Roaming Zebra

It looks like our red-onions, and probably shallots have been killed off by the recently (last year) onion fly affecting the Midlands.

Steph was at the plot yesterday, just for a bit of a wander, and one of the other plotholders said he thought our red onions look like they’ve been attacked.

I went up today to inspect the damage. Decided to leave the red onions in for now and see what happens with them. Did remove the winter onions, which I’ve been thinking about doing, and some are starting to flower. Some of them have obviously got a bit upset about having wet feet from the recent rains, and some are damaged by the onion fly larvae. Hopefully the rest will be OK and store for a while without too much further damage.

Cleared several barrow loads of weeds from the winter onion section. One now has peas planted – assuming the pigeons don’t get the shoots – a liberal application of bits of polytunnel and 1/2 drinks bottles to distract them has been added! Planted out the celery into one of the gaps from the onions – it was all looking a bit pot bound, which apparently celery doesn’t like.

Also planted out the remaining 8 climbing French bean plants as well as a couple of onion squash/pumpkin/courgette plants to fill the gaps – don’t really need any more plants, but they might as well get used!

Not very happy with my beans in general – everyone else’s runners are going up the poles. Mine just sit at the bottom. I’ve tied them to the poles at the bottoms – the few that had grabbed on themselves have grown better, so maybe they just need a little direction!

A couple of plot-holders also mentioned the grass in the middle of the plot, and that maybe I should give it a spray. I wasn’t sure if it was a hint that I should do something about it, so I took up their offer to borrow some weed-killer spray to tackle the grass. I’m probably not going to be able to get up to clear it in the next couple of weeks anyway, so the weedkiller should have done its job by then and it’ll all be easy to remove

In the middle bit we didn’t really have plans for this year anyway, though we’re thinking of planting some grapevines either late this year, or into next year. If they are allowed that is.

All in all though, I think a reasonably productive afternoon at the plot!

The site treasurer was talking about buying a roll of enviromesh, which is quite expensive in shops, but across the site a big roll should hopefully work out not too expensive. I think it might be worth getting some to protect the onions, and maybe carrots next year!

I’m wondering what next is going to break at home? We’ve had a spate of things over the last six weeks, starting with the cistern filler on the bathroom toilet (it was taking about an hour to fill!), that was a relatively quick job to fix – though I had to change the isolation valve for a new one as the original plastic push-fit was impossible to turn on or off. It now has a shiny new metal push fit connector with a little tap on the isolation valve.

Next we had the fridge-freezer, which just randomly decided to stop chilling for long periods of time, and ordering a new one was a right PITA. It did eventually arrive, though about 2 weeks after the original date it was supposed to (the delivery company kept changing their mind about if they had it in stock). And it only just fitted in the back door!

And of course the lawnmower decided to pack in as well. I think we got a good deal on the new one (20% in Homebase at the time, and I got a 15% off voucher for using an AMEX card). And admittedly the new mower is much lighter and easier to use, but still I’d have preferred not to but a new one.

Oh and the display is malfunctioning in the car at the moment – the bit in the driver’s console which is supposed to tell you the radio station, just doesn’t do that bit anymore. Its under warranty, but I’ll have to take it into the garage to get it fixed, and just at the moment, we need the car to be available!

Last night, the kitchen tap decided that it wasn’t going to turn itself off. Its been stiff for a while and we’d actually decided which tap we were going to buy to replace it. The old one obviously new it was going to be replaced, so just failed. Quick rush to B&Q to get a new one – they didn’t have the one we’d picked and we needed to get it sorted just in case things started moving with the baby! So several hours later, I managed to get the new tap in place. Of course the box had those plastic seal strap things that are a pain to remove, and the edge of one was sharp which cut my hand to start off in the shop.

The box didn’t say if it included monobloc hoses, and the box was sealed, so I purchased a pair just in case, and thought push-fit would be quicker to install. To start with, the push-fits wouldn’t actually screw in to the tap – its got four hoses coming out of it as it has a pull-out hose built in. The push fit hoses are a tiny bit bigger than the supplied ones, so they didn’t fit meaning I had to resort to the supplied set. Now the old tap had screw fittings, but the opposite type to the ones on the new hoses. And the old tap hoses were a different diameter, so I couldn’t just swap them out. Incidentally, I also had to modify the cupboard interior to fit the new tap into the hole. Finally I got it all nearly screwed in, when I found the metal retainer underneath had to be pushed along a long bolt from the bottom, which I’d already nearly fully tightened. So I had to dismantle it again. Got everything in, but wasn’t sure about the top mounting, but I seemed to have used all the bits. Anyway, tested with the water on, started packing stuff into a box for the bin, and found the base bit of the tap sandwiched inside some foam packing. Disassemble again to install it, and reassemble. Get it all together and test, and the hot water hose decided from all the movement to pop off the pipe underneath pouring water everywhere. By now its 11.30pm, so I get it back together mop up a bit, but decide to leave the hot turned off at the service valve just in case. Finally this morning, I was happy its all together. Just noticed there’s a tiny teardrop leak on one of the valves, should be a quick tighten with a spanner, but who knows!

Grrr!

Greenhouse thermometer was just under 38C today. Even with the door and side vents open and the auto roof vents open. Still dropping to about 10C at night though.

Fruit on Cucumber plants

Potted on the cucumber plants, Tiffany and Zeina, both starting to get fruit on them but were in need of moving to larger pots. Tied in the Plum and Beef tomatoes which are taller than the Moneymakers at present – though I did buy these plants rather than growing from seed. Fruit starting to appear on the Plum tomato, so I thought a good feed was in order.

Also transplanted the melon plants. We have 4 Eldorado and 4 Edonis. The growbags claimed 4 plants per bag! Last year though 2 was a lot for each one, so 2 pairs have gone in growbags, the rest into very large plant pots. Need to take care with pinching out the tops this year to get proper laterals to form!

Finally got around to hacking out the buddleia which is right next to the house. It had just overgrown the space really and was encroaching massively on the path. Never really seen any huge number of butterflies or bees on it either. The digging up was spurred on by managed to get hold of some dwarf buddleia varieties – a deep mauve/purple and a marbled white one. We’ve been looking around for a while and were going to get a couple from T&M, but we were passing Barnett Hill garden centre and they happened to have them in, on special offer as well!

Cut out one of the broom’s main stems as well as that was getting a bit on the large side. I read they are difficult to prune, so I thought taking out the main stem was easier. Re-staked it as well to pull it back upright.

Also planted up some hanging baskets at last. I never really get on well with baskets, I think I leave them too late and then don’t water enough. Basically just trailling lobellia and some left over petunias as well. We’ll see….

Popped up to the plot for a quick watering session today. The sunflowers and sweet peas are looking a bit  worse for wear. I think they’ll recover OK though. To more of the winter onions are going to flower, so I broke the flowers off again. Think I’ll have to lift them soon before they all go!

Bit worried about the sweetcorn, its been a dry week and it gets shocked if it doesn’t get watered properly and then stops growing. Hopefully at least some of it will survive!

The beans are looking OK, and the climbing French ones are already better than I managed at all last year! Radishes I sowed in the gaps are also starting to sprout already!

Really need to find some space to plant out the last beans I still have at home!

I’ve got a big bit of plot that I need to clear the grass on, but its just too hot to go about digging properly. Its the last bit that is infested with couch grass. I should have done it last autumn, but failed to be motivated to do it. And this year I wanted to clear some of the bottom where the soil is less dense clay and actually get plants in rather than spend the whole time removing grass!

Planted our sunflowers, corn flowers and sweet peas into flower bit.

Picked my first crop of the year! Admittedly its only radishes (French Breakfast), but still a crop!

Remainder of the corn is now out as well as the leeks… not sure how well they will do, but they are covered by scaffold net to try to keep onion fly at bay.

Back at home, the hedge had its first trim of the season, gave it quite a hard cutting at the top to try and push it back a bit.

Planted on rubens peppers in the green house.

Tried to mow the lawn today, part way through the mower just died on me. Its obviously been burning a bit of oil recently from the slight smoke coming out of it.

It looked low on oil so I topped it up with some shiny new oil. Ran for about 2 mins with a big cloud of smoke before dying again. I guess more oil in the engine. Probably getting it up and down the garden steps has got oil well and truely round the engine.

I think a new on is in order! Electric this time!

Weeded brassica section, what it left of the plants that is.

Planted runner and 4 climbing French beans, as well as a row of dwarf French beans. Added a row or two of radishes between poles for fun…

Earthed up the spuds, feeding with pelleted chicken manure and potato feed. Well, more sort of raked the peaks between the rows over the plants.

Red onions finally got weeded, and the Kale has now been planted out. Though it looks really bad. Will be surprised it if makes it!

Disaster has struck at the plot! The cage covering the brassicas has blown off in the wind, meaning the birds have had a good go at the plants. Hopefully not too much damage yet and there’s plenty of growing season for them to recover, as long as the growing tips haven’t been nipped out.

Not just the bassicas though. The cage has landed on some of the sweetcorn, squashing and bending it!

Potted on lots of bits, melons, tomatoes (both bush and tall), chilis and lobelia. The lobelia were bought as tiny plugs from work – 50p for 12 plugs. The ground-service obviously grow huge amounts of bedding plants for the estate, and annually have a sale of all the overstocked stuff, which was this week. Its pretty cheap, and quite good quality – got marigolds, geraniums and a hardy fuchsia as well from there.

Second attempt at growing climbing french beans, moved the runners to the cold frame to harden them off.

Planted up a second tomato growbag with Moneymakers, grown from seed. Some of the plants are getting but, others are still tiny! – Selected the bigger ones to plant on. Will save the rest just in case though!

Dug over the flower bed (rock solid!) at the plot, adding several bags of soil improver and compost. Its still pretty hard clay, but a bit better now. Added in Perlka to a bit of it as that’s where the Kale is going.

Started acclimatising corn and squashes by moving them to the cold-frame. The kale has picked up a bit since being replanted into different compost, though still not looking great.

Planted more sweetcorn and a second round of comfrey seeds – need lots for the allotment as a compost accelerator and liquid feed (though apparently it stinks!).

Bought a shiny new label printer (PT1000) from Netto/Aldi/Lidl (can never remeber which it is near by!). It was only £13 or so, when I looked at one earlier this year, they were like £30 odd. We actually went to look for something advertised on one of the leaflets, but they didn’t have any left.

Planted some brocolli claret seeds.

Rows of lettuces

Took peas & lettuces to plot for sowing … had a tray crises with the lettuces – kicked one over and they fell everywhere. Not convinced they will grow, but worth a shot! And they were looking very unhappy in the greenhouse!

Planted boltardy beetroot seeds at the plot next to the fennel.

Removed the remainder of last years leeks and started to clear the rock solid ground htere.

At home, numerous seedlings have been potted on. The peas have started to sprout, despite the cats jumping on them over the fence!

Well, I commented on Sunday how I’d just moved the Senetti out so needed to watch for frosts, and what to we get on Sunday evening, but a ground frost warning.

Purple Senetti Flowers

I did move them back into the greenhouse, but whilst chilly in the morning, I don’t think there was actually a frost.

And then yesterday evening, I found a number of my climbing French bean have germinated … so after complaining they hadn’t done anything, suddenly they have appeared.

Incidentally I noticed the celery has finally started to sprout at the weekend, very fine wispy seedlings at the moment, they went in on 29th March, so its taken nearly a month for germination. Perhaps they would have preferred being inside on a windowsill, but we don’t have enough windowsills for everything that would prefer to be there!

I’ve generally been quite busy recently, so haven’t had a lot of time to update the blog properly for a while. Though I that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy up on the plot and in the greenhouse. In  fact, I’ve been keeping a paper journal (mine is actually the veg grower’s one), which is a bit easier t0 take up to the plot and down to the greenhouse so keep track of what I’ve been planting when and where.

So, what’s been going on today?

Planted out the Senetti we bought recently into pots, the label claims they can be planted out from mid-March if cold grown, though I have no idea if that is how they have been grown! The nursery we got them from said don’t plant out until May, though they are in pots, so I’ll need to keep a look out for any late frosts which might attack them. The Senetti have large brightly coloured flowers and are supposed to re-flower after 4 weeks if you cut them back. We’ve bought them before a few years ago – in fact we saw them on Gardener’s World some time ago, with Monty Don planting them out.

A few cornflower plants got planted into the garden, they are still quite small so I’m not sure they’ll survive, but they were growing out the bottom of the tray in the greenhouse!

Moved the first sowing of sweet peas, Redbor Kale and one set of leeks out to the cold-frame to start acclimatising them.

So far three of the red onion squash have germinated and six comfrey seeds, all still too small to transplant though, but the squash seem to grow quite quickly so I’ll need to keep an eye on it over the next week.

Potted on the zucchino (ball courgettes), all eight seeds germianted, so sowing two per pot wasn’t needed!

Transplanted some of the Moneymaker tomato plants, though the rest aren’t really big enough to move yet. The rest of the chili/peppers sown at the same time aren’t yet ready for transplanting.

Still no sign of the cobra climbing french bean. I suspect the seeds might be a bit old now. Mars pumpkin and Hungarian wax chili haven’t shown any sign  of movement yet nor the catmint … the cats will have to cope with the small plant they didn’t get the chance to eat last year!

Also soweds white lady runner bean, green sweet basil, edonis melon, prince dwark bean and eldorado melon – this is the second attempt at this variety after the first sowing germinated and then went yellow and died!

3 cucumber plants potted on + plum and beefsteak tomato plants bought last week. The celery is at last starting to sprout!

All the potting on was into ‘kayak’ growbag compost. Whilst tidying the herb pots in the garden, some of this compost got added to a pot, which caused a swarm of yellow flies to appear … beware if you use it outside! I added a layer of coir compost (from compressed bricks) onto the surface of the pots to mask the smell of the compost which seemed to do the trick.

And at the allotment…

Well, that was all at home in the greenhouse, up at the plot I chicken manured the corn plot and dug it over, also made a seed bed for salad crops. That was a lot of work as the soil where I wanted it to go is very clayey and lumpy. The larger lumps have been removed and dumped in the compost bin – hopefully the worms might have a got at breaking them up for me.

Into the seedbed has gone:

• lettuce lollo rossa
• radish sparkler 3
• radish French breakfast 3
• rocket
• chervil
• fennel (Florence)

Also cleared a bit at the bottom of the plot where the soil is much looser and planted some White Gem parsnip seeds.

All in all, I think a good days work!