13 min read
It’s now been a couple of months since the last Allotment Diary so it’s a good time to post another one as we head into summer. These are nice for us to look back on these too as it’s not something we’d ordinarily keep a record of.
Most of our vegetables have now been planted out ready for the year and the plots really do look good especially after the warm weather and rain.
It’s gone well for the most part but we did have a bit of bad luck with a couple of things. Read on for more about what we’ve been up to the last couple of months, there are loads of photos – and also a video nearer the bottom of the post.
Life should be built on the conservation of energy.
Cover Crops
These are now all cut down and dug in or left to rot on top of the soil.
Most of these worked really well but we’ve definitely got some favourites and some we won’t try again but overall we’re really pleased, especially with the field beans, phacelia and the grasses we wrote about in the last allotment diary.
Trying to improve the soil on the allotment is probably my favourite part of working on it and if you’re in a place where you can’t or don’t get manure you really should look into using cover crops to try and build up and protect your soil.
Italian Ryegrass
We finally got around to cutting down our Italian Ryegrass beds (our squashes and courgettes are going in these). It was a really hot day added to which our shears broke after about ten chops (things aren’t made like they used to be!!!). After realising my knuckles weren’t actually broken from the shears breaking, a bit of Gorilla tape stuck them back together and we got on with chopping it all down. It was pretty easy really just a lot to get through and a hot day to do it.
Our Italian ryegrass before cutting down.
It looked so nice up close, you couldn’t help feel a bit guilty cutting it down especially after watching it grow so well the last 5-6 months. We cut it down to just a couple of inches and left the rest lying on top - there really is a lot of organic matter lying on the surface.
The ryegrass after being cut down.
This has since grown back more than we thought it would, and after a bit of a disaster with our courgettes and squashes (read further down) we had a window of opportunity to dig it in a bit more than we did originally.
We had to basically turn over the top 10cms to bring the grass roots to the top to kill the grass. This looks like it will work much better, and you can see how much this will improve the soil as the grass and roots rot down over the summer but a lot of work has gone into these beds to try and build up the dry soil.
Italian ryegrass a few days after cutting down. This grew back quite a bit but has now been dug over.
Field Beans
If you’ve been reading the previous allotment diaries, you’ll have known we planted field beans in the beds where our cabbages are going in. These were planted in late last year and as we got into Spring this year they really did kick on, growing up to about waist height.
We cut these down mid April and dug them into the top part of the soil. There were lots of nodules of nitrogen attached to the bottom of the plants and plenty of green to rot down. Hopefully the cabbages will enjoy the benefits of the extra nitrogen - they certainly seem to be so far…
Field bean cover crop just before cutting down in early Spring.
Then cut down and lightly dug into the soil.Crimson Clover
We planted Crimson Clover where we’re putting half of our sweetcorn. It went in too late last year and didn’t really grow very well - at times we wondered whether to dig it in and sow a grass but we ended up leaving it to see how it got on. We’re glad we left it, as; like the field beans, when Spring approached it really did grow well and ended up covering the entire bed.
Crimson Clover just before digging into the soil.
And chopped down and ready for planting our corn into.We let it get to the point of flowering for a week or so and cut it down shortly before putting in some of our sweetcorn. We just lightly chopped it into the soil but mostly it’s laying on top as a mulch. It grew to about 40cm in the end but seems to work well this way.
First lot of sweetcorn planted into the crimson clover bed.
Phacelia
We also grew Phacelia in one of the beds where we’ll be growing more sweetcorn. This grew really well and we chopped it down nearer the end of May. We cut it down a week or so after it had flowered as the stems get a bit woody and take longer to rot down if left. Again, it’s a shame to cut it down especially as it was covered in bees but it will be growing in a couple of other places on the allotment throughout the summer and you don’t want it to set seed.
We took some really nice photos of the Phacelia that you can see below and this bed now has another lot of sweetcorn growing in it that’s doing nicely.
Phacelia up close.
Phacelia just before cutting down.
And chopped down and left on top of the soil.
We didn’t feel good cutting this down but there’ll be more planted soon…
You don’t need treatment. The fever, inflammation, coughing, etc., constitute the healing process. Just get out of their way and permit them to complete their work. Don’t try to ‘aid’ nature. She doesn’t need your puny aid – she only asks that you cease interfering.
Potatoes
These have been in now since the end of March but we’re not as happy with them this year. I had a bit of work to do in earthing them up a bit better as they’d grown out the sides of my hills! The soil on this plot really isn’t the best. The previous plot owner had the plot since 1984 and hadn’t been able to get manure on most of it in all that time (he doesn’t actually have any lower legs). It’s very stoney, dry and compacts very quickly - it makes things very difficult to work with.
The other plots on the allotment seem to get much more foliage on their potatoes than us and I think it’s down to the soil. We’re working on that though with our cover crops and manure (when the manure is in) but they are coming on now and looking pretty good. Last year we had eleven rows but this year we’ve only done six - one row of Charlotte potatoes, and five rows of a variety called Sarpo Mira.
Sarpo Mira & Charlotte potatoes.
Broad Beans
We missed the boat a bit this year with getting these in early. Last year we grew them in the greenhouse and then planted them out but we direct sowed them this time and covered them with netting to stop the slugs eating them as we struggled last year with the greedy buggers.
It turns out our efforts were in vain as we got poor germination rates, the mice ate lots of them, and to add insult to injury the foxes used our netting as a trampoline. It might sound funny but it was actually pretty frustrating as we ended up having to spend a couple of hours sewing it back together, only for it to happen again a week later! We’ve since grown more in the spaces where they didn’t germinate and have left them uncovered.
Our broad beans are a bit “gappy” as we had poor germination in places but they’re getting there now.
We cannot be damaged into health.
Beetroot
These went out after our potatoes, as we’d been growing them early in cell trays in the greenhouse. We like the multi-sown way of doing if for the first batch, then we put out singular ones and also direct sow some so we get a bit of staggering.
They’re doing really well now and look very healthy.
This is the bed we had the mustard cover crop growing in that we mentioned in the last diary. They’re by far the best looking beetroots we’ve managed to grow and keep getting comments by people on the allotment as they walk past - the humble beetroot rarely gets a mention but they really do stand out if we do say so ourselves.
Our beetroot planted out. It really does look very healthy this year.
We’re incredibly pleased with them and have actually taken and eaten our first pickings as I write this - delicious! Whether the mustard cover crop (we did sow a grass cover crop in this bed too) has anything to do with it we don’t know as we’ve not grown them in this bed before.
Close up of one of our later planted beetroots.
These will be in our salad next week.Brassicas
We have two beds of brassicas this year, and we now have them in a rotation so we can hopefully avoid any problems in the soil that some people have down the allotment. They’ll move down two beds per year along with everything else in a rotation.
Kale Nero and Curly Kale planted with various cabbages in the background.
Kale a few weeks later with radishes in between. Red cabbages in the background.We planted in savoy cabbages, red cabbages - we love eating red cabbage raw, cabbages in general are very good for eating raw before they’ve had many of the nutrients cooked out of them, and we think they’re tastier raw than when they’re cooked.
We’ve also planted out various green cabbages. There are also also two types of Kale, curly and Nero. Swede and Turnips are in and doing very well (we’ve now actually picked two turnips). Broccoli and tenderstem, Kohlrabi and a scattering of radishes between everything that we’re eating as quick as we can before they get shaded by the big leaves of the brassicas!
Turnips at the back and Swede in the foreground.
Broccoli, tenderstem and Kohlrabi.Courgettes & Squashes
This has been our first real big disappointment in the years we’ve now been on the allotment. These two really don’t like the cold, and you’re always hedging your bets on when to put them out especially when they’re getting too big for their pots in the greenhouse.
Our squashes shortly before one cold night more or less finished them off - ouch!!!
We took a chance on putting them out when it was warm in May but had a bad feeling about it even when planting them. Literally, straight after we put them out the temperature dropped, and we basically lost all of them to the cold. Some are growing back and we do have about 10 spares of each but we won’t be putting them out now until the middle of June!!!
Moderation is the only rule of a healthful life. This means moderation in all things wholesome.
We’re the only ones on the allotment that lost any that bad - we think where we put them is a bit more exposed than those that had better luck but it’s the first time we’ve really felt the disappointment of losing so much to getting something wrong - not nice!!!
The photo above is when they were planted in and looked much happier than they do now. I just couldn’t take pictures of them looking like they’d just come out the deep freeze!!! You get a good view of them planted on top of the ryegrass. These beds have since had more work done on them and been lightly turned over. If you want to see how poorly they look have a watch of the video further down…
In General
We’ve put out and done far too much to mention everything (beetroot, various cabbages, kohlrabi, broccoli, tenderstem broccoli, kale, turnips, swedes, runner beans, sugar snap peas, green beans, carrots, parsnips, tomatoes, chard, celery, celeriac, lettuces, aubergines, peppers, cucumbers, sweetcorn, courgettes, squashes, onions and garlic) but it’s all planted out now (apart from the back up courgettes and squashes!!!) and doing well for the most part.
Our tomatoes have done well this year (last year not so well). There are various salad, beefsteak and cherry varieties planted. I think there’ll be almost 30 big tomato plants and probably 50 plants including all our cherry varieties. Our cucumbers are looking well now after we lost one too.
Salad tomatoes doing nicely this year.
Cucumbers doing ok’ish.Aubergines did really well indoors before putting them out but looked a bit sorry for themselves after going outside. It might have been due to getting water on their leaves but they’re hanging in there, we’ll see what happens…
Aubergines after they’d been put out. They don’t look as good now though.
Video Tour of All 3 plots
A few of you say you’d you’d like to see our allotment so we’ve made a quick unplanned video showing you how it is at the moment.
It’s quite long but walks around all three plots but you’ll get a good idea of everything.
Sorry I sound more “Cockney Don” than Monty Don but what can you do…?
Keep Us Posted…
If you’ve had a few plants from us, or put out your own in your gardens/allotment please keep us posted on how they’re doing. It’d be good to hear if you finally end up getting to eat them and maybe we can stick some photos on the next allotment diary if you take some over the summer.
We’ve had a tomato plant given to us from someone at class we’ve named “Hovis” that’s doing well (after a shaky start) that we’ve put in with seven of our other beefsteak tomatoes. We’ve also been given some sunflower that are now planted out in various places on the plots and all are doing very well.
Hovis the beefsteak tomato – a fighter.
Sunflowers thanks to Valerie.As always, we really do hope that reading these posts makes you feel like getting some of your own food planted in the garden or doing a bit more on your own allotment.
It gets you out in the sun, moving and eating something home grown.
Our next allotment diary will have have a different spin on it…
Our first pick or radishes before they’re covered by cabbages.
Vicky enjoying a tea break on our first plot.Health and disease are the same thing – vital action intended to preserve, maintain, and protect the body. There is no more reason for treating disease than there is for treating health.