Had to take my car in for some work this morning, then I had the dentists at 10am, so with the weather looking a bit chancy (rain clouds covering the sky) we thought we'd pop to the plot after dropping my car off for a quick look if anything else needed doing, then back to the plot after the dentists for some harvesting!
We arrived to find ourselves followed onto the plot by the Trafford Allotment Judges, 3 women who immediately started looking at the whole site, starting with the first plot as you come through the gates, always a well presented plot! This gave us a few minutes to run round n get any last minute tidying done, so we staked the late sown broadies with canes and string to stop them from falling over, then had to go to the dentists!When we returned 1/2 hour later they were debating whether to stop as it had begun to rain, but as the sky seemed to be brightening, they decided to stay and finish the inspections!
They had already looked at our plot, so we watered in the greenhouses, then had a brew n took some piccies before Lee started to harvest some of the broad beans. At this point it started raining again, so we retreated to the car till it had passed, to watch the judges come back up the site, photographing some of the plots on their way, including ours! This usually means that you are in with a chance of at least a commended, so we'll see what happens once the judging is finished!
Anyhows, now thats over, we can relax, and concentrate n growing some fab fruit and veg!
As I didnt get to post any piccies yesterday, I've gone a bit overboard with them today, so without further ado.....
Plot 1
One of the two courgette beds, with a total of 10 plants of 3 varieties, now producing plenty of courgettes..............
............. as you can see! With these 10 plants in production, and another 3 later sown ones still to start, I have a feeling we wont want for courgettes this year!
Net are the early broad beans (to the right of the piccy) and the pea / french bean bed, both of which are cropping well!
Early sown broad beans, plenty of beans for us!
The early sown french beans are just starting to produce, we may have enough for tea tonight, or at least enough for a taster!
The runners are still only small, but the victorian purple podded peas are fab, as are the late sown broad beans!
Purple podded victorian peas, easy to spot when it comes time to harvest those pods!
The strawbs in the main bed are still going great, should have another 3lb or so today!
Borlotti beans, leeks and early runner beans, all looking good, if not as far on as we'd like! Behind is the garlic and overwintering onions, almost ready for pulling!
Successional sowings of lettuce, under protective cloches, aka uptuned hanging baskets!
Swede and Turnip, really coming on well this year, plus the french climbing beans, which are getting there, albeit slowly!
Peppers and aubergines in the hot house, not too bad at all methinks!
The side of the polytunnel / apiary. which Lee cleared the other day and laid the path, much neater and tidier!
The 27 sprout plants, 3 varieties to give us extended cropping through the winter!
Some of the cabbages and broccollis!
Cooking apple, cant wait for fresh homemade apple pie!
Eating apples, not so many on the trees this year, we'll have to do a better pruning job this winter methinks!
Plot 2
Pond area is looking good, as are the sweetcorn n squashes behind it!
Sweetcorn n squashes, mmmmm!
Overwintering onions, bulking up nicely!
A couple of the white onions..............
............ and some of the red! We're still growing about 200 onions again this year, plus the ones we harvested already!
Tomes on the greenhouse, cant wait!
The new strawberry bed, these strawb plantlets came from seed that we planted this year, amazing that they come from such tiny seed soo quickly!
First and second early spuds, should be taking some of these as we need them, once the 'volunteer' spuds are finished!
Maincrop spuds, we've 2 beds of different varieties of maincrop, it would be nice to be able to see ourselves through the year for spuds, but so far we havent managed it.... yet!
Late maincrops, so far blight free!
The sweet potatoes and leeks we planted yesterday, we've got to build them a hothouse to see whether we cna get any usable tubers from them!
The rhubarb at the side of apiary 1.
Finally, a pic of Pats sweetcorn, the ones I grew from seed n gave her (as we had plenty)! Hers seems to be doing really well, almost better than ours! Grr!We're beekeeping this afternoon, so I may post another update later with piccies from inside the hives, but until then, thanks for reading!
12 comments:
Thats good that you finally have the inspection over with, how long does it take them to make up their minds?
They normally have an idea on the day, which is then confirmed by the head judge looking at all their photos, so normally within 3 weeks or so, they have got 1400+ individual plots to look at, so it could take them some time! lol!
Good luck to you Mr & Mrs D, I'd give you top marks for the clever use of the poly water pipe alone!
Looks the biz so hope you get a result.
Cheers:)
Don't know about the judges but I think it looks wonderful. {{g}}
Seriously, lovely pictures, very inspiring, only a little envious of how neat it all looks.
oh I am in total awe of your wonderful plots! So neat and tidy, and productive! I like the layout very much, I am a first timer at this, but will take some of your ideas on board next year. How lovely too, to have a flat plot, mine is on a bit of a slope, and sometimes this is hard work!!
Green Jeannie ;oD
It's a bit tidy. You want to chuck things about a bit more, and generally stop being so impressive!
Hi Alan, lol, the water pipe for supporting the debris netting you mean? I cant take credit for that, its whats been happening for years round here! Mind you, the idea of using bamboo canes to brace them (and stop the netting drooping), well, thats one we came up with this year.... call us slow! lol!
Thanks for the kind words tho, we think tis looking good, so fingers crossed!
Hi Bilbo, many thanks for the kind words, glad you like the piccies and the plots!
Hi Jeannie, being on a slope would make life difficult in some ways n the plot, but then again, you would have some sort of view I would expect, so there would be some compensations I suppose!
Glad you like the plots, your's will soon be like this I'm sure!
Hi IG, lol, chuck things round a bit? Nah, thats how it usually looks, give us a week or three and I'm sure there will be some mess somewhere on the plot!
Absoutely fantastic. I'm so envious of everything you are growing, in a happy way of course.
I love the tip of the upturned hanging basket as a cloche.
Hi Mangocheeks, and thanks for the kind words! If you'd told us 4 years ago the plot would look soo good (or that it would take 4 years to get there), then I'm not sure we'd have believed you! lol!
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