Midweek Harvest

Welcome back to Reads Allotment Retreat. Crikey, that was a quick week! We had a visit from "Nana Pops" from Monday - Thursday, and we had a really great time - cramming a lot in. On Wednesday we all popped up to the plot to "show off " our allotment - mum was suitably impressed whilst suitably shocked at just how much work we now have in coping with all 3 allotments. As always, she didn't leave empty handed - managing to acquire one of our small pumpkins. Pictured here is our small harvest from the day before, including a Marrow, Pumpkin, some Zucchini, Maincrop spuds and a mixture of climbing beans including Borlotti, Runners, and Purple podded French beans. We have to say; the maincrop spuds (v.Cara) tasted delish. Also this week, I managed to start digging and weeding the new beds. Next year we will grow some of our spuds - probably the First Earlies - where the Runner Beans etc are this year, thereby taking advantage of the nitrogen now in the soil. The Runner beans themselves are going great guns - a late flurry of flowers should give rich pickings in the very near future.

Next week will probably be a tad quieter and we should be able to get a bit more done on the plots. Hopefully you'll pop back soon and check for more updates.

Don't forget our new venture : Reads Recipes. Jen has been busy in the kitchen, and has added more recipes. Go on, take a look ?

I hope you're still enjoying your plots as much as we are, and we look forward to seeing you again soon.

Take care all,

TTFN.

Wow - Pumpkins!

Welcome back to Reads Allotment Retreat. As regular readers will know, earlier in the year we were given some Squash plants. The majority of the plants did not have labels, so were planted "blindly" with a view to sitting back and waiting for whatever might come along. Well, thanks to Stephen at Victoriana Nurseries who kindly donated these plants, we now have about half a dozen pumpkins (v.Racer) growing away happily in what was otherwise an empty patch of ground. The ground had actually been home to our First Early spuds (v.Rocket) and after they were harvested, the ground looked rather bare. Now at least we have a plan for future spud beds!
Some of the other plants donated turned out to be "Turks Turban" squashes, and we now have 3 of these growing away merrily. We thought about harvesting some today, but we are not sure when they peak - in terms of size - and would be grateful if someone can shed some light on this!




We also found that we have a couple of Yellow Courgettes growing (Zucchini?) and this monster was harvested today to go with our Sunday roast !
Whilst at the plot we also started the Borlotti bean harvest off, we have loads and loads to get through, but we will get them a little at a time, as the beans need to be thoroughly dried before being stored away. The ones we picked today were 99% dry already, but a lot of the pods still on the plant are a long way off yet.






The Butternut Squash (v.Hunter) are going great at the moment too. The seeds for this were free from the BBC Dig-In promotion on CBeebies, so anything growing here is a bonus! The plants were started off in 3" pots before being transferred to their growing position - on top of the compost heap. Growing alongside these we have another variety - Waltham cross - which is also doing well.



The runner beans have not fared brilliantly this year - due mostly I guess to inadequate ground preparation! A lesson that has now been well and truly learnt! The good news however, is that there is a somewhat late flourish going on, and there's now an abundance of new flowers. Look carefully and you'll see the Bee's in attendance too! All we really really need now, is a few days of rain.







As you can see in this picture, work has been progressing on the new allotment. These 2 beds have been what I call half dug, i.e. I have lifted the top 4" and simply turned it over. I then layered some well rotted manure across them, to encourage some worm activity. This compost will then be dug in later in the year, and then left to settle over the winter. Tomorrow, I will be collecting my new greenhouse, that has kindly been donated by a friend. It's a 6' x 7' item, and we are looking forward to it's arrival.


And as this second picture shows, we still have a mammoth task ahead of us in preparing the rest of the plot! Wish us luck eh !

That's about it for today, hope you have had a good read.

See you all soon,

TTFN.