Despite the worst efforts of the weather, an early spring drought, a cold late spring and fairly incessant rain during the summer so far, the plot is starting to produce thanks to some slightly warmer weather. This evening marked a key point in the year, the first dinner of entirely home-grown produce (new potatoes in garlic butter and a salad of beans, peas, beetroot, spring onions and Lollo Rosso leaves). The rain has made it difficult at times to get on to the plot, as we haven’t wanted to ruin the soil structure, but it has meant that a good reservoir of moisture has built up, which ought to lead to a more productive year than had we been facing a drought. That said a bit of ripening sunshine wouldn’t go amiss now.
Author Archives: Lynn Davis
Another splash of sunshine
Both updates and efforts in the allotment have been limited by the weather. With few opportunities to get into the plot for any extended periods and cold wet weather inhibiting growth we haven’t had much to say. However, a bit of early morning sunshine appeared during a morning visit to water the greenhouse, so we were able to get some updated shots, which show that things are continuing to grow, albeit slowly. The vegetative growth is OK, but we really need some sun and warmth to get the fruiting crops to start to set properly.
Sweetcorn and squash bed
- Brassica bed
Overall the plot is looking pretty tidy and we are hopeful of some good harvests this year.
Looking South 11 July
We did manage a dinner of entirely home grown produce tonight. New potatoes in garlic butter and a salad of beans, peas, beetroot, spring onions and Lollo Rosso leaves.
A bit of sunshine
The sun finally emerged today, so we rushed down to the allotment to take some pictures. As you can see the plot now boasts a greenhouse and the summer crops are slowly taking hold. Hopefully some decent weather will allow these to really get going.
looking North West across the plot
Sweetcorn and Cucurbits
Beans and Peas
Strawberry Bed
Waiting for the warmth
How ironic that the last post should be about conserving water. To be honest the last month’s rain has been very welcome, but we probably still need more. Earthing up potatoes soon reveals that the underlying soil is still pretty dry. However, the wet surface has meant that there have been planty of days where we just haven’t wanted to get onto the allotment for fear of compressing the top of the soil and making it harder for water to get through.
The cold weather has also held back activity as we don’t want to put young plants into shock. We have got quite a lot of stuff hardening off in cold frames and cloches, but there are also many plants still on window sills living the soft life. Suggestions that things may get warmer over the next few days could start things moving down the conveyor towards planting out.
Anchoring Down Protection
The miniature poly tunnel that appeared in some of last year’s pictures (see below) will not be featuring in the same way this year.
- Poly tunnel August 2011
At about 9ft by 6ft this is a very useful way of providing quite large protective environments without the permanence of a greenhouse (not all allotment plots allow permanent structures and others limit size). We have used ours for tomatoes and melons over the summer and then warming beds in the spring. We tended to hold the cover in place with tent pegs, tying it onto the frame, which was anchored down with weights. This had seemed adequate until we went down to the allotment today after a very wild night to find that the whole thing had been blown over the rabbit fence and it was only the trees in the corner of the allotment site that prevented it from being next stop Maidenhead. Fortunately we had no neighbours on the escape route, so no-one else’s plots were damaged.
The cover is irrepairable and the frame is buckled, but we’ll still be able to use the frame with insect/bird netting to protect fruit and brassicas
We had made a deliberate choice to have this as a moveable resource so that it could do different jobs over the year. However, we have now learnt that when the weather is worse we need to make sure that things like this (and larger cloches and nets) are properly anchored in high winds (or that the covers which catch the wind are removed as the poly tunnel one was over the winter).
Water water everywhere
Water has been a topic of conversation down at the allotment. Many plots have water butts on site, with the majority attached to shed or greenhouse guttering to maximise the collection efficiency. We have just ordered a greenhouse and downpipes were a must have. We are lucky in that there are taps on site, so all the plot holders have some capacity for counter-acting drought.
Hosepipes have always been banned for watering, although they could be used for filling containers including water butts. Now they are completely banned meaning that all water from the taps has to be carried to plots. In my opinion that is not a bad thing in terms of targeting watering, although it could be hard work for some of the less physically able plot holders. The reason that I think that limited access to water could be a good thing is that when water is easy to apply we end up putting a lot on the surface of soil that will evaporate quickly in warm weather and can cause the surface structure to break down leaving a surface cap that prevents subsequent rain from draining down to the root area where it is actually needed.
We are experimenting with the use of inverted plastic bottles to help us to deliver water directly to the root area. Once growth starts, these should be concealed, but at the moment it looks as though our main crop is plastic bottles.
Growing plastic bottles
Of course there is nothing like a good bank holiday downpour and yesterday was a great day in our neck of the woods for growers as the steady rain was not hard enough to cause surface capping or flooding, but lasted for long enough to have some chance of penetrating the upper layers of the soil, with a forecast of sunshine and showers for the rest of the week, this looks like good growing weather and we’ll be keeping a careful eye out for signs of life from our recent sowings.