Hi All,
A bit like the current winter season it has been some time since I posted here, so blow off the dust, it's update time..
So what has happend since November, well we got sick and tired of the birds eating our cabbages, so we fixed that, culvert is now fixed, asparagus in, glass house fixed (with strange tubing) more beds in fruit canes planted, rhubarb in... Oh and it has been cold, darn cold.
So on with the story, plot currently looks like this:
As you can see some differences since November, mostly the nets, like I said we got sick of the birds eating our crops so we netted all of the brassicas, bought some new frames as well.. Some of the poor little fellas did not quite make it, although they are struggling back..
Although where we got to them quickly they are growing really well...
The ones that where established before the pidgeons moved in are doing really well, here is a big one
Also here is big red... :)
We'll be harvesting some small ones mid to the end of feb, that'll allow some of the big ones to form really nice cabbage hearts.
The other thing we put in since november (Actually in December i believe) was the BlackCurrant bed, we have about 10 small currants around the lottie, some in this bed and some in the fruit bed, they'll grow to about 45cm wide and should produce a nice crop next year.
Gooseberries, we have three, one red, one golden and one traditonal.. Currently they don't look like much, also planted in December...
Hopefully they'll grow really nice and we'll have some decent fruit, we also recieved our Raspberries in January...Here they are, a whole row of them, again about 12-16 canes of different varieties, again they don't look like much..
Currently the fruit bed looks a bit winteresque but hey, lets see how it looks in three-four months time...
I also fixed the path so it is no longer like walking along a slide there :).
Where next....Rhubarb...We got three crowns in currently towards the back of the allotment next to the culvert, they are already growing up nicely...Early varities I think Stockbridge arrow..
Did I mention it was cold? Darn Cold.... Where next...Lets walk over to the left hand side of the allotment and look in on greenhouse...Rich has been doing a lot of work in there....What is this pipe all about?
Well Richard has dug down three feet in here, riddled the soil (to you and me thats remove stones) filled it with some culvert silt and then added manure...Be the best soil on the plot..Ohe that pipe? It's a heat sink, at the end there is a load of stone, polystyrene etc the heat is drawn into it during the day and let out at night to help balance the temperature...
Where next? Ok lets walk over to the front of the plot and check out the leeks..
Currently they are the best on the allotment as far as I can tell.. We almost had leek rust but then a tip, use cheap gin, result, voilia lovely looking leeks...Rich has done well with these..
Now where to....Oh centre back, lets take a look at the onions..
Our survival rate here is very high and they are coming along nicely, if a little slowly...
Lets look over to the right now, the garlic, it's coming along a treat...
Now, looking up from the bed we can see how much we have left to do, not a great deal to look at, but tough work, lots of bramble roots and canes in here still to come out...
As you can see we have cleared a lot of land upto this point and not much to go, lets take a look over at the culvert at the back there..
As you can see we managed to clear it we still have a way to go digging out mud, but it is going to make a lovely top dressing on the beds., looking through the fence you can see where it has been cleared back there, the water is now running away..
It was well blocked in there till someone cleared it, no risk of flooding now!!, lets turn around now and look back over the plot..
You can see in front there all the carpet is cleared ready to use land, there'll be about 5-6 beds going in there over the coming weeks, potatoes and the like... Well thats all folks from 13, until the next time, hopefully not too long...
The nets are intact but the frames took a bit of a hammering, they just need another nail in them, the plants underneath are mostly fine, it stopped just short of squashing the cabbages, poor things have been through the wars, wind, rain snow and birds...All to end up on my dinner plate ;). Some more netting views..
Took a little bit to clear all this up, problem is some of it is frozen which means the snow forecasted for tonight (5-10cm) will just clog up again...So it might be another visit (When it is safe) back to the lottie to rescue the nets, the roads down by the entrance to the plot where a bit slippery...
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