About time I updated this thing.............
Hey guys, hope everyone is well. As usual, it has been some time since I updated the blog, but the work has been progressing at the plot, with some favourable results. Firstly, the Garlic. You may remember that when I planted this back in October time, I started a little experiment. I bought a pack of 'Marco' garlic bulbs, specifically for growing, and also a couple of bulbs of Tesco's organic garlic from the fruit and veg counter, to see if there would be any noticeable difference when growing. 
As you can see from the photo here, they both seem to have grown ok, with the Marco bulbs (topmost) being slightly bigger. However, this was not the case. On closer inspection, the Tesco's garlic had not split properly, and was just a solid lump at the base of the garlic. I couldn't put this down to growing conditions, as they were both in the same bed on the plot, so the only other factor would be to leave it in the ground a bit longer. This then presents another problem, and the reason as to why I pulled all the garlic up this weekend. One of the plants looked as the leaves were dying off (as you would expect), so I pulled this bulb up to see how it was doing. A good job too, as this bulb was covered in a white fungus/mould and the skin was falling off the bulb. Obviously the few wet weeks we have had recently has caused too much of a damp environment for the garlic, so the only option was to pull it all up. Luckily, I have only lost three or four bulbs to this 'rot', with the rest being perfectly fine. So all in all, a worthwhile experiment. I will only use bulbs specific for growing in the case of garlic, with maybe some cloves saved from this crop for planting next year. And although I only have the 'Marco' garlic from the crop, this is still somewhere in the region of fifty bulbs, which should keep me going for some time.
As you can see from the photo here, they both seem to have grown ok, with the Marco bulbs (topmost) being slightly bigger. However, this was not the case. On closer inspection, the Tesco's garlic had not split properly, and was just a solid lump at the base of the garlic. I couldn't put this down to growing conditions, as they were both in the same bed on the plot, so the only other factor would be to leave it in the ground a bit longer. This then presents another problem, and the reason as to why I pulled all the garlic up this weekend. One of the plants looked as the leaves were dying off (as you would expect), so I pulled this bulb up to see how it was doing. A good job too, as this bulb was covered in a white fungus/mould and the skin was falling off the bulb. Obviously the few wet weeks we have had recently has caused too much of a damp environment for the garlic, so the only option was to pull it all up. Luckily, I have only lost three or four bulbs to this 'rot', with the rest being perfectly fine. So all in all, a worthwhile experiment. I will only use bulbs specific for growing in the case of garlic, with maybe some cloves saved from this crop for planting next year. And although I only have the 'Marco' garlic from the crop, this is still somewhere in the region of fifty bulbs, which should keep me going for some time. Onto the greenhouse crops:
The greenhouse crops are coming on leaps and bounds, with Aubergine, Sweet Peppers, Chilli Peppers, Jalepenos, Cucumbers and Tomatoes taking pride of place. 
The Sweet and Chilli peppers are in pots on the shelving as you can see in the first picture. The sweet peppers are 'Worldbeater', hopefully giving a better crop than the 'Californian' variety that I tried last year, but without much success (which has also put me off buying B&Q own brand seeds). The two chilli plants are Jalepeno and 'Hot Stuff'. The jalepenos grew quite successfully last year, and this is the first year for the Hot Stuff, so time will tell how they turn out. You can just see in the bottom right of this first picture, three of the four Aubergine plants, these being 'Moneymaker' and 'Caliope' (I think) varieties. The moneymaker is a traditional variety, producing large purple 
skinned fruit, whilst the other produces creamy coloured fruit, with purple tinges around the stem. I am really looking forward to seeing how these turn out. Next to these, at the rear of the greenhouse are the cucumbers, with three plants in all. Two are 'Marketmore' with the third being 'Burpless Tasy Green'. I grew the burpless last year, but only managed to get two or three fruits of the plants before they died off, hence growing the two varieties this year. They seem to be doing ok so far, but time will tell. This brings us round to the tomatoes, which you can see some of the lower picture. There are five varieties here, those being Gardeners Delight (Cherry, 1 plant), Legend (Beef, 1 plant), Italian Plum (Donated seed, 2 plants) and Alicante (Salad, 2 plants). I grew both the Gardeners Delight and Italian plum last year, and they were fantastic, with the taste being more intense than anything that you could get in the supermarket, so am looking forward to these again, but I am also looking forward to trying the Alicante and the Legend so bring on the fruit. As you can see, the first trusses have set on these plants, so I have started to water with a tomato food every few days. Also in the greenhouse are leeks in seed trays, ready to go into the ground when I lift the early potatoes, which hopefully should only be a few weeks away, as well as a few strawberry plants that were sown in January, but didn't actually germinate until a few weeks ago, go figure.
The Sweet and Chilli peppers are in pots on the shelving as you can see in the first picture. The sweet peppers are 'Worldbeater', hopefully giving a better crop than the 'Californian' variety that I tried last year, but without much success (which has also put me off buying B&Q own brand seeds). The two chilli plants are Jalepeno and 'Hot Stuff'. The jalepenos grew quite successfully last year, and this is the first year for the Hot Stuff, so time will tell how they turn out. You can just see in the bottom right of this first picture, three of the four Aubergine plants, these being 'Moneymaker' and 'Caliope' (I think) varieties. The moneymaker is a traditional variety, producing large purple skinned fruit, whilst the other produces creamy coloured fruit, with purple tinges around the stem. I am really looking forward to seeing how these turn out. Next to these, at the rear of the greenhouse are the cucumbers, with three plants in all. Two are 'Marketmore' with the third being 'Burpless Tasy Green'. I grew the burpless last year, but only managed to get two or three fruits of the plants before they died off, hence growing the two varieties this year. They seem to be doing ok so far, but time will tell. This brings us round to the tomatoes, which you can see some of the lower picture. There are five varieties here, those being Gardeners Delight (Cherry, 1 plant), Legend (Beef, 1 plant), Italian Plum (Donated seed, 2 plants) and Alicante (Salad, 2 plants). I grew both the Gardeners Delight and Italian plum last year, and they were fantastic, with the taste being more intense than anything that you could get in the supermarket, so am looking forward to these again, but I am also looking forward to trying the Alicante and the Legend so bring on the fruit. As you can see, the first trusses have set on these plants, so I have started to water with a tomato food every few days. Also in the greenhouse are leeks in seed trays, ready to go into the ground when I lift the early potatoes, which hopefully should only be a few weeks away, as well as a few strawberry plants that were sown in January, but didn't actually germinate until a few weeks ago, go figure.Moving on to outside:
The winter onions that were planted in October last year have really come on well, and should be ready for lifting soon. Here we have 'Senshyu Yellow' and 'Red Baron' varieties, alongside a row of shallots (which I can't quite remember the variety at the minute, D'Oh). The shallots have split very well, and also should be ready to lift shortly. The bed that held the garlic is next, and has become another experiment, seeing as I didn't have time to plant all of my seed potatoes, I still had Maris Piper tubers to go in the ground. So, they have followed the garlic to become an extremely late crop (if it works, if it doesn't, ah well), along with a few Desiree tubers. Watch this space. The bed next to this has the onions that were planted in the spring, comprising 'Sturon' and 'Electric Red' cultivars, as well as shallots again. Between each row, carrots were sown, but obviously the birds have been digging in the soil, as the carrots are no longer in rows, but popping up all over the bed. Since I wasn't sure what carrots looked like when they first germinated, I didn't bother weeding this bed until they had established. I can now weed without fear of pulling up carrots by mistake. The next bed has 'Hollow Crown' parsnips in, and the same principle was used here, as I definatley didn't know what parsnips would look like when they first appeared, so this will be weeded next weekend, now the they are through and I can recognise them.
Moving up the plot, we come to the potato beds. The first being home to the earlies. The varieties here are 'Charlotte' and 'Harlequin', and as you can see, are coming along nicely. They were planted at a depth of about 6 inches in a trench that had been enriched with come chicken manure that had been forked into the bottom first. The tubers were spaced about ten inched apart, having first been chitted in the greenhouse to produce some nice, dark shoots. The trenches were then back filled and earthed up to offer protection from the frost. This has worked well, as you can see from the growth here, and I will have a little poke about at the surface in a few weeks to see if there are any ready to come up. The next bed has the Maincrop potatoes, being 'King Edwards', and they were planted in the same manner (albeit on time, not like the Maris Piper), and have started to produce some nice growth as well. We then have an empty plot (which is where the Maris Pipers and Desiree should have been, if I had time to actually finish digging it over) which has been covered for the time being to kill off a few persistent weeds, and will be used at the back end of this year, beginning of next year
. At the end of this side of the allotment, we have the brassicas. Growing here we have Cauliflower 'All Year Round', Brussel Sprouts 'Of some type or other', Cabbage 'Greyhound' and Callabrese 'Romano'. These were all started off in plug trays in the greenhouse, before being transplanted into the final plot. This has been covered over to protect from birds and butterflies/caterpillers. As you can see, they look quite healthy. On the other side of the plot is a lot of black plastic, that is covering the ground until late autumn/early winter, when this ground will be prepared for next year. However, it is home to a couple of beds as well. In this patch we have French Beans, which aren't doing so well, Peas 'Greensage' , which are doing quite well however. Under these are five courgette plants of the variety 'Jemmer', which produces a yellow fruit. In front of these we have a block of Sweetcorn, which is companion planted with squash 'Butternut'.
And finally, we have the fruit bed, which is housing a Tayberry bush, a Blackberry bush, and a few Strawberry plants (ok, twenty strawberry plants), which are just starting to flower, so will be surrounded with straw to protect the fruit/deter slugs, and netted over to fend of the birds.
Well, that's about it for the minute. A lot more in the ground than last year, but it is still only the second year here, so I don't think I am doing that bad. Hope everyone else is enjoying success on their plots.
Till next time. Take Care.
P.
posted by Pinsrap at
5:03 PM
