Welcome to Lottieblogs!

 

Our visit this week was not as long as our usual trips to the allotment but for some reason seemed to be twice as productive as normal. We were greeted by a lovely display from our sweet peas which are growing up the back of our shed. After an initial inspection of the site we knucked down to some serious weeding which was required all over the plot.

 

 

 

After we had got it looking ship-shape again we set about planting the few remaining crops we had reared at home into thier final positions. The remainder of the Musselburgh and Giant leeks were dibbed and watered in, however we did end up having too many for the remaining space on the dedicated leek bed and so the first edition to the "odds and sodds patch" this season was made. The leek seedlings we had planted earlier in the year we were pleased to see had suffered very few losses and were standing tall/growing well and we are looking forward to some nice tall tasty specimined towards the end of the year.

 

 

We also planted the two courgette seedlings we had grown into thier bed with a handful of organic chicken manure pellets and a nice mulch on top of well rotted compost and horse manure to keep in the moisture. These were planted deep and a ditch to catch as much rain and moisture as possible was created around them.

 

 

Lastly the final editions to our Celery bed were added, they took the form of the only 6 Latham seedlings to sucessfully germinate from our batch of 24. However these remaining seedlings look very strong and healthy as well as managed to plug the are without any crops in on the bed nicely, meaning we now have a whole row of celery and celeriac to harvest later. These have been protected with the use of cloches to try and put off any winged offenders which may decide to have a go at them and when large enough, the majority will be blanched for use raw, using corrigated cardboard. The intense taste of the unblanched specimines will prove very useful in the soups and stews they are intended for towards the autumn.

 

 

Another job today was to replace some of the weedproof membrane we had placed over the bare soil on the pumpkin patch as unfortunately the recent howling winds and pounding rain have not left it unscathed. In various areas it was very ripped and shredded meaning it could nto do its job of excluding light and supressing unwanted plant and grass growth. As such a few spare rolls of the fabric were utilised and the most damaged half of the patch was recovered with an additional layer to get the weeds under control again. This was held down by the  tiles used to secure the original fabric and slits cut in it to allow any pumpkin/squash plants in the area to be pulled through.

 

A few more general tasks were also undertaken, the compost bin which we turned over at the beggining of the year now holds some well rotted manure and organic matter from our pursuits last season. This is the perfect consistency for use as mulch. Handfuls of this were placed around the pumpkins, squashes, courgettes, toms, chillies, swedes and sweetcorn to feed the plants and preserve moisture.

 

 

We also had to re-spray our broad beans which were covered in blackfly with our organic and stinky rhubarb water repellent. As well as trim various of the herbs which were getting wild and very out of hand in order to encourage new young growth.

 

Before we left the site today we were able to reap in a moderate harvest, the salads decimated not long ago by the pigeons have made amiraculous recovery under thier fleece protection and we had three excellent sized letticues to take home. We also had a small punnet of our own strawberries which despite the slight tarness and occasional slug holes were utterly delicious and fresh. Finally  we had a good picking from our rhubarb plants that willl provide us with a good few puddings to eat over the weeks tom come.