Rainy day, but cracking harvest

Its been piddling it down with rain, but we popped up to see what needed picking - and got :

Sweetcorn !!!

Courgettes

Peas

Broad beans

A tiny romanesco broccoli

Swede

Beetroot

Turnip (last one thankfully)

What a harvest :)

Rocket, Basil, Cucumber, Lettuce & Beetroot salad !

OK, not from the allotment, but from Ben and Sarah's vege patch ... but so excited, had to post it !

And yes, my friends, that is a home grown cucumber !

28th June - First Harvest !

Yay ! Our first harvest today. Beetroot, turnip, lettuce and loads of strawberries.

The weekly slog of weeding went on, but the allotment is looking great now.

Planted our the courgettes, did some watering, and thinned out the swede.

The sweetcorn has also started to fruit. Well ahead of the game compared to other plots !

Harry and Joe planting courgettes
Sarah weeding the carrots, which haven't really germinated that well.
Matt planting some more beetroot

14th June - more weeding

Lots more weeding ... not much else to say !

7th June 2009 - leeks go in, weeding continues

The last week has been really hot, and we'd been watering every couple of days, but on Saturday the heavens opened and it rained all day, over an inch of rain.

The weeds were coming up again as usual, so we spent a good bulk of time getting rid of them.

The swedes needed thinning out, and are going great guns.

Everything is looking really good. The brassicas are bedding in nicely, and the peas are racing ahead.

Managed to plant 100 leaks also. Hope they are going to be better than last year !

Below are the leaks, planted in the top patch ...

Sarah planting out the leeks using an old curtain rail cut down as the dibber. The leaks were grown in modules before planting out. We didn't bother topping/tailing them.

The brassicas are still looking good

The peas are romping ahead

Matt thinning out the swedes. Apparently he takes great pleasure in choosing which seedling lives, and which dies ...

Matt's putting the thinnings into a pot, rather than discarding them. After thinning the seedlings are buried to avoid the cabbage root fly being attracted to the smell of bruised foliage.

31st May 2009 - more planting & the watering begins

Planted more brassicas today - swede, another round of romanesco broccoli and red cabbage.

We are getting a bit tight for space, so they were a bit closer that ideal, but we'll see how they go.

The peas have come up well, but are being pecked by the pigeons, so we put some netting over them to keep the pesky birds off.

Also started watering. Its been so dry the last week, it all needed a good drenching.

Below, Ben and Matt crawl through the brassica cage watering ...

The netting over the peas

Sarah watering the newly planted brassicas - but no netting - we've run out of hoops !

Matt planting the red cabbage, arse in the air as normal !

Finally some rain !

Most people can't stand the rain, but us gardeners were begging for some.

It was a good steady drizzle / light rain in Exeter, just right for the allotment. Could probably do with a bit more, but I'll take what we can get.

Its about a 2 minute round trip to get water from the water trough on the allotment site, which doesn't sound much, but when you have a 7.2 rod plot, that adds up to a lot of litres - and a lot of round trips. Last year when it was sunny and dry (April maybe ?!!)  it took us about an hour to water the whole plot.

The only bad thing with rain is that the weeds go crazy. Yay,  more weeding at the weekend :(

24th May 2009 - more planting & bird/butterfly protection

Planted out more kale & turnips.

Erected a large netting tunnel to stop the damned pidgeons eating the brassicas, and the butterflies laying their eggs and eating all the leaves.

Sowed some swede, some pumpkin and some fennel.

The peas are coming up, looks like fantastic germination. Should be, considering we laid down 500g of seed !

The peas popping their heads up ...
The erected brassica cage ...

Pumpkins and fennel, and some dodgy looking wet patches 

17th May 2009 - Now its starting to look like an allotment

It may seem a bit late in the season to be really getting some plants in, but we've grown them all from seed in pots, and finally its time to plant them out. We put in about 170 seedlings - sweetcorn, kale, romanesco broccoli, turnip, carrots and parsnips.

Bit concerned about he carrots and parsnips - the tap root had grown pretty long, and apparently they don't like being transplanted. Hopefully they will be OK though, as they are in peat pots.

We also sowed some seed - salsify, more carrots, lettuce and beetroot.

Sweetcorn on the left, the peas and beans on the left side of the right handside bed, kale and r. broccoli on the far left, little Joe with a spade at the front !

In front of the sweetcorn were sown some salsify and carrots
Inspecting Jim's poor efforts at getting straight rows of turnips.
Earthing up the kale in the hope it does not snap in the wind - its really blustery in Exeter this week.

Sarah's efforts with the strawberry dome - hopefully will keep the birds off the fruiting and flowering strawberries.
The top patch is still empty ... 
Harry and Joe planting the sweetcorn.
Matt planting the carrots which are in open ended carboard sleeves
Jim *loving* the turnips !

The seedlings in their transportation mode ... looks like a nursery in a car !

10th May 2009 - Finally some planting !

We got 2 rows of peas and 2 rows of broad beans in and also planted some beetroot in.

Sarah spent hours weeding the poor strawberries which were overrun by the damned buttercups.

Matt built a mini raised bed to house our tomatoes once they are ready for planting out.

Harry tried to get the strimmer going, but had to revert to the scithe. Oh dear !

29nd March 2009 - Still rotavating

A month has passed since we started the season, but we're finally getting there. 

Matt removed the brambles at the bottom of the patch and uncovered some amazingly light soil. Lovely stuff.  Its been pretty dry, so the ground is coming up really well - much better than last year.

1st March 2009 - Start of the year

Another season begins up at the allotment.

We decided to leave things a bit later this year - mainly because our ground is pretty heavy clay, and last year it was so wet we had massive problems with germination.

So we're starting seeds off at Ben's garden & greenhouse, and will transplant plants in.

Here's some photos from the days work of digging over and a bit of rotavator action.