End of June on the plot

Typical June week on the plot, more crops planted out in the little space available, more Dwarf French Beans in the raised bed we cleared of weeds and more Peas planted in the new raised bed. 

Plenty of crops harvested too, see below.

The Lavender in the foreground has taken and now in flower, to add the the other Lavender we have, it has attracted lots of honey bees too. 
Watch the video walkabout for more views of the flowers we grow to attract Bees.

Crops harvested this week:
Strawberries 
Raspberries 
Loganberries 
Blackcurrants 
Broad Beans 
Asparagus 
Parsnips
And Rhubarb. 
So lots of Jam making & the Rhubarb for Wine too. 

This picture shows Matilda, our only chicken now, sadly Freda fell ill and the only kind thing to do was to put her out of her misery, our local vet did the deed :( 
But Matilda, now just over 3yrs old is fighting fit and we hope to get her some new companions soon, ex-battery hens again from the British Hen Welfare Trust. Watch this space for news of the newcomers.

Thanks for reading/returning and don't forget to watch the video, link below. Ian

What a busy 2 weeks on the plot and more!

Quite a busy fortnight. Mainly been harvesting crops, as you can see here plenty of ripe Strawberries. I've repaired an old raised bed by making new sides from reclaimed timber & I found a Hedgehog sleeping in our wildlife corner, I have named him/her Sonic :)

The reason I didn't do my usual weekly Blog was last Sunday we went to BBC Gardeners World Live at the Birmingham N.E.C there was so much to see, Plants, Gardens, Fruit, Flowers, Veg & Monty Don live on stage!

But back to the plot and this week harvesting has been busy, so far (since April) we have picked: 
Rhubarb 56lb 
Strawberries 11lb
Winston spuds 8lb 
Asparagus 1lb 5oz
 Raspberries 7oz 
Blackberries 6oz. 

We have had sunshine almost every day too, just a few light showers. 
But it has meant everything has shot up, all the Peas & Beans are climbing, the Parsnips are swelling & need thinning out too! 

And the Beetroot is getting big too, so I decided to make another batch of wine from this years crop, there is about 4lb here and as I need 3lb to make a gallon of wine, by the time trimmed & washed, this will be perfect.

I made a few gallons last year and they proved to be very popular so it makes sense to make more. 
If you want the recipe let me know & I will send it to you. 

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian

Allotment flourishing in June

Everything is growing at a pace now. 

Here are the Charlotte potatoes, planted almost 2 months ago (April 13th) and now in flower, so won't be long before we can dig them up.

The Onions are swelling now we have had some rain & sunshine.

They have been going to seed but I have nipped off the buds, just to give us some time before lifting, oops just noticed the label says planted 10/10/12 of course it was 2013!

The Currants, Black on the left, Red on the right, are doing well, there are so many and as you can see still very green, just need the sun now to ripen them. 

Its been a mixed week, sunshine & showers. 

On Friday night into Saturday we had Lightening & Thunder with heavy rain, but it brightened up later. At least it filled up the rain barrels :) But the Allotment is looking very lush and green, with the odd splash of colour from the flowers. 

Due to the showers, we were limited to what we could do, just a bit of weeding, planted a few more crops & harvested (see below). 
We planted a Honeysuckle to climb over the archway, but it hasn't flowered until this year, luckily the bees are busy now the whole plot is buzzing!



Crops harvested this weekend:
Rhubarb, Asparagus, Broad Beans & Strawberries.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian

June already and Plot is Blooming

Strawberries almost ready to pick, and plenty of green ones to ripen soon.

The Charlotte 2nd early Potatoes, some in flower so will be ready to dig up soon. 
Will wait until flowers die back before a test dig though.

Onions also ready to lift soon, Potatoes beyond are Cara main crop. 
The wire frame has Runner Beans that we put in a few weeks ago. 

Really pleased with this patch, there's lots growing here: Parsnips, Shallot Onions, Beetroot, Broad Beans, Peas, French Beans & Sweetcorn. 
No space wasted even 4 Courgettes planted in between! 

Been clipping the edges of the grass path, looks a lot better now. 

The whole plot is buzzing with Bees too, we have spotted so many including: Banded Orange Tail, Black Bodied Orange Tail, Two Banded White Tail, Three Banded White Tail, Orange White Tail & Brown Bumble Bees. You can do your own Bee spotting by signing up to JoinThePod via this link: http://jointhepod.org/experiment-zone

We often get a few geese flying overhead, but today we heard them coming en-mass, probably heading for one of the local ponds at Gilroy Nature Reserve or Ashton Park in West Kirby.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian 

End of May Bank Holiday weekend

Busy, busy, Bank Holiday weekend. 
Weather was OK, a few showers on Sunday & mostly sunny on Monday, but we got lots of weeding, planting and tidying up done.

Well as I said lots done, so I've done a Video walkabout, with so many changes since last month and lots of Bees visiting. It's a long one this time, hope you enjoy the video, click the link below to my YouTube channel. 

Crops harvested this week:
Asparagus
Broad Beans 
Peas 
Rhubarb 
Spinach  

Thanks for reading/watching. Ian 

Another busy May weekend

Busy indeed, both Saturday & today (Sunday) we have been busy, been earthing up all the Potatoes, even the Sante I planted only 2 weeks ago have come through now. 

In this corner I have made 3 cane wig-wams, I added netting, large mesh for the climbing French Beans 'Violette' and finer mesh netting for the Peas 'Onward' the wig-wam behind Wendy Worsel will also have large mesh netting for more Beans. 

In Brassica corner, everything is growing well, we have Cabbage, Brussel Sprouts & Cauliflowers all under netting to keep the birds off!

In the Fruit Cage we have done some serious weeding, covered most of it with weed suppressant fabric, will cover that with woodchips soon. All the fruits, Blackcurrant, Redcurrant, Blueberry & Raspberries are in bud, in fact the Currants have set already.

In Strawberry corner, we have been adding some straw, beneath the plants as there are hundreds of Strawberries forming, still green, the straw will stop the fruit spoiling if it touches the soil.

In the Herb bed some California Poppies have self seeded themselves, they look nice mixed in with the Chive flowers & Bee friendly too.

Still harvesting Rhubarb & Asparagus.

8oz of Asparagus 
5.5 lb of Rhubarb

I have also been cutting the grass along the edges of the path, not completed yet but its looking a lot better and I built another planter box, for more Lavender plants, at the end of the new raised bed.

There is not much space left and we still have Sweetcorn, Courgettes & Squashes to put in!

I think I'll do a walkabout video next week, as there is so much to see now everything is growing.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian

Rain & sunshine didn't stop us !

As the title says, rain and sunshine didn't stop us. 
It's been raining on & off all weekend, but between the showers & as it cleared up Sunday afternoon we got to do quite a lot on the plot. Here are the Sante Potatoes I have been earthing these up for a few weeks now. Also been weeding the fruit cage & putting weed suppressant fabric down to keep the weeds under control. Only have the centre to do now where the old early Raspberries are, we will just get one more year out of them, then will replace with some new canes.   

The new raised bed has some Strawberries in it now, rescued from the fruit cage whilst weeding around the Blueberries. 
But in the patch further back I have been earthing up the early Potatoes, Winston and Charlotte, the Nadine I put in a week ago, are not showing just yet. 
But more sun & rain will help the 1st early Winstons to mature ready for digging soon.  

Been hoeing around the Shallots, Beetroot and Parsnips. 
Have put canes in to support the Broad Beans as they have shot up and its a bit windy, they don't like to be windswept! 
Empty 500ml bottles on top of the canes act as Bird Scares and protect us from eye jabbing!  

More earthing up, this time the Cara (main crop) they haven't been in long but are already showing. 
The Onions are looking better after a hoeing session and the Brassicas are growing well under the netting. 

We have also planted out the Runner Beans, that we started off at home in toilet roll tubes. 
I prepared the ground under the netting frame by adding plenty of Manure & Newspaper (to retain moisture). 
Have also put some Sweetpeas to climb up the other side of the netting. 

Crops harvested this week:

Asparagus.
Broad Beans (from the greenhouse).
Plenty of Rhubarb (Stockbridge Arrow and Victoria).

I have started a batch of Rhubarb Wine from what we picked last week.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian