Vinny's Allotment Plot

A few piccies from yesterdays foray to allotment.

The small green bed is where my French beans had been. After clearing and a quick hoe I planted Senshyu onion sets then put a coating of fresh grass cutting over them to act as a mulch and stop birds pulling them out. Another bed which was covered with cardboard and hay a few weeks ago was planted up with late turnips from modules.

I dug tatties out of another bed and covered it with cardboard and grass cuttings.

I also planted a couple of rows of Radar onion sets in the bed next to my Autumn Champion onion sets. I harvested a mahoosive mooli (part of dinner today along with a cabbage also for dinner) I also took beetroot and courgettes home with me.

My onions had been drying in trays outdoors so I decided as the weather would be changing for the worse soon to put the trays on the greenhouse staging.

As sustenance while I was at plot I had some sweetcorn eaten raw minutes after picking. For me this is the only way to eat sweetcorn and even though the weather hasn't been too clever I have had a decent crop which never finds its way home!

I was given a large barrel on a stand which my son didn't want at his new home. It was filled to the brim (fed from greenhouse gutter) after one nights torrential rain and must hold about 400 litres!

Called in at plot supposedly just to drop off some cardboard. Why not just lay what you have direct thinks I?.......so I did. I just laid it on weedy paths
Sod it I thought while I am here I might as well do a bit. 

Started by lifting some beetroot for my next door neighbour who really enjoyed the last lot I gave them. This made a bit of space and after a quick hoe I planted 25 red onion sets I got from Poundland. I wasn't going to bother with reds this year so it was a bit of an impulse buy. I them covered what I had planted with grass cuttings as a mulch and to hopefully stop the birds from pulling them out.

Next I harvested three courgettes which surprisingly are still producing. I then had my breakfast which was a freshly picked corn on the cob!
Inspired, I decided to pull all the leaves and stalks off my rampant Confrey and compost them. I then tickled over the border I had spuds in to make sure I had got them all. Once raked level I then dibbereed in a load of leeks I had waiting in the wings. I hope my family like leeks as I have far too many for me alone as my photo shows.

I had a bit of a re-arrangement in the greenhouse and remebered to shut the greenhouse door this time.

After a chat with an allotment neighbour I was given a small pumpkin (he must have about 20 and says he will just compost them

I might try cooking it similar to a squash with the top cut off and filled with a savoury mix of some sort?
Took a few piccies when I was there, relevant to what I did today!

Not really allotment stuff, but I didn't know where to put this. Frost was forecast last night (from what I can see it didn't happen though) so I brought my five different coloured chrysanths indoors just to be safe. The plan when I grew them was to house them in the greenhouse in Autumn but there is no room for them. I will have to put them back outdoors later today!

    Last minute decision to visit the plot today. It was bright out and my next door neighbours were busy at home pruning, him chopping off branches and her holding the ladder even though they are well into there seventies. This spurred me on to do a bt of summat and I had planned what to do, but as usual did summat else.!

I had been meaning to sow broadies for a while but never seemed to get round to it. Today I dug out the packet of The Suttion dwarf broad beans and decided to plant them. Some are missing from packet as the mice had been at them before I realised a while ago and put what remined of the packet in a sealed container. I counted them and there were 40 beans left so the mice can't have munched a lot of them. Just enough for two rows of 20 at about 4 inch spacings. I planted them through cardboard and grass cuttings, initially cutting a slit with spade then using a dibber to plant them in slit. Once planted I covered slit with a small amount of used compost.

I then decided to plant oiut some spring cabbage which were sown a bit too late into modules, 2 or 3 seeds per module. Because they are so small and may secumb to slugs/snails I just planted them out the way they were in 12 positions. The bed I planted them in had squash which were just recently removed. The squash were planted through cardboard with a layer of compost and grass cuttings on top, none of which remain. A quick rake over and the bed was ready for planting.

I hand weeded another bed but didn't plant anything in it just now as it is a wet bed and I did have a touch of clubroot there a couple of seasons ago.I tried torpedo onions in it this year but they didn't do very well either so I shall have to have a think about what to use it for in the future.The bed in the foreground had courgettes in it which did well on cardboard/compost and grass cuttings so sfter clearing courgette foliage I just added another layer of grass cuttings.

I think I have plenty of onions   and they seem to be drying off quite nicely on greenhouse staging.

I picked up part of my best sundlower to dry off the seeds for next year, out of the reach of those pesky meeces!  I also cut off my leek floering stem which I had shaved to encourage more vegetative production. The small grass plantlets should have been planted out in October but I will stand it in water indoors at home for a few days then seperate the plantlets and pot them up. I did this last year but the unusual cold spell we had made them run to seed in the spring, even though they were in greenhouse. The showmen heat there greenhouses but because I aint showing them I need to find an alternative way of growing them?

The last piccie is of some garlic/elephant garlic that is begging me to get it planted up as it is already rooting. A job for next visit to plot!

Went to plot this morning with the sole purpose of dropping off some cardboard. I also took my bucket of wood-ash from log burner as it was overflowing.I store it outdoors under the patio table to keep it dry.

As usual, once there, all plans went out the window and I had to do summat.

Decided to dig up some tatties I had planted along the edge of the plot. The soil is horrible here, full of stones and full of creeping buttercup. I managed to dig it all over removing buttercup as I went. I didn't get many useable spuds , but still enough for my Sunday dinner. I dug and cleared it last year so it dug a lot easier this year and the weed roots came out relatively easily. I still got half a bucket of stones though!

Once dug I raked it kinda level and decided to plant some garlic which was desperately trying to grow. ts a mix of Elephant garlic and normal garlic so I laid it out in positiont o plant it to see how it worked out. It wa just the right size for what I had so I dibbered holes and dropped a clove of garlic in eack. I didn't fill in the holes, which were only a couple of inches deep and this will hopefully allow it to expand as it grows. If the rain doesn't do the job for me I'll back fill holes if need be.

I then planted a central row of shallots, just because I had them

All was finished off with the woodash as I think buttercup growth likes acidic wet conditions? The wood ash will help to sweeten the land.

I came home with spuds I had dug, and a squash and yellow round courgette  I was given. My allotment neighbour grew loads and was just composting them so I volunteered to be his compost bin!

Piccies are of the garlic set in position before planting, the garlic planted then shallots planted down centre, then finally, the whole lot dressed with wood ash.

Woodchip delivered yesterday and I managed to get about half the pile laid onto paths. Today I used up the other half of pile but I still need some more.

It was semi-composted so not Ideal for paths and could have been used on the beds. If I do get round to ordering any more I will make sure to specify fresh stuff.

Woodchip delivered yesterday and I managed to get about half the pile laid onto paths. Today I used up the other half of pile but I still need some more.

It was semi-composted so not Ideal for paths and could have been used on the beds. If I do get round to ordering any more I will make sure to specify fresh stuff.

Looking good fella

For once, what I planned to do I actually did. After covering two beds with cardboard, I shifted about half a dumpy bag of well rotted cow muck onto them. As it was very well rotted and had garden worms in it, not brandlings or 'sh*t worms' as I call them, I decided to plant straight into it.

One bed was planted up with Autumn Champion onion sets and tuther was planted up with Radar onion sets.

After a small amount of weeding in the sunshine I decided that was enough for one day but have a plan for my next visit.

I still have some leeks to plant out which are the recommended pencil thickness, so will dibble them in next time I am at plot.

Back at the plot again today and only stopped a short while planting out the last of my leeklets! I hate to have growing space with nothing growing in it so even though I have a multitude of leeks and onion I couldn't resist filling of spare ground.

I ve stuck a few piccies of my onion ad leek population, The bed with the woodash has Garlic and shallots in it, the three small rectangular beds all have onions in them along with two long beds. The rest of the fence bed has leeks along with two rows and another bed. I have elephant garlic and more garlic growing in beds not photographed.
I gave away a box of nions from greenhouse this morning to another plot holder as I am struggling to get in the greenhouse door!

Good job you like onions, Vinny