Warm sunny day for the allotment crew

A still, warm and sunny day after some early cloud. The soil is drying out but the leaf mould and compost we put in is holding the moisture deeper down where the roots are so the plants are growing away. We water the tubs and high bed every week though. Last week the peas and runner beans were planted out and another three rows of carrots sown. This week we had another busy planting out day, getting the dwarf French beans in and covering these with fleece, three varieties of kale – Nero di Toscana, Pentland Brig and dwarf green curled – cabbages – red, Kilaton and Greyhound – and Swiss chard. The courgettes and marrows were planted out too and given a covering of fleece since the plants are still small. The weeds have been catching up with us so we managed to get several of the beds thoroughly weeded. And the first sowing of carrots were thinned. Ian’s sweet peas are doing well behind their windbreak and had the first tieing in today. Tom came down and planted out his -hopefully – prize-winning dahlias, leeks and sweet peas for entering for the autumn shows at Dalkeith and the FEDAGA show in Edinburgh. The late spring seems to have been a great benefit to the fruit with the bushes all very heavily laden and no sign of gooseberry sawfly – yet!

Biochar Trial – We are now seeing a difference in the pallets with the biochar pallet showing better growth on the lettuces but the non-biochar pallet is showing better growth on the mizuna. In the main trial bed there seems to be better growth on the onions but no difference on the other crops.

Jobs for next week: Plant out the Japanese vegetables; Keep weeding; Net the currants before the fruit ripens; First cut of the comfrey.