BeetrootandSpuds

    No, it's not a spelling mistake. Beetroot and Spuds face a glut of courgettes this year; perhaps.  "Two or three courgettes on an allotment should be enough for anybody," one of our more experienced neighbors told us recently, which came as a bit of a surprise - we have currently around 30 potted up and waiting to go. But then last year our 3 plants produced just one courgette between them, and the slugs got that.        

Regular readers of Beetroot and Spuds know that presiding over our polytunnel are the twin guardians Cloudberry and Flowerdew, but they may not realise that the greenhouse where we bring on our seedlings also operates under a few watchful eyes, and here are a few of them:

  During the last few days I have begun stocking up the new greenhouse with seed trays. Butternut squash, pumpkins, cucamelons, fennel, parsley  and asters are all coming on nicely.  Outside the front door we have two small clumps of sorrel, and in the raised beds just in front, six rows of beetroot are now about an inch high after just a couple of weeks. What's more, we have added some slight creature comfort, a couple of plastic chairs rescued from the plot skip.

The other day one of the other plot holders on our allotment gave me some old windows, panes of glass with a thin plastic frame around each.  A local builders merchant very kindly let me take some of their used pallets and I set to work.  One broken finger nail, a torn thumb and a few minor scratches later and I am the proud owner of a cold frame, just right for next spring.

 

As I may have mentioned, our two plots, Plot A and Plot B, lie on opposite corners of the allotment field.  Geoffrey's Law states that when two or more locations are involved anything wanted at one will undoubtedly be at the other, involving a few minutes trudge across the damp grass and un-mown sides of some of our neighboring.  One of the problems is that Plot B is a desolate patch of sticky clay with neither shelter or store... until now.  We have bought a small greenhouse (£49 courtesy of "the i-net"),  plastic over a lightweight frame,  and yesterday began putting it up.  Although it simply slots together, no bolts or screws involved, by the time we had brought it across, from Plot A, sorted it out and finished pushing the frame together 3 hours was up, and it was time for home, and a beer. Tomorrow - we hope to get the ground levelled, the cover on and secured.  And if we are lucky, a bag of seed compost installed and ready to go.

Spring is now well underway, and we are stocking up.  In the last few days we have added tomatoes and an aubergine (courtesy of Sainsbury), which are now progressing under Flowerdew's watchful eye,  and leek, beetroot, courgette, marrow and pepper seeds are underway in our greenhouse. Meanwhile, Spuds has succumbed to wilt, but that is not expected to make a great difference (or, perhaps, any) to the progress of our plots. Readers need not fear, the title of the blog remains forever, Beetroot and Spuds

Along with our plot came a number of bulbs.  We've already showed some of the tulips, and iris here are some of the alliums

Early this year one of our neighboring plot holders gave us what appeared to be a rather superior compostor.  It was, in fact, the upper part of a Green Cone , a double insulted cone which can "digest" almost all food waste produced by a normal household.  To function effectively the Green Cone has a lower basket installed below ground level, ours doesn't.  It does, however, have a smart, fitted green cap - at least it did, until a few days after we had taken possession, when it vanished.  Our first thought was that it might have blown off, but we could not find it lying around, then we wondered if somebody else had a similar cone and might have "borrowed" our lid, but once again we drew a blank.  Then we thought that perhaps a fox had taken it - unlikely as this sounds we know from experience that foxes do move unlikely things around.  For some years we were finding golf balls mysteriously deposited on our front step, singles, double sand sometimes as many...

We've finally got round to a bit more planting.  This time 3 tomato plants (2 x Super Mamandeand 1 x Gardeners Delight) for the polytunnel and a blueberry for our new plot, Plot B.  The tomatoes will need a daily water,  possibly increasing to twice a day when the temperature starts to rise, if it ever does

Yesterday the BBC weather service confidently predicted thunderstorms all afternoon, so Spuds and I thought we'd be safe to head for our allotment. Sure enough, there was barely a drop.  However, I did manage to find the top of one of our compost bins, which had mysteriously gone missing earlier this year (of which more to follow). The tulips we planted at the end of last year (from bulbs we discovered on our plot when we first began clearing it back last summer) are reaching their end for this year. But what a magnificent show they have made in our beloved barrow.

For reasons I do not understand this post is best read after pressing "Read More" below. One of our regular readers (known to us as "Radish") recently sent us a selection of gardening quotes, and as they're rather good, we thought we'ed [sic] pass a few on.  Here goes: “Plant and your spouse plants with you; weed and you weed alone” – Jean Jacques Rousseau “Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful,’ and sitting in the shade” – Rudyard Kipling, “All gardeners know better than other gardeners” - Chinese Proverb “A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows”- Doug Larson “Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad” - Unknown “Money can’t buy happiness. But it can buy plants, and that’s the same thing” - Unknown "Plant carrots in January and you’ll never have to eat carrots” - Unknown “When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not...

At last, the sun is shining, the soil is warming up and the time for planting is upon us. Last week Spuds and I set to and we have now put in: Plot A Beetroots - Red Ace and Bolthardy,, Carrots - Topweight and Royal Chantenay, Black radishes, Pink, "blush" radishes, Peas - ‘Douce Provence’, Lettuce - ‘salad bowl’ and ‘red salad bowl’, Squashes - butternut and crown prince, Pak choi Plot B Climbing French beans - Fabiolo Rampicante ‘Cosse Violette’, Sweet peas, Seed saved from last year's runner beans Keen eyed readers may note the slug protection we have put in place around our squashes (copper rings and pellets of compressed sheep's wool)