A rainy day on the allotment

There has been plenty of rain over the last few days and some this morning too but not enough to send us home!

After the pruning workshop on the Open Day, we carried on with the job on the rest of the fruit, pruning back the new growth on the gooseberries and apples this week. The strawberries are over so a few runners of each variety were saved but the rest and the old leaves were cut off. The strawberries are on a three year cycle and these runners will be used for the new strawberry bed which will fruit then.

The maincrop potatoes are dying down and time to cut down the shaws, leaving the potatoes in the ground for a couple of weeks to allow the skins to harden before they are dug up.

The peas,varieties Hurst Greenshaft and Carouby de Mausanne, are over so they were removed to the compost heap leaving the roots in the ground to increase the nitrogen levels from the nitrogen nodules on them.

And time for picking the raspberries, broad beans, peas, carrots, courgettes.

Diary dates

Saughton Park
Come along and escape the festival madness in Saughton Park at the Garden Party on Sunday 21 August 12pm – 4pm

Dalkeith Show 
Dalkeith School Campus on September 10th & 11th – always very well sign-posted.

FEDAGA
have happily returned to holding a show on Saturday 3 September from 2pm to 4pm at the Methodist Church (ConferenceHall), Nicolson Square.  Download the schedule at http://www.fedaga.org.uk/annual-show.html.

Jobs for next week
Continue pruning – currants, soft fruit
Cut down green manure