Friday 1 May 2015

A tour around the allotment - part 2

So last week I took some photos on my day off on Wednesday, and shared my Allotment Tour Part 1. Now it's time for Part 2! The photos are from the same day so things've changed a bit since then but you get the idea.

Continuing around the far end, in my fruity area, I have a lovely red gooseberry bush (one of the first things I bought for the plot) you can see the pretty flowers here. It's covered in them! I'm not very diligent when it comes to pruning and tend to let it just grow all over the place. This does make picking the fruit tricky as the branches are very thorny, so I stick a load of canes or sticks into the ground and tie the branches to them, trying to space the branches out so I can reach through easier.
Red dessert gooseberry
I actually have 6 gooseberry bushes! The red one which I bought, a green one given to me by a friend at work (which over the winter I moved slightly and split into two plants) and 3 green ones from a plot neighbour, which I've put in along one of my boundaries. I think they're all dessert varieties, they're very sweet anyway.
In this photo you can see one near the base of the large redcurrant bush (centre) - this is one I moved and split as it was even closer to the currant before. The red gooseberry is just to the left of this. Next to the red gooseberry is a row of 3 different blueberry varieties that I bought last year.
Here's one of the blueberries, it has loads of flowers but the leaves are a bit red which I think I means it's not that happy, I probably need to increase the acidity of the soil around it more as blueberries like low pH. I have given them some mixed leafmold mulch and I only water with rainwater but I should try and find some pine leafmold or something.
Next up is one of my 'U' shaped raised beds, made out of pallets. Across one side of my plot there's a steep slope, so I made these to try and level it up. They're 3 pallets wide all the way round, with a space one pallet wide, two pallets deep, in the middle of the U. I have two of these U beds facing each other. They're a few years old now and starting to rot, plus the couch grass has got into the beds, so at some point I'll need to do something different here. They've been good while they lasted though.
In this piccie are some short rows of brassicas I've just sown, to transplant elsewhere later on. There's already some couch grass poking through, darn. To the left is where I've had most of my over wintered chard, leeks and corn salad, under some environmesh.
Here you can see the change in height, I'm standing in the lowest spot.
Just to left are two small beds of garlic, where I had my early potatoes last year. Today I moved the enviromesh over these to protect them from leek moth caterpillars
And beside that is my new hugel bed, currently under plastic. I've made it in a natural dip: first a layer of small logs from the buddliea cuttings, then smaller sticks, then bramble leafmold, then old compost from the tomatoes at home. I took photos as I went along, so will share them another time. I'm going to plant two squshes in it this year.
Up in one of my U beds I've left a couple of parsnips to go to seed. The flowers will be good for wildlife first and maybe I'll get self sown parsnips too. Under the enviromesh behind is most of my overwintered brassicas (mainly PSB and kale)
Here you can see it from the other side, near the top of my plot. I have a bramble hedge all the way down the left (East) side which produces lots of tasty blackberries for free!

Behind me are the two dwarf Apple trees I showed last time, here they are again as a reminder

I could go even more but that's enough for now, I hope you enjoyed Part 2 of the tour!

 

10 comments:

  1. What a lovely post, I do like a look round other people's allotments! You've got loads of wonderful things growing there, let's hope there's a good harvest this year. I always end up being scratched all up my arms when it't time to pick the gooseberries. Have a good weekend. CJ xx

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    1. Thanks CJ, it looks a bit neater since these pics too as I've been cutting the grass :)
      Ooch, yes I have a big scratch from the other day, all in the name of fresh fruit!

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  2. Oh dear so you have ;leek moth - do you have allium leaf miner to? I usually give my gooseberries a good prune in autumn and take out the centre bits, Picking is still a bit scratchy but not as bad.

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    1. Hi sue, yeh we've had leek moth for a few years unfortunately but not leaf miner as far as I'm aware.
      I should really prune the gooseberries but I always think 'ooh I might get some good fruit on that branch'! Pulling the branches outwards and tying them in to a cane does help but the tying in process is scratchy too :/

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  3. My last garden was on a mild slope like you have. I had half raised beds where one side was raised and the other was the height of the path. It is so much easier here where things are mostly flat. It has just enough slope to let the water run off, but not anymore than that.

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    1. Yes, it's a shame my wood has rotten now as the beds have worked well, (apart from couch grass getting in) similar to your old ones - on the slopey side they're several slats deep but only one or two on the path side. The wood was from pallets so it was free too, which is always good.
      I think I might just repair them this year and then decide what I'm going to do with them in the long run.

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  4. You have so many fruits happening in your allotment...how wonderful! I've just planted up apples, a peach, raspberry and blackberry. Can't wait for some fruit but I'll have to be patient, I guess! I didn't realize that there were two types of gooseberries. I've never actually tried them, so it's good to know what to look for when I do.

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    1. Thanks Margaret, yes it's great having so much fruit especially when it's so expensive in the shops. Last year I had to make lots of sugary preserves but this year I have a bigger freezer so can just freeze them straight. I usually give away a lot of fresh fruit too.
      Mmm, hope your new fruit plants settle in well, you might be surprised at how soon you can start picking, maybe this year for the raspberry and blackberry? Yep, with gooseberries there's dessert varieties that are sweet and cooking varieties that are more tart, and then middling ones as well I think, a bit like apples. I like the sweet ones anyway :)

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  5. I created my hugel bed in the fall of 2013 for use last year which was planted with squash (all went very well). But I had used a lot of mulch (straw) and not a very thick layer of soil and the straw broke down over this past winter so the logs in some spots were exposed. No big deal, I'll just throw some more soil on it but it was good to see that some of the logs see some signs of decomposing underneath.

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    1. That's good to know Susie, I'm hoping to up my squash harvest this year, and am trying to figure out as many spots as possible on my plot to grow them.

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