Thursday 29 September 2011

Indian Summer.

It's been a lovely week,a bit like the August we never had.
A bit of digging and more weeding for winter has been the order of the day.
The site rep has been showing people around the derelict plots hopefully some one will take on Plot 72B and 72 and clear the 6 foot weeds.
Allotment produce has consisted of more Picasso potatoes and Painted Lady runner beans,Red salad bowl lettuce,beetroots,leaves from my Gourmet Salad mix and Hilds blauer Herbst and Winter radish.
The weather has encouraged  my last plantings of the month which are Sparkler radishes,Corn salad and Gourmet Salad leaves.
The garden has given me Alicante,Golden Sunrise,Koralik and Sungold tomatoes as well as my final Marketmore cucumber.

Sunday 25 September 2011

Weekend update

Spent the afternoon weeding the leek bed and then dug over the future garlic bed.A quick hoe over with the addition of some compost and it will be ready to plant with Albigensian Wight garlic cloves next month.
Another bag of rubbish ready for the compost heap.
A trip to the tip on a sunday at 11 with no queue is unheard of but really happened and three bags of council compost brought home.
The leafless Alicante are reddening up in the garden as are the Golden Sunrise,I just hope that the Indian summer continues,
I harvested some beetroot, brocoli and some more runner beans.

Thursday 22 September 2011

Getting ready for winter.

 2 hours spent digging a 6m by 3m patch,2 rubbish bags filled with roots etc
 Already covered up and will be ready for next year,only another 6m by5m patch to dig over now.
Today's harvest sans Rumba onions which were taken home earlier.Austrian White radish,German Blue radish,a carrier bag of Paimted Lady runner beans and some Red salad bowl lettuce leaves.
The stapled brassica cage with some sorry looking Falstaff brussel sprouts and some manky looking Prima cabbages.Hopefully they will give me some sort of crop.
Yesterday I got my strawberry runners through the post and have already potted them up and my neighbour has said that I can have some of their runners so I should have a decent little strawberry patch next year.

Tuesday 20 September 2011

Weekly update

Spent a couple of hours stapling netting to my brassica cage which gave me a blister but it does look secure,its a shame that the enclosed cabbages and brussel sprouts look so weedy inside.
.I have started weeding my paths in preparation for winter.
I have planted some Chard prob too late but it was a gift from my lottie neighbour.
I have harvested the rest of my rumba onions and i was v impressed with the crop.
I have dug up another batch of Picasso potatoes that are still looking good.
The Painted Lady runner beans are now giving me a good crop unlike my Moonlight which i hace given up on.
The next task is to dig it all over, compost and cover it for potatoes next year.
The compost heap has been aeriated and moved which has dislodged the incumbent fruit flies.
In the garden the golden sunrise are getting a bit blighty so the lower leaves are all off and I have had a couple of yellow tomatoes.I have finally had a brocoli stem which was v pleasant.
My 2nd batch of Koralik seed has been dried and batched up my A4A seed swap.

Friday 9 September 2011

Today's harvest

Last week my neighbour kindly put this together for me so I have a bit of protection from the flying rats.
A very good harvest today.Boltardy Beetroots,Painted Lady Runner beans,Rumba Onions,Picasso Potatoes,Austrian radish,Red Leaf salad and half a parsnip(the other half disappeared).
A bit of weeding and digging followed and I secured a bit more of my plastic path.
Blight seems to have followed me to my garden and I have stripped the Alicante tomatoes in the hope that some mature.The windy weather has uprooted my Gardeners Delight from a growbag so I have transferred them to long pots in the hope that I get some next month.
I have started saving my Koralik seeds and have my first batch labelled up

Saturday 3 September 2011

Blight attack


Went to the allotment today to find 12 blighted tomato plants so into a blue sack they went.
I harvested a 14 inch parsnip and 1 kg onion to make up for it and was given some sweetcorn and a cucumber.
I planted some spinach,rocket and gourmet salad leaves in the hope that we have an indian summer.
The path has been extended and makes the plot look tidier.More weeding has been done and tomorrow I will be assembling my brassica cage.