The year of the carrot?

Pleasant day - clear and cold. Much improved after weeks of rain. My new box is still empty -- about 3" of water pooling in the bopttom so decidning what to do.

Dug up the last of the potatoes and cleared that space in back-right box and dug-over a bit. Today planted out with garlic - both the strong and mild types from this year - reusing my own crop for next year, not always recommended for garlic so we'll see how it goes.

The carrots that were planted late, following the onions in the back left box are stupendous. Still a whole load of them to go. Gave some to the new couple over the road. I dont know if its the late planting, or the (lack of) menure on the soil or the quality of the soil in that bed (it is well dug over, after previous years of potatoes, sweet corn and onions), but these carrots are possibly the best carrots ever grown myself.

Extended dry spell

Seems to be a pattern now where we have wet periods high summer with warm, dry spells either side in spring and autumn. Quite warm at the moment, although chilly at night. The ground is very dry - and I've even taken to watering the raspberries as there are loads of fruit, just very small and currant like, and hoping they'll swell up.

Cleared the front box of leeks - will use that space for piling up soil as I move things around.

Tomatoes almost done. It has been best year yet for them down here. Amazingly there is a alot of blight on the plants but it hasn't spread all over - seems localised to truncks and a little on the leaves and just the odd actual fruit which I clear quickly. Must be the warm dry weather.

Digging up more potatoes than we need to eat, as I want to try and dig out another pit to fill with compost. Will try storing them at home and see if they keep. Aprt from needing the space, concerned if they stay in the ground too long they'll start to do that funny brown thing, or get wormed.

Last of the sweetcorn

Final sweetcorn picked and cleared the plot. Reckon on maybe 24 cobs in total this year. Maybe need to find some way to grow in two banks, so that the season is a little longer, as some of the last ones to be picked are starting to dry out a little.

Picked more leeks, beetroot (and gave some to next door) and potatoes.

Good year for tomatoes - no blight yet - and the "german strawberry" variery seems to be a heavy cropped, although they are a bit fleshy rather than sweet and juicy.

Feels like end of summer

The weather is cool with not much rain - we had a couple of storms blow past but the ground is still fairly dry. The runner beans are getting rather stringy. Defintely feels like the end of summer.

Dug out one of the boxes at the back, that had potatoes, and moved the soil to another. Will now fill that hole with green compost as it comes along (and maybe dump compost bin into it also) and then cover back with soil to settle.

Sorting through the saved onions and quite a few are going moldy - just cant seem to get drying out onions right, as I thought they were done nicley before being put away.

Back from holiday

Not much change after 10 days away, except weeds seem to have taken over. I dont think it's rained much or been super-hot.

Sweetcorn all ready but maybe not going to get as much as I thought ...the smaller cobs aren't coming on. Anyway picked 4 for tea and reckon there will be enough for maybe 5 meals for 4 of us -- 20 cobs in all.

Raspberries not doing much -- any that are left are rather small even though ripe ...due to lack of rain I guess.

Dug up the pink fur apple potatoes that were planted in box at back and very disappointing - as much less than I got from those that were potted.

Sweetcorn

Picked the first sweetcorn and it was lovelly.

Veg in full flood now. Plenty of potatoes, courgettes, cabbage, beans, onions, and tons more beetroot than we know what to do with.

Bought a new under-worktop freezer simply to fill up with produce - and nearly full already with raspberries, blackberries and beans.

Suddenly lots of raspberries and blackberries

Raspberries suddenly coming ripe, blackberries around plot also. Two pots of each picked and frozen already.

Courgettes doing well as ever - more than we can eat. Potatoes, beetroot also. Picked some carrots and not too bad.

Small lettuces I planted started to grow and have all been chopped off to within 1cm of ground ... dont know if thats pigeons (they were covered) or slugs (they were peletted) or something else.

Onions dug up completely, most back home, some left on ground to dry out.

Sweetcorn starting to turn - a few more weeks to go I think - hopefully of hot weather.

Likewise for the squashes ...many of the early set fruit have not taken off and shrivel up and die - presumably down to intermittent cold and damps patches of weather.

Plenty of sun and rain, plenty of growth especially weeds

Whole plot seems to be growing over -- with recent rain and sun -- and couple of breaks away, the weeds seem to be taking hold and grassy paths growing rapdily.

Boys both short of money so got them down doing jobs. Cutting grass, weeding and back filling the newest box to the far right -- added a layer of green compost & grass, then a deep layer of straw menure mix and finally one of the skip bags of soil mix dug out from the box initially. Still not quite full and hopefully should settle as another skip bag, at least, to go.

Yellow courgette seems to be doing well and manage to pass on some off them to the neighbours.

Some of the white onions now starting to fade -- tops got blow over in storm -- and some have got the root mould which means they just pull out and possibly loose some of the out skin layers. Also keep finding more red onions which I planted in odd locations and they all need picking.

Sweetcorn looking good -- not super high but plenty of cobs forming.

Squashes very overgrown and green and leafy with plenty of fruit formed but not growing so large ...I think they'll depend on getting a mini heatwave to really take off.

Potatoes very sucessfull -- clearly they like the 2 year old compost mix in my boxes, so I think anual rotation for boxes filled with new compost should be:
- squashes
- potatoes
- garlic, onions, leeks
- carrots, beetroot

with cabbages and sweetcorn in there somewhere.

Potatoes

Dug up 5 or 6 potato plants, for Saturday's gathering. Probably about 10Kg. Quite a good harvest from all the varieties I tried, with some being very large for this early time of year. Ground a little dry, even with recent storms, and tops wilting in the sun. A couple of the plants have died back completely (with no pattern to which have ben affected).

Also dug up a couple of carrots - not a good year for them, as short and bent.

Cougettes coming along - picked 4 already. The squashes really starting to take off, with plenty of fruit set, however lets see if the continue as that seems to depend on the weather (i.e. if it gets chilly then the fruit wont do well).

The weather has been intermittently quite hot but with the odd storm every now and then. At least an inch of rain last night, with I suspect another inch to come as the same depression sweeps round and comes back for a second shot.

Picked potatoes, beetroot, carrots and onions

Heat wave coming to an end, but it's still very sunny and no rain. Just not in the 30's which is a relief.

Picked first batch of veggies ... carrots (not very sucessfull) potatoes (not bad) and beetroot (very sucessfull). Also cleared all the red onions at the back. Potato and onion much for tea. First bacth of carrot seedlings coming thru' so sowed some more in the space left by the onions.

Working on the revamped box on right. Bitumen painted the inside top and stuck left over lino to it, with a few galv nails to hold in place. Then dug over the base of the box to break up even more of the hard packed clay and started to fill it with compost and straw mix. Will leave that to settle down...hopefully the compost gets into the cracks in the clay.

Trying to root numerous blackberries by bending over shoots into pots and backfilling with soil, so hopefully they will take and can get planted around the area where there's no fence between me and the outside.

Cleared all the garlic

Picked all the garlic now, as increasingly looking like its done (leaves browning and dying down) and some more had white fungus on root ball. Where I had uncovered the bulbs it made no difference; possibly worse, as the came up with no effort at all - almost as if roots had died back. Good crop none-the-less and should keep us going for the year, with some to save and some to give away.

Bought some lettuce seedlings to go in the front left box to replace some of the garlic.

And also got some fresh carrot seed and sowed in large bed at back, again where the garlic has come up. Seems very late to me ...but does say on packet can be sown in June, so we'll see.

Got 2 replacement courgettes from the garden centre as previous ones were looking a bit sad ...small, feeble plants, yellowing and covered in black-fly. But at £2 each, they'll have to produce a lot of courgettes to get much of a payback!

Sunny, warm weekend.

Sarah and Mark down for the weekend. Got them weeding and built the next, long thin box to go in centre where currently there are some potatoes, and cabbages. Box is built, just needs some protective treatment.
 
The late planted garlic is also looking ready to pick (not bad since February) but noticed a few bulbs had died down and this was reflected in a rotten root ball ... so got rid of them and uncorvered the remainder ... maybe they are too deep (I dont think so) and the soil is keeping them damp. Anyway did half like this, so lets see how it works.
 
Sweetcorn coming along nicely. Mulched up between the plants. The only issue might be that some are much more advanced than others -- heights range from 4" thru 8", which might reflect in when the start seeding.
 
Red Cabbage planted up to fill remaining spaces, and netted over, in the middle box. The leeks haven;t grown much -- still rather thin and weedy looking -- plus the courgettes are very yellow looking. Maybe with the weather being a little nicer they'll take off soon.
 
Main bed of garlic and onions looking very nice. Garlic bulbs are starting to split so maybe time to pick the lot...wondering about clearing it and using space for something else...maybe more cabbages?

Picked first garlic.

Heatwave is over for now, with a cold spell and some storms. A couple of inches of rain on Sat night/Sunday morning, which was needed.

Finished digging out the far right box, down to about 18". Started a third skip bag to hold soil, this one next to compost bin at far end of plot. Now got to find something to line it, as previous plastic bags are very decayed.



Picked some garlic as looking very good and some starting to flower. Six bulbs; 3 with a purple hint and 3 plain white - cant remember varieties.

Planted some remaining squashes in the skip bag to right of compost bin at end pof plot. This containined very fresh straw and even some fresh cut grass, so not sure if they will be ok but we'll see.

Cut the grass at last

Mini-heatwave and not much rain. The ground is getting very dry and starting to crack.

Finally bought a petrol lawn mover (Ryobi, £150 with B&Q discount) and cut down the grass on the paths. Richard down on Sunday with Jack, so he was helping out with that. What to do with the old one though?



Got a few leek seedlings from Mum and planted them in the central box next to courgettes.

Only one of the french bean seedlings came up, so planted that amougst the runner beans, but I suspect it will get swamped.

Got some tomatoes from Mum and a few more from Steve O'Toole. Two largest planted at home. At the allotment planted one in tub, one in the pot that had carrots (which all got slugged) and one in a new pot which I'll leave in a tray on a pallette.

A spell of bad weather

Mum planted out some sweetcorn on Thursday (8x3 in bed, centre left). However they look a little small and that was followed by some bad spring weather ... rather gusty with short sharp showers and they dont look too good. Plus Michael was helping out and fell over and sat on a couple.

Also planted out butternut squashes in the fresher compost box at the back and made up a make-shift coldframe from the shower screen to protect them (although worried the wind will knock the screen over and it'll flatten the plants).

Courgettes planted at one end of the centre bed and closhed to try protect them also. Again worried the wind will simply blow the closh away. Plus one courgette in a large pot.

Continuing to dig our the far right box and resorted to filling up a skip bag as nowhere to dump the soil on the other beds. Tom helped alot on Sunday.

Bought a £25 strimmer from B&Q -- absolutleyl rubbish -- from a 5 hour charge, it only lasts 10 minutes and doesn't seem to hack down the grass well either.

Warm and sunny and no rain

A dry and sunny spell of a few weeks...although rain forecast for later this week.

Continuing to dig out the far right box and earth up soil around all the potatoes which are growing nicely -- about 12" high. Just over half the box is dug out...not sure what to do with rest of soil to empty it. Also set up one of the skip bags and filled that up with straw/menu mix, some green compost and grass and a few layers of soil.



The grass is getting rather too long. Unfortunately the lawn mover seems to have a petrol leak so need to find an alternative.

Planting out carrots, beetroot, leeks.

Mum down with carrot, beet and leek seedlings. Planted in various places - mostly in near row central box, and long thin box in middle row.

Dotted left over seedlings all over the place. Plus loads of onions in any odd gap. Plus planted up a couple of large pots with Pink Fir Apple potatoes, and one with carrots that couldn't go anywhere else. Even tried some carrots, potatoes and cabages in the very poor soil of the non-boxes beds. Nothing to loose as this was left over stuff anyway.

Earthed up the larger potatoes that were coming through (Michael helping out there) by digging out soil from last year's carrot box (first row, furthest right box).

Raspberries all coming through nicely -- shoots a few inches high.

A bit of effort to fix the plumbing to sphypon fill the water tanks -- the valve had split over winter so new fittings required; managed to reuse some bits from my plumbing junk collection.

More preparing the ground

A bit of rain at last. Generally preparing the ground -- digging over, digging in more chicken manure pelets, leveling off and tidying up.

Started on planting

Very nice Sunday afternoon. Started on the planting to get stuff in before the holiday.



Potatoes in the 3 back and right boxes -- 4 different varieties and about 10 of each. International under plastic cloche in thin box on right ... quite spaced out aswell so lets see if that gives a good early yield.

Onions and 2 rows of leeks in the bottom-left box, next too the little patch of late garlic that was already there.

Some more leeks, and a few parsnips in the newest box, centre-left. The leeks are a little small, hopefully they'll survive.

Dug over the last two beds in the centre -- possibly for carrots and beetroot -- although the soil is very solid and un-friable.

Sunny and warm

Finally cleared everything from last year. The remaining 8 or so of the leeks picked and eaten Saturday night ...very nice. All the boxes are dug over and I'm adding some b&q composted chicken menu all over. Tom down on Sunday helping with the digging.

Also clearing around the back of the plot and trying to direct the blackberry shoots away from my bit and toward the stream to try and build up some sort of barrier along that side.

Nice spring day

Nice spring morning, so went down to site, for only second time this year. However a major storms seemed to come out of nowhere (apparantly it was forecast) and soak me.

Managed to plant out a few more garlic (very late ... but lets see what they do) and clear some of the boxes of the last few red caggages, which are a rather worm-eaten but still worth having.

Digging over the compost box at the back, made from pallets, and adding remainder of compost bin to that. That box will be for squashes this year.