Spring onions and beetroot

Yesterday we planted out some spring onions and some beetroot. I fed the strawberries with tomato feed to encourage the fruit.

Today it rained hard for a few of hours, which was very welcome. The next few days are forecast to be warm, dry and calm, so the plants can make the best use of the rain.

Growing

The first signs of growth are appearing. We sowed some seeds directly into the ground for radishes and they are sprouting. They are supposed to quick growing so we may have some crunchy additions to our salads and stir-fries in a few week's time. We're still waiting for the carrots and lettuce.

The next thing to appear was the first few spears of asparagus. They are still too small to cut, but the spears look thick and strong. I think they have responded to the watering they have received. I'm really looking forward to eating these, which have been a long time in coming. We planted the crowns more than a year ago and these will be our first crop. Hopefully we will be gathering asparagus for very many years to come. I'll be taking about half a crop this year to help the crowns grow to full size.

I finished the strawberry bed frames. They are now covered with a plastic mesh, which we actually inherited from the previous tenant. It was buried under the tangle of bindweed and nettles - I'm not sure what it was covering but it's finding a use now. The strawberries are getting a good cover of flowers and these frames are easy to move to weed and harvest. Last year we put wood chips down to keep the berries off the ground and it seemed to work well. Some of the chips are still there, so I'll just top them up again.

Plantings

We spent a couple of hours doing a few jobs, including having a cup of tea. Jean planted our first parsnips out, complete with their cardboard tubes. The next lot is already in the greenhouse, but no leaves are showing yet. I made some frames to cover the strawberries, which should keep the birds off. The flowers are opening on the strawberries so the berries won't be too long, but the birds leave them alone until they're ripe. The blossom is also out on the two plum trees we have. Last year there were two flowers and so no fruit, but this year there's lots of blossom, so maybe a few plums. The gooseberries and black currants have flower buds opening. I forgot to take my camera, but I'll take some snaps another time.

Jean sowed some carrots and radishes directly into the soil. The carrots are in a frame with high sides to keep the carrot fly out. We'll sow some more in a few weeks. We also took loads of rhubarb. This year we want to take it early when it's at its best.

Stinging strawberries

We've done some more weeding and tidying up. As I type this my fingers are tingling from the nettle stings. I weeded the asparagus and strawberries by hand and some nettles had sneaked in amongst them. It's surprising how much a tiny nettle stings.

The strawberries had loads of runners, which I pulled up and cut off. I was going to plant some on, but we don't have the space at the moment and since the plants are only one year old (from Norman's runners) they don't really need replacing next year, so I'll pot some runners next year.

We dug a parsnip. It is fat but very short. It doesn't look as though our idea has worked too well. Our leeks were a great success, they tasted great.

There is due to be a national cycle race in our area tomorrow so we will probably do some more at the allotment to stay off the roads. I think I'll check out the new manure heap at the village riding school.

Yum

There were some thundery down-pours yesterday, so everything got a good soak. The result is a good crop of red raspberries and strawberries. We have a family party tomorrow, so a kilo of ripe strawberries will help feed the assemblage.

I also pulled our first broad beans. There are loads of pods, but most of the big ones are still soft to the touch; a few are firmer with the beans inside feeling plump. So I pulled these for a snack.

The latest spinach seedlings are almost ready to go out, beetroot seedlings are sprouting, but the latest fennel seeds are not showing yet.

Fruits galore

The vegetables are growing well, but now is the time for fruit. The strawberries are still going strong and now the raspberries are ripening nicely. I thought the bushes were a not doing well, but I was wrong. We took half a kilo of raspberries which are clean and look great. There was also a lot of ripe black currants on our main bush, with a few white currants too.

We finally made a trip to the tip with all of the rubbish we dug out of the back of the site. It is about a year since we took over the plot and it has taken this long to dig up and remove the broken glass, rotten wood, plastic bags, buckets, broken tools, wire, wire fence and plastic mesh.

Digging, leaving and berries

One small part of the allotment has been used as a bit of a dump. The previous tenant certainly used it as that with piles of plastic bags, netting, wood, wire and glass all over it. We have slowly been clearing it and over the last couple of days we have had a big push. The soil that remains, after the junk is removed, is rather nice. I think part of the area was a compost bin and the resulting compost seems rich and fine. The ground is uneven, so when we have dug it all over we will need to level it. It is currently outside the rabbit fence, so before we can do anything useful with it we need to move the fence.

All of the plots are being well looked after now. When we moved in last year there were a few abandoned-looking plots, but they have all been taken on now - except one. There is a guy in the middle who only grows stuff in old oil drums. The rest of his plot is overgrown with weeds including mare's tails which are very hard to get rid of. I heard last week that the council have asked him to leave because he is not keeping the plot up to standard. Today someone was moving his greenhouse, so I guess he'll be gone soon.


We had a pleasant surprise. There were some ripe strawberries. They are the sweetest berries I've ever tasted, and so many more to come.

Mulch then munch

We wanted to do some tidying up of the strawberry beds. We bought some bark and chippings to use as a mulch to try to support the berries while they ripen to stop them rotting on the ground. It might deter slugs a bit too. There were loads of weeds, including nettles, so we pulled back the netting, dealt with the weeds and added the mulch. The result is tidier and should help the berries too.

Now, where's the cream?

And now, the pictures

We had a really good tidy up. Jean trimmed the edges of the grass surrounding the plot. I nipped the tops off the broad beans which had black-fly on them and tied a string either side of the rows to support them.

The newly planted very young beans are doing well, so they should provide much later crops.

There were a few ladybirds patrolling the beans, hopefully laying eggs so their nymphs can eat the remaining black-fly. You can't beat a bit of biological control.

I hand-weeded around the asparagus and added extra earth around it. Extra spears are still growing. I'm really keen to see this do well.

I added some blood fish and bonemeal to various places, it looks like it will rain again tomorrow so it should get washed in. Included in this were the strawberries. I got some of the bonemeal on the leaves and as I knocked it off I noticed just how many berries there are. They are covered in them.

Now the edges are cut I can see the trees we planted. The whitebeam is doing very well, but it will be years before its ready to take its place in the hedge where I really want it. All of the trees have taken so we have little oaks, hazel and rowan.

Stawberry fields forever

The strawberry beds are both covered with netting, supported with stakes. I really am looking forward to these berries, I've only ever managed a couple of tiny strawberries before. The nets should keep the birds off, but the slugs might have a party yet.

We get mains water from two sources, both have tanks with float valves, but one also has a screw fitting that a hosepipe can be fitted to. Both tanks are about the same distance from our plot - so we are the furthest from water. I tried to set up a siphon from the tank without the hose fitting which is scarcely used. It just about worked but the fall is so low the flow was no more than a trickle. A pump would make it work well, but for now I'll stick to the hose fitting. So far this year we have only used rain water gathered from the shed roof, but if the lack of rain continues we may need a top up.