Caley Allotment joins the blog
May is a very busy time on the allotment.
The last of the potatoes have been planted: 3 rows of Lady Balfour in the willow patch, 1 row of Record in the 30 minute a week bed, single rows of Valor, Mayan Gold and Lady Balfour in the standard rotation bed and 1 tuber of Mayan Gold in the square metre bed.
The last of the onion sets have also been planted – a red onion called Red Baron – 1 row in the 30 minute bed and 2 rows in the onion bed. Green Windsor broad beans grown on in pots have also been put into the 30 minute bed as well as a row of the pea Carouby de Mausanne.
The green manure demonstration bed was sown with different types of green manures from last year. This time it has been planted with Tares, Agricultural Mustard, Annual Rye Grass, Buckwheat and Thomson & Morgan green manure mix and covered with netting against the wildlife.
The kale plants are now flowering so they will be coming out soon and the bed will be prepared for a demonstration of pea varieties. There is still a good crop on the purple sprouting broccoli. The beetroot and purple top Milan turnips sown a couple of weeks ago have come through and still no sign of the carrots. All the apple blossom is out. The autumn raspberries which were cut back to knee height are carrying a good show of flowers so it looks as if we should get a double crop off these canes.
The brassicas – cabbages for the summer and the winter kale and broccoli – have been sown in pots and are ready for transplanting. There is still a lot of direct sowing to be done to give succession cropping. The tender veg – French beans, courgettes, marrow, runner beans – have already been sown in pots and will be kept indoors for some weeks yet. It is generally the middle of June before the danger of frost has passed.
A lot of things going on!
