Vinny's Allotment Plot

Is one in the sun and the other in shade?

Is one in the sun and the other in shade?

Yeah, the plants at home only get the sun for an hour in the morning but the vegetation is more lush and the flowers ae brighter!

Busy but productive couple of hours at the plot today.

Planted out six red cabbage plants and watered in. I wa surprised at how quickly the weeds had started to take over, so after hand weeding some of the bigger weeds, I got the hoe out and started on the paths.
I managed to get all my paths hoed off and left the weeds on th surface to get frazzled by the sun.The weeding of the beds will have to wait until my next visit, but surprisingly the paths were th worst?

I had a bit of a potter tying up one of the grapevines and taking some dead foliage from the two potted flowers I have in the greenhouse. There are panes of glass mising in greenhouse and the door is totally devoid of glass but at least it gives a little bit of cover for the grapevines and flowers.

I cleared up the majority of the poached egg plant foliage as well as it was looking tatty!

I meant to have a good session at allotment today but gale force winds hampered progress (my hat kept blowing off!)  What brought proceedings to an end was when it started to rain horizontally and I said " Enough is enough"

I did manage to get quite a bit done though.  I started off by hoeing the bed I had pre-prepared for brassicas to clear the newly germinated weeds, then raked them off!
I have a seedbed filled with six types of brassica seedlings covred with enviromesh. I transplanted three lots of five brassicas into the bed I had raked level. I know one lot were winter cabbage because of there foliage colour but not sure what the other two lots were as the labels had blown away! One lot I suspect were calabrese as the leaves were oval shaped, but they could just as well be caulifower?

Once I had planted and watered them in, I put a cane in beside each and dropped over a cone shaped plastic cover to to hopefully keep pigeons off them and give them a chance to root! It was so windy I had to bank up soil around the edge of these cones to stop then flapping in the wind? I don't know how successful this will be and won't know until my next visit?

I then hoed weeds in leek and scorzonora bed. The leeks are pitiful but at least the strange shaped scorzonora seeds seem to have germiated in the main?

After that it was the back breaking task of hand weeding the onion beds!  I also lifted a pitiful crop of garlic from a bed and set them out to dry. Ths bed will be the recipient of another batch of unknown brassicas!

After munching on a few strawberries and a couple of goosegogs and redcurrants I finally gave up the ghost with the weather and headed for home. I took a piccie before I left and hoefully it will upload?

Every Saturday after my remote exercise routine I always call at the plot because it's on the way home and close to the graveyard whereI an give Helen a visit.

I wasn't planning on doing anything as I had set aside time tomorrow (Sunday0 to have a good session there.

Half of the plastic covers over the newly planted brassias had disappeared? I know it's been windy but they each were at the bottom of a three foot ane pushed into the soil, and there's no sign of them. I replaed the ones that were missing and revelled that the pigeons hadn't devoured the plants not covered?

I notieed some red in the strawberry bed so thought I would munch on a few strawberries. After munhing a few I realised there were far too many ripe strawb s to munch straight away? Half an hour later and I had half a carrier bag full of ripe strawberries.  I now have two options, whether to give the majority to my daughter or whether to make some jam with them?

I also pulled out a load of Veggies favourite weed 'Sticky Willy'  and grabbed two of the mature Japanese onions to use at home. All the tops are now bending over and I am very pleased with the crop. The spring planted onions are doing good as well but not ready yet.

Tomorrrow I will harvest a load of broadies whose foliage is starting to yellow and plant out some leeks whih are pencil sized, along with loads of weeding as usual!

I am probably tempting fate but the six red cabbage I planted out (uncovered) havet been touched by the flying rats?

Looking forward to going to the plot on this nice sunny day and planting out leeks in a bed I have yet to dig!

Also on the cards is planting out some more brassicas and of course the never ending weeding!

As above, very productive morning.

Dug over a bed (not one worm to be seen!) raked laevel and planted about 2 dozen leeks by making a dibber hole, then filling with water, dibbereing again, panting leek and watring again. I neede to water twie as the soil was so dry it just ollapsed into itself after dibbering!

Harvested my autum sown broadies and have a carrier bag full. Dug over the bed they were in and planted 8 brassica plants from seedbed. Watered then put plastic cone covers over them. Did the same with another bed and another type of brassica (lost labels)

Did some hand weeding then left for home as it was too hot to work!