Monday, June 7

Leapfrogging spring

Other than the odd spring-like day, we seem to have missed spring altogether and jumped straight out of winter and into summer. 

The flowers on the allotment are certainly enjoying the sudden upturn in the weather conditions.

We made the most of the weather and spent three afternoons at the allotment playing catch-up.

We don't usually have any trouble germinating peas, but this year the first sowing just never put in an appearance, so we resowed in the hope that the second sowing will fare better. We don't know whether something ate all the pea seeds or they rotted in the wet soil, if something did eat them, it will be one very fat creature as two full rows disappeared and we sow our peas generously. Whatever the reason for the no show, we didn't find a trace of any seeds when the ground was turned over and the second lot of peas were sown. 


As well as the time spent at the allotment we also spent an afternoon in the garden. The tomato plants were planted out in the garden greenhouse and also in the plot greenhouse. 


 More tomatoes have been planted in a raised bed in the garden. Also in this bed are planted, a mixture of lettuces and a Mini Munch cucumber.

Whilst, Martyn planted the allotment tomatoes, I tidied out the shed. This job was much overdue but, I was waiting for a dry day so that everything could be moved outside. It was just as well that I'm not worried by spiders. At least now we have a clear area in which to sit and have a coffee if we need to shelter from the rain. 

The brassicas destined for the plot very nearly were consigned to the compost bins as, for ages, they just didn't make any effort to grow but, once they enjoyed a bit of warmth and sunshine, they kicked their heels and quickly flourished. Instead of the compost bin their new home is now their very own bed on the plot. We planted cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli and sprouts and just hope that they do better than last year's failures. They are now safely protected from pigeons and butterflies under enviromesh.

Also now safely protected, from opportunistic birds, is our old strawberry bed. Our first ripe strawberry fell prey to either a bird or a slug. The fruit has been left, just in case the thief was a slug and it decides to return to the scene of the crime. Slugs will often do this, and will carry on browsing the same berry instead of moving on to a new target. The netting will unfortunately be no barrier to our slimy foes.

We planted our leeks on Sunday afternoon. This year we have slightly adapted our planting method after picking up a tip from last week's Beechgrove programme. George, one of the presenters was on his allotment planting his leeks. He advocated digging a trench and planting the leeks in the bottom. This was then done as usual by making a deep hole with a dibber and dropping the leeklings into the hole which was then filled with water. George stated that this way you end up with a longer white part to the leek, as the trench gradually fills up and blanches the lower half of the 'stem'.
It's not an easy process to photograph, but we did take some video explaining what we did and this will be posted shortly. I'll link to it in my next post. Despite some beds still being too sticky to dig it was quite difficult making the planting holes as the top layer of soil is now very dry and the holes kept filling up. Martyn 'dibbed' the holes and I quickly followed on dropping the young plants into the holes before they closed up.
Of course at this time of the year, the week wouldn't be complete without us harvesting some rhubarb. The large stick on the right is from a clump of Giant Grooveless Crimson.

We paid our weekly visit to Nostell where the trees were now at their very best.

Instead of there being dandelions for Ruby to frolic in she had fun amongst the buttercups and daisies.
I was anxious to find out whether all four cygnets had made it through the week and happily they had.


Both parents are constantly watching over their brood and hissing at any potential threat to their young family.
The cygnets are growing quickly and now there is no mistaking that they are young swans.
We haven't seen any ducklings yet but most of the ducks that we have spotted are males so maybe the females are busy sitting on nests. The male above looks to be a hybrid as ducks are not too fussy when it comes to a mate and often produce mixed breed offspring.

I'm guessing that the crows that we saw are potential predators of any untended young birds. The cygnets were lucky to have had such good parents.

There are plenty of young families in our garden too. The parents have to grab a quick bath whenever they can.
I'm still harvesting from the freezer and on Wednesday some of our frozen leeks went into a bean and vegetable stew made in the slow cooker. It was based on this recipe but I only cooked it for half the time stated in the recipe.


On Sunday I used some of our frozen French beans and made a chicken, potato and bean curry,


Fortunately they both tasted far better than the photos imply.

As well as the three afternoons that we spent on the allotment we also paid a visit on Wednesday evening to film a plot tour. If you are interested in viewing,  it is here.

As always keep safe and well 

This week, once again,  I'm going to sneak into Dave’s Harvest Monday collection of posts over at Our Happy Acres where no doubt others will again show off a much more prolific harvest than ours.

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

19 comments:

  1. Look at that rhubarb! The flowers are lovely too. I've had peas and been rot in the soil too--usually from overwatering or soaking too long. As you noted, not a seed to be found.

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    1. I think the overwatering was done by nature, Sue

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  2. That is quite a mystery on the peas. I could see some not coming up, but usually you can find a few rotted seeds in the soil. Your tomatoes certainly look healthy! Ours outside have been appreciating the rains were are getting. Hopefully it won't be quite so rainy when they begin fruiting.

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    1. We have see-sawed into a dry period, Dave and so are now having to water seedlings and newly planted or shallow rooted plants.

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  3. You certainly got a lot done at the allotment/garden! The pea seeds are certainly a mystery - there always seem to be a few of those every year.

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    1. The plants have some catching up to do too, Margaret

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  4. Yes we certainly seem to have almost by passed spring and I feel slightly cheated Sue 😂 On the other hand a relief to have some warmth and less rain. I'm not sure how I would have fared at my allotment this year if I still had it. I would have probably developed webbed feet by now. I imagine that there must be quite a bit of catching up to do on your plot. Ruby looks most happy in among the daisies and buttercups.

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    1. I feel cheated too, Anna. Spring is my favourite season.

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  5. it certainly has been a quick turnaround in the weather. So lovely to see the warmth reflected in the photos. The bathing blackbird is a lovely shot.
    I'd blame mice on the disappearing pea mystery.

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  6. It's so dismal here I'm just doing art of my garden at the moment.

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    1. Sorry that you are missing out on the good weather, Deborah

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  7. There is something in this 'bad year for peas' idea. I grew mine in trays, to avoid the mice, and they performed terribly. I put it down to not using fresh seed. Then I sowed some out of date ones from an open packed just for shoots and the whole lot came up. Dwarf French beans have been similar. The resowings are now on the heels of the few that grew from the first sowing!

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    1. Our second sowing are doing well, Mal so I know now that that seeds were OK.

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  8. How odd about your peas. Lot's of things didn't germinate here this year. Good seeing the tomatoes being planted out and seeing your brassicas getting a wriggle on. That's a good tip re the leeks. Mine are tiny at the moment. Lovely to see Ruby enjoying the long grass and those cygnets thriving. Your meals always look so tasty.xxx

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    1. The cygnets are quite big now, Dina. They grow quickly.

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  9. I never knew baby swans were cygnets. Very interesting. It is very warm here as well. I'm anxious to see how your leeks do. I have a 10 percent success rate with them. Thanks for the updates.

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    1. We’re anxious to see how the leeks perform too, Bonnie.

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  10. It looks like you've managed to catch up with everything after the weather in May slowed us all down. Everywhere's looking so lush after all the rain though and the wildflowers seem to have gone mad this year.

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