Busy, busy, busy

Have you ever really looked forward to a visit from a friend. They arrive and you are really happy to see them. The trouble is they brought a friend along with them that you don't really like. Then they seem to be intent on staying for far longer than you would like so you can't get all the jobs that you had planned to so after they had left.

That's something like we felt last week. The much needed rain arrived but with it came a drop in temperatures and a return to extra layers of clothing. The rain overstayed its welcome. We had lots of plants that needed planting out. This had been delayed in the hope that the rain would come and make the earth a more hospitable place for young plants. The problem was that the plants needed to get into their final home quickly before they became drawn and spoiled. The result was that last week we dodged showers to get as much planting done before the more persistent rain forecast for the end of the week descended on us.

The first batch to be planted were the brassicas that  went in the two beds that were prepared for them the previous week. We planted one bed with later varieties, red cabbage - Red Lodero, and cabbage - Kilaton and Cabbice. The second bed was planted up with earlier varieties, calabrese - Montclano, cabbage - Kilaton and cauliflower - Clapton. Garden lime and 6X fertiliser were added to the planting holes. Brassicas don't like soil to be too acidic and the lime reduces acidity. Although many of the varieties of brassicas that we grow are club root resistant, the lime also reduces the risk of club root further,

The second lot of plants to go in the ground was the sweet corn. We planted two varieties - Swift and Earlibird. The two varieties were planted well apart to avoid cross pollination. Like most cereals they are wind pollinated and so they are planted in blocks to aid pollination. I don't like to rely too much on the wind, as it tends to blow when it isn't wanted and not when it is, so I brush the plants with my hand or a cane when I notice that the pollen on the male flowers at the top of the plant stem is ripe. This creates a pollen shower, some grains of which will hopefully come to rest of the female flowers lower down then stems.

In a race to beat the rain that was threatening as we worked, the next crop to be planted were our climbing beans. Martyn, had erected one support structure the previous day whilst I was planting the sweet corn and erected the second whilst I started planting the first lot of beans. In all we planted four varieties, two lots of runner beans - Enorma and Moonlight and two lots of climbing French beans - Cobra and Sunshine.

We had bean plants left over so we planted a mixture up a cane teepee.

In the space between the two lots of beans we planted our first four courgettes, two yellow fruiting ones - Orelia and two that have green fruits - Defender. The rest were planted in another bed. Some are further advanced than other to hopefully extend the fruiting period.

Two types of squash - Crown Prince and Musquee de Provence were planted.  They were planted in separate beds as they can be quite promiscuous and cross pollinate.

The first two rows of peas that we sowed should shortly begin to flower so we sowed another two rows of Onward peas.

In the allotment greenhouse tomatoes have been planted in the sunken air pots which were filled with potting compost. The varieties are Apricot Dream, San Marzano, Shirley and Sungold. We have cut down on the number of varieties this year

This year, in the garden greenhouse we are growing our tomatoes in large tubs also using potting compost as we are avoiding tomato growing bags due to the problems we experienced last year. The added bonus is that the tomatoes could be potted up earlier and moved into position when space becomes available.

Also in the garden greenhouse we are growing mini tomatoes - Sweet and Neat (red). These are supposed to grow  cherry type tomatoes in bunches like grapes

As well as all the planting we managed a bit of tidying. The parsnips were weeded and the remaining empty beds prepared for cultivating and planting. Hopefully the beds that had been too dry previously should now be workable although believe it or not one may be too wet.

A surprise find when weeding one bed was that self seeded beetroots were growing amongst the weeds. As we know that beetroot haven't been planted in that bed for at least four or five years, we are guessing that the seeds came from the compost spread there earlier in the year

I decided to rescue some of the seedling and transplant them.

Towards the end of the week the weather warmed up which was on the one hand good news but on the other hand the warm, damp conditions heralded the warning of an unwelcome potential visit as our first blightwatch warning popped up. There's always some problem threatening to thwart us gardeners isn't there?

Our harvests are increasing now, We are still pulling rhubarb.

8 June

9 June

Strawberries are becoming a feature as they steadily ripen.

11 June

The  flower seeds that I sowed last autumn mainly failed to germinate but I did manage to cut a small posy of sweet Williams.

13 June

The race was on to use the calabrese before it ran to seed. This week as well as using it as a side vegetable it went into a chicken and broccoli risotto, a ginger and vegetable stir fry and a vegetable biryani.

14 June

As we are now joining together in a bubble, we were able to visit my sister and share some of our goodies too.

Hoping that you are all keeping well and staying safe.

This week I am linking to harvest Monday hosted on 

Dave's blog Our Happy Acres

You don't have to have your own blog in order to join in conversations. It may seem that everyone who comments knows one another but bloggers always welcome new commenters, after all that is how we all started. 

PS: It's not just our gardens that suffer from blight. Martyn and I are currently suffering from an influx of blog blight. It seems that it is the season of the spammer. One in particular is persistently targeting our and what appears to be lots of other people's blogs. Most are sent to the spam or moderation folders as we moderate comments on posts over five days old. These spam comments are deleted and never see the light of day but unfortunately some do sneak through. Please do not click on any links in spam comments which gives these nuisances satisfaction and encouragement. They can track where click throughs originate from and will target a blog even more if they think that this is causing more people to visit their site.

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett