Allotment Tales – A Blustery Day on the Allotment
Last Thursday gave us blustery gales and rain – hardly the season of “mist and mellow fruitfulness!”
So, heads down, we worked through our allotted tasks.
Potatoes – Cara & Caledonian Rose
More maincrop tatties were dug – 3 shaws each of Cara and Caledonian Rose. Not a great haul but well worth the effort as tasty steamed, baked or mashed – especially with a bit of fresh mint. In their place we sowed green manure – buckwheat this week. We also sowed this amongst the broad bean roots which we’d left in the soil to contribute nitrogen.
Sowing green manure
The strawberries keep on flowering, so we pinched these out to promote overall plant strength. Beer traps were emptied and re-filled. Slug removal is helping our Pak Choi make a comeback.
After some debate, we decided to pick much of the sweetcorn, as the kernels have fattened a little and put on some colour.
Other crops harvested today: Onions (Sturon); Runner and French beans; a courgette that has become a marrow; 2 enormous carrots; apples; raspberries and still some blueberries!
Finally, we trimmed the live willow hedge before clocking off at 12.30 due to adverse weather conditions.
Jobs for next week:
- Willow hedge weaving
- Alkanet removal from hedge area
- Tie in the blackberry near the shed
- Check the beetroot, carrots and turnips
- Continue harvesting apples, tatties and anything else that looks ready
