Back on the plot after a terrible Summer. Spring Cabbages & Garlic Sets. More land!

We haven't posted for a while. After record-breaking cold and wet weather with saturated ground for months on end, we have had a very poor harvest.

The new half plot 204A that we planted with potatoes only produced half a barrow load.   The sweetcorn grew very tiny cobs and we had no root vegetables because the seed was washed away.  It also turned out to be a very bad idea to try planting leeks in a seed bed rather than starting them at home.  The peas failed but the beans all grew quite well.  However the plot was too wet to walk on a lot of the time so we missed much of the harvest.

We did reasonably well with onions and garlic and we have had a few really good heads of broccoli and cauliflower just recently.  We will have sprouts for Christmas.  We grew enough fruit and rhubarb to make a couple of pots of jam, but again because of the awful weather there was little fruit to pick.

Quite a few people became disheartened by the weather and for the first time in a few years there are vacant plots and no waiting list.

Ever optimistic though, today we happily accepted the offer of the other half of plot 204, so now we have an allotment 10m wide x 50m long.

The weather was dry almost all week for the first time in ages, so today it was all hands on deck to plant around 100 sets each of garlic and Japanese onions, and a dozen Durham Early cabbage plants. Some very nice large cauliflower and a the first of the Brussels sprouts to take home.

Another Weekend, Another Weather Alert

Torrential rain again continues to keep us off the allotment.

Better Weather. Brassica Plants. Garlic Harvest

It has been sunny all week so we finally got to plant out assorted cabbages, purple sprouting broccoli and Brussels sprouts where the nitrogen-fixing green manure has been dug in. They should have been planted out in May and June but the weather has been too bad.

We lifted all of the garlic. The bulbs are the biggest we have grown so far.  They are quite wet despite the good weather so we spread them on wire racks to dry.

First Harvest. Sweetcorn, Dwarf French Beans & Courgette Plants

Only the highest part of the plot was dry enough to work. We planted out sweetcorn, dwarf french beans and courgettes.  They are all hungry plants so we put in plenty of chicken manure pellets.  The soil hadn't been fertilised because we had intended to plant roots there as year four in our rotation.  It's too late for that now.

There were broad beans and spring cabbage leaves, and we harvested the early onions.  We should have new potatoes by now but the plant we dug up had tiny, slug damaged tubers.  Not very promising.  And it looks like the last main crop potatoes we planted on the new plot haven't come up at all.  It looks very wet there.

First dry and sunny Saturday since May.

All hands to the plot!

Wettest June on Record

Another record breaking month.  


This year we are really struggling to plant seeds because of the awful weather, and we can't do a lot on the plot because the soil is so wet.  This time last year we were harvesting new potatoes, a few carrots, plenty of peas, cabbages, early onions and broad beans.   We need sunshine for the garlic and early onions we should be harvesting about now, and it is very late for sowing seed so we will be lucky to have any carrots or swedes this year.  It's too late for parsnips.  And the rain continues. 


But we will have enough potatoes to last until Spring, and we shouldn't have to buy onions or garlic this year.

Planting out Runner Beans and Peas. Green Garlic.

The weather has been atrocious for the last few weeks- cold wet and windy, so there hasn't been a lot of activity on the plot.

It has been been better for the past few days so we got some weeding and digging done, and cut down the green manure to be dug in when we get a chance.  We have managed to plant all of the seed potatoes now and they take up all of our new half plot.  The last few rows of main crop potatoes were quite late going in.  Hopefully they will be OK.

This weekend we were able to plant out the runner beans.  We have two four metre rows this year, more than before.  We also planted out a row of peas that we started at home in fibre pots, and put some seeds in between the plants to extend the cropping period.

There isn't a lot to harvest at the moment, some rhubarb, a few spring onions and green garlic.  It is worth picking a little garlic around now.  It is hardly ever on sale in the shops.  It is really delicious and you can eat the whole plant.

Last Frost? Main Crop Potatoes. Rhubarb.

The rain finally eased off during the week and it was cold enough for a touch of frost.  The ground was dry enough to dig, but still fairly heavy going.  There is now a massive amount of digging, weeding and planting to do.

The early potatoes have come through and there is a bit of frost damage to the leaves, some of which are slightly blackened around the edges.  This has happened  to us every year so far and they have always recovered.  We earthed them up and put in six short rows of main crop (Desiree).  We still have a lot of potatoes to plant.

The broad beans have come up and the nitrogen-fixing green manure (tares / vetch) where the cabbages are going is really tall and dense.  It will need to be dug in before it flowers.

The purple sprouting has gone over so we pulled it up and composted it. If we'd kept picking it through the bad weather it would be still producing spears.

We have our first rhubarb from crowns planted two years ago. There isn't a lot but neighbours are eager to give some away as the wet weather produced quite a glut from more established rhubarb patches.

Planting Leeks in a Seed Bed

The rain continues and most of the soil is way too wet to walk on.  The front of the plot is higher and just about dry enough to dig so we made a small raised seed bed and planted two packets of leek seeds for transplanting later on.  We should really have planted them by late April, but everything is behind because of the terrible weather.  We have grown them in seed trays up to now and have had a good harvest of tasty but not very big leeks.  It will be interesting to see if planting them directly in the seed bed will make a difference.  This year we are growing 'King Richard' for a very early crop from September to December, and 'Below Zero' for crops from Christmas to May.

Wettest April on Record

Still raining and officially the wettest April since records began.  Quite a contrast to the heatwave we had last April.  The ground is completely saturated and cold.  Some plots are flooded after the big storm we had at the end of the month.  One end of our plot flooded badly in April 2007 but we have been raising the beds there ever since.

We haven't been able to do anything for a couple of weeks so we are quite behind.  The parsnip seed should have been planted by now.  The early carrots in the cold frame haven't germinated; probably washed away.  We planted some peas, broad beans and sweetcorn indoors at home in an attempt to catch up.

Rained Off

There has been a lot of heavy rain this week, culminating in hail and thunder on Sunday.  The rain is much needed but the soil is too wet to do anything.  We will need to work hard for the next few weeks to get up to date with what needs to be done.

Early Potatoes Planted. Digging & Hoeing. Last of the Leeks

It was mostly dry this weekend but cold and windy with frost on Saturday night.

We have planted out the early potatoes; two rows each of Foremost and Rocket first early, and two rows of second early Charlotte, 12 - 14 seed potatoes to the row.  We did some more digging but still have a lot to do before we can plant the main crop potatoes.

There were a lot of annual weeds sprouting in the onion bed so we hoed and weeded it, and we harvested the rest of the leeks to make room for peas.

Potato Trenches & Chicken Manure. Lots of Purple Sprouting Broccoli

On the new plot we have finished digging over where the early potatoes are going, worked in a generous sprinkling of chicken manure pellets and made trenches.  We will be able to plant the first earlies on Saturday, even if the weather is bad.

Each time we go to the plot at the moment there are plenty of new side shoots of purple sprouting broccoli to harvest.  It should keep going well into May as long as we keep cutting it.

Cold & Wet Easter Weekend. Seed Planting Begins

Last year we had the warmest April on record and one of the driest for a century.  Quite a contrast so far this year with Easter weekend being cold, wet and windy.  The Winter was very dry and there is a hosepipe ban so the rain is much needed.

We had planned to get the early potatoes in the ground but we only managed to get some digging done on Friday before the bad weather arrived.  No need to panic yet.  The early potatoes weren't planted until 10th April last year and we planted the last of the main crop on 15th May.  We had a fantastic harvest.

The main crop onions (planted over a month earlier than last year) are growing well so we took the netting off and hoed between the rows.  The shallots haven't come through yet and we still have a few more rows of onion sets to plant out.

At home we started planting seeds; cucumber, cabbages, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, courgettes and pumpkins.

Planting Broad Beans

Put in two double rows of broad beans; Witkiem, the same variety as last year, and covered them with netting to keep the pigeons off.  Last year we planted them in February and they had already come up by now. Will be interesting to see if it make a difference to when we get a crop.

Suddenly there is lots to do.  We still need to plant peas and the rest of the onion sets.  The first early potatoes will need to be in the ground next weekend before it's too late.  The leek seeds need to be planted too.  This year we are going to try starting them off in a seed bed for transplanting later rather than plant them at home.

Clocks go Forward. Purple Sprouting. Early Carrots

It was a lovely spring day, quite warm and sunny.  The clocks went forward last night so we can stay later on the plot now that the evenings are longer.

There was plenty of really good purple sprouting this weekend.  We harvested the top parts and there are lots of new spears growing from the stems underneath.  To get to the purple sprouting we had to repair the brassica cage which had been partially collapsed by the snow.

We took the black plastic off the front of the new plot and started digging it with the azada.  The plastic had been there since we got the plot last September.  The ground was quite clear underneath but there was still a fair amount of couch grass root.  The first early potatoes will be going in there next weekend.  We are going to grow potatoes on most of the new plot so as to clear the ground (and to try to become self-sufficient for potatoes).

The first seeds of the year went in today; Amsterdam Forcing early carrots, broadcast sown in the cold frame.    They will be ready to eat in June.

Started to dig over the end of the onion and legume bed where the broad bean and early pea seeds are going.  This bed follows potatoes in our crop rotation.  The soil is quite rich from the chicken manure and compost we put in for the potatoes, and virtually weed-free apart from the annual weeds which are OK to dig in.  The onion and garlic sets we planted there last autumn are growing really well, particularly the garlic, and there are still quite a few leeks to harvest.

Beautiful Weekend. Onion Planting

It was a beautiful Spring weekend.

The shallot and onion sets we spread out to dry last week were almost all OK with just a few rotten ones.  Using a dibber we planted eleven four meter metre rows with the width of a rake between rows.  The onion sets are just under the surface, six inches apart, and there are three rows of shallots planted eight inches apart.  We covered the whole lot with netting to stop the birds from pulling them out.  We have enough onion sets for another three or four rows so hopefully we won't run out this year. The early onions and garlic we planted last Autumn are growing very well and we have plenty of smallish but very tasty leeks.

Our friends got started on their new plot too. Very sociable.

Spring on Saturday, Snow on Sunday. Rotten Onion Sets

Another lovely Spring day on Saturday.  Lots of people about, including four of our friends who have taken on the plot next door but one.  We finished off the raised onion bed with lots of compost from the heaps and a small amount of chicken manure pellets.

When we went to plant the shallot sets they were very damp and a few were mouldy.  Quite a few of the onion sets were rotten too.  We had kept them in plastic bags since the beginning of February; not the best idea in hindsight.

Went to the allotment shop on Sunday morning in freezing cold and heavy sleet.  We bought some nice onion sets, about half of them red ones.  The shallots in the shop weren't much better than ours.  Think we'll plant them and hope for the best.  We have have spread them out to dry.

Preparing the Onion Bed. Chitting the Potatoes

It was a nice sunny weekend and lots of people were on their plots.

We spent a few hours digging over and adding plenty of compost to the bed where we are putting the shallots and maincrop onions.  We have been gradually raising the bed because that end of the plot flooded badly when we first arrived in 2007.  Hopefully we'll finish the job next weekend and get the shallots in.  The onion sets can wait for couple of weeks if necessary.

We harvested the last of the parsnips, some very flavoursome leeks and some Jerusalem artichokes.

It was warm enough to start chitting the seed potatoes in a frost free shed where they will get plenty of light.

Seed Potatoes, Onions & Shallots. Snow

Last night's snow partially demolished the brassica / fruit cage. Two of the uprights snapped at ground level. Alder doesn't seem to be as rot-proof as we'd been told.

Today we spent £28 at the allotment shop on seven varieties of seed potatoes and a lot of onion and shallot sets. We hope to become self-sufficient for onions and potatoes now that we have another half plot.

We got first early Foremost and Rocket, second early Charlotte, maincrop Pink Fir Apple, Maris Piper, Desiree and Cara: 16kg of seed potatoes in all- enough for around 20x 5m rows. We won't chit them just yet as the weather is very cold so they are in the shed but protected from frost.

We also bought 750g of Sturion onion sets (about 150) and 1.3kg shallots for planting later this month.

Work Party

Took part in the allotment work party. Quite sociable. There was a skip so there was a chance to clear the old carpet and junk from the back of the plot.

Harvested some parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes, black Tuscan kale, a couple of leeks and a few tiny Swedes (planted too late and too near the trees).

Seed potatoes have arrived at the shop and will be on sale next weekend.