Thursday, 30 May 2013

WooHoo we've planted!!

Finally the weather seemed to be getting better and warmer and we began to plant the vegetable plants we had been growing in father-in-law's greenhouse. 

Bank Holiday weekend we finished adding organic matter to the main bed and planted the rainbow chard, some beetroot seedlings and filled the tyre towers with green courgettes in two and yellow courgettes in the third. I love growing courgettes in tyre towers, keeping the plants moister than on the ground and as they grow down the tower they don't tend to rot on the ground before you can pick them.

I have slightly overplanted the tyres but I expect there will be natural thinning out by the slugs!

 
 

We also planted the dwarf French beans both green and yellow. In the USA when I was growing up we just called them green and yellow stringbeans.

 
I put in the long row of plants that I had started off and then another row of seeds as a backup. There is also a row of rainbow chard which should, if it doesn't get eaten, do very well and last for ages.

 
The herbs I planted a couple of months ago are doing really well and the radishes are coming along nicely. I keep adding a short row of radishes every couple of weeks.


The red gooseberry bush that Thompson & Morgan sent me is growing at a steady pace and I am sure won't be long before it rivals the green gooseberrries we inherited with the site!


However as I write this it has rained for three days and I am praying that the slugs haven't eaten everything I planted before I get a chance to get up there with the slug pellets!!

There is still a lot of area to work on but we have loads of time.








Wednesday, 8 May 2013

A Little Bit Here - A Little Bit There

We spent a couple of hours up at the allotment today.  We are working on two seperate rectangular beds, getting them absolutely ready to sow/plant out in a week or two's time. 

My plan is to get dwarf french beans (both green and yellow), courgettes, peppers and chilli peppers as well as rainbow chard planted out first.  Once these have all been planted (some have been started in the greenhouse and some will be planted straight out) I will be a happy bunny.

Then we will start another couple of rectangular beds. All the digging over and sorting out will begin again. But it will all be worth it.

As my allotment hasn't had anything done to it in 3-4 years there is a lot to do but once we have turned all the soil over and got rid of the grass we will cover over with plastic or carpet to make sure it doesn't present the same problem next spring! I don't want to go through all that digging again!

Don't let Mr R tell you I work him too hard! Here he is enjoying a coffee break after the first hour!