Month: August 2021

Posted on

Week 5

7 days Rain up to 2021-08-28 = 0mm

Sun

Early morning, Me and Sil, too wet to do anything, Sil weeded and tidied, planted her Kale that had been growing on the windowsill. I put framework around the netting, so we can lift it off. Cabbage has little white flies on (Cabbage White Fly”, apparently harmless to Cabbage but not good on Kale. Will need to treat.

3 Hours in total. Weirdly we were harangued by someone walking past quoting scripture….

No rain recorded for 2021-08-22

Mon

Have ordered some “Bug Clear for Fruit & Veg”, organic pesticide. will try it tomorrow

No rain recorded for 2021-08-23

Tue

A quick trip to the allotment, made up 500ml of the Bug Clear and sprayed the Cabbage, Broccoli and Kale. Will be interesting to see how it works. Looking at the ingredients, it is mainly Rapeseed Oil so is environmentally friendly

No rain recorded for 2021-08-24

Sat

Couldn’t get to the allotment today, fixing cars all day. Popped in during the week and the Bug clear is working.

Posted on

Week 4

Sun. Best laid plans..

7 days Rain up to 2021-08-21 = 0mm

Woke up to rain, so limited as to what we can do today.

Probably did too much yesterday as we are both sore, BUT, it meant we got a lot done, the new bed is coming along nicely and we got our paths trimmed.

Going to try and plant the pre germinated carrot in the bottom left corner of the new bed, see if this comes up better.

Took some stakes to the allotment and picked up three bags of waste for the tip in the morning, still raining.

In the afternoon, after the rain, quick trip down to plant 3 rows of the pre-germinated carrot seeds at the bottom left of the new bed. Interesting to see how they come up.

No rain recorded for 2021-08-21

Mon.

Popped down for 30 minutes, picked up three more pieces of wood, did some more weeding, watered seeds and seedlings.

No rain recorded for 2021-08-16

Tue.

didn’t go

No rain recorded for 2021-08-17

Wed.

Popped down for 10 minutes in morning to water carrot seeds and check all is OK.

After work went down with Sil for 30 minutes, dug some more of the new bed and Sil tidied and weeded, Sun was out, absolutely Gorgeous. No one else was there, really peaceful, relaxing

No rain recorded for 2021-08-18

Thu – Sat

Didn’t do anything, Weather too wet. Saturday, rained a lot…

No rain recorded for 2021-08-21
Posted on

Week 3

Going to do one post per week and build it up as the week progresses.

7 days Rain up to 2021-08-14 = 16.8mm

Mon night, just had a walk around with Sil, didn’t do any work just chilled and enjoyed the allotment.

Tue.

Finished off Gus’s Bed (see below), weeded some more. Weeding is going to be the major activity once the structure is complete. Going to need to bring the strimmer and clear the grass.

Fat pigeon flew onto the allotment, saw us watching and pretended to eat the grass….

Realised that I’ve messed up with the recording of planting, not sure what are turnips and what are radishes. Time will tell.

Gus’s Bed….

Wed, no work just walked around the allotment. Picked a couple of weeds.

Thu – Fri. Didn’t visit

Sat. Morning visit, started on converting bottom 2 beds into one. Managed to get lots of wood from the fence replacement that is happening at the bottom of the plots. Going to make borders .

Afternoon, used strimmer to tidy up and kept on with bottom bed,

Posted on

Carrot and Parsley seeds, Pre Germination

I’ve been having problems with Carrot and Parsley germination. I’ve had several sowings where nothing has come up.

So, trying a new technique, as described here…https://laidbackgardener.blog/2019/05/22/pre-sprout-for-easier-earlier-carrots/

Seeds placed on Kitchen towel, soaked with boiling water and then placed in a warm place 25C and see how they go.

Going to give it three days then check the seeds and hopefully plant out.

This is actually a brewing fridge, but it has the advantage that it will keep the temperature constant. Seeds started at 21:00 on 12/8/21.

Parsley seeds after 3 days, planted out into cells on an indoor windowsill 15/8/21 . left 6 cells are “Plain leaved 2” 2 seeds per cells (left 2 have only 1. right 9 cells are Gigante d’Italia tape 2 seeds per cell, sometimes doubled up . will be interesting to see how they do..

Seeds beginning to sprout 22/8/21, just peeking above the soil.

The carrot seeds are below:-

Planting is interesting. Typically you plant in rows (drills), cover with compost / soil and then thin out when (if) they sprout.

With these., you plant with tweezers where you want them to grow. No drills, just prepare the soil, use the tweezers to push into the soil the required depth and then (hopefully) they will all sprout with no thinning required.

These were planted on 15/8/21.

Posted on

2nd Week Sunday

Weather has stopped some access, but still making progress.

Turnips and Radish planted, more weeding, started extending the top beds up to the boundary. Incredibly, the Radish have seedlings after just 3 days.

Carrots Lettuce and kale are now seedlings.

Some of the cabbage plants appear to have been eaten, we are informed it is probably pigeons, now covered with netting.

Something keeps pulling out the plant markers. Pigeons?

Sorted the wood into good and rotten from bottom right bed (No 4 on plan). Weeded and turned over 3/4 of the bed, Sil weeded and moved Strawberries and Raspberries. Finished off with trip to the tip, Lot’s of waste removed.

5mm of Rain in total this week. 1 Watering can per square metre, not that much.

7 days Rain up to 2021-08-08 = 8.8mm

Posted on

Sunday (8 days since taking the allotment on)

Rained for 3 days. 7 mm of rain, the equivalent of 35 watering cans on the beds…..

Finally got back onto the allotment.

Got there at 8:00 am. worked for 3 1/2 hours.

Weeded, Dug some more, Extended the raised bed wood to the end of the allotment, Put down weed control fabric on 2 of the paths. sprinkled bark onto the new paths.

The bark came from Lidl, 2.99 for 40 litres, compared this with the bulk delivery options available online for 1000 litre bags and amazingly, Lidl was cheaper…

Planted 2 lines of Turnips.

Overheard a disturbing conversation, tools are being stolen from the allotments. Nothing expensive, £5 spade… Makes you wonder.

Back home for a relaxing dip in the spa, well deserved.

7 days Rain up to 2021-08-01 = 18.2mm