Tuesday 15 May 2012

Rain and Weeds

Oh dear! It continues to be cold and wet and miserable - just 2 reasonably pleasant days and we were all up at the allotment beavering away with seed sowing and planting out and generally tidying up some pretty neglected plots. But everything is now so late, and we need warmth to bring things on. I only hope that autumn comes late and mild or many vegetables will not have a long enough growing season to reach maturity.
I continue to hear plotters crying that they cannot keep on top of their weeds. Do you know why? Take a look at this!
The plot looks well tended - but a moment or two getting rid of those dandelions before they seed would pay dividends in less weeds next year!! It's all a question of priorities!

Below is the photo from another plot. Again the other half of that plot is well tended, dug and raked and sowed - but why not pull out those big weeds at the same time? Why allow them to flower?

It all gets very frustrating for those of us who keep a weed free plot!!!!



Here is my plot. It's a busy plot - I like to think of it as a cottage garden allotment - there's always something on the go ready for the kitchen, and things get put where there's space, whilst still trying to avoid the same crop in the same place within a 3 year cycle. But weeds I do not have!

I've just sown rows of radish, lettuce and spring onion directly into the soil. All the seeds I sowed in modules in the cold greenhouse before I went way for a few days last week are all now well and truly up, and growing. Soon I shall be able to transplant beetroot, parsnips, onions, celeriac and many different types of brassica onto the allotment. I've also just sown all my cucurbits - courgettes, butternut squash, cucumbers etc, along with the beans - runner and french - so I don't intend to go hungry this year to come. If only we could have some more warm sunshine.

Wednesday 2 May 2012

After the rain

Well it at last stopped raining for a while yesterday and I snatched an hour to go up to the allotment. The first potatoes I planted have come through, and I have earthed them up well - at the same time dealing with the abundance of tiny weed seedlings that covered the potato plot. This is one reason why potatoes are such a good crop to clean any weedy land. All the earthing up doesn't give  weeds a chance - and any that do survive are soon finished off by the shade of the maturing potato foliage.
The dandelions have had a field day - hundreds of flowers all across the allotments. I take the flowers off as I walk around, to make sure they are not given any chance to seed - one year's seeding = ten years of weeding. Oh how true.
The ground is really boggy on the plot after all this rain. I planted out some lettuce seedlings and sowed some spring onions, but had to give up because walking on such wet ground is not doing it any good.
  Not to do with the allotment at all - but just look at the progress on the banana plant indoors- wonder how many months before they'll be edible!?!