Announcing the 2009 Carrot Harvest

A much earlier announcement this year. You will recall that last year, the announcement was made on October 15th, the day that the DT announced that "Brown was taking over the banks". At least this year there is only news of JP's and John Cleese's divorce settlement!

Well, we have done a whole lot better this year, although the crop is distinguished by some very funny shapes. Only scant evidence of the carrot fly so far, so suggest you get down and dig some carrots.

Another odd-looking potato

Is it a heart?

Or another part of the anatomy?

Sunflowers

Irene gave me a pack of seeds on Christmas Day and these are the result.
One of the flowers has grown to around 8 feet tall!!

Does this remind you of anything?

Tunnel Vision II + other visions

Here are some photos of the allotment to see how we have progressed with the planting. There is only a very small area of bed 10 that is not under cultivation.

Masonry Bees?

One or two people have said that we have a bees nest in the new soak-away. However on closer examination it looks as if they are collecting clay for their nest and are burrowing into the clay to collect. Kathy Sweet reckons they are masonry bees. Difficult to capture on photograph, but you might be able to see a honeycomb effect at the bottom of this photo.

Tunnel Vision

Have now planted out 4 types of tomato, Golden Sunrise, Alicante, Money Maker and F1 Big Boy!, 6 plants of each. 3 Sweet Pepper Rainbow in a bag plus another 3 in pots and 3 each of 3 types of chilli peppers in bags. There are also some cucumber plants awaiting planting out. We have six tomato "grow pots" on trial this year, but apparently it is not advised to fill the outer reservoir for 2-3 weeks after planting in order for the water roots to develop properly.

MARES TAIL 2

Don't want to go on and on about this weed, but we do need to keep a careful eye on it especially on the asparagus bed as it could ruin the shallow rooted plot!

Barry Wharton told me of a good way of keeping it at bay. He says to let the weed grow a bit and then pinch the stem. Next, paint to cut part of the stem with an artists paintbrush loaded with 4% RoundUp and it will kill the weed back to the deepest part of the root.

The stem itself is waterproof, so you have to treat the cut stem

I have made up a small jar of solution and it is on the shelf in the shed

First Earlies in

Richard has put the First Earlies in the plot as specified in Geoff's diagram. Variety is 'Swift', a very early variety with excellent cooking qualities, skin white, flesh cream, tubers oval. Selected for resistance to worm! 8 remaining sets in polytunnel for anyone who wants them for home use. Have tried to get the bed looking neat and tidy in keeping with the wonderful appearance of the rest of the plot!

Slugs & snails beware/Shelves/asparagus

I have a dastardly device to defeat the slugs and snails trying to eat our salads, vegetables etc in the tunnel. Using the spare pack of decorative stone from the shed, a barrier has been created which stops them using their slime to enter the tunnel (yuk). With a few organic slug pellets to kill any waifs & strays already inside the tunnel, we can look forward to a summer of uneaten fare!

As you can see from the photo, I have put some greenhouse staging into the tunnel, so if anyone is looking for space for their seedlings?

Finally the asparagus is just starting to peep through, looking somewhat larger than last year. Maybe Jonathan can issue some guidelines on whether we harvest any this year?

A fine tilthe

I managed to borrow the rotovator from Ron next door and rotovated the 3 beds nearest to the shed. As these had been the least "worked" of all the beds, should make them excellent for planting this year.
Here is a photo of me in action

pH Readings

I bought a cheap PH test kit and took some readings in 4 different areas of the allotment
Here are the results:

Asparagus Bed 6.5
Onion Bed 6 - 6.5
Tunnel 7.0
Carrot Bed 6-6.5

According to the booklet with the kit, the pH seems to be OK. Asparagus should be 6 to 8, Onions 6 to 7, Carrots 5.5 to 7. Most veg seem to grow OK in the range 6 to 7.5. If you want a test done on particular bed, let me know

Not quite Monet's bridge?

The hole in the ground midway along the 2nd pathway from the Tunnel facing south has been a pain when trying to mow the grass. That surrounding area is also very boggy. In an effort to try to drain the 2-3 beds in this area, I decided to build a bridge and then a soak away.

Please see the attached photo.

There will be special prizes for the first to fall in the water and the first to see a Greater Crested Newt in this newly created wildlife area.