[scrapemedic]

Busy week but satisfying..
Potatoes in the ground....check
Moved twenty wheelbarrows of mud (read dust cause its so dry) and levelled out the path....check
Built a log store/lean to store....check
brought a pot for the christmas tree and a pot for the herbs.....check
levelled of the ground and putting paving slabs down for the tool area....check
brought wood for raised beds......check
built raised beds......err
built logs for border edge of flower bed, replanted the spring bulbs, weeded.......check
planted broad bean seeds.....check
weeded the fruit beds.....check
tidied the green house.....check

Still a few things to do this week, but the upside of not planting things because of the drought is the allotment actually looks tidy for once!

[Jason Smith]

Yes, mine too Liz, allotment has never looked so tidy or so dry in April/May 1st week. The rain looks to be arriving as from tomorrow to at least give many areas much needed moisture. Each year for the past 3 years I've purchased more water butts to save more water each year so have got 4 now, I'm actually looking forward to seeing them all topped up at some point. My favourite crop last year was my courgettes, 2 varieties and around 6 plants provided me with around 150+ courgettes throughout the Summer and alot of happy neighbours, family and friends especially cooking courgette curry! Frozen into bags for months worth of beautiful curry OR courgette lasagne cooked and frozen for winter meals. Something that is also looking rather flourishing is the StrawBerry patch, flowers galore. Canes going up on Saturday for my Beans and Peas sat waiting patiently in the greenhouse.

[Dave K]

Quite a few flowers open now on the 'Orkado' tomato plants in the conservatory and have started putting them outside for a few hours each day to harden them off a bit while the cooler spell lasts - once it's over and the slight chance of frost has gone then they will go outside full time.

Also a few flowers on some of the chillis which are growing more now than when it was much warmer - as indeed are the potatoes both earlies and maincrop which are going a bit berserk with their growth rate. Will be picking the radishes tomorrow but the spring onions are still some way off being ready.

[Paul Domaille]

Put the nectarine outside last Autumn and the lemon back in March, they had previously lived in the conservatory.Both thriving, the nectarine lived happily through the winter snow and now has 5 fruit and the lemon is a mass of flower.

Cheers,

Paul D

[Nigel Bolton]

Goosegogs and blackcurrents are fattening nicely. Pears, apples and plums have set. Radishes have been great so far, save the odd slug nibble. Everything growing rapidly after recent heavy showers, unfortunately, so are the weeds.

N.

[scrapemedic]

Noticed that our resident industrial grower on the allotment has potatoes that aren't far off being ready to crop. They are about a foot and a half tall! He also has the most amazing strawberry patch. As for my strawberries, I am hoping to be eating the first in a week or two. the fruit has set nicely. Lots of flowers on the raspberries too, so I will concentrate on watering them as a priority this year in the hope of getting some raspberry jam. They set but didn't develop last year due to the lack of rain/watering.
As for the rest of the allotment, nnothing is growing so far, no sign of potatotes or beans, but they only went in a week or so ago. Put some salad leaves seeds in today. Heres hoping it will rain this weekend.

[Dave K]

Had few of my radishes with lunch and very good they were too, quite strong and peppery :)

Quote

scrapemedic - 11/5/2011 22:34 Noticed that our resident industrial grower on the allotment has potatoes that aren't far off being ready to crop. They are about a foot and a half tall!

I'm really surprised how fast the potatoes are growing, they seem to have really surged now that it is a bit cooler as the very warm and sunny weather perhaps dried out the containers too much.  Here are pics of the International Kidneys progress (Pink Fir Apples much the same):

19th April, three weeks after planting and the first shoots have appeared



26th April and quite a bit more growth



This morning, and they are up to 12 - 15 inches high and starting to need support as they wave around in the wind

[scrapemedic]

Quote

Paul Domaille - 11/5/2011 19:06

Put the nectarine outside last Autumn and the lemon back in March, they had previously lived in the conservatory.Both thriving, the nectarine lived happily through the winter snow and now has 5 fruit and the lemon is a mass of flower.

Cheers,

Paul D

Do you happen to know what Lemon Tree you have? There is obe hardy Lemon that I saw advertised a few years back, cut most will only survive in a greenhouse.

[Nigel Bolton]

HAD to plant out the runner beans today, they were taking over the utility room. \twisted stems are 4 feet up the bamboo canes.

N.

[Dave K]

Now have a number of pea sized tomatoes growing on the plants and they urgently need final potting on to their permanent outside location. However the weather forecast for a few days ahead always seems to urge caution. Very strong winds tomorrow and Monday (according to local MetO gusts up to 50mph)  means a risk of damage to the plants and now latest GFS is even suggesting risk of air frost later this week. 

Potatoes still growing insanely fast with the haulms up to about 2 foot high now - they all secured against any wind damage but just too large to cover completely against frost so fingers crossed. Last of the radishes are ready for picking and the spring onions are not too far away from being ready.  Ground soil is bone dry now, down to several inches.

Meanwhile the chillis are growing steadily in the conservatory, the Hungarian Hot Wax and Numex Twighlight have pods growing already and the Chocolate Habanero and Fatalii have little flower stalks though a long way from blooming.

[scrapemedic]

Got potatoes and broad beans up now. Strawberries nearly ready and unusually the raspberries won't be far behind. Just seeded some brassicas, and will probably dig for a new root veg bed sometime this week. But still need rain; the weeds are even dying back away from where I am watering. Got one of those garden rain gauges hoping that might jinx it into raining! The ground is still dry deep where i was digging yesterday. I think even the birds know how bad things are, as soon as I started watering, a blackbird came up really close to take whatever she could get. They aren't normally as bold as the robins are, so I think she was taking the risk in desperation.

[Nigel Bolton]

Interesting about the blackbirds. I have one female who will come right up to me when I am digging, almost to the point where I can pick her up.

Planted toms in their final tubs today. They are in tubs, so can be moved to where it is sunny, or if need be, in shelter from the wind.

Cucumbers and courgettes in their spaces now. They have been in posts for a while, but have shown very little urgency to grow. Indeed, some have died with rotting stems and crinkly dry leaves. Not sure what the problem is here.

As for rain gauges. Don't buy one to tempt it to rain. I bought my first one in May 1975. IIRC, the next fifteen months were dry, and during the summer especially, hot.

N.

[scrapemedic]

Quote

Nigel Bolton - 21/5/2011 14:08

As for rain gauges. Don't buy one to tempt it to rain. I bought my first one in May 1975. IIRC, the next fifteen months were dry, and during the summer especially, hot.

N.

Oops!

[Dave K]

Well of course the 06Z GFS has taken away the chance of air frost later this week for here so Tuesday looks like the day for the tomatoes to take the final permanent position outside. No doubt the 12Z run will scupper those plans though!

[JanetB138]

its been awhile since i grew potatoes, so this year I thought i would do them in proper potato bags that i got last year and didnt use, so I got some salad potatoes let them go to seed, and popped them into the compost potato bags, so in 90 days im hoping for some good spuds.

Ive started off with some Garlic in seed trays, then when the green shoots appear, will transfer them to a pot

Ive put some poppy seeds in, Lavender  ( for mum) but will have to transfer them to the Urn as ( the dam dog eats  all the shoots).

Ive got some Peppers to plant up, but have had to baracade  the small green house up as its gusting 32mph here

[scrapemedic]

Wow whaat an evening, went down to the allotment quite late this evening, bout seven thrity, with the new compost heaps. Going to try rotating the heaps more often, because twice a year just doesn't get it to a nice friable consistency and it still has too many weeds in it to use it without having to weed for the rest of the year. Hopefully this way I can leave it for longer in the bin, and get more air into it on a regular basis.
So there I was thinking I may even run out of time to get it all done, but not only did I get the bins constructed, but I watered, and heaped up the potatoes and had a quick tidy round. the greenhouse has suffered a bit in this recent wind, the window has popped out so will need re-fitting, and the wind has taken a toll on most of the fruit plants which all look a little wilted. Strawberries are small and not as sweet as normal. That could just be the plants getting to the end of thier useful life and I am going to propagate them on and move them to a better position.

By the time I finished pottering around it was Nine thirty, still light enough to gather up me stuff and wander back to the car in the last of the light. Its so nice having these long evenings and with the winds dying down it wasn't too uncomfortable in a T-shirt.

[Dave K]

Tomatoes have been outside for nearly two weeks and the wild swings between warm/dry and cool/wet don't seem to have slowed their growth at all as yet. Got about 15 fruit on the two plants in various sizes with 4 looking near full size and as if they need a bit more sun to ripen them up.  A few blackfly aphids but nothing serious.

Potatoes now have flowers so the International Kidney growing for earlies should be ready by the end of the month or thereabouts. Despite the weekend rain and cooler less sunny spell they are taking a lot of watering to keep the containers from drying out.  Found one potato capsid bug on them but only some minor leaf damage.  The weekend rain certainly did activate the slugs and snails though and they were trying to climb in early on Monday.

First batch of spring onions are almost ready now, the numex twilight chilli plant has plenty of small green or purple pods growing, the Hungarian hot wax has three big 'uns and the extreme heat chocolate habanero and fatalli both have a few flowers though no pods developing yet. Doesn't take much midsummer sun for the lean-to to get heated up to 32 °C or so even when it's cool outside.

The soil has dried out so quickly since the weekend rain, the few light showers since Monday have been near useless. Grass is looking yellowy brown in patches but naturally a swathe of horsetails that grow by a fence every year are thriving [me?]

[Dave K]

After what seems like ages, tomorrow - finally - a 100% certain dry day so it will the day to lift the International kidneys and see if I have any worthwhile new potatoes, some 13 weeks after planting and a week or so after the plants have flowered.

I am a bit concerned as to whether I have watered them enough through the driest spells of spring to produce tubers of any use. Tried to root around in the soil first to check but the problem is there is a mass of fibrous roots where I earthed up earlier and the container makes it difficult to dig down and leave undisturbed enough to recover and leave for a couple of weeks more - so all or nothing then. Fingers crossed anyway...

[Dave K]

Results of my first crop and attempt at early new potatoes



Won't solve the world hunger problem but I'm quite pleased with these, should give a few servings.  Even though I have been watering like crazy for weeks it's surprising how little a gallon a day seems to have penetrated down into the container, the compost was really rather dry down at "tuber level".

[Flatlander]

Looks good - we're harvesting earlies now too. Worried about blight for the main crop with this humid weather.