It's been several weeks since my last post - I've been very busy clearing junk in the house and decorating so I can get a lodger in. Although the lodger is now in, the veggie patch and allotment have suffered a bit. I also now have a girlfriend and it looks like this one could actually last more than a few weeks!
We had a late frost a few weeks ago that damaged a lot of the potatoes. We've also had a very dry spell the last couple of weeks with no rain at all, and some extremely hot days. All the seedlings I had in the greenhouse are now dead due to the heat and not watering them enough.
I planted out loads of brassicas at home. Sadly, the pigeons have eaten them all. What with the loss of all the seedlings in the greenhouse, I have no brassicas to plant out either at home or on the allotment. I have now sown a few more trays of brassicas, full list to follow. I have more time to look after them now so hopefully all will be ok!
The peas (Twinkle) I planted at home are a bit poor. Some didn't germinate, the plants grew slowly, the plants are short (12-18") and currently hidden by weeds, and the pods are small - overall a poor crop. I definitely prefer the Rondo peas I grew last year.
I now have only two rhubarb crowns growing at home - the big one in the bed, and the biggest one in the pot. The rest seem to have died. The pot one doesn't seem to be doing too well, nothing usable on it, so I'll split the crown and plant in sometime in the next couple of weeks.
I sowed loads of window boxes of carrots. Foxes have dug up one and knocked another over. The tub of parsnips seem to be ok.
The salad tub is past it's best now. The spinach has gone to seed and everything seems to be covered in blackfly. I did have more seedlings for a replacement tub, but those seedlings died. I will sow more this week.
The potatoes in the ground seem ok and have mostly recovered from the frost damage. I've had the sprinkler on most days, so they haven't dried out. I managed to earth them up a bit, and used a mulch of grass cuttings to help cover them up and keep the weeds down. The potatoes in buckets on the patio are not so good - I didn't top up the buckets with compost and water them early enough, so they look a bit yellow and wilted, but now they're topped up and well watered, they seem to be recovering.
The lettuce is doing well - no visible slug damage - hardly any slugs at all this year. The climbing French beans (Blue Lake) that have done so well in previous years are a dismal failure so far this year - only 6 plants on 14 canes, and the plants are only 12 inches tall at the moment. The aubergine plants are still there, not much bigger than seedlings - but fingers crossed they'll grow something useful. The spinach is "ok" - it looks usable. but nowhere near as good as last year.
Soft fruit is doing well though. I've picked loads of raspberries and loganberries in the last week or so - all put in margerine tubs and stored in the freezer. The gooseberry bushes have sprouted very long shoots so could grow quite big for next year - not many gooseberries this year tho. I had a handful of strawberries, not enough to be worth saving, so scoffed them all.
I saved one loganberry runner in a pot earlier this year and it seemed to take ok. I've given this to a neighbour. I've also pulled up several raspberry canes that sprouted everywhere, and put them in tubs in the shade. A few seem to be surviving. If they do survive ok, I'll take them up to the allotment over the winter to replace the rather naff raspberry canes up there.
The pear, apple and my little cooking apple tree seem to be doing well this year - all very well loaded with fruit. The plum tree has some fruit ripening, but nothing spectacular yet. Must check the plum tree in the street.
Tomatoes and peppers in the greenhouse seem ok. I've paid a bit more attention to pinching out the tomatoes this year. They haven't grown as tall as last year, but I do have the first green tomatoes showing. I've set up the drip feeders again now, but using a different make of drippers to last years ones. Hopefully these won't get blocked as easily as last year's ones. The peppers have started to flower, so I've put them outside now in the hope they'll get pollinated by bees.
The herbs I grew in pots have mostly failed. I might give them another go next year, depending on time etc.
Leeks seems to be ok in pots at the moment - not sure how many I've got, but should fill up some of the potato beds when I finally dig up the potatoes.
Onions are doing ok so far - about 85 of them in the ground here. They're surrounded by weeds at the moment, but I'll get the weeds up over the next week or so.
And last of all, today, I picked up a large chest freezer, kindly given away on freecycle. I can see this being filled up pretty quickly with fruit over the next couple of months. My neighbour over the road will give me her apples for making cider - I'll simply bag them up and freeze all the normal apples until I get time to make cider. My next door neighbour will give me his cooking apples - I'll be peeling and slicing then freezing them - I should get loads of apple pies and crumbles any time I want them!
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