Vinny's Allotment Plot

I had an hour at the plot earlier dodging the rain.

Harvested a carrier bag full of broad beans and cleared the 4 foot bed of plants.

Titivated my elephant garlic plants by cutting off the stalk and roots and storing underglass for a while. Once skins hae hardened a bit  I will have to take the ones for kitchen use home and store them in the dark. If i don't, they will go green.

Tickled over the bed they were in, so thats two beds ready to plant something else in. Spring cabbage would be ideal, but I worry that it may be a bit late to sow it?  Maybe if I set a few seeds away under glass I may get some usable plants?

An hours hand weeding of beds and hoe-ing of paths. Came home with onions,calabrese and courgettes. It looks like I am going to have a glut of French beans probably startig next week.
Took some onions up to dry off and hoed over bed.

Yesterday I harested the last of my broad beans. My daughter has agreed to take them.

I pulled up each plant to harvest beans and hand weeded bed as I was going.

Hoed off weeds on paths and left on surface to dry out. The problem is that with all the rain we are having, they never dry out and uually re-root!

Short visit to plot this morning mainly to harvest French beans. Growing two types, Tendegreen and a yellow variety who's name I can't remember.

Picked a carrier bag full which my Daughter will gladly take off my hands.

Watered tomatoes but still none ripeing yet.

12 days since I've been to the plot as the weather ha been attrocious! Today I decided I would have to brave the heavy drizzle which seems to soak right through to the bone. 
Started off by watering the toms which weren't too desperate for water because I have so many pane of glass mising from greenhouse, and no door on, so they always get a bit of moisture from the elements. I sideshooted them and found a new way to fasten them to the canes, with gaffer tape! o

I then lifted a bed of onions and got two trays full out of that one bed!  (see piccie) Onions are now under glass.They are Japanese onions, Senshyu I think and the sets were planted in the bed in autumn, then the bed was covered with two sheets of glass throughout the Winter and glass removed in the Spring.I will do the same withthe Spring Cabbage once planted out in this bed.

I harvested a bag of yellow French beans. Quite a few had been gnawed by the slugs and snails but they left me a few at least! Those along with a largish courgette were my take home goodies.
Weeding the paths with the hoe was the next task. I'm sure a lot of the weeds I hoed were the ones that re sprouted from the last time I hoed them and left them lying. Stupidly I thought the sun would dry them out, but it's never stopped raining since.

The other piccies are of the elephant garlic waiting in the wings to be planted out soon (high hopes for the big rounds), my Spring cabbage seedlings which I stuck in the greenhouse to bring them on a bit and a couple of gladdies which have grown from last years corms left in the soil

Called in at plot, mainly to water stuff in greenhouse.Pleased to see that the grapevine I planted at the side of the greenhouse has finally made it's way indoors through the broken pane of glass that I steered it to. Next year, hopefully because it is now inside, it should romp away  all being well.

The sun came out briefly so I spent 3/4 of an hour and  re-hoed the weeds on the path that I hoed last time I was there . Hopefully we will get a bit of sunhine to finally frazzle them and kill them off.

Harvested a large courgette that was on its way to becoming a marrow!

Sunny today so decided it was time to top up my tan at the allotment before the snow arrives.

The never ending weeding was again on the menu for today. so I said to myself " I'll give myself an hour and by that time I should be medium rare with my skimpy shorts, top off and sandals on."

I did one hours back breaking hand weeding trying to move into different positions to get toated evenly. I then did half an hour hoe work on paths just to finish off.
My hands are still tingling from pulling up thistles and nettles.

 I did visit plot last Friday and did a bit of digging, mainly to try and get a few worms for my eldest son to fish with on Saturday. He has got back problems at the moment so wasn't able to cast a fly all day. I was fly fishing all day on Saturday and managed to burn the right side of my body, which was partly the reason why whilst weeding today the left side of my body was facing the sun.
At least the weeds I hoed on paths should get frazzled by the sun and not start growing again.

An unplanned trip back to the plot today as I was given some glass panels my next door neighbour at home wanted rid of. After looking at them in his shed I decided I could probably make use of them at the plot.

There are 9 single glased panels roughly 18" X 4 foot long. The intention is to cover more of my beds this autumn turning them basically into cold frames. Last year I experimented with this idea and had good results. I set some Japanese onion sets under cover and some without at the same time. At the end of the season I had a much earlier crop of bigger onions from the ones that were planted under glass.
This year I have enough glass to plant out autumn onion sets, elephant garlic,normal garlic, broad beans and spring cabbage plants all under glass as well as outdoors and will gaige the difference in crops.  The glass won't be left on all the time, only when we have the worst cold weather.

Spent a bit of time at the plot earlier today. I took up my French bean plants and planted some senshyu and white onion sets where beans had been.

I did loads of hand weeding and gave my strawberry plants a chop with the hedging shears. Hopefully this will promote new growth which I will tranplant into another bed as they have been inthe same position for three years with a diminishing crop each year.
I always finish by hoeing a path or two as well.

Canny session atthe allotment today. It stayed dry so allowed me to get quite a bit done. Before I went I had a plan. I took my trowel with me to facilitate plan.
Things on the priority list were:-

1) Split up and re-plant sttawberry plants.They have been in the same position for 3 years, so are getting a bit 'woody' and  crop is diminishing.
2) Plant Elephant garlic from home grown corms.
3) Harvest remaining onions and prepare ground for next crop
4) Plant normal garlic
5) Plant out Durham Early spring cabbage seedlings I have grown in a large pot.
6) Sow Aquadulce broad beans under glass.
7) Plant out  more Japanese onion sets
8)Harvest some Mooli.

Out of the eight planned jobs I managed to get the first three and the last semi-completed.

The strawberry plants were transplanted into a bed but I still have loads to plant  in other beds.

 I planted out a full bed of elephant garlic and gave the remaining corms I had left to a fellow allotmenteeer.

All of remaining onions were harvested and the beds they were in were prepared for the next crop, whatever that may be? The rest of the plan will have to wait until another day!!
Piccies below are of leeks that have bolted (but still loads that haven't) elephant garlic bed with corms eventually planted at trowel depth, beds where onions had been taken up, transplanted strawberries, mooli beside bed still growing (gave that away as well)