Planning and Reviewing July In Previous Years

 Reviewing the diary over the last nine years for July

2013 - Infrastructure works, harvest of first early and cucumbers and the best cabbages I have ever grown ! Beginners luck   

 

2014 - A really good year with plentiful harvests .  

2015 -  Great year for beetroots, Wrens in the bird box .   

2016 - Lots of coffee grounds, drying coffee, Building a replacement door for the outbuilding from decking timber.

Mill Green - Onion White Rot, Runner Beans,     

Spencer Road - Comfrey Bed 2 completed, Four Beds, Butternut squash, Beetroots, spuds and spring onions. Onions, Potatoes, Beetroots and infrastructure works. Burpless Cucumbers go manic  

Home - Tomatoes finally get transplanted into flower buckets.  

2017 - Really behind on growing and keeping the plot weed free, especially the paths on Mill Green as the woodchip had finally rotted down into good growing medium. Absent neighbour meaning weeds encroaching from plot 1.  11th July first red tomato, Meeting with Redrow and Council to agree the formation of the Drop off and Pick Up area, SF60 Potatoes in Buckets experiments, 5 Beds productive at Spencer Road, 30th July harvest of First Early Spuds & Onions

2018 - Extend the watering system, 10th July Cucumbers Planted, 12th Comfrey Pipe fill up and hose across path to dip tank and tap, 13th July temporary roof on shed plot 1A, 16th Dismantle the shed at Spencer Road and levelling the land  on plot 1 17th July Shed Base Goes In, harvesting Cucumbers and Marrows, 20th July Shed Erection, 25th July First Red Tomatoes, Onion Drying the the rack on the side of the shed, Bread Basket fence to protect sweetcorn, 27th July finally rain, High winds damaged the sweetcorn .Bought a Ryobi Circular saw for cutting the floor joist for the new beds, 31st July sow a bed of Beetroot seeds.  

2019 - Onions and New Potatoes in Buckets harvested. Leg injury & cellulitis meant fewer visits to the allotment this month. Extreme weather and heat wave with a temperature of 31.8C ended followed by heavy rain and flooding this month. High Court order overturned the decision to ban metaldehyde slug pellet products, with immediate effect. 

2020 - July marked a return to the allotment after shielding my wife since the start of Covid-19 .Article re cordless mowers started but Greenworks could not supply information about their products and after a lot of preparation works it was not possible to complete the trial and the blog posting. Butternut & Mash and Roast Potato Squash planted. Hydroponics desk study. Unboxing the Quadgrow and setting up in the back garden. Due to shielding the wife from Covid the Bindweed had taken over parts of the plot again after 7 years of keeping it at bay, lots of weeding required.  Mentioned in Despatches by Thompson & Morgan. Weed identification Facebook post. 

2021 - Cucumbers planted, new potatoes harvested. Rhubarb bed 2 gets installed. Scaffolding frame built around the Quadgrows. Moving Pauline to her new allotment. Watering visits required. 19th July the Met Ofice issued its first ever extreme hear warning as the UK experiences sweltering conditions in parts of the country. Plot 1A shed roof finally re covered. Potatoes Dalefoot Vs Westland Bio3 Compost.  Pauline's Progress written.  25th July ASDA End of season gardening sale . In excess of 28 day No Cults and termination notices issued   . Cucumbers and Gherkins making their way up the mesh panels. First year for the Raspberries. Onions getting to the point where they needed to be harvested. Hot and humid weather this year, with some rain showers at the end of the month. Quadgrows taking way too much time to top up using 2litre water bottles so I decided to buy a water butt 

2022 - July is normally the month for harvesting rather than planting, but below is the to do list in no particular order and catching up with what actually happened in June and what has slipped. 

Coronavirus UPDATE

Jen still needing two of us to move her around on occasion as she has lost a lot of strength following Covid my girls have been a god send. They are still helping and managing to give me some time to get down to the allotment. 

To Do List   

Below is the to do list in no particular order and catching up with what actually happened in June and what has slipped. The plan is now to get a few late crops in and to work on getting the plot ready for next season. 

Mill Green - Plot 1A

• Re Add additional supporting timbers to the roof of the shed - TBD
• Tidy Up the Allotment  - Ongoing but getting so much better 
• Weeding - Emma and Kelly hit plot and cleared a whole lot of mares tail on plot 1 but plot 1A really needs some time spent on it.  
• Greenhouse 1A -  Installed shading externally as I don't have time to install internally, an over wintering job me now thinks!  

Mill Green - Plot 1

• Square Foot Gardening Beds - First bed now has cucumbers and spring onions sown in it. I have Celery to find a home for and some will go into each SFB along with Aubergines. SFG Bed 2 has had mesh installed and cross hops and debris netting once my new netting arrived. 
• Beds and Paths - Third Square Foot Gardening and Solar Tent Bed to be formed.   
• Install the kerb edging along the bottom of Plot 1 - TBD Bulbs sown along the edge but very few have come up, Thinking Squirrels have pinched them!. 
• Tidy Up the Allotment - Ongoing
• Potatoes in Buckets - First Early spuds looking like they need harvesting 

Home 

• Planning - Ongoing
• Cut Planting Membrane - Make square foot gardening bed blanks completed
• Space Saver Greenhouse - Cleared most of the plants down to the allotment and two of the four Brassica beds in the other two need sorting out.