Woot! Back in the growing game!

[BornthatWay]

Glad you had success in your garden. Remember to keep that spade sharp.

[Winnie]

Glad you had success in your garden. Remember to keep that spade sharp.

That's going to be a bit tricky, I have an unerring knack of sharpening an edge off things.

[crashdive123]

I have the same problem. I used to have a sharp mind.

[Winnie]

I have the same problem. I used to have a sharp mind.

Me too, I sharpened the edge right off it.

[Winnie]

Today was a good day, we have had quite a bit of rain of late, the last couple of days have been dry, so I went and cleared one quarter, ready to put down some manure. I will leave it on the surface til the end of October then dig it in. The soil is in wonderful condition, nice and friable and easy to 'do'.

[oldtrap59]

Winnie. Good to see that you've got your hands back in the dirt. To Bad that we aren't a few miles closer together. I'd be happy to get you back into chickens. I bought 18 hatching eggs of both speckled and light sussex this summer. Now have 11 lights and 15 speckled youngsters. If those didn't suit your fancy, we also have barred rocks, heritage rir,cuckoo marans and a few favorelles. Yep we've gone chicken crazy.lol

Goodluck with your allotment

OT

[Batch]

Been a couple of years of you and I being members of this site. I had Winnie Jr. pictured a much younger person. LOL

Great that you have this space together for planting and good harvests to you!

[Winnie]

I'd love some more Chickens OT, but although it's OK to keep them on your allotment, I wouldn't want to risk it, or be tied to going every day, and my garden at home is way too small.
Lol, he's a grown man Batch, well, as grown as a man can be.

[sjj]

thanks for sharing.

[Winnie]

Your pictures made me smile. Thanks for sharing. Did you paint the shed?

Um yeah, well, kinda, sorta. You know, from a distance with that six inch nail my Dad always told me about. (very badly in other words!)

[Winnie]

Another update.
Winter is here and I'm getting on with the tough stuff and moving things around. Over the last few weeks I have: Put in a couple of Rain Barrels, made a new fruit bed and moved the fruit bushes. Dug out a new Bed for some Raspberries I have been promised and a Loganberry I have been given. The manure is now spread and being dug in. So far my back is holding out and I'm looking forward to next year.

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New Fruit Bed

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Half plot manured

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The whole plot

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[Rick]

Good for you. Remember that raspberries spread. They send up shoots off the roots so you'll have to keep them in check.

[hunter63]

Right on ...those spread, horseradish, mint, and Egyptian onions.....all spread.....
Looking good, very nice plot, congrats.

[1stimestar]

Awesome garden spot.

[Rick]

Mint....mint does not spread. Mint gallops, it hops and jumps. Only Kudzu can outgrow mint I think.

[Winnie]

I've grown raspberries before, so am all too aware of their promiscuity. I can think of another plant that can outgrow mint..... Japanese Knotweed. Funnily enough, where I live now is the first place I have ever been able to grow mint.

[crashdive123]

Congrats on the progress Winnie.

[Winnie]

I can't believe it's been almost a year since I wrote here. So what happened 2014?

Well, I failed getting the whole plot dug over. The weather turned hot and dry before I finished and turned the winter digging into concrete blocks that steadfastly refused to yield under the fork or spade. So I did what any fat old biddy would do and covered it up with a big sheet of plastic and forgot about it.
The manure certainly worked it's magic and I have had enough veg to supply the house and put some by for winter. Like Solargeek I've also had successes and failures.
As this is the first real growing season I still regard it as experimental.
Peas and Beans, The Peas were fantastic worth growing. French Beans produced really well, and I have saved seed. Runner Beans were a disaster. I had a terrible germination rate, tried sowing twice with seed from different sources and had failures both times, I eventually went to the market and got some plants. I've now picked at least 15lb from 24 plants.
Corn, well I have a sort of success, the popping corn has set loads of ears and I should get a great harvest, the sweetcorn, I'm not sure what has happened, the plants have been really healthy, but have not produced many ears of corn, some plants have been blind.
Squash Yellow squash have been very productive, the winter squash not so. I have a few, but not as many as I'd hoped and they are a bit small. Think I need to trial more varieties to find one that suits the conditions.
Peppers and chillis have also done well, considering. Our summers aren't really hot enough or long enough to get red peppers, but I have had plenty of frutis that reached a good stage for picking green.
Tomatoes were looking great, I was on for a good crop until a late blight struck and I lost the bulk of the crop. Gutted. I did save some fruit for seed before the blight struck.
Potatoes did quite well, I only planted early potatoes as I don't have enough room to grow maincrop.
The winter veg were looking decidedly poorly during the summer, but have come through and the plants are now looking very good.
The summer garden is just about finished, I have one more picking of beans and squash, I might find one or two ears of corn then that wil be it done for the year. Then I'll start clearing everything off and get some more manure spread about. This year I aim to spread the manure over ther plot and let the worms take it down over winter.
Next year, I hope to have a polytunnel up and producing and I have just taken on another 1/4 plot which I will just fill with potatoes next year. I have also discovered perennial veg. More on that to follow.

[hunter63]

Congrats....sounds like a fairly year.
Surprised to hear about tomato blight......we just started getting it here for the last few years......Hummmmm?

[Winnie]

It has to be one of the worst diseases. Even picking the green ones to ripen doesn`t work. They are obviously already infected and just go bad.