Sunday 22 August 2021

Weeds Weeds Weeds

 

The view of my allotment at 8 am with the sun just poking its head above the trees at the back of the plot and the very fine rain looking like a magical curtain. I can't help it when I see Avalon (the name I've given my two plots) it makes me feel relaxed, even though I know I have a lot of work to do. 

The Raspberries in the first three rows are now higher than the top wire, and more stems are popping up and making their way up towards the sky. Not a lot to harvest so far this year, but hoping for better from them next year now they are establishing. 

Again my visit today was curtesy of my two amazing daughters who told me when I left home that the rain many not be so bad down the allotment and they were correct. As I walked towards my main path from under the canopy of the trees at the entrance the fine rain stopped. 

I didn't sort out the watering of the Quadgrows straight away as that was at least a job I could do if the rain started again, but I needn't have worried as for most of my visit the sky was overcast and in fact it was ideal for weeding, Then during my last hour on site the clouds cleared and the sun came out. 

Most of the paths on plot 1 are very weedy, due mainly to the fact that the wood chip had degraded so much that it's now supporting life. Another load of woodchips has been requested but we are at the mercy of the tree surgeon that drops off. We have asked for good quality path woodchips and not mulching woodchips, so hopefully the delay is because he is waiting for suitable materials. 

I managed to clear most of all the tall, going to seed weeds along the paths, and then set about clearing the weeds in the beetroot bed leaving that nice and clean once again. Looks like a harvest of the first third of the bed can take place next weekend and I can do some pickling. 

The sweetcorn tassels are going nice brown and again I will be checking next weekend to see if I can harvest. 


There has been blight on the site for a few weeks now and I have been keeping an eye on the outside tomatoes most of which are the Crimson blight resistant variety but today the Crimson Crush and the Crimson Cherry were showing more signs of blight even in a few of the fruits, so I removed all the tomatoes that look un affected to take home a ripen in the greenhouse. The Crimson Plum is still blight free at the moment so I have left it on its own and will hopefully get some red tomatoes off it. 


I'm hoping that the tomatoes in the greenhouse can resist long enough for the fruit to properly develop and ripen.


At home in the Norfolk space saver greenhouse the micro and mini tomatoes are holding there own and many of the fruits are in the process of turning red. 

Perhaps next year I may double the amount of mini and micro's I grow and perhaps even try 3 or 4 micro Toms in a Quadgrow pot as I appear to have a lot of growth in the greenhouse but not a huge amount of fruit developing this year.   

The cucumbers are producing so fast that a few are going yellow and over ripening and I had extra harvest to share with my neighbour and his daughter who was visiting him.



I cleared the haulms off the potatoes in buckets and covered one lot with secondary glazing panels to keep the rain out and hopefully dry up the soil inside so that I can also harvest the spuds next week.   

Emma went home via the allotment and collected some more red and white onions off the drying racks, then she harvested raspberries and blackberries.

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