My Tiny Plot

The inspectors arrived, aka my dad and his wife Sue. (gulp) I was nervous that mtp would measure up to their strict standards and that it would pass the series of rigorous tests they had in store - such as: Did I have the correct space between plants (failed). Had I checked for cabbage white caterpillar eggs (passed). Did I know which variety of potatoes I had planted (passed). Could I sucessfully identifying small holes in turnip seedlings as Flea Beetle (failed)
Oh well.. you can’t win them all. Now armed with Dad’s ‘Vegetable Expert’ books (passed on from father to daughter) mtp is sure to pass with flying colours next year!

Jobs for this week include:
Sow rest of sweetcorn seeds (in a block 4×3)
Thin out the Perpetual Spinach plants
Space out lettuce plants (as they are all in a clump)
Sow a second bed of peas (Klevedon wonder)
Search for suitable pea sticks
Make fleece guard for carrots (hooray they are actually sprouting!)
Sort out flea beetle problem (post on A4A)
Buy some more strawberry plants
Put dead grass around strawbs (Dad’s idea)
Fertilize (NPK)
Buy a new cucumber plant (to replace my ailing attempts).

The ten million (well nearly) gooseberries that are currently growing on mtp are nearly ripe. I thinned them out about two weeks ago (as per allotment bible) and they’re growing fat day by day. There seems to be two varieties (green and red) - do they taste differently? I must confess I’ve never tasted gooseberries in the raw (I must have had some kind of dessert containing a percentage of gooseberries at one point in my 32 years). I’m looking forward to my first natural gooseberry experience. Anyone have any recipes they can share with me? All I have is gooseberry fool and tart up to now - not very adventurous. I need some recipes that use ‘tons’ of gooseberries because I have ‘tons’ of gooseberries. Jam anyone?

We are officially the poshest gardeners on our allotments. I don’t know….one sunny day and it’s any excuse to crack open the red and sit back with a nice slice of St Agur on a Carr’s cracker thin. Tom and Barbara would be proud! But seriously why not? The day goes a little something like this. Ryan settles himself on the bench with wine and victuals to hand. Gill does a quick reccie of the area to see what jobs need doing while Ryan reads his book. Gill starts to dig over a new bed (Ryan helps with the occassional heavy bit). Pepper this behaviour with intermittent sit downs, a bite of cheese on crackers and the odd sip of wine and there you have it - the recipe for a perfect day down on mtp. Simple folk, we are.

This week has been pretty slow on mtp. Apart from the fact that Ryan and I were away this weekend on ‘bonafide’ minibreak in Stratford (and to watch this- it was amazing). The main reason is the weather, it’s so unpredicatable. Tonight I had planned to spend some time at the plot watering, weeding and sowing but the torrent of rain stopped me leaving the house. Instead, I have to be content with looking at pictures of my lettuce which are growing nicely. I had seven or eight germinate in a glump (I mean clump obviously!) and so carefully broke them apart and replanted them a few inches from each other in a neat line. The Snowball turnips have germinated (it seems) over night and the gooseberries are getting fatter each day.
I had a minor disaster with some small aubergine plants though. I put them out before I went to work to harden off (planning to take them in tonight) and by the time I got home they were all dead! Rats… Good job I have some more to replace them with. Next week will be more productive. It has to be otherwise we won’t have any veg come July!

I took a picture of what has now become my toolbox (it’s actually an old seed tray). As you can see I have all the vital items in there. A carrot-shaped box to hold my seed packets (thanks Ryan’s Dad), some scissors, bits of old string and weed surpressing fabric (just incase a rogue weed should appear), suntan lotion, peas and beans (donated by David) and car keys. Perfect! There are no actual tools in the mtp toolbox as they live in their homes scattered around mtp (ready for use at any given moment). Tell us what’s in your toolbox - or better still send me a picture.

I spent two hours at mtp last night just tidying up, weeding, watering, transplanting, edging the grass etc. I’ve got some lovely Nasturtiums and some violas (just flowering) ready to go in the beds next weekend once the weather has cleared up. The lettuce patch is going crazy too. All the Little Gem, Pentard Red and Webs Wonder I planted last weekend are showing and the peas are coming up! And as you can see here the potatoes are doing well. I was very happy to see that everything is growing nicely… except…my carrots. Still no show from them, the lazy little… The weeds were getting a bit much aournd them so I took some drastic action…I hoed the area and have bought some new carrots to go in tonight (if it stops raining). I read on A4A that sometimes they can’t break through tough soil (although the peas managed it, good ole peas). So what I may have to do is put the seeds in but then cover them with compost instead of the usual soil. We’ll see if it works. Oh and a nice man called Brin gave me some onions, so I’ve put them in too. Thanks Brin!

I’ve invented a new verb; to Allotmenteer. I thought it would come in handy for those weekends when I spend more time at mtp than not. When I get back to work on a Monday morning people might say, ’so what did you get up to at the weekend then?’ and I might say, “well I allotmenteered on Saturday and Sunday but not much else. And they would nod and say, “sounds like fun.” And I would say, “for sure, it was”. Do you think it will catch on?

The seed planting production line ground to a halt this week mainly because the weather has been rubbish. The mtp site is a bit exposed and prone to windy conditions so it’s been bitterly cold up there the last few days. I had planned to have all the beds planted with seeds but it wasn’t much fun to hang around up there. Hence the only work I’ve done this week is to frantically water the new artichoke plants in a bid to get them to lift up their heads. Administer protective fleece to the potatoes to help stave off the advancing frosts. And reset the slug traps (beer in jars, which seems to be working as there are now only a few slugs in each jar - compared to the 30 or so I caught in the first night alone). Unfortunately, the frost has nibbled the edges of the potatoes, and only three of the four artichoke plants (mail order, £9 for two) have survived. But hey, I’m happy. At least my lettuce are coming up strong! Anyway, I’m off to mtp in around 20 mins as the weather is beautiful today and there is no wind (or should I say a slight breeze). By the way, there’s still no sign of my carrots (planted around 3 weeks ago). Any ideas? Should I replant or wait a bit longer?

I’ve decided to indulge in a little companion planting. I don’t know much about it but considered it couldn’t hurt to try a few partnerships to see if they get on well. I’ve planted some garlic in amongst my carrots to deter carrotfly and I’m planning to put some Nasturtiums next to my cucumbers and some Marigolds in between the cabbages and peas (to attract some friendly bugs to mtp). I found this link to a very helpful chart, especially the bit that talks about which plants ‘not’ to put next to each other. Anyone have any more suggestions on how I can pair up my plants successfully? Actualy, the BBC also has a good section on companions. Although they don’t mention Nasturtiums or the fact that chives can repel carrotfly.