Honey, I'm ho-ome!

I've been away for a week to a conference and before that I had so m much preparation to do I couldn't get to the allotment. I've had a great time, but man, am I tired. A day down the allotment pottering around doing some weeding, cutting back the paths and sorting things out was just what I needed.

And now I have proof of growth!

We found actual broad bean pods growing in the black fly/ant infested beanie beds. There was MUCH cheering. I was starting to think we'd not get any so I was chuffed to find a few on their way.

When I grow up, I'm going to be a broad bean...

There's pea pod sign too:

When I fatten up, I'm going be full of pea loveliness...

Possibly the most eagerly anticipated strawberries in the world...

I'm going to put straw underneath the strawberries soon, and cover them with netting. I'm probably not the only one looking forward to juicy strawberries.

And finally, the long view (click on photo to enlarge). We have some space beyond the tree (in the back of the photo) but realised we wouldn't get around to preparing it this year. We've covered it in weed suppressant for now and hope to plant a few things through it but otherwise leave it to next year.

What you (can almost) see here is, 2 beanie beds, 2 carrot/beetroot/onion stuff beds, 2 brassicas beds (one of which is now mostly strawberries, the other one still empty) and 2 potato beds.

Start of May

Here's how the plot looks now. We've dug 7 of the 8 main raised beds.

Two beds of potatoes. Realised the other day that we don't actually eat that many spuds. And we now have 40 potato plants. Everyone will be getting potatoes for christmas. Wrapped up nicely of course, we're not mean!

One brassica bed with only half the bed for brassicas because those strawberries needed a home and we're a long LONG way off digging the bed where they were supposed to go. The other half of the bed is housing the red cabbage plants. I was thinking we could plant radishes in the gaps between the cabbages. I wonder, perhaps the tomato plants could go in between. Does anyone know if tomatoes and red cabbage are good allotment buddies? The big grassy patch in the top photo is where the other brasscica bed will go. Eventually. Maybe.

This is the red onion, leeks and beetroot bed. Haven't seen any actual beetroot yet. Still hoping they're just bashful.

The onions from sets plus a few from seed that we;d pretty much given up on. Plus a few carrots. There was supposed to be a whole line of carrots down the middle but I can only find about 6 plants. I may have weeded out the carrots with the weeds. stupidstupid. There's also a couple of garlic plants in the corner that I accidentally dug up at one point. They seemed to be a bit better for it to (might be because it gave me the chance to put them the right way up!)

The first beanie bed. Broad beans, peas and a few sweet peas.

Massive number of flowers but still no pods...

The other bed is still empty but will have sugar snap peas and runner beans

It was such a nice evening down the plot last night. I was just pottering along, doing the watering and listening to the birds. Things might not (ever!) go according to plan but I get so much pleasure from this garden.

New Shoots

The replacement peas (damn you evil weevils) and the sugar peas have started to appear now

and could that just be a teeny tiny tomato seedling? I thought I'd buggered the whole tray with my home-made greenhouse affair. I covered the tray in cling film to keep the moisture and warm in but didn't think to put breathing holes in for about a week. I was worried the seeds would just go mouldy in the soil.

In my brand spanking new window sill greenhouse I've sowed a few more tomatoes (gardeners delight), pumpkins, winter squash, chilli and sweet peppers, marigolds and sunflowers. Hmm, if the tomatoes I'd given up on in the tray all come up then I've really over done it. Still, I can hand out tomato seedlings at work. Everyone at work seems to be building new greenhouses at the moment. Everyone, sniff, except me, sniff.

Goodies

The bees are loving the rosemary.

What a good day. We arrived at the plot today and I immediately got frustrated with my crappy, way-too-big-for-me gloves so we left almost straight away again for the garden center. I remembered I had some birthday money to spend, and well, I went a little wild!

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me!

The hoard:

• One rhubarb plant. Hey, I could have waited and waited for someone to give me a little bit of root, but I am just far too impatient for that.
  
• Nine, I repeat, NINE strawberry plants. I can't wait. Ah. We wont be getting many this year I suppose. Never mind, we'll be feasting next year. We got 3 plants each of 3 different varieties
  
• One small tray of red cabbage plants. I forgot to buy the seeds and well, it IS my birthday...
• A pot of sweet pea plants to brighten up the few eating peas that made it so far (damn you evil weevils)
• Window sill propagator. This is my brand new tomato plan.
  
• AND a pair of posh gardening gloves that fit perfectly and are all soft and lovely on the inside

The trowel was from a friend. And a very nice trowel it is too, sporting a cutting edge, and a ruler.

We weeded and weeded and weeded, and I rigged up the pea support. Does it look like overkill?

Evil Weevils

19/04/07 Edited to submit evidence of weevil attack:

My poor legumes bed. I had planted out the broad beans I started up inside and sowed a few more broad beans and all my peas (a few of the peas under cloches). But disaster! The bean/pea weevil (don't know if they are the same) have been nibbling round the edges of everything that wasn't protected under a cloche. Now everything has doily leaves! The broad beans I started up inside and the peas under cloches look like they will cope but everything else? I doubt it.

I was reading around and it seems a common problem this year. It seems the only things, well, the only organic things to do is to try and squish as many as we can while we're there and start some more off inside to plant out when they're big enough to cope.

Easter Plot Fest No 2: Pea Sign!

We have Pea Sign!

Ok, so these are best two, the other 4 or 5 look a little weak (I wanted to say weedy). We used cloches to grow the peas on one side of the bed but then ran out of cloches. Peas were sown on the other side of the bed but either have yet to appear or have been had by the slugs or pigeons. We'll see if they come up. I sowed a few extra peas on the empty side over Easter, trying not to disturb the soil too much in case anything was going to come up. We'll see what happens. I might grow a few plants inside to take out.

The broad bean plants are looking good. I was going to say healthy but several have been nibbled round the edges and they have some suspicious little back spots.

The extra few I sowed in the gaps (my just-in-case beans) are starting to come up too.

So legume bed No.1 is well and truly on it's way!

An Hour On The Plot

I've been exceptionally busy at work this last week, and will continue to be so next week too. I'm writing this from down South, where I'm visiting my parents and attending a meeting on Monday before three days in London.

The net result is that I only managed to get to the plot once in the first week of Frankie's absence, and that was only for an hour before it got dark.

The good news was that the beans seem to be flourishing after transplanting out - I think they're half as big again as they were when we put them in last weekend.

I think there may even be a hint of pea-sign. There are some tiny seed leaves poking up through the ground under the pea cloches and in the area where Frankie sowed them without cloches. I'm hoping it is actually the peas and not just some insidious weed, but there's only really one way to find out.

Talking of insidious weeds I had to hoike out a few deep-rooted dock plants that had escaped the digging and weeding of the beds. Their massive taproots where a real swine to get out as I couldn't get a very good grip on them.

I'm not going to get a chance to get down the plot until a week on Tuesday as I'm not at home, but I'm off work that week so I hope to get over a few times and make a decent amount of progress.