Monday, September 30

Better late than never.

We only visited the allotment once last week. This was in part due to the weather and partly due to having other things to do. One of the other things was a couple of days away at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway Gala. Apparently they were running some celebrity trains but, to me, they were a blue one, a green one, a red one and a black one. We spent a couple of days filming interspersed with walking to good location in and around Goathland. Friday afternoon involved sheltering on the moors huddled together under a large umbrella but the rest of the time the weather defied the forecasts and was sunny and fairly warm. We kept the umbrella close at hand - just in case.
As for the weather impacting on our time at the allotment, the rest if the week was showery. As we had harvested what we need for the week we decided to stay away. On Monday, the day of our one and only visit, Martyn lifted the remaining potatoes from our odds and ends bed. This was where we planted leftover tubers. There were three varieties - Winston, Nadine and Osprey.
Whilst, Martyn was busy lifting potatoes, I was potting up runners from our old strawberry bed. This bed will be cleared next year, so we decided to take some runners which will be transferred to a second new bed. Hopefully this will mean that when the strawberries planted in this year's new bed are fading, we will still have this second bed providing fruit. Well that's the plan anyway.
The runners, still attached to the parent plant, have been pinned into pots of compost. Hopefully they will root before winter takes a grip when they will be detached and popped in the greenhouse. To be honest, I've maybe left this a little late but it was a last minute decision. It's worth giving it a go, just as it was worth sowing a late batch of peas. These are starting to form pods so we may still manage a small crop.
It was also worth planting the Safari French beans after lifting the early potatoes as  these have done really well!
The annual flowers that I sowed in September have germinated well. Now they just need to grow a bit more before winter sets in, and avoid the attention of the slugs that will relish this week's wet conditions.
Can you spot the seedlings under the mesh?
Leaves seem to be falling from the trees quickly this year. They seem to have forgotten that they should put on a colorful display before shedding. I get the impression that this autumn will be a damp squib, however at least the blueberries are not disappointing.
Add caption
Finally, this week's harvest group photo.
23 September
I'm guessing those will be the last of our berries. The wet weather this week will have probably turned and remaining berries to mush.

At least the rain should have moistened the ground enough to start digging, that is if it stops before turning the soil into mud!

A video of last week's jobs is posted here

If you want to view more of my owl photos I've posted a first slideshow on Youtube







This week I am linking to harvest Monday hosted on 

Dave's blog Our Happy Acres

Thanks to those who responded to my invitation to make a comment. I appreciate you taking the trouble to say hello. I know I get lots of visitors who never comment and I'd love to know who you are - unlike the annoying spammers who can't seem to grasp that their comments go straight into my spam folder and never see the light of day I am getting lots of Anonymous spam comments which go straight into the spam folder and then deleted as there are far too many to check through so I'm afraid that if you comment anonymously this may happen to your comment.

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

Wednesday, September 25

Flight - The National Bird of Prey Centre











Monday, September 23

Apples and pears

Last week, we made the most of the brief return to summer by having a day out at the National Bird of Prey Centre at Helmsley in North Yorkshire. Three flying displays during the day gave us plenty of photo opportunities. Below is just a selection - more to come on Wednesday.
The garden centre where we bought the suspected weedkiller contaminated grow bags refunded the cost and this was put towards adding to our stock of tulips which will shortly, be planted in the garden and in tubs on patio.
Incidentally, we have not yet had any feedback about the testing done by Corteva and Levington.

Of course we fitted in some visits to the allotment where tidying and harvesting are tasks still keeping us occupied.

One thing, that I did notice, was that the oca flowers were fully open. It's the first time I have seen this. Previously, like the leaves, they had always been folded up. We have never grown oca before so this is a learning experience for us and any tips or insights will be appreciated.
The next phase of brassicas are starting to mature, although last week we found that, in spite of being netted with brand new enviromesh, butterflies had managed to get in and their offspring were feasting on some of our plants. 
The caterpillars were picked off and in turn became a feast for the birds.
18 September
In spring, I sowed seeds of helichrysum and gomphrena in order to bulk up my pot pourri  'ingredients' however germination, especially of the helicrysums, has been poor and I've only picked a few flowers.

We noticed that our outdoor tomatoes were showing signs of the dreaded blight, so harvesting whether red or green was a priority. Hopefully the green tomatoes will continue to ripen off the plants.
21 September
We were inspired by a YouTube channel - Cumbrian Homestead - to plant a catch crop in the bed that had housed our early potatoes. In anticipation, Martyn started off some dwarf French beans in pots. These were planted as young plants once the bed was vacated and the beans had made good sized plants.
We are now benefiting from a harvest of tender, young beans which we are picking whilst still immature.

Our Crown Prince squash haven't performed well this year. We harvested just six fruits, most of which were undersized. The largest of those pictured above would, in previous years, be just a middle sized fruit.

We decided that it was time to harvest our remaining apples and pears. Each of the boxes of fruit were produced by a small bush type tree. The pear tree was groaning under the weight of 24kg, (53lb) of fruit. Now we just need to find the space to store it all. I'm guessing that the summer house will now need to take up its winter role as a storage area. 

On Sunday, we at last have had some 'proper' rain but will it have been enough to moisten the ground so we can start our winter digging? I guess we will soon find out.







This week I am linking to harvest Monday hosted on 

Dave's blog Our Happy Acres

Thanks to those who responded to my invitation to make a comment. I appreciate you taking the trouble to say hello. I know I get lots of visitors who never comment and I'd love to know who you are - unlike the annoying spammers who can't seem to grasp that their comments go straight into my spam folder and never see the light of day I am getting lots of Anonymous spam comments which go straight into the spam folder and then deleted as there are far too many to check through so I'm afraid that if you comment anonymously this may happen to your comment.

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.

Wednesday, September 18

Messing about in the water







Monday, September 16

Summer harvests are waning

We made another visit to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park last week. When we were there in July, the painted dog pups were only a couple of weeks old and still a little wobbly. They have grown up quickly and their unique markings are now present. Sadly their mum died when they were about three weeks old but fortunately another dog stepped in to care for them.
It's difficult to imagine that the cute animal above will grow into a super predator.  We posted a video here.
We also paid a more garden related visit to our local garden centre where we picked up some bulbs which will be planted in tubs and in the garden. We also bought a couple of packs of autumn onions - Radar and Senshyu.
The onions have been planted at the allotment. As usual they have been planted in channels of multipurpose compost which hopefully will give them a better start. Prior to planting, the ground was fertilised and covered with weed control fabric and a wood chip mulch. The sets should have a chance to settle in and put down roots before winter really sets in. Last year's autumn onions did well, in fact we still have a few to use up. We're hoping that these will repeat that success.
I've planted some tete a tete daffodils in amongst the snowdrops, primrose and bluebells that I planted in the garden in spring. The rest of the tete a tete have been planted in pots as the area that I want to plant them is still filled with summer flowers. The ones in pots will be slotted in in spring.
Regular readers will know that I like to sow hardy annual seeds in September in order to have an early display of flowers. Seeds sown now also seem to produce stronger more vigorous plants.

I've sown cornflowers, clarkia, poppies and calendula. They've been sown in shallow trenches of multipurpose compost in the same way as the onion sets. I've draped enviromesh over to deter any creature from disturbing the seeds and hope that it will also help a little towards conserving some moisture.

Earlier, Martyn, sowed some spring cabbage, (the variety is April) and these really needed planting on. He'd been hoping that we would have had some rain to moisten the ground, but that wasn't to be and the plants just couldn't wait so  these were planted out and watered well.
I pruned and tied in both the black raspberry and the tayberry.
The black raspberry, above, was fairly obliging but the tayberry, below, is a monster and fights back. Tackling it each year is one of my least favourite allotment jobs and I am always happy when it is behind me.
Martyn, cleared away the cardoon that had been flattened by the gales. 
In the middle all that woodchip is the new shoot. 
It's hard to believe that this will grow into a huge plant by the end of next spring.

We picked our first bunch of Himrod grapes from our garden greenhouse and the garden also provided us with watercress. 
We pick sprigs of watercress as we need it, but I always forget to mention it, and never take a photo as it doesn't hang around long enough between picking it and eating it.
Fortunately the fish haven't a taste for it.

Just a couple of harvest boxes came home from the plot last week. 

I removed the net from the blueberries and found a few that I had missed earlier. The raspberries are still producing, but the berries are smaller and more are being spoiled. It's drifted from berry time into apple time.
10 September
Despite one or two nights when the temperature has hovered around the 4C mark, (about 39F), we have avoided a frost and so the dahlias are still flowering.
14 September
Martyn trimmed the plum trees and spotted a few plums that both us and the wasps had missed. These were from  Marjories Seedling and were delicious.

It's also a treat to pick our own spring onions after several years of failure. I'm hoping we have cracked it and this year isn't a fluke.

The courgettes are slowing down now, which is a shame as it means my menus will soon be moving into winter mode. We use a lot of courgettes when they are in season and will miss having a supply. This year despite having about a dozen plants we haven't had the expected glut. The yellow, Atena Polka seems to have outperformed the green variety, Defender.

I've posted a video of our plot activity on Friday 13. We came home unscathed but I was careful to leave tackling the tayberry until another day. 

Finally, I managed to grab the photos below on Saturday night. Excuse the quality as they were taken from a moving car, (I wasn't driving!), with my mobile phone. The sky was incredible and exactly as shown.


This week I am linking to harvest Monday hosted on 

Dave's blog Our Happy Acres

Thanks to those who responded to my invitation to make a comment. I appreciate you taking the trouble to say hello. I know I get lots of visitors who never comment and I'd love to know who you are - unlike the annoying spammers who can't seem to grasp that their comments go straight into my spam folder and never see the light of day I am getting lots of Anonymous spam comments which go straight into the spam folder and then deleted as there are far too many to check through so I'm afraid that if you comment anonymously this may happen to your comment.

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.

Wednesday, September 11

Wings and bushy tails