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© Our Plot on Green Lane Allotments -
3 May
The rain that fell on several days this week was most welcome. It magically turned areas where our soil had become rock hard clay into a workable medium that we could dig, plant and weed.
The wind was far less welcome with some plants especially the cardoons suffering from the battering that it gave them. The broad beans plants are now leaning westwards. Hopefully a period of calm weather will see them right themselves.
A major activity this week has been the renovation of our dahlia bed. Two smaller beds have been merged into one and all the dahlias lifted and replanted. We leave the tubers to overwinter in the ground and some have been in place for at least six years. The resulting tubers were huge and so before replanting were split. This produced over 60 tubers to be replanted. The straw that had been used over the years to protect the tubers through winter had broken down and really improved the texture of the soil so we are now considering using straw mulches elsewhere on the plot.
The strawberry beds had been given a thorough weeding -
It seems it might be a good fruit year as fruit has set on our plums, greengages, cherry and gooseberries. Just hope that the trees and bushes won’t reject most of their embryo fruits during the June drop! The newly planted jostaberry has a few berries on just one of its branches – just enough to give us a taster! The kiwi although rampant shows no sign of fruit. Apparently it should be pruned in a similar way to a grape vine but after having planted it about three years ago – we have only just found out about this!
The parsnips seeds have germinated so well that they will soon need thinning out. On our site some have reported that they sowed last year’s seeds and have had a total failure -
Carrot seeds are germinating, as are the radish seeds.
The pea plants – Kelvedon Wonder – which had been growing on in our cold frame have now been planted out but as yet there are no signs of germination of the peas sown directly into the ground – it’s early days though!
The spring planted onion and shallot bed has been weeded and soil around the sets has been carefully loosened. On our soil failure to do this can lead to a hard surface crust developing. The sets are now growing well especially the shallots.
On the cut flower front – the sweet Williams are now budding so should soon be producing material for the vase.
Another flowering plant which is in full flower is the limnanthes or poached egg plant. I only planted six plants last year and in spite of weeding out quite a large number of self sown seedlings, they have produced a matt of self sown plants surrounding the bases of our shrub roses. The flowers should attract beneficial insects and keep the greenfly population down but sadly once the roses are in flower the poached egg flowers are over. I also read that it is a good idea to plant limnanthes under fruit trees to aid pollination but our fruit trees and limnanthes seem to come into flower at different times so I’m not sure how that works.
The herbs are growing well. The various types of mint are growing as only mint can. We planted some pineapple sage last year which was really lovely. It smelled just like pineapple and had flowers similar to lobelia cardinalis. I have a feeling that this hasn’t made it through the winter so I’ll have to look out for another plant this year!
We are still harvesting cabbage, purple sprouting broccoli and the spring onions that overwintered on the plot. These are however beginning to produce flower stems so their days are now numbered. The chives too are in bud. I know I should really remove these but, sorry, I just can’t bring myself to sacrifice the purple flower heads!
In the garden the major project continues to be the development of the bed alongside our greenhouse. The plants have now been removed and distributed. Some have been rehoused in our garden or other people’s gardens and others replanted on the plot or other people’s plots. We have an excess of soil in this area but removing some isn’t as easy as it may seem. Many years ago I bought a pretty little plant from an alpine nursery. I think it is a species of linaria or toadflax. Unfortunately the pretty little plant turned into a monster. It spreads like wildfire. Last year I spent hours teasing out any trace of the fleshy white root system from the soil only for the plant to reappear again at full strength this year. If the tiniest piece of root is overlooked it soon produces new plants. So the problem is what to do with soil that will undoubtedly have remnants of monster roots in it?
The speed of growth in the garden has quickened up a pace. The fern fronds and the hosta leaves continue to unfurl. Hopefully our hedgehog visitor may be tempted to snack on any slugs and snails that will undoubtedly soon become a problem. It loves dog mixer biscuits and the Golden Chorus bird food also much loved by every bird on the block. A really welcome addition to our flock of bird visitors is the song thrush which has been absent for quite a while. We now regularly spot one splashing about in one of our bird baths. Hopefully that too and the frogs will be unable to resist making a meal of the slimy pests.
The herbs are growing well. The various types of mint are growing as only mint can. We planted some pineapple sage last year which was really lovely. It smelled just like pineapple and had flowers similar to lobelia cardinalis. I have a feeling that this hasn’t made it through the winter so I’ll have to look out for another plant this year!
We are still harvesting cabbage, purple sprouting broccoli and the spring onions that overwintered on the plot. These are however beginning to produce flower stems so their days are now numbered. The chives too are in bud. I know I should really remove these but, sorry, I just can’t bring myself to sacrifice the purple flower heads!
In the garden the major project continues to be the development of the bed alongside our greenhouse. The plants have now been removed and distributed. Some have been rehoused in our garden or other people’s gardens and others replanted on the plot or other people’s plots. We have an excess of soil in this area but removing some isn’t as easy as it may seem. Many years ago I bought a pretty little plant from an alpine nursery. I think it is a species of linaria or toadflax. Unfortunately the pretty little plant turned into a monster. It spreads like wildfire. Last year I spent hours teasing out any trace of the fleshy white root system from the soil only for the plant to reappear again at full strength this year. If the tiniest piece of root is overlooked it soon produces new plants. So the problem is what to do with soil that will undoubtedly have remnants of monster roots in it?
The speed of growth in the garden has quickened up a pace. The fern fronds and the hosta leaves continue to unfurl. Hopefully our hedgehog visitor may be tempted to snack on any slugs and snails that will undoubtedly soon become a problem. It loves dog mixer biscuits and the Golden Chorus bird food also much loved by every bird on the block. A really welcome addition to our flock of bird visitors is the song thrush which has been absent for quite a while. We now regularly spot one splashing about in one of our bird baths. Hopefully that too and the frogs will be unable to resist making a meal of the slimy pests.
I have begun what will turn out to be the long drawn out task of repotting houseplants. We had a stephanotis growing in one of our bedrooms or should I more aptly call it our plant overwintering centre! Each time I looked in on it – it was winding its way around something or other and so I decided to rehouse it in the greenhouse and grow it up a suitable frame. On the way up to the greenhouse it was already winding its way around my leg. This has now been repotted and given a cane framework -
The long awaited raspberry Glencoe arrived this week. This is a new variety that produces deep purple fruit. It has been so popular that supplies ran out and so we had to wait for the supplier to produce more plants. The new arrival was only a small plant and so has been potted up to grown on.
Other arrivals have been a couple of collections of chrysanthemum plants which will hopefully provide cut flowers late in the year.
Not a great deal of seed sowing or pricking out this week -
By the way the hawthorn – May blossom is now out and so we can officially start to cast our clouts. The only problem is that at the moment they are cast they seem to need putting back on again!
10 May
The wind has been a problem this week. Although it has been sunny at times the would-
Large branches have been snapped from trees in the area – wind and fully leaved up trees just don’t sit well together. Our shed/den has also provided a useful retreat from the rain showers which other than wetting us and sending us running for shelter have done little to provide the plants with much needed water.
On the plot the highlight is the possibility that our kiwi plants are going to flower for the first time since we planted them. It’s not a hundred percent certainty but I spotted a few of what certainly look like flower buds. No guarantee of course that fruits will follow but at least we have a chance. The kiwi is a very vigorous grower and so we have had to strengthen its support and also do a bit of tying in. We haven’t pruned it yet as we probably should have and if it provides fruit this year we won’t!! Even without fruit it is well worth the garden space as its large velvety leaves just have to be stroked every time it is passed!
The other major task on the plot this week has been the planting up of two more fruit beds. We had quite a few small fruit bushes that had been produced from cuttings last year and these have now been planted into a permanent position. Some fruit has formed on the gooseberry bushes which we may well lose this year but we watered well and moved with a large ball of soil so maybe some will survive. We have gone for a mixed fruit bed approach containing jostaberries, gooseberries, whitecurrants, rhubarb and our newly arrived Glencoe raspberry.
The gladioli corms that had been stored overwinter have been cleaned off by removing, the old stem, the remains of last year’s corm and any baby bulbils and have been planted. The small bulbils will eventually grow into a new flower sized corm but it takes a long so we prefer to discard them.
Seeds sown directly on the plot this week were:
- Sunflower – Velvet Queen
- Escholotzia – Golden Value
- Radish – French Breakfast 2, Rainbow Mixed and Superb Yellow
- Spring Onion – Ishikuro & Guardsman
- Broad Bean – Bunyard’s Exhibition & Witkiem Manita
All seeds planted directly on the plot are given a good start by setting them in a shallow trench filled with compost which is thoroughly watered.
Also transferred to the salad bed were self sown Giant Red Mustard plants and some Blood Veined Sorrel. The sorrel had produced large plants with dock like roots and so these were split and replanted. They don’t exactly look a picture of health but if they are anything like the docks that they are related to no doubt they will recover and flourish. Into this bed I have also planted some celeriac seedlings that were passed on by my plot neighbour.
The pace of growth on the plot has increase with the broad beans and peas on flower (although the weevils have already had a bit of a nibble of the leaves), parsnips, carrots, radish and peas sown directly onto the plot are continuing to grow well and the spring onions have germinated. Our potatoes which may be a little behind some others on our site are growing well and will soon catch up. It would be good to have a blight free year but I guess that is too much to hope for.
Cuttings were taken of two types of sage – purple leaved and one with particularly large leaves growing on my neighbour’s plot (I did ask!) Sage plants tend to need replenishing every so often as they become a bit woody and the leaves seem to get smaller.
Flowering plants too are looking good with buds and blooms forming. I hope the bees appreciate our efforts. A gardening programme this week was extolling the merits of double flower varieties and the fact that these varieties don’t have pollen. It seems a shame to breed pollen-
The highlights in the garden this week have been the tree fern sending up new fronds exactly on cue. It sprung into growth at exactly the same time last year. Also the wisteria is in flower although ours isn’t as magnificent as some that I have seen in other people’s gardens.
The greenhouses are filling up in both the garden and on the plot. Tomato plants that will spend summer in the plot greenhouse have been moved into 5” pots and taken to the plot to grow on a little before permanent planting and the salad leaves being grown in the greenhouse border will soon be ready to harvest.
Sown in the garden greenhouse this week have been:
- Melon -
Gala & Tendral Negro Tardio - Kale -
Nero di Toscana - Cauliflower – Snowball, Kaleidoscope Mixed & Autumn Giant 3
- Sunflower -
Autumn Time & Cutting Mixed - Marigold – Naughty Marietta & Disco
- Seedlings pricked out:
- Cosmos – Versailles Palace
- Cucumber – Burpless Tasty Green
- Aubergine – Black Enorma
- Tomato -
Shirley & Moneymaker
Plants potted on:
Courgettes -
Squash -
Lettuce and marigolds have been moved to the cold-
17 May
This week has been a bit of a wash-
Each time we have ventured to the plot we have been rained off. On Sunday I managed to mulch 3 strawberry plants with straw and then the heavens opened and the rain set in for the rest of the afternoon.
At the beginning of the week I weeded amongst the onions and parsnip seedlings but by the end of the week the weeds had fought back and the onion bed looks just as bad as it was.
The rain does make weeding much easier though and so I also took the opportunity to clear a small area which had become infested with couch grass whilst the soil was damp I had a better chance of getting the entire root out.
The rain has revived the sad looking Blood Veined Sorrel that I planted in the salad bed. It now looks raring to grow just as I guessed it would. I dug up what remained of last year’s plants and this task confirmed the relationship between these plants and docks. Some roots were well on the way towards Australia!
The last beds have been rotavated which is another job that is better done when the soil has had some rain on it. Our clay soil goes rock hard when it is dry and doesn’t break down very easily when it is in that state.
On the negative side the rain seems to have brought out the slugs and our plot neighbours carrot seedlings were chomped off overnight as though by a miniature lawn mower.
In between rain showers I managed to plant out some cauliflower plants – Kaleidoscope
The potatoes which are now growing well have been earthed up. Some potatoes are in a bed that was treated last year with the dreaded contaminated manure so it will be a good test of whether the soil has recovered. The Sarpo Mira potatoes seem to be slower to get going so these have still to be earthed.
We have sown more peas -
At least work in the greenhouse doesn’t have to stop for rain although we have to put up with the occasional drip down the back of the neck. Some nemesia and mesembryanthemums have been pricked out which is maybe a bit late but they will catch up.
We also pricked out lettuce – Little Gem & Iceberg.
Also in the greenhouse we sowed salad leaves – Tuscany Baby Salad Leaves & Provence Mixed and runner beans – Desiree (white flowered), Enorma (scarlet flowered) & Lady Di (red flowered.
In between rain showers I managed to plant out some cauliflower plants – Kaleidoscope
The potatoes which are now growing well have been earthed up. Some potatoes are in a bed that was treated last year with the dreaded contaminated manure so it will be a good test of whether the soil has recovered. The Sarpo Mira potatoes seem to be slower to get going so these have still to be earthed.
We have sown more peas -
At least work in the greenhouse doesn’t have to stop for rain although we have to put up with the occasional drip down the back of the neck. Some nemesia and mesembryanthemums have been pricked out which is maybe a bit late but they will catch up.
We also pricked out lettuce – Little Gem & Iceberg.
Also in the greenhouse we sowed salad leaves – Tuscany Baby Salad Leaves & Provence Mixed and runner beans – Desiree (white flowered), Enorma (scarlet flowered) & Lady Di (red flowered.
A few ornamental gourd seeds were sown in individual pots.
The penstemon cuttings that I took last year have been planted in the garden.
The medlar tree is in flower. It has a few more flowers than last year – its first year – and so maybe we will get more medlars and a better idea of what they taste like.
Most things in the garden are now growing well – thankfully the slugs and snails haven’t yet found the hostas which are looking really good. I guess it is just a matter of time.
The ferns are really some of the stars of the garden at the moment.
As the rain kept me in for more time than I would have liked I got out the paints and have painted a number plaque for the shed. Next door’s plot has one and a weather vane so I decided to join in and try and keep up with the Sunderlands.
On Monday we had a gardening break and chose a good day for it – we visited Clumber Park and its walled kitchen garden. The garden is in the early stages of renovation and as it is also early in the season they were still planting up. They had some plants growing that looked just like the garlic that we planted over winter in the greenhouse. It has wider leaves than the other garlic that we grow but as we planted cloves that we bought for cooking when in France last year we had no idea of which variety it was. The plants at Clumber Park were labelled Rocambole so now we wonder whether that is what we have planted – if so it is a hard necked garlic that doesn’t keep as long as the soft necked variety. We will have to wait and see.
Nearly all the trees are fully clothed and the countryside at the moment is that really special fresh green that I love. It’s just a pity that the masses of fields of oil-
24 May 2009
This week has been a very mixed week weatherwise when we have been dashing between heavy showers one minute and basking in sunshine the next; in many ways ideal growing conditions.
At the beginning of the week it was too rainy to garden so I recovered some old kitchen chairs to use in the shed. Not trying for the homes and gardens award, it was necessary as the seat covering was splitting and I had visions of something deciding to make a nest inside the seat. The royal we spent the day under the car port making a bench for the shed. This was fixed in place the following day.
I managed to finish off mulching the strawberry beds. There are lots of young fruits so I am hoping that wet weather later doesn’t turn the resulting berries to mush and that we enjoy a bumper crop. All round it looks to be a promising year for fruit with lots of young fruits on apples, plums, gages, redcurrants and gooseberries. The newly planted jostaberry has just a few fruits – maybe enough to give us an idea of things to come. The whitecurrant plants taken from cuttings last year are doing well but the blackcurrants look to be struggling. I think an aphid attack could be responsible. Aphids are also attacking the plum and gage trees. We applied one white wash treatment but the weather prevented a second application and the aphid seem to have managed to slip in under the radar.
Although the blood veined sorrel has revived I am not really convinced that it will be allowed to remain as it looks as though it is more likely to send up flower spikes than young leaves to add to the salad.
In the salad bed the radish and spring onions have germinated and I have sown a row of carrots-
The Sarpo Mira potatoes have now been earthed up and the rest of the potatoes are growing well. Evidence that last year’s spectre of the contaminated manure is not yet fully put behind us is the fact that sprouts from potato tubers accidentally left in the soil are showing signs of herbicide poisoning (click here for more information).
A mixture of winter brassicas, autumn cabbage-
Also planted were some turnip – Aramis. These were planted fairly close together as we intend to harvest them when they reach somewhere between golf ball and tennis ball size.
The broad beans – Bunyards Exhibition & Witkiem Manita that were sown directly into the ground a couple of weeks ago are now coming through as are the peas-
The two new grapevines Boskoop Glory & Madeleine Sylvaner that arrived this week have been potted up. Initially we were rather worried as they showed no sign of a bud or leaf but on reading the accompanying leaflet we learned that they have been kept in cold storage to prevent growth so that the were less likely to suffer damage in the post. So fingers crossed that they will soon show signs of life.
Tomatoes – Shirley, All blacks, Yellow Perfection, Brandywine, Rainbow Beefsteak, Gardeners’ Delight, Amish Paste, Roma, Japanese Trifle Black & Moneymaker have been planted into large grow bags in the garden greenhouse. We are trying the larger growbags in combination with a grow pot ring culture system. These are green rings that sit on top of the growbag into which the tomatoes are planted..They are supposed to improve drainage, and give the roots a greater depth of soil so we will see if they make a difference.
Squash – Turk’s Turban were potted on and more nemesias were pricked out.
We also sowed red cabbage – Ruby Ball, a second variety of sweetcorn – Honey Bantam and climbing French beans -
In the plot green house more tomatoes have been planted but this time straight into the borders which have been improved by adding bags of compost. When all the tomatoes have been planted we will have the same varieties in here as in the greenhouse in the garden.
In the garden the area alongside the greenhouse has now been complete and is ready for the tubs of summer bedding that will brighten up this are in a few weeks.
A new filter for the garden pond has been installed which will hopefully clear up the murky water.
Lots of shrubs were beginning to outgrow the space allocated to them and so we carried out some rather severe pruning.
Other than all that there has been lots and lots of weeding with lots more still to do!
31 May
This week we have actually had a taste of summer. We made the most of this and had a BBQ – well more like an outdoor meal with our plot neighbours. In one week, we also managed to beat last year’s total of times that we were able to sit out and enjoy meals and snacks in the garden.
It is all or nothing with our weather as we are now busy spending lots of time watering plants to ensure that the results of our efforts don’t just shrivel up.
At the beginning of the week we planted out the first of our French Beans – Delinel. Of course straight after this it was really windy and the poor plants got quite a battering. Some plants had their leaves ripped off completely leaving just the stems. We have left them as they may just recover and by the end of the week some new growth was apparent so we will just have to wait and see what happens.
Lettuce – Balloon and salad leaves – Provence Mixed, were also planted out and unlike the French beans are growing well. The salad leaves that were planted in the plot greenhouse are now providing us with plenty of greenery for our salads. We pick a mixture of salad leaves and herbs to create our own salad mixture which is much tastier than the supermarket packs and is also fresher.
The mixture of beetroot varieties and carrots, sown last week in the salad bed, has now germinated. We had acquired a couple of packets of salad leaves to add to our collection. One packet was courtesy of the National Trust and simply labelled Mixed Salad Leaves and the other was a freebie from a local garden centre. The latter was Saladisi Mixed which contained packets of chicory, lettuce Valmaine and a myriad of other things so it will be interesting to see just what develops.
Courgettes – Zucchini, Floridor & Clarita were planted out and runner beans-
Two varieties of sweet peas – Kings Mixture & Perfume Delight have been planted also using cane wigwams as support. Unlike beans, which will wind their stems around the canes, the sweet peas cling using tendrils and so wire netting has been wrapped around the cane structures to enable the growing plants to climb effectively. As the sweet peas are just intended to supply colour and perfume to the house and garden we don’t bother removing tendrils. Other than us continuously gathering flowers and dead heading, the plants are just left to do their own thing.
Chrysanthemum plants that will hopefully provide cut flowers late in the season have been potted into large pots which have been sunk into the ground. The plan is to lift the plants and move them into the greenhouse where they should flower late in the year. I just have to remember to disbud them in order to achieve some larger flowers.
Sweet Williams are providing cut flowers at the moment – they are in many ways a remnant of childhood days and not only look good in a vase but have a delicate perfume too.
Adding to the colour on the plot are the centranthus and foxgloves – much loved by the bees. One bee was spotted actually snoozing in one of the foxglove bells. The shrub roses are also beginning to bloom.
The treat of the week was the harvesting of our first potatoes and carrots of the year. Both were started in the garden greenhouse in pots and planters. The potatoes – Belle de Fontenay when first tipped out of the pot looked a bit disappointing but there was enough for several helpings hidden in the compost. The carrots – Ideal Baby Red, are perfect baby sized and delicious.
The grapevines that arrived last week have thankfully started to shoot even though they seemed lifeless when unpacked.
New arrivals this week were the hellebores that were ordered earlier. On unpacking I was a little disappointed as I had particularly wanted single varieties. Instead I received five singles and six doubles. The company explained that they had difficulties propagating the singles and so had substituted one collection using double varieties. As it was one of those ‘buy a collection, get another free’ and the double collection were brand new varieties which were more expensive than the singles I didn’t have grounds for complaint but I do much prefer the singles.
In the garden greenhouse the Aubergines -
A major task in the garden was the replacement of the pond filter. We also severely cut back some climbing plants, mainly ivy, honeysuckle and garrya that were threatening to take over.
The flower beds which earlier looked so sparsely populated are now really filling up leaving me to wonder whether we will have room for the plants that are still waiting to be planted out.
As May becomes just a memory I wonder if that was summer 2009.
