Allotment 13: Birds...The Birds...

Hi All,
Another week, another issue..

Diaster has struck 13, like something out of a Hitchcock movie we have been attacked by birds... Our brassicas to be precise, not content with plucking out our onions they have now taken a liking to our tasty cabbages.. A poor little soul here..

Another larger one here...

Some have survived..Those ones where underneath string with bags attached:

So defences back up (Aka Nets) now I love birds but I tell you I want my shotgun readers...

So looking out over the plot we have a lot of flickering bags that should help keep the birds off.
Hopefully they will recover as long as they have not pecked out the heart of the cabbages we should be ok..

So that should help I hope, if not I will be getting out the shotgun..Although the lottie cat does help..

But it is not all negative news...Our Leeks and Onions are doing well...First the leeks, they are surviving the rust well...

They are getting thicker by the week Rich will have a good crop...Our onions are taking off as well!! They remind me of daffodils or tulips in how they are growing..

The bed has row upon row of Sword Wielding onions...

So we are looking good for a good harvest currently, but we'll see how it pans out..Another addition to the plot today was blackcurrant's, for those of you interested Ben Sarek variety, a nice compact variety that only grows to 3ft tall, so thats pretty cool. We got 5 into Bed K

And three more into the fruit bed...Each one looks like this:

Titchmarsh's book says they are heavy cropping so hopefully we will get a load of currant's downside is it takes 2yrs :(

What else...Rich has been working very hard double digging the asparagus bed, he has taken out a load of stone from the bed, it is on the side of the plot by a bank where the electricity board just buldozed a load of stones and earth years ago, so it is hard work, had to delay the delivery of the Asparagus until December...

But this is the most sheltered spot on the plot, they apparently are ferns and grow about 3-4ft tall so need some support...Amazing what you learn about your food as you grow.

We should do really well here, remember another 2yr wait for these guys :( So thats the currants and the asparagus we have to wait for but boy what a year it will be in 2010.

Finally the plot looks like this we have a covering of leaves, Rich did some hard work today (Not shown here) clearing up the paths, but autumn/winter is definitely here..