Planning and Reviewing August in Previous Years

Reviewing the diary over the last Thirteen years for August

2013 - Built my first Comfrey Pipe after making it in buckets and experiencing the stench, harvesting spring onions, radishes, Wyevale seeds at 50%, trouble getting a fork in the ground used a pick axe. Central path of paving slabs from front garden went in on Mill Green. Wyevale 50p seed sale

2014 - Growing Marrows for the first time, harvesting, Onions, Spring Onions, Carrots, Wyevale 50p seed sale end of August.  

2015 -  Onion End Rot on Mill Green allotment, harvesting month, Digging up paths for compost bins, First Red Tomato 6th August, Sowing Beetroots, whitlow appeared on my finger just as I got my second plot at Spencer Road.   

2016 - End July / Early Aug end of season gardening sale at Wilko, First and last time trying to grow Celery and butternut squash, Pickling Beetroot, 17th August first ripe tomato, end of season Coir top up for next year.  

2017 -  Harvesting and Pickling Beetroots, Spring Onions in cut down Flower Buckets, SF60 Potato In Buckets Harvested, Self Seeding Pumpkins, Comfrey Pipe Upgrade, Overwintering SF60 Spring Onion Experiment,  Agreed the Drop off and Pick Up area with Redrow and the Council,  August Bank Holiday - Wyevale Seed Sale

2018 -  Harvesting so many tomatoes from the three tomato plants on the allotment. Second beetroot bed planted up first week of August. Finally have the stove in the shed and can make coffee. Harvesting cabbage and cauliflower. Pickling Beetroots. Harvesting cucumbers, courgettes, runner beans.  Built the rear extension to the shed on plot 1 .Drying tomato seeds for seed circles. Harvesting potatoes and tomatoes. Picked up packs of seed from the Wyevale seed sale. Started to review my seed box for 2019.

2019 -  Harvesting spuds cucumbers, runner beans etc.. High winds had to rescue sweetcorn. Runner bean frame collapsed so made good on a temporary basis. Shed repairs & weeding. Make a plug plant extraction tool. Pick up materials for cucumber A Frame. Won Kew Gardens Collection Heavy Duty Bypass Secateurs. Segway Stag Do 

2020 -   Heatwave during the first two weeks of August then heavy rainfall and flooding under Wallington bridge. Due to the pandemic I  had been shielding my wife and had not been on the allotment between March and the end of July. Lots of weed clearing to do. Harvesting Tomatoes at home. Apple acidic compost being made as a glut of apples from home. Infrastructure works on plot 1 continues as only cleared down to the shed on plot 1, Potatoes harvested, Meeting with Adam Brind re the wall behind my sheds, Japanese Knotweed and problem plot holders & Trees Only 6 people on the waiting list. Tomato Seed saving at the end of the month  

2021 - Onions harvested and placed on drying rack. Water butt installed in the plot 1 greenhouse for the Quadgrows. This year we had so much rain that the Grotto Canal in Carshalton was once again flooded and flowing. Picked up the pebble pool off Freecycle with no idea that it would not be until 2023 that I would get it installed and operational. Harvesting sweetcorn, tomatoes and spuds

2022 - Good harvest of spuds and cauliflower before they bolt. Finally after two month of heatwave and drought we got rain mid August. Good Cabbage harvest this year. Harvesting lots of apples and rhubarb, so lots of crumble being made. Sowing and growing Mustard Caliente Green Manure to combat onion white rot . Harvesting Potatoes and tomatoes.  

2023 - Trying to get everything up to date because of the proposed reconstruction of my jaw. I have cut back on sowing new vegetables as my girls will want to come and see me in hospital and not be down the allotment planting out watering and weeding. 

2024 - We started the month off with a months worth of rain in a Day after the heatwave, Bindweed taking over the paths and raspberry area, Harvesting Lazy Housewife French climbing beans, Picked up 10 paving slabs, a couple of Daleks and a load of terracotta pots and a shower chair & vermiculite off Freecycle, New wall clock for the shed, De-banding scaffold boards for the raised beds, installing first raised bed 16, filling with woodchips and then excavated humus from the original framed bed footprint, installing second raised bed 16, installing path between new raised beds 16 installed, Autumn Catalogues start to arrive, Marshalls  .

2025 - Lazy Housewife French Climbing beans and Cucumbers harvested, along with Crimson range of tomatoes. Harvesting Rhubarb .Lots of ripe tomatoes from the crimson range nurtured and harvested. Many paving slabs collected from Freecycle members. Artic Queen Lettuce, Mustard sown and germinated. Dwarf French beans sown and germinated in loo rolls. Onions, on the drying racks taken home by myself and Emma my eldest daughter.   A nice harvest on the last day of August of cucumbers red and all gold raspberries. 

To Do List  

Released from Hospital on the 7th July and now I have leg and foot ulcers, not being able to stand for long and definitely not being able to drive for a while, it could be a good few weeks until I'm able to visit my allotment again. I need to clear the shed and the materials I want to retain on plot 1A as I'm giving it up at the end of September. 

Mill Green - Plot 1

• Greenhouse 1 - Currently being used to house all the cardboard to be used in the new raised beds, The Loft Conversion is failing and needs remedial works.   
• Infrastructure - Convert standard 2.4m x 1.2m beds to 2 number 1.2 x 0.9m Raised beds with a path between for bed
•  Potatoes - All Now Planted in raised Beds thanks to plot neighbour John 

Mill Green - Plot 1A

• Greenhouse 1A - Clear so Wally can take it
• Grape Vines - Take cuttings    . 

Back Garden Allotment (BGA) 

• Infrastructure - Beds 1 - 3 Completed and topped up
• Ordered - Winter Red Onions due September  
• Sowing - Complete List     .  

Mill Green August

Week 1              Garlic - begin to harvest

Week 1              Onions - begin to harvest

Week 2              Celery - begin to harvest

Week 2              French Beans- begin to harvest climbing / pole

Week 2              Runner Beans- begin to harvest

Week 3              Senshyu Yellow – Sow in Modules to over winter

Week 3              Calabrese (sometimes called broccoli) - harvest

Week 3              Raspberries (summer fruiting) - prune