|
|
May Week 1 Monday 7th 2007 Welcome to the May bank holiday edition of lottieblogs, get ready for an enormous update following our visit this week. Talk about from the sublime to the rediculous, last week we were baked in the sunshine, but today we got a thorough drenching courtesy of the bizarre spring weather. We had intended to make this visit on the previous friday, however the weather prevented us from doing this and as such this was our last chance to get anything done before the short break was over. One initial and rather annoying job was that we had to remove a growing comfrey bush which had managed to lift and separate the weedproof covering we had placed on the pumkin patch and had resulted in a number of weeds taking advantage of the light in order to make a nuisance of themselves. 'Overwintering Over' The first job was to dig up and remove the bolted White Sprouting Broccoli plants sitting in the middle of the plot. These were dug up whole from the ground, then the root cut off and inspected for any signs of club root. Happily not one of the roots we unearthed appeared to have any of the symptoms, hopefully meaning as long as regular rotation and soil conditioners such as Lime are used we may be able to minimise the risk of this rearing its ugly head on our plot. The patch holding them was then dug over in preparaton for its replacements growing steadily in our greenhouse at home. 'Once more unto the compost bin' The removal of the Broccoli plants also made one of our first editions to our compost heap which in time will hopefully enable us to enrich the soil in areas we are leaving fallow during the next crop rotation. Some of our seedlings raised at home seemed strong enough to be transplanted and so were transported to the allotment for this purpose, in particular this meant we now have small but strong seedlings of Broccoli, Srussels Sprout and Cauliflower all in the ground. These have been protected from harsh winds and any pests by the use of plastic bottles as well as a good sprinkling of Lime at thier roots to help guard against clubroot. We do have other seedlings of these in reserve in case of any fatalities, however it was good to see the replacements of the recently removed brassicas from 2006 in the soil already and we will keep you updated as to thier progress. 'Baby Brassicas' Other veg bursting into life were the Beetroot seedlings, this plant flourished on our soil last year and so we look forward to many happy hours of boiling and pickling courtesy of this quick germinating plant soon. However as is clear from the photo there may need to be some significant thinning in the interim period. 'Bulging Beets' The success of the beetroot was only topped by the spectacular show given by our varieties of radish. Thanks to the fleece placed over to protect them, the radish patch was looking lush and leafy on arrival. On inspection it was clear that a first picking was required, with the most sucessful of the varieties we planted seeming to be the Long Breakfast one, closely followed (yet not quite so mature) by the Globe specimines. Trailing behind however and not looking quite as developed were the Rainbow MIx, who had somewhat mottled leaves and small roots. We are yet to taste these and report on thier culinary virtues but look foward to the first edeition from the allotment to our salads for 2007 later in the week. Shortly we will aslo be planting another successional sowing of these varieties for harvest in the coming months. 'Radishes at the ready' Following the marvellous growth aided by the horticultural fleece on the mixed brassicas, salads and radishes, the decision was taken to remove it and cover later germinating and more tender crops such as the Beetroots and Carrots to try and encourage a simmilar health display from these seed beds. When the fleece was removed it was clear there had been some uneven germination in the brassicas and salads and so this may need to be remedied by the thinning and transplanting of some of the young seedlings in these areas next week. 'Straggling Salads' Other jobs completed today consisted of planting varieties of runner and dwarf beans, as usual with a helping of shredded paper and chicken manure pellets to help them on thier way. You will be pleased to know (as we are) the runners planted 2 weeks ago are still looking resonably healthy and are beggining to climb thier allocated ploes despite some colder nights during the last week. We also surrounded as many of the starwberry plants as we could with a skirt of shredded paper to help stop the developing fruits from getting wet and rotting on the ground. We managed another 2 kilo harvest from our Rhubarb and made an addition to the fruit patch in the form of a recently n purchased and already flowering Blueberry Bush, we look forward to seeing if any fruits develop for harvesting this year. 'Smothered Strawbs' This concluded our activities for the day, however we also had the excitement of helping to release a very disgruntled pheasant from where it had become stuck in a neighbours greenhouse. On trying to urge it into an area where it could get out, the terrified animal managed to find a suitable escape route and made a run for it, one of our party tried to take a photograph of this process, obviously much to the pheasants displeasure 'Phleeing Pheasant' |
|