Saturday, 22 July 2017

Where's Summer Gone

We haven’t visited the plot for the last couple of days as the weather hasn’t been up to much. Whilst much of the country has suffered flash flooding and wet weather we’ve somehow managed to miss nearly all the rain. We have had a little bit of rain on Saturday morning maybe just enough to avoid watering the plot for a couple of days.

 

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I always find it a bit odd when there’s a need to water the plot when the weather is cold and damp. Still the forecast is for more rain over the weekend so we may be able to spend more time harvesting and doing a few other jobs that need to be tackled but have been put on hold to allow us to keep the plot watered.

 

Back in spring when I sowed our tomato seeds one of the packets contained a rogue seed which not only germinated before the tomato seeds but grew much quicker.

 

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17 April 2017

 

Intrigued to find out what this seedling was it was potted on and it’s been growing slowly in the greenhouse all summer.

 

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04 May 2017

 

It needed potting on weeks ago but I’ve never got round to doing it. It’s now doing its best to make me feel guilty by flowering. I really will have to find time to move it on into a larger pot.

 

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22 July 2017

 

I had my suspicions when it germinated that it might have been a Morning Glory seedling, in which case it probably didn't arrive in the seed packet but somehow a seed from one of our old plants must have got into the compost. At least I didn’t throw it away in April when it germinated amongst the tomato seeds.

 

Monday, 24 July 2017

Some Rain and Brexit Cucumbers

The weekend finally saw us get a drop of very welcome rain. Almost equal amounts on both Saturday and Sunday saw 14.6mm (0.57in) of much needed rainfall to water the garden and allotment.

 

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Temperature & Rainfall Details 21-23 July 2017

 

It should give us a welcome break from watering.

 

We had a visit to the allotment on Saturday afternoon after the morning's rainfall. It was a sort of a pottering around afternoon for me picking a few things, a little bit of tidying up, and watering the greenhouse tomatoes. By the end of the afternoon we had amassed quite a harvest between us.

 

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I found two Burpless Tasty Green cucumbers in the greenhouse when I was watering in there.

 

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These are our first cucumbers of the season and by their curvy shapes they've obviously heard about Brexit and don't feel the need to grow straight anymore. Has anyone got that variety that grows perfectly straight and in a plastic wrapping?

 

Our full harvesting for the day can be found on this web page.

 

Thursday, 27 July 2017

First Bed Cleared

Our early brassicas are finished and I've started to clear the bed. The brassicas grown in this bed through spring and early summer were bought as plug plants from DT Brown and consisted of cabbage "Regency", calabrese "Aquiles" and cauliflower "Helsinki". I've been very pleased with the results and will be growing them again next year. The plants arrived at the end of March and were initially potted up and left to grow on in the cold frame for a few weeks. I've included my notes below of the growing and harvesting details of the brassicas.

 

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Cold frame 10 April 2017

 

The plants were planted out in the allotment when they'd got well established in their pots and they were covered with environmesh to protect them from aphid attack if possible.

 

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Planted Out On 01 May 2017

 

They were kept reasonably well watered through our very dry spring and early summer weather. All three varieties have cropped very well allowing us to have some fresh "greens" from the beginning of June until the end of July. They've been completely pest free which I must admit is unusual for our plot.

 

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Calabrese "Aquiles"

 

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Cauliflower "Helsinki"

 

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Cabbage "Regency"

 

All the brassica tops have been cut down and composted. I've still to dig up the roots which I'll inspect for any signs of club root but I suspect that given the way the plants have grown that this bed is free of club root. I'll check for signs all the same.

 

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Once the roots are removed the weed control fabric will be left in place over winter and rotated around next spring in line with the 4 year plan for this part of the plot.

 

Friday, 28 July 2017

In Defence of "Malwina"

The weather's been very mixed over the last week or so. At least the rain means we are no longer having to water the allotment apart from the tomatoes in the greenhouse of course.

 

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Temperature & Rainfall Records 22-28 July 2017

 

I've seen "Malwina" strawberries getting a bit of a bad press on social media as they're prone to producing strange misshapen fruits. However, over the couple of years we've been growing this variety we haven't had any problems. We consider them to be our tastiest strawberry.

 

Our "Malwinas" were planted in April 2015. They were planted through weed control fabric and to be honest have been given minimal attention since. Obviously weeding around the plants hasn't been a problem and through this spring's dry spell they didn't get watered.

 

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Strawberry "Malwina" planted on 23 April 2015

 

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Strawberry "Malwina" are the 2 rows on the left in this photo taken on 02 June 2017

 

Today I discovered our first misshapen fruit. It was a small fruit but looked pretty odd with leaves growing out of the end of the strawberry.

 

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But in defence of 'Malwina' I have to say that last year it produced 4.42kg (9.7lb) of superb fruits with no miss shapes, as far as I can remember, and this year another 4.24kg (9.3lb) of equally high quality fruit which tastes delicious.

 

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Strawberry "Malwina"

 

If our plants are anything to go by then the misshapen fruits are produced at the end of their fruiting season as the fruits become smaller. We certainly won't be replacing our 'Malwina' strawberries because of the production of these occasional strange berries.

 

Sunday, 30 July 2017

Exotics Are Nearly Ready

The fine settled weather of late spring and early summer has well and truly disappeared leaving us with a very unsettled mixture of sunshine and showers. There seems to be no signs of a quick return to summer.

 

In the greenhouse what I'd like to think of as our "exotics" are in some cases looking ready to pick. Our nectarines and peaches look as though we should be thinking about giving them a taste test at least.

 

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Peach - "Avalon Pride"

 

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Nectarine - "Fantasia"

 

In the past we've tried to grow melons in the greenhouse but with very limited success. As we hadn't tried to grow any for the last few years we decided to have another go this year.

 

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Melon - "Emir"

 

It's looking more promising than in the past as we have at least one decent sized fruit already. I noticed on closer inspection that there are a couple more tiny green fruitlets so we may finish up with more than just the one melon. I can't image us being in the position of having to decide if we need to remove some fruits to allow others to grow on into larger specimens.

 

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Fig "Brown Turkey"

 

Our "Brown Turkey" fig which is growing in a large pot was moved out of the greenhouse a couple of years ago now. It never produced anything more than a handful of fruits in the greenhouse and we decided to move it outside and see if it did any better. It's got a reasonable crop of figs on it this year so it's a question of seeing if they will ripen. I think the next crop of figs are just starting to form on the tree but I'm not expecting them to produce a crop before colder weather arrives in autumn.

 

I'll be very happy if we manage one or two home grown nectarines, peaches, figs, and melons to add to the apricots we've already harvested this year.

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer

This weather site is operated as an amateur weather station site and should not be used as official data. I make every effort to ensure my data is as accurate as possible but I cannot guarantee that the data meets the requirements of the Meteorological Office or other professional weather monitoring organisations.

©M Garrett 2016