Wildlifemad's Allotment Diary

Members adventures in the Vegetable Patch all year round
wildlifemad
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Re: Wildlifemad's Allotment Diary 2017

Post by wildlifemad »

I went to the lotty on Monday & got another row of spuds dug up so only 1 left to go now. They're actually not too bad to dig as its so dry, you could almost cook them without washing them as there is no mud stuck to them, we just have to use a spade to get them out rather than fork! The harvest wasn't too bad for that row but the Red Ants had had a good nibble at some. The last root was none existent except for bits of skin, oh that'll be the voles then, all I can say is they have taste!!! I love nature but not when they take food off my plate!!! I haven't been since Monday so don't know if the rain on Tuesday did any good although we didn't have much anyway. I will go down this morning to harvest beans & courgettes as we go away in the morning until Sunday. If I feel like it I might get the last row of spuds up as well!
wildlifemad
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Re: Wildlifemad's Allotment Diary 2017

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Went to the lotty last Thurs (13th) & harvested the last row of spuds.Also picked 2lb French Beans, 1.5lb Runners & 11 Courgettes. The carrots are at last coming through albeit with patches where the ants are!
wildlifemad
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Re: Wildlifemad's Allotment Diary 2017

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I went to the lotty yesterday & discovered half a row of Annabelle in the main crop bed (forgot about them!!) so I dug them up. Really hard work, I've been using a spade on the rest of them but I couldn't get it in the ground so had to use the fork first then spade then resorted to my hands!!! Anyway, these were at the other end of the plot & are perfect, no ant marks no vole nibbled marks! So that is now all the "summer" spuds out. 11 rows of main crop to come but we can have a rest before that!
Also weeded the Bean bed, had lots of chick weed & we seem to acquired bind weed in the beds now! Did some watering as it's soooooo dry.
wildlifemad
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Re: Wildlifemad's Allotment Diary 2017

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Did 4 hours yesterday, boy do I know about it today! Harvested the onions, not a bad crop for saying we've had very little rain, we only water them when they are planted then I think they had 1 or 2 more watering while they were getting their feet down. Cleared some marestail in this bed to plant 12 lettuce plugs I'd grown. I then tackled the marestail in the tomato bed. The bed is 12ft x 15ft & I filled 3 old compost bags with it!! Looked a lot better for it though. Also harvested 2 Courgettes, 2lb French beans & 1.5lb Runners. We need to prepare the potato bed at the weekend & get the Purple Sprouting planted out (its looking very sad in the pots). Fingers crossed for the weather, as I type this it is actually raining well, which is the 1st rain we've had here for ages , we seem to have kept missing it till now so it will do the plot good.
wildlifemad
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Re: Wildlifemad's Allotment Diary 2017

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Went to lotty for 1.5 hrs when Hubby got home yesterday. We had quite a lot of rain in the morning (the 1st proper rain for ages!) & everything looked so much brighter for a soaking. I mowed all the paths & Hubby rotavated the bed the spuds had been in ready for Purple Sprouting,etc to be planted. The plot is at last looking a little better but still a big battle!
wildlifemad
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Re: Wildlifemad's Allotment Diary 2017

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Went to the lotty for 5hrs on Sunday.Hubby weeded half a bed of marestail where the brassicas had been & got 2 compost bags full out of it! So the battle continues. I was going to plant the Purple sprouting plants out but realised that a lot of them had Cabbage root fly as I could see the maggots, so annoying but our own fault for not covering them, so they were all thrown away. Luckily Hubby had bought a few more fresh plugs from work (he works at a plug plant production nursery & is allowed to buy spare stock) so we will be putting those out when they are a bit bigger. I did plant out some Winter Cabbage & some Kava Nero. Harvested 3lb each of French & Runner beans & 7 Courgettes.
I had 2hrs on Tuesday to clear the Courgette bed of marestail & yes i also got 2 bags full. If it was edible or useful we would be millionaires!!!! Harvested 1lb each of French & Runners. Need to check how many we now have in the freezer as once we have enough we will start selling them to the neighbour. Weather has been very up & down this week.
wildlifemad
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Re: Wildlifemad's Allotment Diary 2017

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We only went to the lotty on Friday & Sunday to harvest as we went out for the day Saturday & worked on the garden on Sunday (we are in process of re-working it, updating paving & eventually laying lawn,etc). So Friday we harvested 4.5lb of Runners, 2.75lb of French beans & 3 Courgettes. Sunday we harvested 4lb of Runners,12oz French beans. We dug 1st root of main crop Victoria & got 4lb from that root! We did it because there is now blight being reported in parts of the UK so we just wanted to see what size they were if we need to take the tops off quickly. If they are all like that then it should be another good year. We roasted them for tea & they were lovely!!!
wildlifemad
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Re: Wildlifemad's Allotment Diary 2017

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I went to the lotty yesterday to harvest & do a bit. Noticed black on some of the spuds leaves & on the stem, almost certain its the dreaded Blight, will come back when Hubby gets home. Anyway harvested 3.5lb Runners & 10oz French beans also 4 Courgettes. Think when these are frozen we will have more than enough. I also emptied one of the dalek compost bins & got some lovely compost out, there are 2 more ready to empty so will try & get those done soon. We also need to sort out the bulk bags that have leaves in as it will be collecting time before we know it!! I read somewhere recently that leaf mould hold 100 times its own weight in water so we need to get lots put into our beds at home as its VERY free draining & nothing does very well so whilst we have a big re-vamp happening its the time to do it right.
So we went back down when Hubby got home & yes he agreed it was Blight, we then had more confirmation as we looked at the plot next to us (who don't visit very often) & half of their spuds are totally gone so they will have lost their crop as well. Off came all the tops of 10 rows to preserve the potatoes. We left the row of Sarpo Kifli as its a later maturing variety & is more Blight resistant (they are certainly still fine & in flower) so we will just keep a very close eye on them.
wildlifemad
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Re: Wildlifemad's Allotment Diary 2017

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We did 4 hours on the lotty on Sunday. We dug 3 x 15ft rows of potatoes (Victoria) got some lovely big spuds so if the other varieties are as good as these we are going to have a LOT of spuds!! Also cleaned cabbage plants of caterpillars, we didn't cover them when they were in our garden before we put them out so even though we checked for eggs before we planted them we must have missed some as they are covered on the lotty, little blighters! Had a quick pull up of any weeds with seed heads on so they don't seed, with all this rain we are getting the weeds are loving it! We dried the spuds off when we got home & bagged them, we have 2 sacks, based on that we will end up with about 9 sacks!!
I did 2 hours on Monday which only ended up being about half an hours work as everyone kept talking to me! Sometimes you just want to get on with what you are doing but you can't be rude can you! Anyway got another half a row of spuds up so just keep plodding on with them. Hopefully want to do some more time on Thursday if the weather is ok as the forecast has said it should be dry!
wildlifemad
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Re: Wildlifemad's Allotment Diary 2017

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Well got on the lotty for 3 hours yesterday. My friend came & helped (although I told her not to do anything as she suffers with bad back after breaking it 5yrs ago falling off her horse & she also fractured her shoulder earlier this year slipping over & they've told her that could take 2yrs to heal properly!Bit accident prone is my mate!!) Anyway, I dug the spuds & she put them into the trays for me so it was very helpful. Got another row out & although we have had plenty of rain its amazing how little has gone down into the soil. The bonus of a dry growing season is the spuds haven't gone down as far as they usually do!! We then harvested 5.5lb Runners & 1.75lb French Beans, the rain has done the French beans good as they were beginning to struggle. Also picked about 30 Incas Toms (cooking plum variety). My friend was paid in produce!!!! She texted me later to say she had thoroughly enjoyed herself so I said she is more than welcome when its her day off work again!!
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Mo
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Re: Wildlifemad's Allotment Diary 2017

Post by Mo »

I line my potato trench with green manure (thick layer of grass clippings if poss). Then when digging I know how far down to go. I find they don't go down, they stay in the trench I've dug or earthed up.
Must check my beans.
Dance caller. http://mo-dance-caller.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-i-do.html
Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
wildlifemad
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Re: Wildlifemad's Allotment Diary 2017

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That's a really good idea Mo.Our only issue would be when we plant them we don't dig a whole trench, we just use a bulb planter & drop the spud in along with a bit of soot which helps with deterring slugs (according to Father in law's gardening book from the 20's!, seems to work though!)
Anyway, we got all the Victoria spuds out over the weekend & have ended up with 5 sacks! Also got some weeding done but still lots more to do. The bed the spuds came out of we weeded as we harvested,then just raked it flat & covered with plastic so at least the weeds won't grow again. We also started to clear the strawberry bed which we don't want anymore so took all the netting off it & got the posts out.Also continued to harvest,4lb Runners & 1lb French beans,3 Courgettes,Beetroot & Chard. So all in all a good weekend had there.Still 4 rows of spuds to come out & loads of clearing etc to do.
I am off down then this morning to get a bit done.
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Mo
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Re: Wildlifemad's Allotment Diary 2017

Post by Mo »

If it works great.
My grass clippings tip came from Gardeners Question Time - they said it would limit scab on sandy soil. Mid Cheshire is glacial so some parts of the garden thick clay, others pure seams of sand and I had noticed scab.
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wildlifemad
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Re: Wildlifemad's Allotment Diary 2017

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I think it's always good to pick up tips from other folk then you know it works.
Have been to lotty for a couple of hours this morning & got a quarter of a 15x15ft bed weeded (mainly marestail again!) I got a big compost bag full of the stuff but thankfully the ground wasn't too bad to work, not too wet or dry. Also harvested, yes you've guessed it more Runners also about 30 Inca Toms (big plum variety). Nice morning down there weather wise.
wildlifemad
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Re: Wildlifemad's Allotment Diary 2017

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Went to lotty for a couple of hours again on Wednesday & cleared another quarter of the large bed & got another big bag of marestail out! Wheelie bin day Thursday so best to fill them if we can!!!! Will go down today but just to harvest as I've got a lot to do at home & it's looking like our 1 free day of the weekend (Sunday) is going to be wet! Typical!
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