Sunday 16th May more planting done.

Just look at all the flowers on our Strawberries, each flower will soon be fruit and this is just one of many beds we have. 

Bumper crop imminent! 

Another wig-wam with mange-tout Oregon Sugarpod Peas.

I built the wig-wam, Jo planted the Peas that she started off at home.

We are trying the Runner Beans in a new place, so I built an 'A' frame with canes and 6" mesh netting. 

I have anchored it down in case we get more strong winds!

Jo started off some Climbing Courgettes, she planted them out today on the old runner bean frame. I hope they do well there. 

The potatoes are all up, but no earthing up today, I will check on these in a few days and earth up as neccessary.

The new Pear tree is full of new buds, we won't take any fruit this year, if we get any that is. 

Its best for new fruit trees to establish for at least a year, or two, before first harvest. 

The greenhouse upgrade is complete, I used old roof slates to make a deeper bed, then put pipe lagging over the top edge, to make it safer and neater. Jo planted a Cucumber, 2 Gold & 4 Plum Tomatoes in the new space.

There was rain in the forecast, so we only expected to be down about an hour, but ended up staying at least 3 hours, as the rain kept off, it did start just as we left for home, so we were lucky.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian & Jo
 

Sunday 9th May lots to do

All the potatoes are up, so using my draw hoe, I earthed them up again, the hoe also cuts the weeds that pop up due to the sun & rain we have had.

Jo weeded around the broad beans & peas using the draw hoe too.

You can see the Charlotte spud shoots just before earthing up.

The peas are doing well, its lucky we have had rain since planting, it always helps & our rain butts are nice and full again!

One of our strawberry beds, all the plants have flowers now & some strawberries are forming, so wont be long now, as long as the sun keeps shining.

Our new fruit trees have taken well, the pear tree has even a flower, see below.

Jo weeded around the garlic, lettuces & parsnips.

Looks a lot better.

Here is a close-up of the pear blossom. 

Not grown pears before so in a few yrs we hope to have a few to try.

The apple tree blossom is in full bloom, so another bumper crop this year.

So Sunday was a good day, I carried on working in the greenhouse, making better deep beds and it was hot in there! 

Jo weeded all around and planted some marigolds near the tomatoes & spring onions. We harvested peas from the greenhouse and more rhubarb for a crumble too. 

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian & Jo 

 

Another busy Sunday on the plot

The King Edward spuds I planted a few weeks ago are breaking though the soil, so I earthed them up, as we are still getting cold nights, the Charlotte spuds are up too, so they have been earthed up twice now.

We had a tray of peas ready to go out, so I made another 50" length of chicken wire for them, Jo planted them both sides and protected them with dried Teasels again. Now we have 150" planted up both sides so 300" of peas. 

Good job we love them.

I finished renovating the planting bed at the end of the greenhouse, its now deeper due to me using reclaimed roof slates, so Jo planted a couple of tomatoes and a cucumber.

There are still lots of things waiting to go out, but each time we visit we are planting more.

We harvested Peas (from the greenhouse) and some more Rhubarb.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian & Jo
 

Our 1st harvest dinner of 2021

Our peas have survived, I think Jo's great idea of using Teasels to stop birds getting at them worked.

I planted the last of the potatoes Maris Piper, in 3 rows slightly closer together, but each seed spud was 15" apart, so plenty of space to grow. 

Stockbridge Arrow rhubarb, looking ready, short stalks, but that means they will be super sweet.

Bees have been busy visiting the Black Currants, so we netted the cage, now we should get a good harvest, not the birds!

Our 1st harvest of Asparagus, we will have these in a rissoto for dinner tonight.

1st harvest of rhubarb, a crumble to have after that yummy rissoto.

It was so sweet too.

I put in a solar powered waterfall pump, to aerate the pond, watch the video below.

So a great few days and the weather has been dry and sunny, we do need rain though, all the rain barrels are empty and the soil is turning to dust!

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian & Jo.
 

A month since last Blog and we got lots planted

April has been a better month, chilly nights, mornings too. 

But sunny days and sadly no rain for weeks!

I made a Potato planter/dibber. 

Made from an off cut of timber, I shaped the bottom to be a rounded point, cut grooves at 6",8",10" for depth and 12" & 15" for distance between spuds. I added a handle from an offcut of broom handle.

It works really well.

I planted 4 rows of Charlotte, first I dug a trench, put manure in the bottom then put the soil back in the trench, using my Potato planter/dibber I made a hole 6" deep into the soil/manure and placed a potato in each hole. Watered, then dragged soil over using a rake, to fill the holes and make a shallow ridge.

Jo planted 4 rows of Broad Beans, she started them off at home in the greenhouse.

Jo also planted 2 rows of Peas, to climb up 18" chicken wire, also started off at home, in toilet roll tubes, so the roots aren't disturbed while planting.

We made a wigwam with netting for Sweet Peas. 

We have a obelisk at home with Sweet Peas on too.

Jo planted some Cauliflowers. 

First soil was raked flat, compressed by walking over and some Lime added (brassicas like firm, limed soil) then netting added as we get Pheasants and they will pull them up! 

I carried on planting more Potatoes, now we have 3 rows each of King Edwards & Cara. 

There is just enough space left for a final 3 rows of Maris Piper, will put those in next week, to stagger harvesting.

Its been lovely during lock-down, we have had pic-nic lunches quite a lot. 

Sadly our rain butts are almost empty, so we are getting water from the well. 

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian & Jo
 

A few days of sunshine so we got busy

I got busy finishing the new fruit tree area at the front, the  Apple & Damson trees look great now with a brick area to stop the weeds coming up.

The Pear & Plum tree area at the back is finished, I prefer the woodchip finish here. There is weed suppresant underneath though.

Jo put a few rows of Spring Onion and a row of Spinach here, last time we looked a few onions were coming up. 

Last year we lost most of our Currants, both black & red, to the birds, as the fruit cage had blown down in a storm. 

So I purchased a small fruit cage on-line and will put netting over before the fruit forms.

 We saw 2 Frogs mating about 10 days prior to finding this frogspawn. 

So we will have Tadpoles again and then more Frogs. Happy Days!

Here is one of our Frogs amongst the undergrowth. 

They love living on our Allotment.

On Monday I dusted off my trusty Rotovator,  I bought it years ago and keep it in the garage at home, so in a dry place. All I had to do was clean the spark plug, a few squirts of WD40 into the cylinder and started 1st time again.

I rotovated this patch, where the Potatoes will go...

I did this patch too that was a bit compacted due to walking over it and having bonfires (in the incinerator bin).

I also did this patch between the runner bean frame and new fruit trees at the front.

So all three areas of soil rotovated by lunch time. 

Signs of life:

Stockbridge Arrow Rhubarb.

We also spotted about 5 Asparagus spears, this year will be our 1st harvest from this variety we put in last year.
 

Look at the lovely blue sky, we have been so lucky this March, so many good days.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian & Jo.