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!