It never rains, but it pours

We might be heading for the wettest June on record, but it's kick started the garden into life.

The courgettes I planted outside a couple of weeks back were just coming into flower a few days back. This morning, I saw the first proper fruit. They're even catching up with the plant in the polytunnel.

Raspberries are going right off on one as well, these are Autumn Bliss, so hopeful of a good crop although I'll take advice on whether they need pruning, because I'm worried they're getting a little bit too dense.

I'm probably going to dig the canes out at the end of the season and start again on another part of the plot. I'm thinking fruit for a few seasons on the beds where the onions have been struck down with the dreaded lurgy.

The first of the potatoes are also coming into flower. Slightly worrying is I dug one of the Duke of York plants last weekend to see what was underneath and the answer was nothing - not a single, measly spludly.

While the foliage has put on a distinct growth spurt over the last week or so, they're still a lot later thsan last year, when we were well into our new potatoes by now.

The worry now is that  this incredible wet spell is going to bring on the blight.
Mini-munch cucumbers, which I've never grown before, look slightly better in the greenhouse.

They're in a kind of ring culture, with 6ins or so of well-rotted manure, topped with 6ins or so of compost, with the plants in those special watering pots which keep the stems dry.

So far, things are looking good with plenty of fruits and flowers on the vines.

But I've been there before with cucumbers, all's going well, the plants start fruiting and then disaster in the form of mosaic virus or stem rot strikes.

Oniongate and garlic

As Oniongate rages, I've had to start digging the crop to try to salvage some of the bulbs before the rot sets in. Around a third had to go straight onto the skip, the rest is thick-necked but edible for now.

Onions from the allotment didn't store too well last year either, according to some plot holders. The jury's still out on what went wrong, but I'm guessing early planting coupled with wet conditions are prime suspects; aided and abetted by close planting.

In other news, there's success in the same beds where the garlic's also ready to be lifted. Again, there seems to be some kind of rule of thirds in operation.

For while two-thirds of it has plump, solid bulbs, the remainder has either failed to develop, or the bulbs have begun to divide, like the sample on the left.

This is probably another symptom of wet weather. We had a lot of rain spread over several days a week or so back. The plants also have  rust on them, but like last year's crop, this does not seem to affect the bulbs.

 I didn't keep a note of which variety they were, but one group of hardnecks does not seem to have formed bulbs yet, so I've left them in the ground to see how they develop.

Now what to do with the harvested crop? I've decided to try drying bulbs in different places, rather than just string them all up in the greenhouse this year.

Some are in the greenhouse. Some are in the polytunnel, near a mesh door where it's a little airier. Some are in the shed, where it's cooler. Some are outside, which is where you're apparently supposed to dry them off.

I didn't dare hang the ones with rust anywhere near other crops, so have cut the leaves off to within an inch of the bulb for those going in the 'poly and GH.

I wish I'd kept a note of which was which. The one which did very well, with white skin is Marco - the variety you get in supermarkets, but with noticeably bigger bulbs.

The others are a mix of soft and hardnecks including a red-ish one which has performed a little inconsistently.

Finally, there was an extra spicy kind I grew in tubs whose stem has barely reached the thickness of a pencil despite being planted in October with most of the rest.

Garlic remains one of my favourite crops to grow, mainly because you can more or less leave it to get on with it. While it's relatively expensive in the shops, you seldom see more than the same white variety, while if you grow your own there are more than a dozen to try.

It seemed to keep well last year, with the last stored bulb lasting until the middle of February.

This year I was aiming for 60 bulbs - ie just over one a week to see if it would keep until the next crop's ready - and it looks as if we might just about get that as long as the rest doesn't keel over.

Beets off to a good start

Like the calabrese next door, the beetroot's also got off to a flier in the polytunnel. It's much, much stronger than the few seedlings which have made it through outside, while the beets are already starting to form.

One thing I've noticed is the amount of weeds coming through, meaning I seem to need to be on my hands and knees pulling them on a daily basis. Apart from this, I'm a tunnel convert.

The peas are also growing away strongly and producing a lot of pods. I've picked a few and while they're great-tasting fresh, they aren't quite big enough to make a meal of yet.

The plan is to grow them on the opposite corner next year to rotate them around, while their current home will probably be part of a whole side devoted to tomatoes.

I say probably, because I'm starting to wonder about rotation. Whatever you try to do in a relatively small space regarding moving things about, you're kostly growing plants from the same group.

This has started me thinking I may go for containers next year or the big growing bags, after covering the floor with landscape fabric.

Calabrese in polytunnel

At least the calabrese is looking good in the polytunnel. For good read strong, thick plants which have grown away strongly from the spindly seedlings I planted a few weeks back.

I set some outside from the same batch when I planted these two in the poly. Just look at the difference. They're growing a lot slower.

Straw barrer

We have a help yourself area near the entrance to the allotments, where plot holders leave surplus and unwanted items for others to help themselves to.

All kinds of treasures turn up here. This week's offerings have included tomato plants, seed potatoes and a mat from the front passenger seat well of a Vauxhall Astra.

Best of all was a lovely bale of straw, which I purloined to mulch my strawberries and courgettes with.

Lovely or what..?

Strawb made me smile

Loving this strawberry, which looks a bit like Micky Mouse. Cheered me up no end it did. It did.

Onion smut

I noticed the first signs of this a few weeks back - dark, smutty patches on the leaves of some of the onions I planted last autumn. Now it's spreading thick and fast on the crop.

According to the books, smut only affects young plants. Yet it's rapidly gaining a hold on onions which by rights should be ready to harvest in a month or so's time.

I'm not sure whether to dig them up and burn them, or see if the plants last long enough to harvest the bulbs.

It's clearly a fungal thing of some sort. Probably my fault for growing them too closely-spaced, helping whatever it is to take hold and spread from plant to plant.

Bad news as far as growing onions in future is concerned. If it is smut, they reckon you shouldn't plant them on the same ground for at least eight years.

To add insult to injury, we enjoyed a bumper crop of onions and garlic last year with no problems at all.

Give peas a chance

When I look at what a shaky start the peas got off too, they're flying now. I honestly thought the mice would get the better of our efforts in the polytunnel, not only chomping every shoot that emerged, but digging up seed before it even had a chance to poke its head above the parapet.

All that, as they say, is now history - at least for now, as the recovering survivors flower and pod up, after making it through their ordeal. I can't say for certain but the yield looks like it's going to be better than last summer's outdoor efforts.

It certainly seems like there are plenty of pods, which in turn have tiny peas visible when the light catches them through the poly. Now all we can do is cross our fingers and keep them well-fed and watered.

I found another pleasant surprise in the tunnel, in the shape of tiny courgettes. I forgot that the yellow variety we planted only produces female flowers.

Plants we've set outside have hardly got going yet. But this baby's making up for them. Roll on ratatouille time.

Corn's in

I set out the first of the sweetcorn yesterday, after looking at the weather for the next week or so. The plants have come on to a couple of inches high in the polytunnel, and there are enough spares left if there's some unforseen disaster.

The variety is Incredible F1 - the one we grew last year which produced around three bucket-fulls of cobs when it came time to harvest. We're going to try smaller batches (if that makes sense...) on three or four smaller patches of ground this year; partly because the plot's filling up fast, partly to see if we can succession sow and not end up with quite such a big glut.

Hotting up

What a difference a few days can make when it comes to the weather. They reckon it hit 25C yesterday, today the mercury wasn't far off 30C.

A neighbour's plot (pictured, above) looked lovely first thing. I love the weathered old blue wash on her fence and shed, which leads the eye into a busy garden with plenty growing. Perhaps it's the variation in layouts, colours, smells - you name it, as summer finally looks like it means it in our corner of Norfolk.

The clematis shed has burst into flower over the last few days. One of the prettier features on the ramshackle track through the allotments, this corrugated tin structure brings life to its surroundings and always makes me pause to take a picture if I've got a camera on me.

Elsewhere, things are kicking off and growing nicely. The early spuds have got over the shock the frost gave them, growing back nicely.

I harvested three buckets we'd grown new potatoes in, kicked off early in the polytunnel. Nothing massive, but enough for a nice potato salad, to go with one or two other bits from the garden.

After a few problems with mice, the peas are now going for it in the 'tunnel. They're now 18ins or so high and either flowing or in pod.

It hit 100C in there today. Ditto the greenhouse, which has the luxury of automatic vents, which at least make a token effort when it comes to preventing the place from getting too hot. I'm hopeful we might get a pea or two soon, despite many previous failures when it comes to trying to grow this crop.

Tomatoes are also looking like they mean it in both the tunnel and the greenhouse. Those in the latter have their first flowers coming, so give it a month or so and we should be on track for our first toms.

I've also snuck some sweetcorn in, sowing seed in nine stations with canes already in to lash them up against to protect them from the wind.

Today also saw completion of the herb bed, as I dug a load of dirt for a feature elsewhere which provided enough muck to fill the remaining central section.

Instead of herbs, I wanged in alternate rows of red spring onions and those little round carrots to see how they get on.

So much to do, but there's half the fun of it. Sunburned, knackered, top day I'll end with another picture of the amazing clematis shed...

Warming up

I saw these bluebells growing in a shady spot on a neighbour's plot. They seem to do well on the plots which have areas which aren't tended or some of the ancient trees which date back to the original allotment holders of the 1930s.

It's warming up here fast now and we've hopefully seen the last of the frosts. I have a few courgettes I may risk outside over the weekend and will also try a sowing of sweetcorn to see if it does anything.

The name's Pond ...

Building a pond turned out to be slightly easier than expected. Step one is obviously dig a large hole, big enough to accommodate said pond. I dug a spade or so down and dropped a slab in to give it a solid base and hopefully stop any tree roots puncturing the liner.

I used bricks and old bits of wood to make a shelf on two sides to put plants on, covering the structure with cardboard before laying a couple of tarpaulins down for extra protection against invading roots.

Then I laid the liner on. I'd bought a 2m sq butyl liner off the roll as a garden centre, which gave me a bit of extra to work with as I filled it with the hosepipe.

The left hand side (top pic) shallows up to just a couple of inches of water, with an outfall under the quarry tiles.

There are broken pots and rocks to give creatures a hiding place in the shallows. I'm going to leave it for a week or two to settle down before I start introducing plants like marsh marigold and water soldier.

As well as cheering up a dull corner, the idea is to attract some wildlife including frogs and other predators, which will hopefully start keeping nasties like slugs in check.

Tomato spoiler alert

I looked at the seedlings. The seedlings looked at me. Look guys, I know things haven't been ideal in here, but we need to get a move on.

Cold, dull days have left them failing to thrive with one or two exceptions. We're wasting valuable time.

So unlike last year, when I raised most of the tomato plants we grew from seed, I've been and bought a selection.

Now I have Big Boy and a grape tomato type, plus a few reserves, in the polytunnel; and four plants in the main greenhouse bed - a Big Boy, Black Russian and two plums.

I visited two garden centres without buying any - their plants didn't look much better than mine. The third had some real crackers, so I spent my hard-earned there.

 

Whither the weather

They reckon the cold snap's going to last a few more days before it clears off back to Greenland with the geese. The frosts are carrying on later this year than last, according to my diary. Leaving the spuds uncovered for a couple of nights was enough for Jack to give them a right old pasting - though people tell me they'll recover and grow through it.

Faring slightly better are the carrots I chucked in along a greenhouse bed, which have now had their final thinning, although a lot of the tomato seedlings nearby have got off to a disappointing start - I guess because they haven't had enough light and it's been a few degrees colder than they like it in there.

I've also chanced a couple of cucumbers nearby in a bed made from an old loft tank with the bottom cut off.

These are mini munch, which we've never grown before. They're nearly a quid a seed, which strikes me as a bit steep, but if they go well it will obviously only take a couple of fruits to put
us in profit.

They're in those pot/reservoir things designed for using with growbags, because I lost a couple of plants last year when the stems rotted just above the ground, meaning the cucumbers we ate came mainly from the supermarkets, rather than the allotment. I haven't worked out how to keep the space around them humid yet.

While it may be cold, the pear tree's blossoming a treat - hopefully it won't fall before it gets polinated.

Lotta bottle

On a brighter note, I've stuck some calabrese out - risking the ups and downs forecast for the weather - under pop bottle cloches.

I stuck them out too early, last year, according to some of the allotment sages. But they grew on well and we harvested some lovely heads before the butterflies hit.

Wonder how they'll do this time around.

Spud's up, tidy up...

The first earlies I wanged in outside are starting to show - lively weekend up the allotments, one way or another, but the first sign of life from the spuds eclipses some of the other controversies which are currently gripping the site.

We had a tidy-up over the weekend. Well. on Saturday morning. The same old stalwarts turned out - a dozen or so of our 40-odd plot holders braved the drizzle for the sake of a few blisters and a sausage roll.

Clearing up after the arson attack which destroyed a shed was one of the several tasks which needed attention.

What motivates whoever did this is totally beyond me.

Windy night, but we're looking good

The sun was dropping by the time I got up to check out the SP on the allotments tonight. I paused by a neighbour's plot (above) to survey the scene, as a gale gathered over the bay.



Rhubarb - or roo'bub, if you speak Norfolk - was nodding in the wind on my garden. I can't believe how fast it grows once this most fearless of plants gets going.

All seems well in the polytunnel, as far as the strawberry plants are concerned. I'm well-chuffed with how these are going, with some added insulation helping the cause.

Beds are now dug and dunged - so to speak - for the cucumbers and tomatoes, while the weather's forecast to get warmer. So here we go, hopefully, once the plants wake up.

Polytunnel progress

It's getting there, slowly, with a bed finished down one side, some odds and ends in the corners and another bed rotavated and manured ready for crops.

I'm probably going to try three beds - one down the middle for taller stuff this year, then a three-bed rotation of some sorts.

Conscious time's getting on, I'm hoping to have it all ready to rumble after the weekend.

Somewhere over the rainbow

There was a glorious rainbow in the sky as the sun started sinking on my way up to the allotments tonight. What cheered me up even more was remembering I've got a day earmarked for the plot tomorrow - despite the massive amount that needs doing.

The garlic's growing strongly and I've got a couple more bulbs to go in as a last planting to see if I can squeeze a few more out of the plot. Last year's crop did well and kept us going until a few weeks back, so we're hopefully on for another winner.

There was a little surprise in the greenhouse too - a couple of small module trays of Alpine strawberries sown last winter are slowly coming to life. Not sure what I'll do with these once they're big enough to pot on.

As a final sign spring's on the way, the pear tree's budding nicely. This was a maiden planted as a Christmas present for the OH in early 2015 - wonder if we'll get any pears off it this summer.

Greenhouse bump start

Some of the cuttings I bump started in the greenhouse a few weeks back are ticking over nicely, especially the mint. The temperature was 60C by 9am today - although there's a storm on the way.

Calabrese has also decided to make a go of it. I've thinned them out and they'll be potted on as soon as they've got their first proper leaves.

A few tomatoes have also decided to  see what all the fuss is about, but a lot more haven't put in an appearance yet.

Hanging basket strawberries #1

I'm trying some strawberries in hanging baskets this season. They'll start off in the polytunnel and might stay there, or move outside - depending how they do.

I guessed three in a 16" basket would be about right. Instead of cutting holes in the liner to plant them through, I filled them with a mixture of manure and compost and planted them on the flat, with the crowns just above soil level.

I had enough plants for a couple of baskets left over from a give-away with one of the magazines, which cost a fiver postage for 10 each of  Honeyoye and Florence. The Honeys went in the baskets, which were then hung from the crop bars.

Despite the weight, they were swinging on the draft coming through the ventilating mesh from the gale getting up outside as Storm Katie kicked in.

Hopefully they and the polytunnel will still be there tomorrow.