Clairesallotment's Blog

It’s been a long time coming, but I’ve finally started to put some bits in the fruit bed. The other 3 beds are full of veggies which are growing so well. The fruit bed is still only half full with soil, I need to orders another 5 tons, but that’ll have to wait until pay day. But I’ve started to get some of the plants in, and all the others ready. All my fruit bushes have temporarily been in pots for for about 18 months now, and some are looking better than others. I’m hoping that once they’re in the ground, they’ll come back to life and be happy again. If not, I’ll have to buy some more. Still I got my rhubarb in today. I know it’s technically a vegetable, but it always grows in the fruit section. I’ve also got my Goji bush in, and hopefully it’ll come back to life now it has more room. It’s quite a resilient plant, so hopefully it’ll recover.

I also had a good sort and tidy up, and put a load of trays and plant pots away that I’d finished with, and now they’re all back in the garage. It’s surprising how you end up with a collection of pots and trays. It’s always the last thing you remember to do is put them away at the end of the day. It’s always good to have a tidy up, I do try to tidy as I go, but sometimes it just doesn’t work.

My cucurbits are growing really well, and we’ve had loads of courgettes so far. My favourite way at the moment to cook them is to cut them into medium sized chunks, and sauté them with onions, garlic, salt and pepper and a few chilli flakes. Very tasty. I’ve got loads more coming, so I’m really pleased.

I also noticed that my pumpkins are also producing fruits. Yes they’re small, but they’ve still got a lot of time to grow really big and fat. I’m not expecting any record breaking sizes this year, but as long as we get some I’ll be happy.

A good day all in all, and the garden is slowly getting there. Still loads more to do, but I’ve got plenty of time.

Well what a busy day it’s been! I’m exhausted, very dirty, but very happy. I’ve managed to spend the entire day in the garden, which doesn’t happen very often. Usually it’s either just the morning or just the afternoon. This morning Mark and George shifted another 5 tons of top soil (only need another 5 tons and then I’m done) and have half filled what will become the fruit bed. I’ll order the last 5 tons when I get paid at the end of the month. They both worked very hard and in temperatures in the mid to high 20’s.

While they were doing that Emily was helping me tidy the pots and trays away and put them in the garage. Then we ventured into the scorching hot greenhouses. We were checking for any side shoots on the tomatoes, and nipping out their tops if they were tall enough, and tying in any tomatoes that needed to be done. It was very hot in the greenhouses and the thermometer was nearly at 40 degrees. Needless to say we kept popping outside to cool down. We then had to move some chillies down a shelf as they are now getting very tall. Once everything was sorted we then watered and fed all the plants. Everything is growing really well in both the greenhouses which is really exciting. Emily was very pleased to see some peppers starting to grow. We keep picking cucumbers which is lovely, and all I’m waiting for now is for the aubergine fruits to start to grow.

I got Emily to sow some more sugar snap pea seeds, because I’ve just planted out one batch into large pots in the garden. The new sowing are sitting on the floor in the 6×6 greenhouse and hopefully they’ll start to germinate in a couple of days. Must make sure I close the greenhouse doors at night, otherwise the mice will eat them.

Then it was time to systematically go through each bed and weed and water. The potatoes are growing really well, and my lettuces are abundant. The beetroot are swelling nicely and the broad beans are doing well, although I’ve got a few black fly, so I’ll have to sort those out, still it can be easily remedied. I have sunflowers growing in each bed, and some are growing really tall. Still no flowers, but that’s good as I want them to grow much more. Once the flowers open they stop growing.

All the brassicas are growing really well. I keep moving the netting up, but have got to make the frame for them. I have the wood all cut and ready in the garage, so I just have to put the frames together. I’ve hopefully got Thursday off this week, so I’ll get the kids to help me put them together.  They clearly like it in their bed, as the brukale is about 18 inches tall, and the cabbages are firming up nicely. Again I checked for weeds and then gave them a thorough water.

Then it was onto the cucurbit bed. Which also has a few tomatoes, sweetcorn and beans in as well. Basically a bit of a mish-mash bed. I suppose I could say it’s a 3 sisters bed (corn, beans and cucurbits) with a few tomatoes and sunflowers thrown in for good measure. Again a little light weeding and a thorough watering. I’ve harvested quite a few courgettes so far, and there are loads more growing.

Then finally onto the 3 square beds at the back. One I have asparagus in, which is growing really well. I’ve not harvested any this year as I thought I’d let it settle first. Another has onions and carrots in. The onions are growing well considering they went in really late, but the carrots are a bit pants. The seed is old, so that’s why not many have germinated. And in the other square I am growing my garlic. Again this was put in very late, but seems to be growing really well. When I watered these beds I put the hose of very fine spray and gave the chickens a little cooling shower. At first they were a little confused, but soon they realised that it was a good thing and enjoyed what I was doing.

Once all that was done I sorted out several plant pots on the patio, clearing the spent flowers and any gaps I found, I planted some more flowers in. I then started to weed the flower bed next to the patio. It’s been a bit neglected, so I gave it a lot of TLC. It’s not finished, but looks much better.

So after a busy day it’s time to settle down to a good hearty meal. Emily and I have made a fish pie and we’re going to have some salad with it. In the salad is lettuce, radish and cucumber all from our garden. The tomatoes are from the shop, but soon ours will be ripe.

Hope you all had a great weekend, and had as much fun as I did. Here’s hoping I can pop out in the garden during the week and get a few more things done.

There are lots of different varieties of sweetcorn, and they all need to be planted out in the ground the same way.

Here’s how I plant out mine….

Some varieties of cucumbers can grow outside, but others must be grown inside, make sure you check your variety to know where they need to go.

The varieties I have this year are inside ones, so I’m planting mine into 2 litre pots, here’s how I do mine.

Now is the time to plant out your chillies, here is how I’ve done mine.

My aubergines have been growing really well, and have been loving this lovely hot weather. Now is the time to plant them out, and even though they’ll continue to grow in the greenhouse I’m planting them in 2 litre pots.

Check which variety of Tomatoes your are growing, as some are only suitable for growing undercover, where as others can be grown outside. Now is the time to get your tomato plants planted out.

Here’s how I do mine