Twin Leeks

Weather: Hot and sunny with some cloud cover during the day

Jobs completed:

Watered the tomatoes, cucumbers and basil

Picked some broadbeans, spring onions, raspberries and sweetpeas to take home. Dug up some rocket potatoes. The harvest isn’t great but there are a few to take

Weeded the flower beds

Dug up some garlic that had started to show signs of rust and left it out to dry. The bulbs aren’t quite as swollen as they could be but they will be fine to eat and we have more growing

Started to dig up the pathways that divide our strawberry beds. They are lawn paths and the couch grass is forever getting into the fruit beds. Removing them should make the never-ending task of weeding less taxing

Weather: Warm but overcast. The weather this week has dried up but there has still been the odd shower and  the cloud cover has persisted

Jobs completed:

Watered the greenhouse - tomatoes, cucumbers and basil

Picked raspberries and strawberries to take home

Picked some sweetpeas to bring home. They are really starting to flower now so frequent picking is essential to stop them from going to seed

Weather: Cloudy but mild with the odd very light shower here and there

Jobs completed:

Planted some leeks where it appears the birds have taken some from our bed

Weeded the onions

Re-staked the indoor cucumbers and tied them in. They are getting quite big now

Potted on an Alicante tomato seedling we had been given

Weeded the front flowerbed

Trimmed back the vine

Dug up some of the garlic

Picked raspberries, strawberries and salad for  dinner

Weather: Overcast but warm in the morning, breaking into blue skies mid-afternoon. Heavy sporadic rain in the afternoon. We have had some very heavy rain throughout this week.

Jobs completed:

Weeded the celery, peas, beans strawberries and broadbeans

Planted out the remainder of the asters as the others that we put out last week are all doing well

Picked some strawberries, raspberries and salad leaves and onions for dinner

Watered the cucumbers and tomtoes with a comfrey feed

Tied back the tayberries and hops

Plot Time: 10.00 - 16.30 

Weather: Blue skies with intermitent cloud and showers. Hot when clear

Saw a red kite flying above the plot today on one of the rare occasions i was looking up and not down! I also found a pair of lovely black millipedes crawling around outside the greenhouse. The chive flowers are swarming with bees as are the raspberries

Jobs completed:

Planted a row of peas. Dug in a wire frame support for them to grow up

Planted some more french beans

Weeded the broadbean bed, onion bed, celery and sweetcorn

Tidied and cut back egdes of grass walkways

Weeded strawberry beds

Planted more nasturtiums and some blue lantern seedlings from the greenhouse into the middle flower bed and some violas we had been given in the front

Weeded potato beds

Planted a row of lambs lettuce seedling from out of the greenhouse into the salad bed

Tied back the new Tayberry shoots

Cut a cabbage for dinner

Repottted the calabrese seedlings and the basil genovese

Watered the greenhouse

Weather: Overcast but mild

We have visited the allotment most evenings this week to water the greenhouse seedlings and to keep an eye on things. The weather has gone from blistering hot to cool as the week has progressed. Everything has prospered from the extra sunshine - including the weeds!

We have decided to let the asparagus grow from now on instead of cutting it as it has been such a poor year for them and they are producing less spears per crown than usual.

Jobs completed:

Planted more french bean seedlings around the bean frame

Weeded the broadbeans

Weeded the salad bed

Pulled the rest of the radish and sowed another set of seed directly into the soil

Dug over part of the vegetale bed. Dug a trench about 1.5m x 60cm. Lined the trench with fresh comfrey leaf and emptied most of a tomato growbag to almost fill the trench into the soil. Planted the two Red Alert tomato plants upto their second node to strengthen them and coveredover with soil

Along side these we dug two smaller trenches and lined them similarly but added extra compost from out of the compost bin and planted two courgette plants

Weeded the raspberries

Sowed a line of american landcress and lambs lettuce directly into the soil

Planted some nasturtiums in the front flower bed

Plot Time: 16.00 - 19.00

Weather: Sunny and hot all day

Jobs completed:

Repotted purple sprouting broccoli seedlings

Repotted sweetcorn seedlings

Sowed a row of fennel directly into the ground

Sowed a row of lettuce directly

Watered the greenhouse seedlings and all of the newly planted salad and flower seedlings

Started to weed the raspberry bed. The couch grass has started to creep in again as have dandelions and cleavers.

Weather: Sunny and warm with strong winds

Jobs completed:

Watered greenhouse and salad seedlings outside. The little gems and spinach are already starting to show

Weeded the onion bed and planted some of the spares from the greenhouse into the main bed where it appears birds have pecked them out

Weeded raspberries

Weather: Cold, overcast with rain. Bright spells in late afternoon.

Jobs Completed:

Transplanted some evening primrose and campion and foxgloves on to the wild flower hill that have self seeded around the plot.

Bagged up bramble, nettle and other pernicious weeds to go to the tip.

Weeded round the fruit trees, raspberries, strawberry and garlic bed.

Transplanted a raspberry cane that had come up on the other side of the path back into the raspberry bed.

Edged the vegetable beds with the half moon.

Began creating a frame to support and cage the broadbeans when they are planted.

Planted some tomato seeds - Minibel. They are dwarf cherries that should provide plot snacks in the summer.

Transplanted the mint cuttings into pots and put them in the cold frame.

Cut up compost with machete (our preferred agitant!) and added more green manure and dead rapberry cane.

Cut some purple sprouting broccoli for dinner.

Fed strawberries and spring cabbage with seaweed fertiliser.

Planted more snowdrops in front flowerbed.

Campion

Raspberry Canes Sprouting

Plot Time: 10:30am - 14:00pm - 14:30pm - 17:00pm

Weather: Clear warm and sunny all day with intermittent cool winds.

Jobs Completed:

Planted a row of Lady Cristal potatoes
Tied in raspberry canes and composted dead canes
Removed over-wintered flowering rocket from greenhouse and reorganised space to accomodate new seed trays
Transplanted White Lisbon spring onions into deep pots
Sowed French Breakfast radishes, rocket and coriander
Watered asparagus bed to encourage more shoots
Bought a bag of Grow Organic fertiliser from allotment shop
Watered greenhouse plants and wildflower hill
Transplanted the remaining cucumbers into pots
Cut purple sprouting broccoli and small leek bunches for tea

Asparagus - still not had our first crop of the year from it but we’re nearly there

Asparagus tips in the sunshine

Raspberry canes

Spuds In

Weather: Overcast with the odd drizzle. Bright patches in late afternoon.

Cropped huge amounts of purple broccoli as it had really shooted after the week of sunshine we have just had. Gave some away to neighbours too as there was such a glut.

Jobs Completed:

Watered greenhouse seedlings.

Watered all outside seedlings, asparagus, strawberries and the wildflower hill.

Planted  row of Lady Cristal potatoes.

Planted three sedge plants and a vinca on the back hill that we had dug up from our back garden.

Cut back any dead raspberry canes and tied in any stragglers. Chopped canes into small pieces to compost.

Straightened poles that had become bent in storms that support raspberries.

Planted orange cosmos and purple lantern flower seed from dad.

Found s-hooks and replaced final pane in greenhouse

Potted on Tree spinach into plugs.

Continued edging beds with half moon 

Potted on cucumbers into individual pots and put in propogators in greenhouse.

Put some extra onion sets into trays in greenhouse.

Red Onion Sets in Greenhouse

White Lisbon Spring Onion Seedlings. We love how the little black seeds crown the new shoots. In a week these have sprouted a few inches.

Potted on Tree spinach into plugs and yes, this spinach really is pink :D

Plot Time: 10:30pm - 16:00pm 

Weather: Cold with rain all day.

Despite the weather we decided to go to the allotment today to tackle the back of our plot. It’s an area that as been neglected as it is on a steep hill. It was largely covered in thick nettle and bramble, some branches thicker than a 50p piece. Together we managed to cover most of it and take out a fair amount of the large weeds. There is still quite a lot to do.

Jobs Completed:

1 -On the back hill, cut bramble back to main stem and dig out by roots. Cut back nettle and dig out roots. Level bank with adze and rake. Discard weeds.

2 - We ‘righted’ the apple tree that had become lop sided in the storms and staked it again to stabilise it.

3 - Weeded raspberries and flowerbeds

4 - Cut herbs for cooking