Thursday 23 June 2011
Strawberry Rob
Rob's been out picking strawberries in the rain. As much as he likes strawberries I think it's because he wanted to test out his new jacket which arrived today..
Photo 43: Strawberry Rob!
Monday 6 June 2011
Our first harvests!
Although we haven't been allotmenteering much of late, back in the garden we have been nurturing salad crops whilst waiting for other seedlings to grow large enough to transplant.
The lettuce, rocket and radishes we sowed before we went on holiday are providing us with our first home grown salads of the year. Although aiming for successional sowing, I was late in sowing a second crop so there will be a gap before the next ones are ready.
Photo 35: Our first radishes.
Photo 36: Buttercrunch and Lizzy lettuces.
On Saturday we trundled up to the allotment with the pea, bean, pumpkin, courgette and sweetcorn seedlings we sowed a few weeks ago. There were weeds to pull before we could start with the planting. Even though the weeds appreciate the rain as much as the gardeners do, it always surprises me how few weeds there are to pull. Two people and half an hour later and the plot was looking much tidier.
We have been using the compost Rob dug out of the compost bin in the garden last month to dig into the planting holes for the seedlings. And it appears that it's not just the seedlings that like our compost - slow worms do to!
We have at least two slow worms in our compost heaps - a beautiful bronze one and a paler silvery beige one. After further investigation I think we have a male and a female!
Photo 38: The bronze coloured tail of a sprightly female slow worm.
Photo 39: A much more lethargic male slow worm.
Hopefully we will get some better photos before the end of the summer.
We have had mixed success at the allotment. The potatoes have recovered from frost bite and are starting to flower and some of the beans we planted early have recovered too and are a couple of feet tall. But much of fruit is really suffering in the dry weather. It is such a long way from the water tap that they are having to manage on the little rainfall and irregular watering we do. Unfortunately that has resulted in a 50% success rate so far
Photo 40: Tatties in flower.
Photo 41: A runner bean.
Photo 42: Our very unhappy autumn raspberry bush, which I feel very guilty about.
The lettuce, rocket and radishes we sowed before we went on holiday are providing us with our first home grown salads of the year. Although aiming for successional sowing, I was late in sowing a second crop so there will be a gap before the next ones are ready.
On Saturday we trundled up to the allotment with the pea, bean, pumpkin, courgette and sweetcorn seedlings we sowed a few weeks ago. There were weeds to pull before we could start with the planting. Even though the weeds appreciate the rain as much as the gardeners do, it always surprises me how few weeds there are to pull. Two people and half an hour later and the plot was looking much tidier.
Photo 37: Rob building pyramids for the beans
We have been using the compost Rob dug out of the compost bin in the garden last month to dig into the planting holes for the seedlings. And it appears that it's not just the seedlings that like our compost - slow worms do to!
We have at least two slow worms in our compost heaps - a beautiful bronze one and a paler silvery beige one. After further investigation I think we have a male and a female!
Hopefully we will get some better photos before the end of the summer.
We have had mixed success at the allotment. The potatoes have recovered from frost bite and are starting to flower and some of the beans we planted early have recovered too and are a couple of feet tall. But much of fruit is really suffering in the dry weather. It is such a long way from the water tap that they are having to manage on the little rainfall and irregular watering we do. Unfortunately that has resulted in a 50% success rate so far
Photo 43: On a positive note, Falstaff, our espalier apple tree, has 12 apples! As he's still small I removed most of the buds so he can concentrate on growing. But last year I only left 3 so 12 seems like a glut :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)