A Quick Whiz Around The Back Garden

 
Due to shielding my wife, the back garden including the patio was taken over to grow Tomatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Mint and Potatoes. I've had a few harvests already but though perhaps I should take some photos before it's all over so lets have a quick whiz around the back garden 

The Quadgrow has performed magnificently on the patio and I'm so looking forward to getting this installed in the new greenhouse on the plot next year. 

The next Gigantimo tomato turning red, not quite as large as my first picking 

The Bio Green Tower 

Thompson & Morgan’s Sweet Potato Edible and Ornamental Trio 

The Gigantimo tomatoes in the Bio Green City Jungle are growing well, the plant really needs a trim and tidy up now so that the large tomatoes that are on it can max out. This is another reason I took the photos before the plants get their next hair cut. 

I have now harvest four punnets of tomatoes from these plants 

There are a few more punnets to be had, I'm keeping an eye to see if any splitting is occurring and if I spot it then I will harvest them to prevent losses  

The mini and micro tomatoes in the Space Saver Greenhouse  are doing well and I will soon be harvesting these as well.  Two Buckets of new potatoes have been harvested and consumed and the next two buckets will be harvested during this week when the rain stops.

First Tomato Harvest Maskotka

First tomatoes to turn read were the Maskotka which I had not tried until this year and will now be added to my grow every year list. Small plant but prolific fast to turn red and a great taste, just what one wants from a tomato plant.  

Quick Wizz Around The Back Garden

Potatoes and Tomato plant looking good with green toms now showing

Quadgrows 

Left Quadgrow

Right Quadgrow

Bio Green Tomato Pot & Tower

Thompson & Morgan’s Sweet Potato Edible and Ornamental Trio 

Elho Tomato Pot after remedial works with Bamboo canes 

Agapanthus & Mint Plant 

Gigantomo in the Bio Green City Jungle only flowers at the moment

Excess Mini & Micro Toms on the Table 

The have green tomatoes & more flowers 

Micro Tom in the Space Saver Greenhouse 

Planning and Reviewing June In Previous Years

Reviewing the diary over the last seven years for June

2013 - Potting up tomatoes & peppers, potatoes, cabbages, sprouts and sweet corn, dug beds 7 & 8  

 

2014 - Watering system installed on Mill Green plot 1A, Potted up Tomatoes into buckets, installed bed 12, Marrows in manure covered in cardboard. Beetroots, Harvested the first bunch of Spring onions. Harvested first early potatoes from buckets. End of the month bed 13 completed, second bed of runner beans sown.         

2015 -  Not many posts in the blog for this month in this year, it was however my first Vlog from the plot. first year trying French beans the family didn't like them and it they have not been grown again since. Potted tomatoes from vending machine cups into pots that were taken to the grow house on the plot. First year growing Marketmore cucumbers. Sweetcorn planted on Fathers day, First year for successfully growing a whole bed of Parsnips. First year for peas. Cherries on the cherry trees. Sent two Crimson Crush tomato plants.   

2016 - Very cold June. Grow House heaving with plants, Burpless Cucumber transplanted into pots, Tomatoes potted on from vending machine cups, Sprouts failed and I had to buy some. Third sowing of beetroots, First year for celery. Flooding at Wallington Railway Bridge

Second sowing of sweetcorn due to slow germination then the first sowing germinated after the first ! Drying Coffee Grounds

Mill Green - Runner beans planted out, sweetcorn planted out into beds mulched with cut comfrey, Sprouts planted out,    

Spencer Road - Onions, Potatoes, Beetroots and infrastructure works. 

Home - Tomatoes finally get transplanted into flower buckets.  

2017 - Due to wife being very ill and in hospital a couple of times, everything was late and many things just didn't happen. Sweetcorn was sown about a month later than usual, so were Beetroots, and the first early spud in buckets experiment for SoilFixer was also a month late. Very large double size Dalek picked up off Freecycle for Mill Green

2018 - Community work, clearing weeds from plot 4 for Sarah who has burn injuries and can't work her plot.  Crimson Crush & Rapunzel tomatoes planted on the plot.  Lark Sweetcorn planted, Moving slabs and kerb stones from Spencer Road to Mill Green, Sold my Handy Tiller & Generator that I had bought and had never used, Trimming tomatoes and giving a Comfrey feed, Butternut Squash in the bottom of Plot 1. Clearing Spencer Road Allotment and bringing items to Mill Green. Sowed more carrots, Spring Onions in cut down flower buckets, 24th June Cucumbers transplanted, Fixing the chairs, Comfrey pipe from Spencer Road plot set up on Mill Green, Shed maintenance replacing feather edge board, Trees from Jersey Plants Direct, 

2019 - Lots of potting up and growing in the Space Saver Greenhouse, Purchased CMH Heavy Duty Plastic Trays,  Lots of rain and flooding in the early part of the month. The contractor working on the property behind the wall cut down the trees and left branches on my shed. Lots of plums on the tree and the some bastard picked them all!  Beetroots disappointing this year wiped out by the intense heat and slugs. 24th June Butternut squash planted out, cucumbers starting to climb their framework, Trial of Nemaslug sent but they had to be stored in the fridge!, Weekend Heatwave with temperatures in 40C .Watering visits as a very dry and sunny June, Potatoes in buckets drying out very quickly, must consider toeing into the bed next year.     

Planned for 2020

Coronavirus UPDATE

Early into March I ended up self isolating because my wife is very high risk and from the looks of things we will be in isolation for a lot longer than the 12 weeks that Boris Johnson was originally talking about. 23rd March we went into Lockdown, however Allotments can still be visited as it's a form of exercise and mental relaxation and therapy, however in order to shield my wife, I have refrained from taking advantage of the lockdown loophole. 

The To Do List below will remain and be added too with fighting the weeds that will come due to the neglect. As someone who is on his plot all year round and does not leave it alone during Autumn & Winter and who uses it instead of therapy and for my mental well being it's tearing me apart not being able to get to her.

Yes I have decided my allotment is a woman, it is dealing with mother nature after all.

Three storms in February 2020 which was the wettest in recorded history, April 2020 turned out to be the sunniest in recorded history. It was as if the weather was mocking us as we were all isolating and in lockdown. There is no doubt that as the aircraft stopped flying and the cars on the roads reduced that the air quality improved, the skies looked more blue that I had seen for many a year. It's a shame we can't maintain the lack of use of polluting forms of transport. 

To Do List  

I've been very fortinate in that my Daughter Emma and Son-In-Law Andy have been visiting my plot and dealing with weeds, tidying up and installing new beds on Plot 1. They even managed to find me two new compost bins to match those I already have and have extended my Dalek Army complete with woodchip paths. 

Below is the to do list in no particular order of what has slipped because I can't get to my plot, a few items have been completed courtesy of Emma & Andy.  

Mill Green - Plot 1A

• Clear Bed 2 of Cabbages and cover - TBD
• Progress on the wall rebuild behind Shed - Contractor pulled off site due to lockdown
• Remove and dispose of Corex on the roof - TBD once wall has been rebuilt
• Re felt the roof of the shed - Tree removed from roof, temporary cover in place   
• Fix the potting Bench - TBD
• Clear the Wasp Nest in greenhouse 1A - To Be Done once the wasps have gone! 
• Rhubarb Bed to be created - clearance of weeds in current location and move when ready
• Tidy Up the Allotment  - Courtesy of Emma & Andy 
• Weeding - Courtesy of Emma & Andy    
• Clear Seating Area - Courtesy of Emma & Andy 

Mill Green - Plot 1

• As much infrastructure works as the weather will allow - Seven Raised Beds Constructed in Feb two installed in March and waiting for areas to be dug and weeded 
• Install the kerb edging along the bottom of Plot 1 - TBD
• Clear the weeds and install a 600mm margin around the perimeter of the plot - Ongoing
• Woodchip the Margin around the perimeter of the plot. When able  
• Beds and Paths -  Four Bead and Paths installed by Emma & Andy others to be formed when I'm able to get to the allotment again.  
• Erect the greenhouse - New Timbers to be cut and treated   
• Tidy Up the Allotment - Courtesy of Emma & Andy 
• Remove remaining Hawthorne bushes from the wall - Removed by Wally for me what a star my plot neigbour is.  
• Stock pile Hawthorne to dry before burning - Now covered to keep dry until September 
• Stockpile Timber ready for burning  - Now covered to keep dry until September 
• Planning - Ongoing

Home 

• Planning - Ongoing
• Catalogue Seeds - Vegetables for 2020 done just flowers remain.
• New Cut Path Weed Membrane - Completed during April 2020   
• New Cut Bed Weed Membrane - Ideal Isolation Job in dry weather 
• New Cut Planting Membrane - Ideal Isolation Job need to make some squash sheets c/w watering points

Reminders

• None at the moment.- Add when remembered.
  

Tomatoes

The tomatoes have all now been re potted into the square flower buckets. The two square flower buckets without tomatoes will have cucumbers planted in them. The first yellow flowers were seen today on the Maskoika plants.  

All the remaining mini and micro tomatoes have now been moved up from vending machine cups into pots and now occupy the top shelf of the Space Saver Greenhouse. A few extras are now on the garden furniture table as I could not turn them into compost.  

Pondering Sq Foot and Container Gardening

As you will know if you are a regular reader of manVslug.uk I'm self isolating and shielding my wife from the Coronavirus as she is very high risk and as much as I would like too, and I'm allowed too, I have resisted the call of the allotment (so far!) this means that I'm looking at ways to be inventive and grow more than just tomatoes at home in my postage stamp garden.  

I placed this photo and the text below on my favourite Facebook group  Allotment & Garden Club - Mind Your Peas and Cues:-

"I found another two of these after taking this photograph, a couple will be used for Radish and a couple for lettuce now I need to decide what I can get away with growing in the remaining four and where I'm going to put these so the bleeding cats that visit the garden don't use them as litter trays. 

Any suggestions they are 270 x 230mm on plan and 100mm deep to the bottom of the carrying handle. #IsolatedGardeners"

Lots of discussion about cats and ways of keeping them off , from growing mint, which I have and appears to have no effect on them but the two main suggestions not around the square flower buckets and where did I get them from were from:- 

Beau Dendy so worth a go Other salad like Rocket, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, leeks. I use wooden bar b q sticks in mine to keep the cats off!

Claire Billington You can put canes in and cover with net to keep the cats and birds off. How about peas/ beans.

Margaret Adams Radish, spring onions

Sarah Bee I would try Beetroot

Four of these containers were made up for an experiment that I did using leeks and spring onions in the past, so I know they are an option, but I can't see 100mm depth of soil being enough for Cauliflower & Cabbage.

I don't grow peas and my daughter will not eat them after seeing a maggot come out of one when I was getting them out of the pods. Looking at the spacing diagram for the metric version of Square Foot Gardening I made some time ago for inspiration of variety and spacing.

Normally I grow 100's of beetroots at the allotment and pickle, but I could grow a few fresh beetroots they would work out at 16 to a bucket and 9 French beans 

So based on the Mel Bartholomew guidance in his original book that I have a copy off, I should be able to get 16 Radish in a 300x300mm plan area. The square buckets are a little smaller than that, but it looks like a good idea.

Especially when I dibbed some holes in to take the radish plug plants that I have been growing in the greenhouse after watching Charles Dowding sow them in modules that way.

I had left then longer than Charles did before planting them out and as a result they had got a little tangled with their neighbours, but after a while I managed to ease them appart, and lesson leant get them in before they grow too big and get matted in the future. 

I love these CMH Modules it's so easy to pop the plug plants you want and the root structure is really good.  

Placing the first six the recommendation on spacing look righ-ish 

3 rows worth 12 modules worth and a few had just started to swell at the base of the stem

I'm now pondering about sowing the next cut down box directly as that will give me coms continuity of harvest 

Recalling what Beau Dendy suggested I found a pack of BBQ Skewers that I bought at the end of season sale in TESCO last year and turned the bucket into an anti-cat hedgehog 

Seven of the eight deep buckets cleared of last years compost. New compost added to a depth of approx. 125mm and two Pentland Javelin seed potatoes placed in the bottom of each bucket, then filled to within 50mm of the top of the handle slot with last years compost/coir mix and a 50mm layer of new compost added so that nutrients can wash and migrate down as it rains into the bucket.

The pack says sow mid to late March, but I usually wait until the danger of a hard frost is over. Growing time is around 10 - 12 weeks so these should be ready for harvesting between the 28th June and the 12th July-ish.

With most first earlies when the flowers open on the halum or vegetation that grows to about 600mm in height that is an indication that the potatoes are ready for harvesting. It's only maincrop potatoes that one has to wait for the foliage to turn yellow and start to die back before harvesting. 

If all conditions are ideal, you may harvest about five to 10 potatoes per plant for your gardening efforts. Yields are based on both the care your give your plants during the growing season and the variety of potatoes you choose to grow. I've never seen what is expected of Pentland Javelin which are baby new potatoes. 

Again with all potatoes carefully dig up, and in my case empty the bucket out, harvest the tubers (spuds) and leave them to dry for a few hours and then store in a cool dark place. 

Pentland Javelin are great for boiling and salads and they were a bag that I picked up for B&Q when I visited before the lockdown.    

The spikey anti-cat hedgehog has been used buckets I don't have lids for and now it was getting chilly and the light was going at around 8pm so I had a tidy covered my tomatoes with the bubble wrap mushroom tray, closed the greenhouse up and called it a day. 

#IsolatedGardeners   #gdnbloggers