Busy between showers

We have been trying to get as much work done on the plot as the rain showers allow. There is a fine line between our soil becoming rock hard as too soggy and sticky to work with.

We took advantage of the fine line by preparing and planting up as many of the remaining empty beds. Now we have crossed into wet and soggy again and so more planting is on hold.

The last lot of potatoes have been planted. On our last plot visit all the other potatoes were growing well and some had started to form flower buds. Since then we have had blight conditions so who knows what these will look like on our next visit. At least those tucked underground should be safe.

We planted the second batch of broad beans just as the first batch are in flower. They have battled through the weevil damage and it remains to be seen whether this second batch which are a shorter variety - Robin Hood - will also be attacked by voracious weevils.

Despite their name the pea and bean weevils don't touch the runner or climbing French beans. Their battle is with the slugs.

We decided to dedicate one bed to odds and ends. So far we have planted some left over runner and climbing French beans, some broad beans that wouldn't fit in the designated bed, chrysanthemums and dahlias that overwintered in the greenhouses and some self sown annual scabious.

We sowed another two rows of peas. The first lot are just peeping through so another lot has been sown. The first sowing is growing away well although there are no signs of flowers just yet. This sowing grew fast enough to shake off the weevil damage but this wasn't the case with the mangetout and sugarsnaps. At best they can be described as patchy. Thanks to the weevils any crop is likely to be small. Let's hope that the weevils leave the latest sowings alone.

In the photo on the bottom right above, the 'trench' on the left has been sown with mixed annual flower seeds but more on that at a later date.

Soon after we planted a brassica bed, the cauliflowers were besieged by slugs and it appeared that their days were numbered so we bought some young Romanseco plants to replace them. These were growing on in pots - the idea being that larger plants had more chance of survival. These have now been planted out alongside the original cauliflowers that have rallied. The mesh has been replaced to protect against the ever watchful wood pigeons and ever hopeful white butterflies. We use mesh rather than netting in an attempt to reduce aphid and whitefly infestation.

This year the slugs homed in on our newly germinated parsnip seedlings. I tried resowing but we have only been left with patches of remaining seedlings and so are not expecting a good harvest.

The carrots have fared better.  This year the enviromesh has just been draped over rather than made into a sort of tent. I wondered last year whether this method worked better as the slugs had less open access to the seedling. Whether or not this is true is unproven but the carrots have had a better survival rate this year.

We have sown swede, turnip, beetroot, spinach and more carrots in another bed. We had also sown all except carrots earlier in modules but whether the slugs will leave any to be planted out remains to be seen.

We planted out the Crown Prince squash and the courgettes.

Finally, we have netted the strawberries with a softer netting which we are hoping will be easier to handle when removing it for harvesting. The previously used netting easily tangled including around our feet creating a trip hazard.

All we need now is less wet, mould and slug encouraging weather and more berry ripening sunshine.

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