Week twentythree - June 3rd - June 10th
2006
2005
Planting out brassicas and preparing the ground for planting out brassicas is my main concern in the allotment this week. The rain we have had has been quite considerable and this year the ground is as good for planting out as it is ever going to get. Of course at this time of the year the weeding never stops and there is now plenty of liquid feed to use. I have sown more peas as so many of the early ones were consumed by mice or birds in the winter.
Saturday/Sunday June 4th and 5th 2005 The weekend was dominated by rain and buying bedding plants for the garden.
2004
June 10th 2004 It is still warm and there is no rain. Dug out one half of my old compost bin that I filled with muck last October and have started to fill it again with old sprouts and sprouting broccoli plants that still remain in various parts of my plot. I am still digging out and burning bind weed all over the place. I am planting a few cabbages but really need it to rain now. Transplanted more lettuce.
June 9th 2004 It nearly rained! A few spots came down and it looked as though we were going to get a good shower. But No
The first of the Broad sown last Autumn have now been pulled up and picked the plants are on the compost heap and the beans in the bag. The land has been dug, mucked and planted out with the leeks than John started of in the greenhouse.
June 8th 2004 John is the celeriac king and has a whole tray of plants ready to plant out. They need rich soil and plenty of water if the are to grow to reasonable size. I have planted out several (near the water butt) and intend to find space for more in the next few day using the muck in the compost bin to enrich the soil with first. (the large heap of much got used up weeks ago)
June 7th 2004 It's difficult to find time to write at this time of the year. The kitchen is full of buckets of honey and the allotment is at the turning point. There is still time to sow many seeds (peas, beans, courgette, salad crops) and even plant out more potatoes. I still have loads of brassicas - cabbages, sprouts, cauliflowers and sprouting broccoli to plant out and on top of all that time has to be found to pick the peas and beans and dig up the new potatoes. At the moment 7th May we are in a heat wave that has been going on for a few days now - great for the bees making honey and for me extracting it - but not so good for planting out brassicas I guess they will have to wait a while yet. And of course there is still the weeding to do.
2002
Picking 'Meteor' peas sown first week December last year. Shallots planted on traditional shortest day have bolted those planted later haven't. Planted Florence fennel plants given to me by allotment neighbor but one Roy in space vacated by early potatoes.
2000
4th June Most of the weekend was unavailable for gardening due to the party for sophielaslett.co.uk on Saturday night.
However a quick visit to the Apiary was accomplished at the end of Sunday and the bees checked. The biggest hive in the Apiary this year is the WBC with the green marked Queen and although I didn't see her on this visit but there were eggs in place to provide the evidence that she has been laying within the last three days. There were a few queen cups to remove none of them had eggs in. I put an extra super on just in case we have a heat wave in the next few days. That now makes four on that hive, two of which could be taken off and extracted.
The other hive has no honey in it at all, although the queen is now laying well and things are getting back to normal, albeit it bit late in the day.
On my last two visits to the apiary I had noticed a number of bees going in and out of the stack a spare supers. After checking the other two hives I decided to in investigate and there they were, another little colony of bees. I have temporarily housed them out of the stack in order that I can give them a good look on my next visit.
Tuesday 6th June After just a few days of absence the allotment was in need of hoeing and the spring sown broad beans needed their tops pinched out to prevent the spread of blackfly.
Thursday 8th June After a warm sunny day yesterday's hoed up weeds have dried up fast and another hoe over the same ground has done a good job. Hand weeding, liquid feeding and watering are now the allotment tasks. I'm particularly trying to boost the leeks that look very weedy at the moment an should be planted out soon.(the weather seems to be totally opposite to last year)
Out of the two hives in the allotment the original is by far the strongest. I'm looking forwards to opening them both up this weekend to see if they have laying queens.
1999
June 6th 1999
The wet weather continues, providing excellent opportunities for planting out members of the brassica, marrow and squash families. Some times the weather conditions make potentially tedious jobs almost a pleasure to do. Transplanting wallflower seedlings in early summer, a fiddly job, was easily accomplish in the warm wet soil today. Transplanting them now will give me much stronger and well rounded plants for planting in their flowering positions in the autumn.
