Before autumn’s cobwebs well and truly descend time for a recap of what has been happening or not at the allotment. The weather has been challenging to say the least. The long cold winter meant that it was late in the day before any serious seed sowing began but some benign spring weather kick started everything off quite fortuitously.
I think that I have finally got my head round the art of what distance to leave between various crops when I plant them at the lottie. It has only taken five years! I now know that I can fit five French beans in across the raised beds whilst six shallots will rub along nicely head and shoulders together. Tasks that used to be a matter of serious measuring on the whole can now be accomplished by eye.
The year’s successes? Without a doubt it has to be the strawberries. The plants were given to me as runners by my lottie neighbours in the late summer of 2008. I potted them up in a hurry, before we went on holiday that year and planted them in the ground in late spring of 2009. This year they produced more than enough strawberries for us. Throughout June we dined on strawberries most evenings as well as passing them on to neighbours and friends. I almost got to the stage when I never wanted to look another strawberry in the face again and was almost gleefully pleased to turn my back on what was left of them when we went on holiday in July.
The other satisfying crop was the shallots -bought from Wilkos but annoyingly I have forgotten to record the variety. From less than half a raised bed we now have over a couple of hundred shallots to enhance winter stews, casseroles and soups. I will save some of the smallest ones to plant in the spring. Other successes this year included courgettes - ‘Romanesco’ fared better than ‘Green Bush’, French beans flourished including the new to me dwarf 'Stanley’ and my tomatoes did so much better than last year’s dismal showing. Note to self ~ grow ‘Czech’s Excellent Yellow’ and ‘Ferline’ again but not’ Japanese Black Trifele’.
In the iffy category - garlic - some absolute monsters but also some diminutive heads - quite puzzling as all planted in the same area and no pattern to their final size.
There were of course disappointments - peas and potatoes did not flourish. I have never grown potatoes in the ground before only in containers. Whether it was the dry spring and early summer that did not agree with them I don’t know but the yield was poor. I will try again next year. The other challenge I set myself this year was to master successional cropping but have to admit failure as far as this objective is concerned. Life has been a bit topsy- turvy since May, so sometimes there has been unplanned physical distance between myself, greenhouse and the allotment. Still there’s always next year. In the meantime I will soon be setting down to some serious reading of the new catalogues, as well as a couple of new books which look as if they might be influential and inspirational when it comes to making my plans for a new season.
I think that I have finally got my head round the art of what distance to leave between various crops when I plant them at the lottie. It has only taken five years! I now know that I can fit five French beans in across the raised beds whilst six shallots will rub along nicely head and shoulders together. Tasks that used to be a matter of serious measuring on the whole can now be accomplished by eye.
The year’s successes? Without a doubt it has to be the strawberries. The plants were given to me as runners by my lottie neighbours in the late summer of 2008. I potted them up in a hurry, before we went on holiday that year and planted them in the ground in late spring of 2009. This year they produced more than enough strawberries for us. Throughout June we dined on strawberries most evenings as well as passing them on to neighbours and friends. I almost got to the stage when I never wanted to look another strawberry in the face again and was almost gleefully pleased to turn my back on what was left of them when we went on holiday in July.
The other satisfying crop was the shallots -bought from Wilkos but annoyingly I have forgotten to record the variety. From less than half a raised bed we now have over a couple of hundred shallots to enhance winter stews, casseroles and soups. I will save some of the smallest ones to plant in the spring. Other successes this year included courgettes - ‘Romanesco’ fared better than ‘Green Bush’, French beans flourished including the new to me dwarf 'Stanley’ and my tomatoes did so much better than last year’s dismal showing. Note to self ~ grow ‘Czech’s Excellent Yellow’ and ‘Ferline’ again but not’ Japanese Black Trifele’.
In the iffy category - garlic - some absolute monsters but also some diminutive heads - quite puzzling as all planted in the same area and no pattern to their final size.
There were of course disappointments - peas and potatoes did not flourish. I have never grown potatoes in the ground before only in containers. Whether it was the dry spring and early summer that did not agree with them I don’t know but the yield was poor. I will try again next year. The other challenge I set myself this year was to master successional cropping but have to admit failure as far as this objective is concerned. Life has been a bit topsy- turvy since May, so sometimes there has been unplanned physical distance between myself, greenhouse and the allotment. Still there’s always next year. In the meantime I will soon be setting down to some serious reading of the new catalogues, as well as a couple of new books which look as if they might be influential and inspirational when it comes to making my plans for a new season.
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