Here is the Weather...

As the gardening season draws to a close, I cannot help but reflect on the weather – largely because today it is sunnier, pleasanter and brighter than it has been for weeks.

They say that Eskimos have many words for ‘snow’.  Well I think that after the last few weeks/months, when it has been all but impossible to stick your head out of the door without getting wet, we in Devon could compete.  Not in any particular order, but since my last blog we have experienced all of the following, though not necessarily all on the same day:

1.    Rain

2.    Heavy rain

3.    Light rain

4.    Rain showers

5.    Cloud

6.    Rain and cloud

7.    Rainy and cloudy

8.    Cloudy

9.    A Sprinkling of Rain

10. It’s spitting!

11. Coming down like stair-rods

12. Hail

13. Bigger hail

14. Sleet

15. Damp

16. Very damp

17. Mud

18. Lots of mud

19. Even more mud

20. Squelching grass

21. Mist

22. Fog

23. Drips

24. Torrents

25. Rivers in the road

26. Floods

27. Puddles

28. Big puddles

29. Raging torrents (and not just IN the rivers)

30. Chilly

31. Freezing cold

32. Cool

33. Cloudy

34. Very cloudy

35. Grey cloud

36. White cloud

37. Cold and damp getting ‘into your bones’ (More about bones another day)

And so...hats, scarves, gloves have been resurrected, potatoes rotted in the ground, grass grew longer and wetter than was strictly allowable under allotment rules, and now we all live in hope of a few nice, crisp, cold day...Watch this space for updates...

HOW many onions???

NB:  This should have been posted in August, but have had a few technical issues (Mainly the one known as 'incompetence').

Well, it finally stopped raining for a few days.  this was followed by the worst cloudburst I have ever experienced, then another one the next day.  After that it was blistering hot, followed by thunder, lightening and now it's spitting with rain again!

All in all, and taking this weird weather into account, things on the allotment aren't too bad, except for the potatoes which are decidedly...um...occupied...or at least they have been.  Not sure what by...slugs?  At any rate a few of them were totally hollow.  Oh well, some of them are ok and they don't taste too bad.  None worth a picture though, so I didn't bother.

Last week I picked a bit of spinach... 

 A few runner beans and French Beans... 

(Yes there really are French Beans there as well...look harder!)

...and some Calibrese.  This was interesting...I've never grown it before, and can only suggest to any other novice that they actually read the label at the start, especially the bit where it tells you to pick it BEFORE it flowers.  Mind you, the're very pretty, delicate yellow flowers...

The best news this week is that I now have a proper lawn outside the shed, and that today it had its first trim (strim).

Here it is before...

... and after its haircut:

A couple of days ago I went up and eased the onions out of the soil and bent the tops over, so that they could start drying out in the sun.Today I went up and collected them up, ready to finish off drying out in the shed

 I managed to collect two good baskets of white onions... 

...and one of red...

I then set too putting them to dry in the shed.  This involved taking most of the things off the shelves and spreading newspaper all over the place.

A Few More Updates and Reflections:

Lovely flowers on the Runner Beans

Isn't Spinach pretty?

I have a few infant Broad Beans

The Runner Beans are doing well

Open day and Show

Last Sunday was the Allotment open day and show.  Although the allotment has only been there for three years this is already their second open day, and would have been their third had last year's not been cancelled due to the weather.


I have to say it was a brilliant day, due to the efforts of the allotment committee and everyone else who put in so much effort both before and on the day!  There was so much going on that it was impossible to feel bored.  


Early on, people were carefully putting produce in the show tent to be judged by Alf, our local champion gardener (and my neighbour on the allotment!).  I have no idea who the overall winner was, probably because the outstanding impression was the fun that people had displaying the fruits of their labours!  Everything was arranged on tables inside a lovely marquee that appeared from nowhere a couple of days before:

Needless to say I didn't have anything ready to show, but I may have a few things for the village show later in the year.

The bells of the Borderline Morris Dancers could be heard for several minutes before they actually arrived, and they gave several performances during the day.  The music and the dancing were so wonderfully English and let's face it you don't see sights like this every day!










Here's a video of one of their dances:

There were hand bell ringers from the village, a boules tournament, cakes (never seen so many), cream teas, hot dogs, a lemonade stall, guitarists, singing, a vintage tractor, a steam engine, and best of all loads of happy people:

...and while there are still events like this, and people who care about them, it may be a cliché, but...







        There'll always be an England:

Coming Along...and a Well Travelled Butt

Well...today, so far, it hasn't rained...at all.  I thought I'd start by pointing this out since it is somewhat of a rarity so far this 'summer'.  A couple of weeks ago I was in Birmingham and managed to pick up a reasonably priced water butt.  It spent the first week happily riding around in the back of my car (amazing what you can get into a Micra!), then the next few days sitting on the allotment in the rain.  In fact by the time today came it had about an inch of water in the bottom and that was without being connected up and with the lid on!  Anyway, thanks to my friend Steve I now have guttering and a functioning water butt:

...and guess what?  There's rain forecast again tonight!




Having done very little to assist in the installation of the water butt I then knuckled down and weeded the cabbages/broccoli/sprouts.  This involved lifting up the netting and then crawling around in a rather undignified way, but they look a bit better now:

In fact they are actually starting to look a bit like cabbages/broccoli/sprouts...

The lawn is starting to look more like a lawn - except for the minor detail that there's no grass yet, but I seeded it last week so it should be starting to show any day now...

Oh, and I moved the compost bin.  I found myself whispering an apology to the ants who were still living in it and do you know what happened?  When I first looked the bin was full of ants, still carrying eggs around and so on.  When I finally lifted the bin off the compost/ants nest they were still there, but...following my apology to them...when I came to spread the compost around a bit later on there was not an ant in sight.  Not one.  Not even a stray egg.  Weird?

Here's the compost bin in its new spot.  So far it's ant-free!

Two other points of note:  first of all the flowers are still looking pretty: 

And...I have carrots!  A week or so ago I followed the advice of a man who said that if the ground is stony try growing them in large pots of compost...so I did, and so far it's working!

Finally, it's the allotment show and open day next Sunday...fingers crossed that it doesn't rain ALL week...!

Updates and First Crops

Well.  It has rained...and rained...and the wind has howled like the soundtrack for a horror film.  Today, though, has been very warm (clammy) so I went up and weeded, tidied, etc.  Here's the current state of play:

Potatoes:


They're doing ok.  The ones in the foreground are second earlies and are starting to flower, so it won't be long now before I start digging a few up.  In the background are the maincrop potatoes and they, too, are doing fine.  They're  not as far advanced as others on the allotment (especially Alf's...more about Alf another day!), but they went in late, so that's to be expected.

Blackcurrants:


I decided to keep my few fruit bushes in pots until after they've cropped.  The plan is to make a fruit cage where the potatoes, cabbages, etc are now, so they can go in later on.  As you can see even with this method I should soon have enough blackcurrants (my favourite fruit!) to make a small crumble or something with.

Flowers:


Only a few this year so far, but the Canterbury Bells that travelled with me from Shropshire are very pretty.

Lawn:


When I say 'lawn' I am, of course, using the word very loosely.  I started digging out the weeds today, trying not to go too deep as I want the ground compacted - which it is at present.  It feels like there are  more stones in this little patch of Devon than on Brighton beach, so I am also raking ... a lot.

Onions:


Doing well.  Weeded again today.

Runner Beans:


Wind-battered but making progress.

French Beans:


Wind-battered.

Cabbages/Cauliflowers/Sprouts:


Fine.  Will need weeding soon.

Salad Leaves:


First picking.  Thinnings really, but should be nice on a sandwich.

Radishes


Again, only thinnings, but very tasty!




















Finally, I just heard the weather forecast...more rain on the way.  Lovely...

Butterflies & Birds Beware!

Don't get me wrong;  I love butterflies and birds and in fact most wildlife - I say most because I have a bit of a thing about earwigs, but they don't feature in this.  In fact I have a potful of lavender cuttings to plant out at some stage to encourage honey bees and am aiming to deliberately plant things to encourage butterflies and so on later on.  It's just that everything in life has a place and the place of butterflies and bees is most definitely not on my cabbages.


I reckon you only make the mistake of not protecting cabbages once.  You soon learn that if the cabbage white butterfly has its wicked way you will end up with something resembling a green sieve.  So, I planted cabbages, sprouts, calabrese and cauliflowers and then built a cage:

When I say 'I built a cage I should maybe add that my friend Steve banged the posts in for me!  I am hoping it will take a very determined pigeon or butterfly to break in, but just in case...

...I added a rather attractive (ok, tacky) 'bird scarer'...

Then I had the maybe-not-so-great idea of digging up the comfrey.  I did this because there are other comfrey plants popping up lower down the plot that are in a more suitable place.  This one was a monster and in totally the wrong place, so i dug...and dug...and went back the next day and dug again.  I am not particularly hopeful that I have done any more than offend its dignity as I think its roots must go down to the Southern Hemisphere.  We'll see.  I am now on red alert for shoots.

I am pleased to say that the runner beans seem to have survived their battering by last week's wind.  They're picking up and some are making a valiant effort to climb up the canes.  The French Beans are looking rather less well but I'm crossing my fingers.

I am also pleased to report that I now have radishes and lettuce.  You'll be glad to know that they have now been thinned out a bit!








Onion Update:

They are looking SO much better!

In fact, they are looking like onions at last.  The problem is, they now need weeding (Remember...onions hate weeds), but guess what?  Yes...it's raining...a lot...again...