also keeping a keen eye on the sweetcorn as it's doing REALLY well! I can see us eating corn-on-the-cob for the whole of Sep/Oct! Yum!
I've got photos from about a month ago which I have not got round to posting. (My memory card died in my camera so there's about a month of mobile phone pics to upload! (most are poor quality tho).
I'm determined to have a good ole dig on Sunday so fingers crossed the weather keeps up!

Tomatoes coming up but staying green - picked about 6 red ones altogther this year.

Sweetcorn getting all furry - we have lots of these plants which have shot up!

Our enormous produce! Pink banana squashes, courgettes & marrow. Delicious!
Does anyone know what to do with pink banana squashes? They're nice roasted...

National Allotment Week

It's National Allotment Week! (and I've just booked a holiday right in the middle of it!)

August 14th - 20th 2006

...so that I don't forget for next year!

More produce...

We seem to be having a very healthy season of produce at the moment. I even found this quite chunky marrow hiding in a bit mound of soil which we planted in and kinda forgot about! Not sure what to do with it yet - we're just a bit gobsmacked that it's grown so secretly as we never noticed it before. Runner beans are fabulous, we eat them practically every night! We even have a couple of tomatoes but they're not in full swing just yet - still small and green.
The courgettes are a bit big but still very delicious - I've had a few roasted with seasoning and they're superb. At this rate I may not visit a grocers for a few months!

Onions, beans & currants

It's produce time! We've pulled up some onions (some very big - some tiny?!) and also picked some red currants (delicious!). We're just getting to the very end of the broad beans now as the black fly kinda became a bit too much to handle! (Need something more effective than washing up liquid I suspect?) I also picked some black currants which were growing wild just off the allotment car track. Gave myself a few cuts and scratches trying to get through that bramble but the currants were very sweet. I pulled up a few Maris Pipers too but I think it was a bit early for them. Quite small still. We have a couple of apple trees which the neighbours kindly said we could share as the apples are dropping on both sides of our plots. Very sweet apples - a bit like a cox apple but not quite. There are also pears on the go but they are still a bit on the small side. It's all flourishing quite nicely!

Heatwave!!

OMG! It's boiling hot! It's utterly sticky, humid and just plain HOT! Allotment is suffering a little so I watered it last night in hope that it will perk up a bit. There are loads of things coming up beautifully but we've also slightly neglected the plot so the broad beans have been massacred by the black fly and weeds are all over the shop! I'm hoping to make a trip at the weekend to clean it up.

As you can see from BBC weather - it is 'officially' a heatwave!

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