Autumn

The picture on the left shows my plot with a few things still to harvest - parsnips, beetroot, carrots, cabbages, sprouts. The parsnips are a very funny shape - due no doubt to the plot not being dug before planting them. The ground has been so hard that the tops spread out but the roots were very constricted. However, they are delicious, as are the carrots (quite different to what can be bought) and the beetroot. When the carrots, parsnips and beetroot come out I will finish manuring then digging that plot.
I said a little while ago that I was intending to plant apple trees, and would try to train them as cordons. Well, I've put up the posts, (photo on right) but not yet the wires to train them on, and ordered 3 trees, which will be delivered bare-rooted in November. They are a Bramley clone 20 (ie 20% less vigorous than a Bramley) a Sunset (an eater like Cox but much easier to grow) and an Adam's Pearmain, which should pollinate both.
Until then I shall continue digging, and I've just planted some white onion sets, through black polythene as before, which seemed to work well. I've also moved some of the green netting, to the plot on which I shall grow legumes (peas, beans etc) next year. That has already been dug then covered with chippings to keep the weeds down over winter.

Winter is coming - or is it?

The weather should be cooling off now, as October rapidly approaches, but the temperature is going up and up - high 20s by the end of the week apparently. Which makes a bit of a joke of my starting to prepare for winter. I limed another of my mini-plots, covered it with chippings and then dug it. Hopefully this will improve the soil structure but not add too much in the way of nutrients, and the lime will bring the pH up a bit, which is just what I need for brassicas next year. (The pH was about 6.5 prior to this, i.e. just on the acid side. It should now be about 7.) Then another coating of chippings to keep the weeds down over winter, and it will be ready to go next spring. Yet another barrow-load of flints came out.....

This Sunday, October 2, I am going down to Keeper's Nursery at East Farleigh in Kent. (It's their Open Day, otherwise it's by appointment only. The owner, his wife and son came to our local gardening club last week to give a most interesting talk on growing fruit.) They have one of the largest collections of fruit trees in the country - 450 different apples, plus pears, cherries, quinces and medlars - including a lot of old varieties, which they propagate themselves by grafting, and I hope to order some for delivery bare-rooted in November/December. I shall in the meantime put up a couple of posts with wires in between along the north side of my plot, and shall try to train the trees as cordons.

Other jobs for the weekend : continue harvesting - we had some sweetcorn last weekend which were quite different to what you can buy (memo to self : plant more next year, and get them in earlier!), also bring in some more manure for my potato mini-plot next year, and put more slug pellets down round my lettuces!!

Last Saturday was our local Horticultural Society's Autumn show. I entered several classes but only won one - the raspberries. Most of the classes, and the 'Best in show', and the cup for best overall vegetables, were won by George - also an allotmenteer - with some splendid entries, including some red cabbages about a foot across and with no caterpillar holes at all. He reckons that he's never grown vegetables before, so what will happen next year when he has some experience is anybody's guess!

I've just been harvesting recently - beans, onions, potatoes, beetroot, courgettes etc - so not much to report. However, I've now dug over one of my mini-plots ready for next spring. I added about 25 barrows of horse manure (mixed with stable chippings) first, which was about 4", then dug it in. Next I will put on a couple of inches of shredded bark and leave over winter. The plot is for legumes next year, so hopefully it will be more fertile, and the soil structure should be a LOT better. I shall put manure on another of my mini-plots and dig it in for potatoes next year, the third will get general purpose fertiliser and the fourth will be limed for brassicas. Needless to say, I got a lot of flints out whilst digging, but the ground was moist so it wasn't as difficult as it might have been.

My wife and I went to Wisley yesterday - the headquarters of the Royal Horticultural Society - where everything is of course done to an exceptional standard. No chance of competing with that, but it did give us some ideas. I want to put some wires up along two sides of the plot, and train some fruit trees up them. Very decorative, a bit of a wind break, and high yielding too. And we also bought some hessian sacks to keep the glut of potatoes in....

An unexpected bonus

If you look carefully at the photo, you will see a lot of white specks on the netting. These are weed seeds, and the netting has stopped them landing on my plot, hurrah!

A tatty harvest from my tatty plot

This is one root of Kestrel, my First Early potatoes. I've now dug all of my Second Earlies (Lady Christl), as they died off quickly and some had slug damage. The first earlies are only now dying off, and have had no slug damage. However, some have had scab, but as you can see from these, this is very minor.
I also planted out some more lettuce this week - which were promptly eaten by our slugs - and some cabbages for the winter. I've covered these with the mesh cloches that I used over the first cabbages that I planted out, and which are now large enough to look after themselves. And I've put some more slug pellets down!
Apart from that it's been the usual weeding - neverending - and harvesting:- beetroot, French beans, courgettes, onions etc.

Wind

Our allotment site is very exposed - we are after all right on the top of the North Downs, and adjacent to a large open field - so it struck me that a bit of wind protection would be useful. I cut up a few unwanted steel poles to 135cm lengths, and drove those into the corners of a couple of my mini-plots. My niece very kindly gave me a length of 1 metre wide mesh as a birthday present, so I've strung this between the posts using galvanised wire. There was a bit of a breeze up at the plot this morning, which was quite noticeable standing up in each area, but crouching down the difference was great - practically no wind, just a gentle zephyr. Hopefully this will help the more tender crops get a good start.

Help! I need a vegetable doctor.

Although some of my vegetables have done well, some (as I said a while ago) have not. I sowed two rows of white onion sets, and next to them two rows of red onion sets, both through holes cut into black plastic. They have both had the same watering, fertiliser etc, but whereas the white onions are excellent, the red onions are miserable and have died off. Why?? I could believe that it's because the red onions are faster maturing - but the bulbs are pathetically small.

Awaiting black gold

I made this compost bin from some pallets that a friend gave me. It's actually two bins side by side, and the first is very nearly full already! The second has a few potatoes growing in it - the remnants of what I planted - so I'll have to dig those up before using it. I'm using whatever weeds come to hand - and there are lots of them - together with alternate layers of horse manure. Hopefully, by the time it comes to digging over the plot, this will be black gold. We are extremely lucky to have a 'community composting site' in the village, where anyone can take green waste, and this will be moving to the plots over the course of the next year, but until then (at least) I need to make my own.



We nearly have water on the plots now. We have
the containers, and they have been connected to
the water pipe. Now we need to connect the other end of the pipe to the mains, and put ball valves
etc on the containers. Of course, it hasn't stopped
raining since this part of the project was started...

More produce

As usual, all of my lettuces have come on at the same time, so there's a glut. Anyone for salad? I've planted more seed, and have some more coming along nicely at home.

We tried some of the second early potatoes - Lady Christl - which have a lovely texture (they'll be great in salads) but not as much taste as the Kestrel. Also tried some beetroot, which were quite wonderful, and some pak choi in a stir fry. Most things are growing quickly now, but for some reason the potatoes don't look happy, and the shallots have just given up. Never mind - I shall be digging in a lot of muck and compost this autumn, so we'll see what next year brings.

And then there were three

With my garden vouchers I bought another couple of mesh cloches, so that should save my cabbages and brussels from the dreaded large white butterfly!

Happy birthday

It was my birthday yesterday, and among the presents I was given were a wheelbarrow (light variety for easy wheeling) and a ten foot long mesh cloche, which will keep all but the most determined pests off of my cabbages etc. With some garden vouchers that I also received, I shall buy 2 more.

We also painted our containers yesterday, a nice shade of green to make them blend in. And I dug a few more potatoes - excellent!

Slugs - I hate 'em

I knew that something was eating my plants, but this evening I caught them in the act - it was wet and warm. There were 7 slugs on one French bean plant alone, and plenty of them on my other French beans etc. So, much against the ethos of the allotments - which is to be as organic as possible - I have put slug pellets out. It's them or us!

First harvest

I dug a couple of potatoes today. As expected, not much underneath - it's been too dry and the ground has been too hard. However, there were lots of very small spuds - Kestrel, first earlies - so things are happening, and they were very tasty!

More rain - and more planting

Good - another day of rain, which has left the ground workable. I planted out some sweetcorn and some cabbages, the sweetcorn protected by a wide mesh to keep off the pigeons and rabbits (maybe) and the cabbages under a very fine mesh to keep off the butterflies. So now I only have some more cabbages and sprouts to plant out later - or at least that's the plan.

What is this wet stuff falling from the sky?

At last, some useful rain - about 30mm on Sunday, with a bit more today, and some more promised. I've just planted another row of carrots (the first lot didn't germinate, despite watering it most days) and another row of beetroot. And at least one of my early potatoes has a flower on it, so in a week or so I shall investigate to see if anything is underneath - probably not, given the weather to date!

Stopping the pests

We have several pests - pigeons, rabbit and deer amongst them. We will be applying for a grant for a deer/rabbit proof fence, but until that time, there are lots of different ways of discouraging them.

STILL no rain

The Met Office has confirmed that not only has this spring (March, April, May) been the warmest on record, it has also (in the Southeast at least) been the driest for at least 100 years. And no prospect of any in the near future either! Needless to say, whenever I go up the allotments, there is a queue for the water.... Things might be moving here though. We have had 3 big tanks delivered, and soon (we are told) we will be connected to the mains. Of course, on the day that happens, the heavens will open!

First fruits and a small success

My plot neighbour Mike has just harvested some radishes, and further away Jon has cut a lettuce - success!





One of my other neighbours was a very reluctant allotmenteer - his wife was very enthusiastic though and started him off as he's never gardened before. So there was much grumbling initially. However, he came up to me the other day and said excitedly "My potatoes have come through". A convert!

Only the weeds have grown....

After my 10 days away, I went up to the allotment today, but only the weeds have grown much. Having said that, not much of what I planted out has died - although the pak choi seedlings have been seriously affected by flea beetle - so that's not too bad, given that it's been very largely dry, albeit with a cold wind, since we went away. And on Thursday there was hail and a gale

Holidays

No more blogs for a couple of weeks - we are off on holiday to Russia

I've now planted everything out - it will have to take its chances, although we have still had no more rain, and the forecast is dry.....

No more rain!

Apart from the odd shower a week ago, we've had no rain for well over a month. I just hope it rains next week - lots - because we are off on holiday and it won't get watered. I've planted out some lettuces, and planted seeds of Brussels sprouts and cabbage. Hopefully, with a bit of rain, they will come up whilst we're away.

Planting out

This evening I planted out courgettes and climbing French beans. Too soon? Maybe, but we are going on holiday next week, and I wanted them out before that - they were all well grown plants - so we'll have to hope there's no frost.

Rhubarb!

Today I planted 3 rhubarb crowns, variety 'Stockbridge'. I have 'Timperley Early' at home, so hopefully we will get a succession. Mind you, my wife always pulls the first rhubarb when it's about 2 inches long, so the more the merrier!

Rain at last!

We eventually had a couple of showers on Friday night, and a little more last night. Better than nothing - and everything has really responded well - but we need more, a lot more!









Here is a close-up view of our steel containers. We will be painting them soon, and the roof will be used for collecting water.















Everyone has different ideas on this new site - so anyone that has a good idea is immediately the focus of attention. (Much of the time spent tending the plot seems to be leaning on a fork chatting to the neighbours!) Some people took advantage of an offer made by a local resident to rotavate their plots (for a price) whilst others have relied on the more backbreaking traditional methods. I started on mine before the offer was made, so it's all been done the hard way.

One thing most plots have in common is a seat - but usually not as elaborate as this one!

This is what our new allotments looked like at the beginning of April 2011.

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And this is what they look like today.

In the distance are 2 steel containers for storing tools etc. Our chairman has also put up a gate, and buried a water pipe in a trench, ready for when it will be connected to the mains. In the meantime, we have a number of water butts on site - essential since we have had no rain since the allotments were started at the beginning of April. Tatsfield had allotments (I am told) until 1961, when they were abandoned due to lack of interest. Not so today - there are 60 plots, 40 of them 10 metres by 10 metres, 4 triangular plots at the edge of the site of about 150 square metres, and the remainder 4.5 x 4.5 metres, ie a quarter plot. Even the largest plots are not as big as a traditional allotment, which was about 250 square metres, but they are all manageable. Also on site will be (probably from October) Tatsfield's very own community composting site, where any member of the village can bring compostable waste, and receive for a small donation a bag of black gold. This has been in operation elsewhere in the village for a number of years. All of the plots have been allocated to Tatsfield residents; there is a waiting list of non-Tatsfield residents but there are no more plots available.

On Monday we had two more deliveries of well-rotted stable manure - great stuff for those who were too late for the first delivery!

I decided to split my plot into five - 4 squarish plots for a 4- year rotation, plus a strip along one egde for more permanent stuff like rhubarb and apples. So far I have planted potatoes on two plots (mainly to break up the soil) and onions and seeds (beetroot, parsnips, pak choi) on a third. The fourth has been dug and covered with very well rotted manure, to plant out lettuce, french beans and (eventually) brassicas. Yes, I know they like un-manured ground, but the soil is so hard (we've had no rain for 6 weeks) that I had to do something! So far, the potatoes have shown through, and some of the seeds have germinated.

Muck, Glorious Muck

There were two huge deliveries of well rotted manure on Saturday morning, by Sunday morning it was spread over the allotments. If you weren't quick, you missed out. My plot took 35 barrows.