What with everything 'springing' into growth (ho ho) I thought I'd have a little update on some of the things happening at the plot....
There are a LOT of strawberries coming, here's the bed where I use stones as a mulch
There's also loads of redcurrants
Gooseberries...(I've tied in the branches to make it easier to pick the fruit later, plus they were getting heavy and drooping on the soil)
Black currants...
Apples on my dwarf trees (A lot of these will fall off)
And quite a few saskatoons
My autumn sown broad beans are podding up. You can just make out one of my nibbled radishes in the middle, boo to the naughty slugs and snails who made the most of the weeds to hide in (I've since weeded and got rid of the said slugs n snails)
Here's the rows
And my spring broad beans are coming along, I gave them a windbreak on the windy side recently but will remove it soon
My garlics are yellowing, I think I might try lifting one or two to see what they're like, it seems a bit early for them to be ready?
Main crop potatoes and onions on the left. These onions I haven't covered but have been sprinkling Rosemary and marjoram trimmings between them to distract the pests (not sure if this will work)
More maincrop potatoes, mulching with grass clippings
Early potatoes, with the first flower, if you look very closely. These are mulched thickly with grass cuttings from the main allotment access path, raked up after the council had been round strimming (my allotment neighbour kindly raked some up for me as I was away)
I've been planting out some curcurbits but still have more to go, here's some summer squashes, with a bean wigwam. This is the spot where eventually I'll put up my greenhouse sometime (It's already been few years!)
Gherkins to grow up over the netting
I've been forking in some really lovely well-rotted horse poo. I went out with a friend on Wednesday to bag some more up and have several bags to keep me going :)
Some flowers to finish, pretty sage
And calendula (self sown)
I should add that not all things are doing well...all my brassica seedlings have been eaten, twice. Some of my carrots have gone too, but on the whole it's not too bad!
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Slugs have chomped their way through for rows in f carrot seedlings we have had to sow again. That's an impressive crop of strawberries you have there.
ReplyDeleteThanks sue, I keep meaning to count the strawb plants, I've got two beds that size and then some dotted around the place.
DeleteI always love to see sage flowers - very pretty. Your onions look huge! (or maybe just compared to mine which have only recently been planted). And I agree with Sue ... impressive strawbs!
ReplyDeleteThanks Susie, the sage smells lovely too. The onions went in in feb I think so have had quite a bit longer to get going. Mm, yes I'm looking forward to the first strawb. Someone on my allotment site already has a ripe one! It's in quite an open spot though, whereas mine are mostly shaded early on in the day.
DeleteYour garden is looking wonderful. I love seeing all the fruits you have growing. Do you peel your fava beans and how do you prepare them? I heard other countries don't, but everyone in the US seems to peel away the skin around the beans which is such a chore.
ReplyDeleteThank you Phoung, it'll be great when all the fruit is ready. With the beans I generally tend to let them get quite big and then pop them out the pods and cook up in a big soup, without removing the outer skin, then whizz it with a hand whizzer so it doesn't matter too much about including the thick skins. But occasionally if I have loads of beans and lots of time I will pop them out of their skins too (I agree, this is a chore and I don't do it very often!).
DeleteYou have a good amount of stuff growing there! Will you have enough potatoes to last a whole year? It certainly looks as if you will have enough Strawberries for jam-making.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark, it's starting to come together more now. Yep there should be enough potatoes. I'm actually growing a few less than last year because I had way too many and they take up lots of space. We don't eat them that much I guess.
DeleteI'll probably freeze most of the spare strawbs, as I have a bigger freezer now, and it won't need sugar :D
I loved this post, so much of the same here, although I had to google Saskatoons! It all looks beautifully healthy and productive. I have exactly the same with my garlic though, I don't know what's wrong with it, it's going yellow. I'll be interested to see what you find if you dig any up. I think I shall try and get down to the plot this morning. CJ xx
ReplyDeleteThanks CJ, yep I bought a saskatoon plant (which was essentially a small stick! ) a few years back. It's not fussy about soil like blueberries. I think it would have grown more by now if it wasn't stuck right down the end of the plot where it tends to get ignored.
DeleteI ended up lifting all my garlic today, a few had some kind of white rot so I didn't want to lose the lot. They haven't really formed cloves but some of the bulbs are reasonbly sized. I'll report more in my next post :)
That is just how my garden is doing. Some things have been eaten but on the whole it is pretty good. I love seeing your saskatoons. I planted one in the foundation border of the house. I hope it likes it there.
ReplyDeleteThanks Daphne, I reme,e r the first year I actually got a saskatoon berry, it was very exciting! There have been more and more each year since then. I hope yours does well :)
DeleteLou- I am so glad you visited my blog and left a message. It has allowed me to find your blog! You have an amazing allotment. So much planted and looking lovely. I have potato envy. I bought some early this Spring and never got around to planting them. So it will be the Farmer's Market for me this year for my spuds. I look forward to following your blog and watching the season progress.
ReplyDeleteThanks lexa, glad you like it. I've been working at it a number of years but there's still lots more I'd like to do, including getting that darn greenhouse frame up and out of the way. Snails like hiding in the stacked metal too so I have to keep checking it.
DeleteAnyway, There's always next year for your potatoes :) and at least you have a farmer's market to buy some nice ones in the meantime.
Your allotment is coming along so well! I've come to realize that everyone seems to have annual casualties of one sort or another - every year there seems to be a disease or bug that rears its ugly head. You can see the progression in my garden with how much netting I'm using - each year, I have to cover more and more beds it seems!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting blog. A lot of blogs I see these days don't really provide anything that attract others, but I'm most definitely interested in this one. Just thought that I would post and let you know.
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