Sunday 27th July 2014

Over the allotment at 7:00am until 1:00pm very warm but lots of cloud cover so actually nice to work in. Lots of people on the allotment today including brother and sister-in-law thus lots of coffee breaks and a quick sit downs outside Pauline's P&T shed.

Someone had placed a 6ft x 3ft timber trellis on the skip outside the allotment, which is now residing up against the greenhouse to be used next year for a long cucumber bed following the success this year. John noticed that there are now three little cucumbers growing.

Using a mixture of parts from the small and large 4 tier grow houses bought from Wilko for £1 + £2. I made up staging for the greenhouse using the small plastic footprint on plan and the long bars from the large frame for the vertical members. I now have the ideal framing for the greenhouse that allows me access into the corner to the original frames and I have moved the peppers that were touching the roof down onto the ground level shelf and they have plenty of growing room. 

I've used the large footprint which fits exactly into the conservatory extension to the shed and modified the sides on the to so I can remove the middle and outer top bars and mesh shelf when housing tomatoes in and replace when I want to use it as a cold frame next year.

Bed 14 soil sieved and all the stones and glass removed ready for planting with the cauliflowers if they survive the heat in the cold frame.

A 1.2 x 1.2m hoop framework constructed but I ran out of time to cover in netting, this will go on bed 2 to cover the new beetroot I have in the greenhouse to keep Basil off

Harvest of a nice carrier bag of beans, some white and red onions, beetroot and two courgettes. The two Marrows were given to me by my brother in law who is currently overrun with them and so far I have two little marrows about 50mm long forming. The Marrow plants are growing and spreading, I now understand why I was told to stand back and watch by people on the forum. http://chat.allotment-garden.org/