Wind and Rain
Well, the wind and rain over the bank holiday weekend meant we only got a couple of hours digging in on Saturday. Last week we bought some leek plants from Ashwood which we spotted whilst I was buying growbags (my preferred growbag at the moment, though they are more expensive that some places).
The leeks have gone into a bed in the middle of the allotment which has taken three digs over to make the soil vaguely usable (the last 1/2m x 2m section took hours the first time as it was filled with couch grass)… We went for the option of cutting the roots to an inch or so long and then trimming the tops so they are 6″ high. Hopefully they’ve survived the high winds over the weekend, as well as the beans which went in earlier in the week. I guess the courgettes may be a little worse for wear as well, but we’ll see.
I reorganised my greenhouse last week, moving the staging to the back “short” wall which has given a lot of space in the rest of the greenhouse. Got 6 moneymaker tomato plants into growbags and finally planted a couple of the Edonis melon into growbags as well. They’ve also had their growing tips pinched out as they were more than beyond the four true leaf stage. The final two melons are going up to the allotment at some point, into a cold-frame made from spare greenhouse glass. The cucumbers are also doing well now (mostly), though a couple of leaves have got white spots on, which I guess is downy mildew - I’ve removed them anyway.
Chillis and sweet peppers have all been potted on this weekend into larger pots (though I don’t have enough of the “correct” size pots, so they’ll just have to cope).
Planted out the blackcurrent we bought last year as well as the cranberry, blueberry and redcurrant root stock I bought in Woolies earlier in the year (they have some green leaves, so they have two chances). We also got a good sized redcurrant from Bridge End Garden Centre whilst off visiting people at the weekend.
And on a completely different note, now that the roof is secure and watertight, we moved a whole load of boxes out of our shed back into the roof space. The roof is pretty dusty now (not a big surprise given the state of the old slate!), so I’ve had to clear a bit of a path through. The upshot is that you can now get into our shed and to the back without having to climb over everything. I definitely think replacing the old garage with a big shed was a good investment last year.