Planting out tender crops and then the frost

Firstly appolgies for not blogging for over a week I am still coming to terms with a tory goverment but I'll get over it in time!

I decided to plant out my courgettes and pumpkins as the weather has been so cold day and night they were started to struggle in tunnel also sweetcorn sweetie pie F1. I know that sounds daft planting out with temperatures being near to freezing at night and barely 12c during the day but there is a method in my madness.
As you can see by looking at my pictures I planted out and then covered with my homemade cloches, my theory being it will be warmer under them than in the polytunnel so here is hoping.

The weather has been very cold for this time of the year over the last few days I have fleeced my spud beds and covered my runner beans what I planted out a couple of weeks back. Everything has survived so far so no complaints there, decided to sow direct today lots of different winter squashes along drainage ditch at side of my plot it is very prone to flooding(obviously as that is what it's there for) but thought I would give it a try. Good result yesterday as Dick one of the allotmenters from middle of site bought me a full trailer load of horse manure for the princely sum of £10 which I am chuffed to bits with! I used some of it to fill my celeriac bed with as you can see from pictures it has come on lovely and is ready for planting out when weather warms up this weekend. We bought a gas BBQ today from Argos which Anna put together on plot it has side gas ring for making a brew on site which got me excited, sad I know but you can not beat a hot tea or coffee on a cold wet day at plot. We will of course be using it for summer BBQ's weather permitting and crops permitting cooking fresh sweetcorn on the cob.

Also in my pictures you can see the spuds in sacks and toms within polytunnel are coming along great, the spuds now have flower buds on so not long before I will be tucking in to new potatoes smothered in butter lovely.

One final thing still no sign of my Jeruselem artichokes!!!!!!

Goats and growth

I have added lots of photo's today which I took over the weekend, in the photo's you can see everything is coming along nicely!
Rhubarb has come up and I have planted another crown pink champagne also in pictures you can see my horseradish which I planted in big plastic pot at side of tunnel is coming along nice.

My mangetout has sprouted also ones in front of shed have grown nicely despite the cold, germination rate for these has been more or less 100% as stated previously they are golden sweet from dobies. Must admit to being really pleased with how things are coming along spuds are now growing and all showing lots of greenery as you can see in photos. The cabbages you can see behind the blue debris netting are Atlas F1, the herb area is going along nice too.

The picture of the long bed has a few crops situated in it which are all showing signs of life including turnips, beetroot, pak choi and broad beans. I am still waiting for signs of life from my jeruselem artichokes but heres hoping.

We have not had any problems yet with pests of the normal kind I do admit to using slug pellets so hopefully no damage from them but as the title of this post says something else has had a go.
Stapleton allotments is set on the edge of Bristol with the M32 behind and surrounded by small holdings the small holder nearest to us and in particular my plot does not grow he keeps animals mainly chickens but also geese, ducks and goats. The latter ones being the main problem at the moment as they keep coming on to the allotments and they eat everything in front of them, thankfully it has been mostly bramble from around the edges but unfortunately they took a liking to my strawberry plants and Anna's sunflowers. The guy who has the holding is approachable so spoke to him and hopefully this will not happen again. I hope whoever reads this enjoys the pictures I have posted and can see the progress being made I suppose I should tell you what I have done today.

Today I have taken a risk and planted out my climbing french bean(cobra) and runner bean St george some people will say it is too early but I have plenty spare so if I lose them to a late frost I will just plant some more. I have also sowed more beetroot cylindria and detroit 2 and some iceburg lettuce. My squashes are almost ready to go out but I held off today, when I do plant them out in the next week I will use my homemade cloches which I have made from the water cooler bottles just for added protection from cold air and winds!

Speak to you all soon.

First committee meeting tonight!

We have had pur first committee meeting tonight of Stapleton allotment association I am seed scheme co-ordinator which I am looking forward to doing. I find it great what can be achieved with lots of good ideas and great minds, I will keep my blog seperate from those things but will add a link for anyone who is interested http://www.stapletonallotments.org.uk/

The last few days have been very busy but did manage to get a few things done, all the plants that were taking over our small flat have now been moved to polytunnel. I have already planted several tomatoe plants in to there final posistion in grow bags within tunnel. We have been mainly pottering around tidying up the plot and hoeing. Really do need to do some research on celeriac not sure if I should be re-potting before planting out?

Still no sign of jeruselem artichokes so being inpatient I dug them up today, they seemed to have swelled and have some roots so replanted them and marked where they are in bed with sticks. Spuds in bags are coming on really well as are ones in ground also seeds I sowed at top are all showing Turnip, Beetroot and Pak choi also broad beans are looking good. I promise to add more photos this week, take them while the sun is still shining.

First commitee

Edit missed a bit!!!!

Sorry forgot to add yesterday I planted out my Atlas cabbage in bed and netted with debris netting looks good more photo's to follow this week!

Bring me sunshine.

Today has been the warmest day of the year and Anna and Myself have had a lovely day at plot!
Anna planted out lots of giant sunflowers she has been growing in greenhouse all down the sides of my beds I will be using for summer and winter squash. I managed to prepare another bed and continued to remove couch grass, also planted out parsnips I have been growing in loo rolls in polytunnel.

Things are starting to grow now and one of my rhubarb growns has sprouted and is showing good signs of life sadly still no sign of my jeruselem artichokes I planted some time ago not giving up hope though. Spuds are all growing nicely and I removed fleece today as no frost forecast for at least the next few nights. We also sowed direct carrots which we got free from BBC dig in and also 3 different varietys of radish Albena and the other 2 I can't remember off the top of my head??????

Also had some spare imperial long pod plants in tunnel that were getting pot bound so dotted them around the plot in random places. I have sown far too many mange tout golden sweet and have loads of plants in tunnel to find space for or give away to family and friends. I admit to sometimes getting overwhelmed with it all at times and worry I am doing something wrong but I guess that is why I enjoy doing what I do as I am learning all the time.

These are some photo's I took yesterday in back garden, on the plot and in polytunnel!

As you can see my spuds in sacks are now starting to show, the two empty beds were filled over the winter with fresh chicken manure, leaf mould and carboard. I have just finished dressing the top layer with multi purpose compost and they are now ready to be used as squash beds. I sowed yesterday in heated propagator Zuchinni F1, Orelia F1, Sunburst, Turks turban, Jack O'lantern, Cobnut F1 and Rolet.


I have also added picture of garlic bed in my back garden the garlic I am growing in there is from the really garlicky garlic company. Also in the picture is bare soil also in my back garden which has been prepared with kitchen waste underneath and mounded up ready for the mamouth pumpkin contest the Wife and Myself are having against eachother.