Getting It Under Control

I thought to myself when I got to the plot this morning that if this were my first year I would have given up right then and gone home and only returned to dig up the potatoes and harvest the onions. Everything seems to be dying or just not bothering to show up. Out of all the plants I put in last week only a couple of courgettes survive and there's not much of them left, it was like the rest never even existed, no sign of them at all... My diagram of the beds has more scribbles than writing on it as I keep replanting the same beds with different things hoping that something will remain alive until my next visit.

I am waiting for some seeds to come up, I planted some Trombolino Squash, runner beans, french climbing beans and a couple of Tom Fox pumpkin seeds (to replace the seedlings that vanished) so fingers crossed some plants will appear at some point. I also put out 2 of my butternut squash seedlings and 2 of my Mars pumpkin seedlings to see how they do, I put plastic collars around them to see if I can keep the slugs off, if they are what are removing the plants. I also stuck in some of the broccoli seedlings but I'm not expecting them to be there despite their plastic collars because they're tiny.

Things are looking tidier than they did a few weeks back though, this is the view to the left



and this to the right



I just have half a potato bed to finish weeding (it started to rain today so I left it) and then I can get going on the back bed, it just needs a hoe over and some light digging and then it can be used again finally.

We did have some new potatoes for dinner tonight (Aran Pilot) and they were lovely, as tasty as last years, they are such nice potatoes. Hopefully I will get more than potatoes and these from the plot though, or the rent really wasn't worth it!

Slog

I spent a couple of productive hours alone down at the plot this afternoon, I really needed to just get on with it and start catching up before things got so out of hand that I just gave up on it all!

I cleared the front bed except for the 4 large potato plants that are from last years leftovers and planted 5 courgette plants, 3 round yellow courgette plants, 2 marrow plants and 1 Tom Fox pumpkin plant (all the other Tom Fox's died in the shed...).

I then cut down some huge weeds so I can actually walk to the back of the plot and the cleared the second bed that was supposed to have parsnips and cabbage in it, but as I planted them at the end of March and neither of them have come up at all I figured I may as well use the space. In that bed I planted the 4 spaghetti squash plants, 4 Turks Turban squash seeds and 3 rows of spinach. I only had 3 spinach plants come up from my previous sowings and they had grown to 3 inches tall and then gone to seed, this bizarre weather is really messing things up.

I cleared the end of the rhubarb bed as well where the spinach had been planted and planted what I had left of the sweetcorn to see if any of it comes up.

I still have an awful lot to do but the shed looks less full of plants and I have planned out the beds again for where things will go, this seems to change weekly though. I need to clear out 2 more beds sharpish so that I can get in the rest of my squash (butternut and Trombolino), my Mars pumpkins and my beans (climbing french and runner) soon as I can. This week is supposed to be in the 60's with rain on Wednesday according to the forecast so I figure I will go down for a short spell on Monday to water everything and try and clear a bit more. I'll have to take Little One though so I will only manage an hour and have to work fast while trying to keep him from destroying anything, but it's better than nothing. I think I will have to make do with an hour here and an hour there with him this summerjust to try and keep on top of things, it was easier last year when he'd sleep in the pushchair for me.

I just really hope that the weather starts to be sane now. Nothing has grown like it should because it's been so screwy and I hate reading about allotments in the South that seem so far ahead of my plot, I have to keep reminding myself that they're 2 weeks ahead even without bizarre weather.

It'll get there, I'll at least have a ton of spuds (unless something horrific happens to them) and some onions, hopefully there will be more to come though!

Weeds weeds everywhere

I swear that the weeds are worse this year than they were last year, either that or I just haven't got to grips with them yet. I had grass up to my waist on the undug back section of the allotment and in a fit of desperation I simply knocked it all over flat and covered it with weed suppressing fabric held down with every brick I could get my hands on. I made the executive decision that we will not be digging that section of the allotment, we'll just finish the bed that's half done and make do with what we've got.

Yesterday evening after dinner (it was too hot for the rest of the weekend) we weeded 3 of the 5 potato beds and watered them. Of course I was woken up at 4am this morning by the sound of rain but at least the ground got something, I was throwing up dust clouds into the air using the hoe yesterday.

This week is supposed to be more mild than last so I'm thinking that I will try and start getting the seedlings planted out, they are all doing quite well in the shed except for the sweetcorn which all died off (my Mother's from the same seed packet did the same, I am going to try and direct sew a square and see what happens). I would like to get the courgettes in and prepare the pumpkin and broccoli beds, the broccoli and cauliflower seedlings don't look so hot, not sure what's wrong with them...

None of my rainbow chard came up and there is no sign of any parsnips or the radish that I put in with it that was supposed to mark the rows. The parsnips too forever to germinate last year so I'm leaving that bed alone but I need to get in more spinach as I've only got about 3 plants of that up too.

The weather has been so unhelpful this year, we had 2 solid weeks of heavy rain and then 2 weeks of blazing sun. My rhubarb chard came up well and then went to seed within a week, I haven't picked any of it at all. I will pull that up and stick in a whole packet of rainbow chard if I can find another packet to buy. Another crop that was destroyed by the weather was the basket of lettuce I planted. It came up half an inch and then was drenched and now that the weather is hot it's growing straight up and flowering, no leaves at all to be picked. The second lot I planted is coming along much better so I'm going to pull out the old lot, plant another new lot in a medium pot and fill the basket with spinach instead I think. The final crop to die off was the cucumbers, the rain just did them in totally. Luckily I have my Stimora Mix gherkins/cucumbers which are doing well so I will just let some of them grow bigger. I have only had 2 spring onions come up, I must stick some more of those in, and my tomato seedlings are literally only half an inch tall, I want to go and see if we can find any plants anywhere as I don't think I'm going to get much with mine.

So, the general round-up is that I've been a bit lazy and not achieved much and what I have achieved has been thwarted by odd weather. The spuds are doing well though, the onions are almost ready and hopefully the seedlings will do better for us, but it was disheartening yesterday to see what a mess the plot looks, I'm trying to focus on the beds and keeping them cleared but it's hard to blinker yourself all the time, it was much nicer over winter when things neater!