2011, In the allotment we’ve started next season already

27 July. We’ve been continuously busy both on the allotments and on everything else. Suffice to say we are, and have been, cropping daily for the last two to three months. Now we are waiting for the tomatoes and peppers. Next years onions, leeks and brassicas are coming along nicely.

15th February, planted out some leeks. Cropping sprouts, cabbage, potatoes, swede, leeks. Four of the squashes succumbed to the heavy frost.

6th February we plan to attend “Seedy Sunday” at Hove Town Hall. It’s a seed exchange for gardeners.
24th January 2011. The rhubarb has started so We’ve covered some up in order to force it. The seed potatoes arrived today from Alan Romans.
Still cropping sprouts, potatoes, leeks, swede, cabbage. Over-wintering crops are coming nicely Broad Beans, Onions; the Globe artichokes are all healthy, the rosemary is flowering,  the flowering currant is opening SO SPRING IS HERE.
9Th January already and I still haven’t planted out the carrots and the leeks. The cabbages I have already done and they’re under Enviromesh netting.

19th September 2010. Three beds planted with over-wintering onion sets and broad beans. Seeds sown in trays in the greenhouse are germinating, winter cabbage, carrots and leeks, plus maybe some winter lettuce and spring cabbage.

The seeds have all been ordered as well as the potatoes. I think we have a choice of about seven different squashes.

2010 A frustrating year for us gardeners

2010 A frustrating year in the garden and allotment.
28th December 2010. Whilst still wet and still cold, we are still digging potatoes, picking sprouts, cutting cabbage and lifting swede and beetroot

3rd October. Cropped raspberries, first pink banana jumbo squash, plus four Rouges D’Estampes squash, potatoes, cabbage, spring onions, green tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, beetroot, last beans,

20th September. It was a slow start to the year and we’ve had a poor crop of beans. The rest has come good particularly brassicas, courgettes, tomatoes, cucumbers,

8 th August. Well it’s been a battle this year. Cold wet soil when we wanted to sow and plant; very poor germination; then down in the south we went into a drought. It hasn’t rained for two or more months, Yes we had a odd spots or two but nothing to write home about.
However … we are regularly eating courgettes, cucumbers, potatoes, beans, beetroot, onions, spring onions, lettuce and the brassicas, leeks, swede and squash are coming along nicely providing we water every day.

We’ve had lots of strawberries, a few blueberries, and lots of raspberries.

Just reporting not complaining as the vegetables we do have are magnificent.

14th June, everything is planted, I think. So the good news is that we’ve started cropping, broad beans, everlasting spring onions, strawberries, garlic, so now it’s just a question of keeping the weeds at bay. And watering when the weather goes dry.

18th March, all the potatoes are in, as are the onions and some sweet peas, almost all paths weeded and extra chippings put down.

4th March The first of the potatoes are in; the spare broad beans sown in the greenhouse have been planted out; the Cupidon dwraf french beans have been sown and the spinach planted out. Ten trays of vegetable seeds have been sown.

20 January. All the trees have been planted and wind protection set up and the spinach is progressing well.

14 January 2010. What a start to the year. It’s almost bad enough to throw in the towel. But the New Year HAS started – I’ve finally ordered the potatoes and onions sets; the new fruit trees have arrived; and we seem to have enough seeds. We ‘re particularly looking forward to trying the Pink Banana and the Pink Ballet squashes.
So we’ve started.

2009 on the allotment, Shoreham

2009 on the allotment, Shoreham

20th November. Greenhouse done and planted with garlics and onions. Also planted Broad beans and almost completed the new double-depth raised bed.

4th November. Courgettes still going, plus cabbages, calabrese and perennial Welsh red onions, so its time to start preparing for next year. In the greenhouse the tomatoes got the dreaded blight so we’ve decided to replace the soil in the raised beds. So we’ll raise the height of one of the other beds – I dug out sixty bags of earth! I’ve ordered four fruit trees, which should arrive mid-November… with some more strawberry plants!!

25th August 2009. Well I got that wrong, no sign of the Cupidon but the late courgettes I’ve planted are coming along a treat.Tomatoes are now all blighted,

26th July 2009. Last Tuesday I sowed another bed of our favourite Filet beans, Cupidon.

21st july 2009. New butterfly proof bed for brassicas. Yesterday I completed a double height raised bed crowned with a veritable box of enviromesh. It seems to keep all the butterflies out. (so if I do another bed the same I will have three beds and I can rotate crops, probabaly use the third for short tomatoes plants.)

14th July 2009 Strawberries have been great as are the summer raspberries, blueberries and blackcurrants, then there’s the lettuces, Cupidon beans and spinach, now we’re also cropping courgettes.

14th May 2009 Two beds of tomatoes have been planted as have one for Red Onion Suash, and a row of Caro Rich tomatoes in the greenhouse. We also planted the courgettes earlier this week. The broccoli  has finished.

3rd May 2009. We’ve got one bed of dwarf french beans sown; three double rows of pole and runner beans sown; two beds prepared for the tomatoes and two beds for the courgettes (all these are now in pots and are almost ready for planting out,) potataoes, onions, raspberries, blueberries, blackcurrants and broad beans are all progressing nicely; the spinach, lettuce, rhubarb and purple flowering broccoli are being picked regularly. Trays of brassicas, lettuce, leeks and onions are almost ready for potting on or for planting out. Just sowed the Quinoa and Amaranth for planting out in July. Forget-me-not, rosemary, wallflowers are all flowering.

23rd March 2009. Spinach has been planted out, some potatoes (first earlies and earlies) have been planted, flower and vegetable seeds have been sown in ‘Jacqui’s greenhouse.’ I’m half way through replacing our shared grass path with a wood chippings one. Everything looks tidy and ready.

18th January 2009. All I wanted to do was to sow the red broad beans, the Grando Violetto beans, a heritage purple seeded variety. I did sow these, also I did clear all of the remaining sedum and the garlic chives. In addition I largely built a new three foot high by twelve foot raised bed, using tall strong poly bags (used for the mushroom compost) filled with horse manure, compost and anything else I could find, leaving no more than eighteen inches in the middle between the to rows of bags. The idea is to sow or plant into the top of the open bags as well as into the clear area in the centre.

This bed is now ready to receive the grass from sorting the path out. Also after weeding the flower beds, brilliantly Angie cleared the dozens of marigolds from the last untidy bed and then started on the grass alongside the autumn raspberries. We’re almost ready for the new growing season.4th January 2009. Water is solid ice in the water trough, even the ground in the polytunnel is just frozen. The young Spinach are fine but the lettuces and beetroot suffered an attack by the local fox trying to get a warmer den in the polytunnel. The broad beans have bent their heads, even the onions are suffering a bit. This cold snap is forecast to last another week.

Start of the year survey:
– still a few beetroot
– sprouts
– garlic
– onions
– broad beans
– purple sprouting broocoli (trying to recover from the caterpillars)

Tasks to do – Need to create the new bean bed; build a new path; add compost to four beds; sow ‘red’ broad beans; sow onion seeds; re-sow beetroot and lettuces; and clear marigolds and then compost ready for Red Onion Squash. Everything has to wait until the cold snap has finished and the ground is no longer frozen.

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