Week twenty eight - July 8th - July 15th
2006
Sunday 9th July 2006. Reading back through my notes for this week rain can be expected any time now and indeed the weather has changed and the wind is up. I need to concentrate on getting the spring cauliflowers planted out and following those the leeks also still need planting out. Once those jobs are done the year starts to change and although the summer will continue for another couple of months we have passed mid summers day and the crops that can be sown from seed now are more limited. Having said that, many salad crops – spinach and Chinese cabbage etc. are good to sow on shortening days.
I have cropped the shallots in the bed in Geoff’s allotment I have dug the bed over and cleaned it out. After the addition of some compost and a few handful of blood fish and bone the bed was ready to plant in again. The Huckleberry seed that I gave to John to germinate and grow on in the greenhouse did really well. We already have a thriving row planted out in the plot. There was half a tray of plants to plant out that were looking sorry for themselves so I have put them down the centre of the bed that had the shallots in. I will probably put leeks down each side of them.
14th July 2004 I have collected some seed from the land cress that I sowed for the first time last year
Judging by what I wrote in 1999 I took matters more seriously then - and I'm not sure that I was right about the sprouts either. They certainly haven't been growing in the same space since then - although that is partly because I took on the new plot next door.
The weeds are still a problem though.
My old bean haulms are on the compost heap this year and not dug in and in fact this years sprout plants have been planted in the space where the beans were this year.
1999
July 10th 1999 The Autumn sown broad beans have given a tremendous crop and still there was half of the double row left standing. Some of the beans are getting tough to eat and the Spring sown Green Windsor broad beans are just about ready to crop. The remaining Autumn beans are now in kitchen the old beans plants are several inches under the ground where they were once standing. French beans and lettuce have been sown on top to replace them.
The other end of the row still has short stubs of the old plants left with one or two pods left drying for seed. The cabbages planted in between have yet to claim the space.
I'm harvesting the shallots as the tops die down and keeping note of those that were particularly successful as these will be separated out to provide seed for next year.
July 18th - TOO MUCH WEED
Again I've lost the battle against the weeds on large areas of my allotment. Each year that I loose it means many years of weed to come. However some areas are gradually coming under control. I'm concentrating on getting the japanese onion bed (a permanent fixture) clean in advance of seed sowing in the middle of August.
The sprout bed is also a clean, permanent fixture and doesn't rotate. There are two reasons for this. One is in recognition of my soil type and the other is for disease control. My soil is very light, sandy and hungry. Sprouts growing on this soil type have tendency to 'blow', that is, not make tight buttons. I sow my sprouts on the paths between last years rows this keeps the soil well compacted.
The other reason for not rotating the crop is so that I can heavily lime the bed if it becomes too infested with club root. My feeding method is to heavily feed with blood fish and bone at the beginning of the season and liquid feed through until August when I feed again with blood fish and bonemeal.
Sunday 9th July 2006. Reading back through my notes for this week rain can be expected any time now and indeed the weather has changed and the wind is up. I need to concentrate on getting the spring cauliflowers planted out and following those the leeks also still need planting out. Once those jobs are done the year starts to change and although the summer will continue for another couple of months we have passed mid summers day and the crops that can be sown from seed now are more limited. Having said that, many salad crops – spinach and Chinese cabbage etc. are good to sow on shortening days.
I have cropped the shallots in the bed in Geoff’s allotment I have dug the bed over and cleaned it out. After the addition of some compost and a few handful of blood fish and bone the bed was ready to plant in again. The Huckleberry seed that I gave to John to germinate and grow on in the greenhouse did really well. We already have a thriving row planted out in the plot. There was half a tray of plants to plant out that were looking sorry for themselves so I have put them down the centre of the bed that had the shallots in. I will probably put leeks down each side of them.
Tuesday 11th July 2006. Although we have only had the
smallest amount of rain I have planted out two more varieties of spring cauliflower.
I have planted
them in newly dug soil in an area that has been left falloiw for the last year
or so.
2005
Friday 15th July 2005I dug up two large buckets
of Kestrel potatoes this evening (and planted more leeks in their place)
as I finished
John was pulling carrots
from under his fleece. I must admit I'm impressed with John's fleece grown
carrots and am going to have to buy some fleece and grow them that way
myself next year.
I have planted out more leeks this year than I have in past years even though we now have the leek moth on our allotment site and they can cause a lot of damage.
14th July 2004 I have collected some seed from the land cress that I sowed for the first time last year
Judging by what I wrote in 1999 I took matters more seriously then - and I'm not sure that I was right about the sprouts either. They certainly haven't been growing in the same space since then - although that is partly because I took on the new plot next door.
The weeds are still a problem though.
My old bean haulms are on the compost heap this year and not dug in and in fact this years sprout plants have been planted in the space where the beans were this year.
1999
July 10th 1999 The Autumn sown broad beans have given a tremendous crop and still there was half of the double row left standing. Some of the beans are getting tough to eat and the Spring sown Green Windsor broad beans are just about ready to crop. The remaining Autumn beans are now in kitchen the old beans plants are several inches under the ground where they were once standing. French beans and lettuce have been sown on top to replace them.
The other end of the row still has short stubs of the old plants left with one or two pods left drying for seed. The cabbages planted in between have yet to claim the space.
I'm harvesting the shallots as the tops die down and keeping note of those that were particularly successful as these will be separated out to provide seed for next year.
July 18th - TOO MUCH WEED
Again I've lost the battle against the weeds on large areas of my allotment. Each year that I loose it means many years of weed to come. However some areas are gradually coming under control. I'm concentrating on getting the japanese onion bed (a permanent fixture) clean in advance of seed sowing in the middle of August.
The sprout bed is also a clean, permanent fixture and doesn't rotate. There are two reasons for this. One is in recognition of my soil type and the other is for disease control. My soil is very light, sandy and hungry. Sprouts growing on this soil type have tendency to 'blow', that is, not make tight buttons. I sow my sprouts on the paths between last years rows this keeps the soil well compacted.
The other reason for not rotating the crop is so that I can heavily lime the bed if it becomes too infested with club root. My feeding method is to heavily feed with blood fish and bone at the beginning of the season and liquid feed through until August when I feed again with blood fish and bonemeal.
