Week twenty seven

2018 A new venture begins. Daughter No.1 has a new home with a vegetable garden that during the protracted process of buying and selling has been neglected and is now full of mature weeds that are happily seeding themselves. My it brings to mind what my father used to say 'one years seed seven years weed'.

However, the fruit cage has nettles that pull up easily as there seems to be some kind of membrane they are growing through. We have had several weeks of hot dry weather and no rain at all - but the gooseberries and red currents don't seemed to have suffered. But the black currents have shrivelled to virtually nothing. Click here to see video

2008 pictures

2006

Wednesday 5th July 2006 The autumn sown broad beans have just about finished now and despite the last few weeks of heat wave they haven't shrivelled up, indeed they seemed to thrive on the heat even though they didn't get a drop of water. I have cut the plants down to six inches high leaving one pod at the bottom and cleaned up the area around them. I am going to plant out my sprout between the two rows.

Wednesday 6th July 2006 The Verbascum that seed themselves in any piece of land that isn't disturbed for a year or two now look stunning and first thing this morning were covered with the lesser white tailed bumble bee. Verbascum picture link

Saturday 8th July 2006. The Japanese onions have ripened well in the last few weeks heat wave and are now all collected in. Japanese onions sown as sets in September must be one of the easiest and most successful allotment crops that I grow. Some do suffer in the winter and I always loose some to some kind of underground bugs. The shallots are also ripening well. In fact I gathered in the earlier ones some time ago. I have also dug up half of the garlic that was planted last November.

This year, for the first time, my large self-sown peach tree has more than just one peach on it - indeed it must have a couple of dozen on.

2005

Tuesday 5th July Sowed more beetroot radish and early carrot

Monday 4th July 2005 It rained all day

Sunday 3rd July 2005 I am trying to plant more leaks this year

2004

Thursday July 8th There was a lot of rain yesterday during the night although today's has been sunny and warm. By the time the evening came there was thunder in the distance and clouds that promised more rain. I dug up potatoes and planted cauliflowers in their place. Planted out cabbages. I planted the lettuce in the bed I prepared a couple of days ago that John had already sown seeds in. Picked gooseberries. The rain never came.

Wednesday July 7th We were forecast wind and rain and it has dually arrived - with a vengeance!

Tuesday 6th July I have dug over and dug muck into the bed where the spring cauliflowers were sown earlier in the year after moving them out a some days ago. In fact it's one of Geoff's slightly raised beds enclosed by boards and he had already cleared it after I had taken the cauliflowers out. So all that I have done is to dig it a bit deeper and dig the muck into it then rake it over flat. I will plant out a few lettuce there and sow some winter lettuce seed there too. John also has a variety of salad seeds to sow. I doubt there will be much space going spare in a week or two. Brought home the garlic that has been lying on the ground for a week or so now.

Monday 5th July. Collected another swarm of bees today.

Weekend 3/4th July I have totally cleared away the peas sown last December and picked off all of the remaining pods - I now have enough pea seed to grow a whole allotment of peas next year! (if anyone would like pea seed to sow this coming December I would be happy to swap some) Peas are a great crop when they grow well. I started picking mine as pods to go in salads then moved on to green peas that take no time to cook or can be eaten raw. Finally I have dried peas that I can eat in the middle of the winter as peas pudding. The plants have nitrogen fixing nodules on their roots so they leave nitrogen behind for the next crop and the spent haulms add a fair amount of bulk to the compost heap. They are also wildlife friendly as the birds and mice also get a feed out of them. They leave the ground they were in clean and largely free of weeds with the exception of the corn poppy that thrives within the rows.

I have planted out the last of the purple sprouting broccoli in the space where the peas were growing (4 rows) and snuck a sowing of French beans in between them.

Cropping - there are so many goodies to gather in at this time of the year. Peas, beans, gooseberries, onions, cabbages, courgettes, lettuce and salad leaves --- the list goes on

July 1st 2003

July 2nd 2003 - still more rain. I have now planted out so much sprouting broccoli that we should have much more than we need next year. Cut down and cropped another row of broad beans - put the cut down plants in the liquid dust bin.

July 1st 2003 The month has started with more rain. We have done well for rain in the last month having had only one dry spell when the potatoes were looking sad. A chance to plant out more greens.

July 1st 2002

Windy autumnal day, large black clouds and dramatic sunset. I intended to dig over a piece of ground and plant out my leeks. I did get half the digging done before Bernie surprised my with a gift of a dozen or so January King cabbage plants. In preparing a home for those I broke my spade - it cracked across the blade. It is still in one piece so I will see if Patrick thinks it is worth welding. (he did a great job)

I am picking all of the remaining broad beans and pulling up the plants and putting them on the compost heap. The spring sown 'Green Windsor' broad beans are ready now too.

I still have to dig up the garlic, and crop the remaining onions and shallots. No mater how much I weed the onion sets there always seems to be more weeds to find. Gooseberries need picking.

July 3rd 1999

Wednesday 7th July We have had several sunny days now and the Japanese onions sowed last August are ready to harvest. I've pulled them up and laid them out on a clear patch of ground bottoms facing south to dry of thoroughly before taking them back to hang in a net in the garden shed. Planted out the last sprouts for this year. Very late but the soil conditions were perfect.

Sunday 4th July Sowed Chinese cabbage seed and picked strawberries in the rain planted out more cabbages. We now need the rain to stop for the sake of the shallots and onions some of which have stopped growing and been dormant for several days now. One or two are showing signs of rot and are already ruined. The others will begin to grow again if not harvested soon.

Saturday 3rd July 1999 I checked the bees in the allotment hive and removed all new queen cells made after my last visit a few days ago. I was surprised at how full the super was with honey. I will give them some more space then leave them alone for a few weeks hoping that when I check again I will find evidence a new laying queen.

We had thunderstorms and solid rain early this morning but a pleasant sunny afternoon to the day. We have an unusually large amount of rain this month that has made growing vegetables on the light sandy soil much easier that in previous years.