Water Collection and Shelter

This weekend's project was to construct a rainwater harvesting and dry tool storage structure. We are not allowed sheds on our site, so quite a few people have built something similar. Mine is fairly basic and probably not the most sturdy, but it should do the job. Above is what we got done yesterday afternoon, below is the (almost) finished object.

Apart from the two posts and metposts at the back, all the wood has been salvaged from the allotment site or from our shed at home. I did have to buy the corrugated plastic for the roof, and the guttering.

All it needs now is a bit of downpipe for the gutter, and a couple of pieces of trellis I thought I could attach to the sides, then I can pretty it up a bit with annual climbers in the summer, which will provide a bit of shade, should I ever need it. 

A look at my plot

It's been some time since I took my camera to the plot, so as it was a lovely sunny afternoon, (after a number of nasty wet days) and it's also been some time since I posted, I thought I would take the opportunity to update you.

I have cleared the very weedy, overgrown strawberry patch, reducing them to two rows, to make them easier to net in the summer, and to make more room for my flower patch next year.

I have put in some tulip bulbs, and this little Chinese lantern plant which was going cheap at the garden centre. Behind that, the fruit bushes which I have pruned quite drastically.

Here is where my beans were. I decided the easiest thing to do was just to spread them out over their patch, to help smother all the weeds over the winter. I have left the dwarf beans in, as ground cover, for the same reason.

We are still eating tomatoes as they ripen, and I had to bring in all the peppers to ripen on the windowsill. They do ripen, but not without going all wrinkly at the same time. I have been charring the skins under the grill and peeling them, there won't be many going to waste. I brought the chilli plants into the conservatory where they are ripening beautifully.

Other than that we are now very much onto the winter veg... a few carrots are left, and some winter cabbages. I dug up the first couple of parsnips the other day - one huge and one quite respectable, so that is promising. Sprouts are nearly ready, as are leeks. Looking ahead to next spring and summer, there will hopefully be purple sprouting brocolli, cauliflowers and spring cabbages, and I have put in some broad beans, garlic and overwintering onions

The Highs and the Lows

The small holes in these potatoes are caused by wireworm, the larvae of the click beetle apparently, and it has affected nearly all my late spuds. They are supposedly most prevalent in areas which have recently been cleared of grass, but that is not true in this case. An alternative suggestion I have read is that they are more numerous where you have had manure, and  that is certainly the case, I spread out the manure I inherited over my potato patch. The only cure is to wait for the end of the 4-5 year life cycle, which is fine because it will be 4-5 years before I put potatoes there again. I have never had a problem with wireworm before, and this year I have also had slug damage on my spuds for the first time.

This is almost my entire onion crop - pitiful isn't it! I grew them from seed, which I had not done before, and probably won't do again, except as an addition to sets.

Summer got off to a very late start, and also seemed to come to a very early end, and the peppers and chillies in the greenhouse are only just beginning to ripen, the chillies in the lead as you can see.

It was touch and go whether my second crop of sweetcorn would ever ripen, but it's just about there now. I am having to eat it all up as quickly as possible, before the frosts come. It's the best crop of sweetcorn I've had for many a year, so I would have been gutted if it had all gone to waste.

One great success was beans - climbing french and runner beans, as well as broad beans. In fact they did so well that nearly all of my dwarf beans went to waste, as I didn't have time to pick them, there were so many climbing ones (which are easier to pick after all). I won't bother with dwarf ones next year.

The most disappointing failures of the year have been the celery and celeriac, which bolted before they even got off the ground. Beetroot have been disappointing too. Many carrots failed to germinate, and many that did have split, presumably due to weather conditions. They are now being attacked by slugs where their shoulders emerge above the soil.

It hasn't been a good year for squashes, although I do have a few butternuts now, I'm not sure whether they will ripen, or whether I should take them in now before the frost, which I think there may be this weekend.

Despite the wet weather, the outdoor tomatoes didn't do too badly, but I have brought the remaining ones home to ripen. There was some blight, but I was able to keep it under control until recently, and I finally pulled all the remaining plants out today. The Ferline toms are definitely quite resistant.

It has been lovely to have so much fruit - I have made lots of jam, and we are still getting plenty of autumn raspberries. It takes ages to pick them all though.

As I have mentioned already I think, I will be dedicating a bit more space to cutting flowers next year, I have really enjoyed having a few in the house and I want to experiment with different kinds. It's a nice thing to take to people when you visit I think (especially when you can tell they're getting fed up with runner beans...)
I will also be cutting back on certain things (ie potatoes and beans!) and leaving a bit more space in between for harvesting. More sturdy supports for beans will also be required. And I probably won't bother with chard again, as it has just sat there, we haven't really eaten any. The leaves are all holey and ragged, they just don't look very appetising.

What will you be doing differently next year?

Mouse Melons

These are an experiment for this year, and they have done very well. Very easy to grow and quite prolific (although obviously very small), they taste like tangy cucumbers, but with fairly thick, crunchy skins, especially when allowed to grow longer than an inch, the small ones are much more tender.

However I would be fibbing if I said that they had gone down a storm in our house. I haven't found many ways of using them, and there are still a few languishing in the fridge. I think I will do them again next year, but I will pick them all while still quite small, and pickle them.

A whole month since my last blog, and no wonder, since going back to work three weeks ago my feet have barely touched the ground. I am doing an extra 8 hours per week at work (24 in total) which means a lot less time during the week for allotmenting, especially as the days are getting so much shorter. On top of that, these last few weeks have been the busiest of the year in terms of keeping up with the harvest. We have been up to our ears in beans, courgettes, potatoes and raspberries. I made some raspberry jam yesterday, and the beans have been distributed amongst friends, family and anyone else who comes to the house. In addition we have been doing up our kitchen, which has not only taken up quite a bit of time, but meant that the kitchen was out of action at the peak of vegetable production. It's also a busy time for the allotment committee, I have been printing, stuffing in envelopes and delivering the autumn newsletter, now I need to produce 100 or so rent letters, and the AGM is coming up at the beginning of November. 

It's all go. Will be back soon for an end of season review.

Today's Harvest

I spent about 3 hours picking all this today, and then spent the rest of the day in the kitchen, washing, peeling, chopping, sorting, blanching, freezing, and making chutney. Growing your own can be very time-consuming. The beans, purple climbing french beans, flat-podded climbing french beans, runner beans and dwarf french beans, are at peak production at the moment, and I can't keep pace with them. We are going away this weekend to my sister-in-law, so will take some with me, then our kitchen will be out of action next week while we do some work on it, so I won't have an opportunity to cook or even to blanch and freeze any beans, so the neighbours will have to have the rest.

With all the extra growing space I have this year I have inevitably overdone it with certain veg, namely potatoes and beans. It's quite fortunate that I lost a number of courgette plants in the cold weather, otherwise I would be over-run with those too. I have decided that next year I will probably reduce the amount I plant, and just spread it out more. I have found it quite difficult moving about between things this year, I have packed it all in a bit too closely!

Weirdly, the blight which was threatening to take hold a couple of weeks ago seems not to have spread, indeed it even seems to be 'cured'. I cut off all the potato foliage, except for one row, which still looks the same as it did two weeks ago. Only one tomato was affected, and no more since then, and there has definitely been no more spread. All the remaining fruit looks fine, the foliage also looked fine, although I have now cut most of it off to encourage the fruit to ripen.

The first sowing of sweetcorn has a couple of cobs on each plant, but I am still waiting for them to ripen. The second sowing looks really healthy, and hopefully the warm weather will continue long enough for it to reach maturity. The flowers are already emerging at the top.

The autumn raspberries are starting to get going, but the summer ones haven't done much at all, I think I will have to replace them this winter.

Bee Bar

A few pictures of the flowers in my bee border - a narrow strip at the top end of the plot. It is in full flower at the moment and looking lovely. All the flowers are doing really well this year, and this has inspired me to devote a special patch next year specially for cutting flowers. Something to cheer me up if we get another year like this one, late July and still not much ready for harvest. Normally things are in full flow by now, so far this year all we have really had is broad beans, salad and potatoes ...

.. which brings me on to some really bad news: potato blight. I have never had it before, only tomato blight. Sadly the outdoor tomatoes are starting to show signs as well now, and they were doing so well, just starting to ripen, some of them. I have cut down most of the potato foliage and shoved it into bags, leaving some of the main crops which are not too badly affected yet. I am giving them a few more days to grow while the weather is good, but will have to cut them down before it starts to rain again. They have all had a dousing with anti-fungal treatment as well.

I have had a lot of blackcurrants and gooseberries though, and made plenty of jam. Yesterday I dug up my elephant garlic, just two bulbs to see if we liked it. Just as well I didn't plant more. It didn't agree with us and caused a very uncomfortable night! I have heard this said of artichokes, but nobody warned me about elephant garlic!

I have been getting up at the crack of dawn every day this week, to go down and make the most of the cool early mornings. While I wouldn't dream of complaining about this beautiful weather, it's really a bit too hot for working in after mid-morning.

Things are really starting to put on some growth finally, now we have a bit of warmth. Courgettes are really getting going, and beans are starting to flower. I know it's not going to last, but I am making the most of it while it does.

A Glimmer of Hope

At last there is some hope on the horizon for our crops this summer, as reports are coming in that the Jet Stream is finally on the move northwards, which means that the weather will become more 'typical' for the time of year. Nobody has actually started talking about heatwaves yet though, so I suspect what they really mean is just 'a bit less crap' than we've had for the last couple of months. I'll settle for that, it'll be a definite improvement anyway.

These are the first of my tomatoes to start ripening, Sungold, typically reliable and early to ripen. We have had a cucumber already, with plenty more to come, and the plants are so much healthier than last year, when they were covered in mildew all summer long.

I have been picking broad beans galore, enough for some excess to freeze. I must remember to pay closer attention to spacing next year, I can hardly get in between my rows, and sturdier supports will be required too.

I have lost a couple of courgette and squash plants, to stem rot, and the red onions aren't doing too well, but most other crops are starting to perform well, including outdoor tomatoes, which I have mulched with chopped up comfrey. I picked vast quantities of blackcurrants the other day, enough to make about 9 jars of jam, and there are quite a lot more to come. Raspberries are starting to come as well, but the quality is not great and the birds seem to be eating most of them.

One area I am really pleased with is my bee border, which is now in full flower. I keep forgetting to take my camera with me, but I will definitely be showing that off in a future post.