Harvesting Potatoes & Tomatoes

 

With my daughter working from home today I managed to get just over an hour on the allotment and harvested some potatoes in Buckets Caledonian Rose (reds) & Sharps Express first early (whites). No really overwhelmed with the quantity and size of the Caledonian Rose it has to be said, not big enough for any form of chips. It would appear that the heatwave this year has affected potato yields.

At home harvested some of the Joe Mills Grow With Me 2022 Tomatoes, looking forward to munching those tomorrow.

Watered in the Mustard Caliente green manure sown yesterday, and the Celery in the SFG bed 2.

Mustard Caliente Green Manure

 

Late Bank Holiday afternoon visit to the allotment with son-in-law Andy we uncovered the 3rd Onion Bed and sowed Mustard Caliente Green Manure, photo after watering in the seeds.

After flowering and before the seed pods turn brown, but after the vertical growth has stopped, I will chop and drop the Mustard Caliente Green Manure and dig it into a depth of 150mm - 200mm.

The strips of plastic and blocks on the path will be used to hold down the overwintering cover once the green manure has been chopped and dropped, and the worms can then do their stuff over winter.

Courgettes a little late but lets see what if anything happens before the first frost comes, we are still having temperatures is forecast to be between 24C dropping to 20C in the next 10 days. 

Sweetcorn bed after being cleared and sown with Mustard Caliente Green Manure and watered in just before we left for the evening meal. The cleared sweetcorn that the rodents with bushy tails had stripped was added to the second active Dalek this year. Composting has been slow as there has been no grass to cut anywhere.

Photo of the 2nd sowing of sweetcorn, I'm just hoping that the rats with fury tails or magpies don't get these ones as well.

Square Foot Garden Bed 1, no more cucumbers at the moment.

Square Foot Garden Bed 2, looking a little more lush but really needs watering more often than it's been getting,

My first ever aubergines appearing!

SFG Bed 2 Celery looks like its now actually growing after looking stunted for so long.

Harvested a small tug load of apples., which means apple crumble and apple cake here we come....

Washed and cleaned off planting membrane one sheet that needed to go home for some cosmetic repair before being used again. and pulled quite a lit of weeds in the process. watered the celery and egg plants in SFG2, watered the two grapevines.

Gasworks Delay

With Kelly working from home I was going to go to the plot in the afternoon then this happened!

So an evening visit once the works had plates over again to collect a couple of paving blocks that needed replacing and a small harvest as well as some watering as I didn't know we were going to get real rain today!

So a harvest of Rhubarb, Cucumbers and Runner Beans. The Rhubarb and a cucumber was dropped off to my sister on my way home.

Sunday Morning Visit

A good mornings work on the allotment today with my son-In-law Andy. We got so much done, beds weeded and put to bed primed for the next sowing and cabbages out of the small hoop and debris netting and larger hoops and debris netting.

Cabbage bed before adding the debris netting with Andy in the background working on clearing one of the two remaining onion beds.

Purple sprouting broccoli no longer sulking now growing

Andy had cleared the 2nd onion bed of onions and weeds and had moved onto the 3rd onion bed so I took the105 hole planting membrane and attached it to the Herris fencing and washed and brushed clean. One of the sheets needs a little work and was brought home to have a little TLC and repair with the soldering iron.

Beetroot bed cleared of all weeds, a very poor germination rate but there again they were sown in the middle of the heatwave. I need to take some more beetroot seeds and try again for a late crop of small beetroots between the existing beetroots in the bed.

The two onion beds after clearance of the weeds and onions, one ready for some sowing of winter crops and the other topped up with spent compost as soil conditioner before being covered for the winter or until I sow some green manure. Sweetcorn second sowing is growing well just not sure if I will get at the corns before the squirrels.

Same two beds from the other direction after they were covered and before we left for the day.

Harvest of Onions Raspberries, Cucumber and Grapes from John on plot 10, It's going to be another year or two before I get any of my own seedless grapes as long as the squirrel leaves me some to eat. 

Plants watered and raspberry canes tied back and controlled such that one can access using the paths between the beds. Spent compost from the potatoes in buckets added to the bed that has the sweetcorn in as soil conditioner.

Flash Flooding & Raw Sewage into the Sea

 

The hard ground blamed but in many cases it's because the drains are not maintained as they used too be when the councils were pro active rathe than reactive. 

These extreme of weather are the new normal people, warning were give over a 100 years ago re-climate change and the governments of the world have done very little about it. 

Big Business will no doubt use this as an excuse to generate even more public money being transferred into private hands in the mean time.

Nearly 40 beach pollution warnings have been issued in 48 hours as water companies poured sewage into rivers and the sea.

Heavy rainfall on Tuesday and Wednesday led to mass sewage dumps into the sea around the south coast of England, leading to warnings against bathing because of bacteria levels.

The Environment Agency warned people not to swim at 17 bathing water sites in the south-west of England, while the charity Surfers Against Sewage highlighted sewage spills or pollution at 37 sites in total across the south coast.

It came as Thames Water on Wednesday became the latest company to announce a hosepipe ban, which will come into force for its 10 million customers from Aug 24.

The move will more than triple the number of people under restrictions following similar announcements from South West Water, South East Water, Southern Water and Welsh Water.

Yorkshire Water will bring in restrictions for its five million customers from Aug 26.

The storms are not expected to outweigh the effects of weeks of dry weather this summer, which have led to drought conditions across the south and east of England, as well as in Yorkshire.

Heavy rainfall leads to sewage releases as systems designed to combine rain and sewage become overwhelmed with rainwater, meaning they do not treat the sewage and release it raw into the environment.

It's about time we started to look after Mother Earth before she eradicates us for her own good!      

Finally A Little Rain

 

Finally after nearly two months we got a little rain today. In Sutton it only lasted about an hour was not a lot but it did make the tarmac on the pavements and the roads wet for a while. There are thunder and lightning storms for the next few days and some ended up starting grass fires and in central london Victoria Station suffered some flooding. 

Thunderstorms

 

Plot 3 Ash Trees

 

A late evening watering visit when I notice that John has been cutting more of the self seeding Ash trees down on plot 3 so that they don't continue to grow over and the roots under Wally's plot 3 

We are still waiting to hear when idverde may be coming to clear the debris on plots 3 & 11, however they have given the plot holder who didn't pay his rent last October yet another deadline in which to clear anything he wants to keep off the plots. 

Watering & Harvest

 

Late night watering on the plot and harvested Runner beans, Spring Onions and Spring Onions that for some reason have turned into bulb onions!

Home & Plot

Aztec Tomatoes in the Space Saver Greenhouse watered from the bottom daily and feed added once a week from the top.  

Aztec Tomatoes in the Space Saver Greenhouse 39,9C and 35C in the greenhouse with 41C in direct sunlight today.

10 Different varieties of tomatoes in the back garden in square flower buckets along the path 

Bio Green easy watering growing pot

Another pot with a water reservoir at the bottom & variety of tomato 

BioGreen City Jungle the green framework has got sun bleached in the three years it's been out in the back garden.

Courgettes planted out in one of the narrow beds using the new planting membrane I made a little while ago. 

Socrates F1 Cucumbers planted out along the old climbing frame behind the plum tree.  

Watering & Harvesting

Tuesday late afternoon visit to water with Emma who harvested Raspberries, black berries apples and cucumbers whilst I watered the plot. A few days later Emma dropped off an apple and fruit crumble she had made 

Plot Visit & Harvesting Spuds

Sunday afternoon on the plot harvesting Cauliflower, First Early New Potatoes, Cucumbers and pulling weeds. Watering as I have not been down on the plot for over 10 days because my daughters have been away on the weekends and I have been unable to leave my wife alone for too long and the temperatures have been so extreme that one can't really work out on the plot that has no real shade now the trees at the end behind the shed have been removed during the development of the flats behind the allotment site.

John has been doing his magic on the Ash Tree on plot 3 since I managed to get him and Wally approval to trim back the dying Ash tree next too Wally's plot. 

As one can see the absence of rain and the sun has done nothing to stop the weeds along the paths from taking over as I have not been down on the plot since the 27th July. Bloody squirrels or rats have eaten the sweetcorn which will not make Kelly very happy.

It was so hot that I recovered the Paracel from behind the plot 1A shed set it up between the plot 1 greenhouse and the potting bench and started harvesting the Duke of York First Early potatoes that have been grown in square flower buckets this year, this was the first bucket load. 

Duke of York First Early second bucket load

Duke of York 3rd Bucket load dumped into the large gravel tray, then the potatoes extracted and the spent growing medium returned to the flower bucket so that it can ultimately be added to one or two raised beds as soil conditioner.  

All four buckets worth of the Duke of York first early potatoes. Between retrieving the buckets of potatoes from their growing location and bringing to the potting bench under the umbrella, I was moving the hosepipe around the plot and watering what had not already bolted. 

During the watering I noticed a Cauliflower in need of harvesting

Only one survived and grew this year but at least I caught it before it bolted. 

Unlike the Broccoli that had all gone to seed! It's not been a good year for brassicas.

Next it was time to harvest the Caledonian Pearl First Early Potatoes. My duaghters both love my first early potato harvest, I just need to find a variety that is more prolific so I end up using less buckets to grow them.