Announcing the carrot harvest

Yes, it's the moment we have all been waiting for; the results of the late planting by Di of the carrot bed, nobly assisted by Mike and his Carrot-fly defying plastic screen.

As we share all produce from our allotment, please let me know, by return, the quantity of carrot that you would like.

Pea Festival Photo

Thought I would put the photo that Di sent round onto the blog

Couple more summer 2008 photos

Summer 2008 Harvest photos

Thought it worth recording some of the crops in full bloom!

Caterpillars are eating our kale

Radio Leicester Radio Car - 2nd visit

We made our 4th broadcast from the allotment with a visit from Julie Meyer on Monday 30 June. She seemed to be impressed with the growth of crops since her previous visit.

here is a photo of the interview in action. We managed to avoid any reference to dogging this time!

She is planning to come back in the autumn.

MARESTAIL

A number of allotments have had a real problem with this weed, which has roots that go down a long way. If this takes hold, it will be nigh impossible to remove. It would be a particular problem in the asparagus bed. May I suggest that we all make sure that we pull out as much root as possible as soon as we spot any of this weed

I hate pigeons!

I was having a chat with Tom next door about whether our cauliflower plants were large and hardy enough to withstand an assault from the wood pigeons. It was suggested that I uncover a couple of plants and see what happens. Overnight, this is what happened!

Before

After
Apparently, they will recover, so I have covered them with netting again!

Third radio spot

Geoff was invited down to a live broadcast in Loughborough Thursday market today and met both Tony Wadsworth and Julie as well as Chris Brindley. We did a short interview next to the market stall outside Next run by Chris, who sells seedlings, onion sets and other plants. Presented Julie with 2 onions and the cabbage that is featured on the Radio Leicester web-site feature. Here are the three of them next to the radio car

Di and I have put together an experimental strawberry hanging basket, as first seen on Jamie Oliver's latest series. I'm guessing that by being suspended, the strawberry plants will avoid some pest damage and the fruit can overhang the basket. The basket has been screwed to Geoff's wooden upright. The bracket from which it hangs may not be strong enough - I'll replace if necessary.
Di has planted a row of basil at the "Boardley" end of the polytunnel. The heady combo of home-grown tomatoes and basil has surely got to be one of the highlights of the year! (Does anyone know how to make mozzarella balls?)

Runner beans, fennel, cucumber planted

Runner beans have now been planted out and the few left over, I gave to Ron next door.

Just as I had finished that, Barry Wharton brought us some fennel seedlings and suggested the time was ripe for planting outside, who am I to refuse? Jan is growing some more to add or replace if they get eaten.

Planted 5 cucumber plants in the tunnel.

The two seed lines of salad leaves that Mike planted seem to have evaporated, although the lmabs lettuce sems to be doing OK.

The French beans have taken a bit of a pounding from blackfly, but most seem to be surviving

Pentland Javelin sightings

Four now seen - something must be working underground now the earth's warming up! Some beans here as well. Looks like a dry week so maybe watering tomorrow.

1st asparagus spear and tomato frame

It's so tiny you can hardly see it, but here is the first asparagus spear.

Also a shot of the tomato frames, also 3 of the plants have some kind of leaf disease, will require close attention.

Salad leaves and broad beans

I've planted a couple of rows of lettuce in the polytunnel. Both rows are at the "Boardley" end, marked with slate markers. There is one row of endives and a row of an Italian lettuce called Bionda Lenta. The endives probably need growing to maturity but the BL's can be cropped as salad leaves. Photo hopefully illustrates.

The broad beans planted outdoors seem to have materialised. So maybe the mice didn't dig them up after all. Second pic illustrates.

The Alloteers get Adopted, part II

Here is part II of the broadcast

The Alloteers get Adopted by Radio Leicester

Here is the video footage of last week's interview on Radio Leicester with the broadcast itself dropped in on top. Due to its length, I have split the video into two parts

Allotment in the snow

Sunday morning 6th April and it snowed. Took these shots.

Our mousetraps claimed their first victim, but for those of a sensitive nature, it has been decided not to publish the evidence. 2 of the 3 traps were sprung during the first night, but no victim, perhaps we left a big rat with a sore foot?

A frame has been constructed in the tunnel to secure the tomato plants, and this leaves a little room either side. I have planted some early runner beans just to see what happens.

Also planted another horseradish root close to the one Mike planted, but 3 feet away, according to the instructions!

Planning on digging up the eaten white sprouting broccoli and planting cauliflower seedlings bought from the market

First shots of the radio show

We went on air at around 11.10am today Wednesday 2nd April. Julie was great fun, has a genuine interest in allotments and made us feel at ease. Mike has got the whole transmission recorded using his camcorder and no doubt will make a copy available for all to see, unfortunately this will not have the studio parts of the conversations, so we are trying to get a recording of the transmission

Tidying up for the Radio Show

Jan & I went down to the allotment today to do some weeding and we managed to weed the polytunnel, which is now looking presentable and ready for some planting.
The white sprouting broccoli plants are looking very eaten by pigeons and I despatched the first slug of the year today from amongst them, we may need to dig them up for the next crop.

Radio Leicester in the form of Julie Mayer (wife of morning presenter Tony Wadsworth or Waddo as he is known) is meeting Mike & I with the Radio Leicester Radio Car at Beacon Road at 10.30 on Wednesday 2nd April and it is planned that we are on air at around 11.05am. The first broadcast will be a scene setting occasion and we may be providing a fortnightly update on progress during the growing season.

If any others of the alloteers are available, come on down!!

A new Polytunnel....... and offspring

Last Saturday morning saw the 4 musketeers... sorry, alloteers... cover the polytunnel with a fresh skin of polythene. The task turned out to be a fine example of teamwork. Caroline and Irene supported us amply with coffee, sausage sandwiches and beer, mopping the sweat off our manly brows. The first picture attached shows the end result. We also have an hour's worth of video footage. However I shall save the alloteers' embarrassment by not uploading it to Youtube: this would only demonstrate to our many readers just how slow the whole process was.

I've been down since then, to plant out some pea shoots and cover them with a cloche (second pic). Both it and the shoots are delicate, and may not survive the harsh wind and chill. If the allotment plot were an NHS hospital, then we would have to enclose the cloche with an incubator - or at least another, larger, cloche.

So there you have it. Plot 41 now possesses a fine strapping polytunnel and its weedy- looking offspring.

Mike

Photos of Pummelled Tunnel

Red and Blackcurrants planted

Aside from the polytunnel trauma, we managed to get some currant bushes planted. Two black and one red. Varietals are 'Red Lake' for the redcurrant and 'Wellington XXX' and 'Boskoop Giant' for the black. Spacing is probably a little tighter than advised at around 4', but should be OK, all a bit of an experiment.

Pruned the existing redcurrant bush, taking out all the oldest wood and downward facing branches - looks better (he says) and will hopefully encourage new growth this year. The other two bushes, guessing they must be blackcurrant, are already budding, so I thought it best to leave as is. Looking forward to summer fruit pudding already!

Polytunnel torn in high winds

Arrived today to find the polytunnel split all the way down one side. Looks like it's split along the line of fold or join in the original sheet. Anyway, a major rent and one that will need a substantial repair or even replacement. Food for thought. Suggest you go and have a view and we'll consider options.

To try and prevent the wind from ripping the whole thing right off, we've punctured some small holes and tied the sheeting to the metal frame with a view to holding it down. Not sure how successful it will be, but it was billowing when we arrived and it's clearly been tearing either end when a strong gust catches it.

You'd have had photo's, but the damned batteries on the digital camera decided to fail at the most inopportune of moments.

Quick update on a few things

Popped down today to try and do something about wood pigeons on the purple sprouting. It's just starting to look pretty decent - be a shame to lose it now. Have maccled together the existing netting to be tighter, so the weight of the birds doesn't allow them to sit on top and simply peck through to the leaves. Also stuck some bags on sticks to hopefully be some sort of distraction. We'll see whether it works. May be worth doing a proper job at some point.

For all the rain, the ground is pretty good (albeit wet). Worst end is at the shed end and shed side. Not unexpected, really.

In the polytunnel, the garlic is now coming along nicely, with many shoots now putting in an appearance. Salad is still doing fine. Took some Saturday and it was great with beefburgers. Leeks also look pretty sound - worth leaving them a while longer, at least until we need the space. By the way, the patch Geoff put on has blown free. Whilst not ideal, it may allow more airflow in the tunnel and reduce surface moss developing there. No doubt a function of the damp atmosphere in there.

Other than that, all looks good. Roll on Spring...

First Leeks

Couldn't resist seeing what they looked like, so we dug two up. Small, but beautifully formed is how I'd describe them!! Smell was fabulous - just like spring onions, somewhat obviously. Got a photo just before Irene consigned them to the soup pan - can't wait to see what that tastes like.

Help yourselves....

New Year Update !!!

Happy New Year to all.

After the long dark days of December when nowt was to be done, I thought now was as good a time as any to add a quick visual update to how things stand as we start 2008.

Attached photos hopefully do the trick.

Highlight is...we now have garlic pushing up in the polytunnel - a few shoots here and there, but they're definitely on the up. Cabbages, leeks, chard, onions, broccoli and even the salad leaves all look remarkably healthy as well....we ought to eat some of it soon.

Anyway, here's to 2008 and the lighter evenings to come....