Hot & dry on the Allotment
Before the very welcome rain of the past couple of days the weather had continued to be hot and dry and so the watering regime at the allotment also continued. Vegetables are almost all water and we need to keep up with the watering to have veg which not only survive but produce good crops.
Red flowers on the broad beans
Planting for the winter cropping carries on and the Brussel sprouts and cabbages were put in and netted and the swedes were also planted. The leeks will go in next week along with the purple sprouting broccoli.
The grass was cut with the clippings used as mulch round the more vulnerable veg like the courgettes although there needs to be a space left around the stems to prevent them rotting.
Mulching the courgettes
A sad decision was made to take out the summer raspberries. They were only put in a couple of years ago but are showing signs of dying down and are looking as if they have raspberry phytophthora which killed off the autumn raspberries last year. New autumn rasps were planted earlier this year and these need to be protected. With pruning we can have summer and autumn rasps from these.
Another fruit which is being monitored at the moment is the boysenberry. There was little new growth last year which was put down to the heat tho’ the other soft fruit was not affected so much. But it is fully exposed to the north east winds and cold, so we may move it to a more sheltered part of the plot in the autumn and see what happens.
Chard in its 2nd year
Jobs for the week
- Plant out the leeks
- Cut the grass edges
- Watering and weeding
- Pick the strawberries!
