FYI

Clicking on any of the pictures will open them at full size in the browser window, which means you will have to use the 'back' button to return to the main pages, whereas clicking to the left or right of any picture will open them in a new window, if you fancy a closer look at any of the piccies we've posted! We've included a Google Earth satelite picture of our plots and this years planting plan at the bottom of the page, next to each other. If you choose the Earth view on the satelite image you can rotate the image until it is lined up with the planting plan, then use the arrows in the plan to scroll from Plot 2 to Plot 1.

Monday, June 01, 2009

Allotment Update - Monday 1st June (piccies from Saturday 30th May)



Well, after a fairly damp couple of weeks, it looks like summer is finally here! The rain of the last few weeks has meant we havent had to do too much watering, and has resulted in the night temperatures staying pretty good (no damaging frosts hereabouts), so as you can see, everything is coming on really well, including (unfortunately) the weeds! We've been hoing the plot every couple of days, but even with this we are going to have to spend some serious time weeding over the next few weeks!



Th courgettes are now close to flowering, and the pumpkins and sweetcorn seem to be settling in well and staring to grow rapidly now!


The overwintering onions are growing really well, as are the First Early potatoes, we're hoping to be eating these in the not too distant future!

The 10'x8' greenhouse on plot 2, tomatoes are now flowering, as is the cucumber, and all are now growing apace! The peppers have small flower buds, so hopefully we'll be eating fresh organic peppers in the not too distant future!
A quick piccy of the herb bed, mint (3 varieties), sage, parsley, thyme, rosemary, chives and a few others, all growing really well this year!
The brassica beds, the cabbages, broccolli, sprouts and caulies are growing really well, the netting seems to be doing a good job of keeping the cabbage white and cabbage root fly off them, tho it is making weeding a right royal pain in the bottom, hence these beds are the worst for weeds, hopefully we'll be weeding them this week!

The 8'x6' greenhouse on plot 1, growing well, but not quite as far on as the larger one on plot 2!
A view from plot 2 towards plot 1, really showing how well the first earlies, the onions and the broad beans at the front are doing!

One of our star performers this year, the overwintering garlic! I asked Lee to kneel down to highlight how well its growing, there are 2 varieties planted from saved bulbs from our crops for the past 2 years, and 1 variety that came from the garden center, the saved cloves seem to be growing much better, perhaps we've now acchieved an acclimatised variety!

Finally, a quick piccy of the chives near the pond, stunning in purple!
So, after the weekend we've now only 4 beds left to sort out, 1 bed for outdoor tomatoes 9that still needs to be created), 1 bed for borlotti beans, mange tout and some of the outdoor toms (still to be dug over), 1/2 bed for the climbing french beans (still to be dug) and 1 bed for the carrots (which I'm hoping to get planted tomorrow!
Overall we're doing ok, still a few things to get in that we are a bit late with, but still time yet!
Hope you're growing year is going as well! More piccies and updates to follow later in the week!

No comments: