Not a total disaster.

After spending a busy working morning on my plot, I realised that this very wet season hasn't been a total write off when I added up what had been successful this season. Carrots and parsnips, squashes and courgette family too had been a waste of time BUT I harvested all my broad beans as they were showing signs of rot so thought I'd get what I could out of them. Surprisingly, most of the pods had usable beans even if some of the pod was black, ended up with a good amount.  Runner beans had now reached the top of the canes even if they haven't filled out as much as usual so quite optimistic with them as plenty of blossom, just hope they pollinate with a bee shortage this year.
The raspberries are bearing a huge crop ripening nicely and all currant bushes are simarly laden. This will make up for the disappointment of the strawberries rotting before ripe, not helped by their extra large leaves shielding light and air. I removed a lot of these a couple of weeks ago when I realised what the problem was but too late as the ground was saturated already and with no sun to dry, they'd had it.
Potato blight hit us a month earlier than usual but a blight resistant variety is performing well and hasn't been affected yet so hopeful with them. They are Sarpo Mira and JBA potatoes say they are as blight resistant as one can get so we believe them.
All in all, although a lot of our group have been very disappointed with the way the season has gone, there are still good reasons why we should persevere with our love of grow your own, win some lose some?

Tango'd!!!

Well you know when you've been Tango'd!       Oh boy have I this year,  it must be a bad year when even the broad beans given up the ghost!   I usually get some chocolate spotting on them but this year it has decimated the crop and in fact they looked like they'd had potato blight.  This picture shows a mild case - I'm too ashamed to show you what mine actually looked like!

   Kept giving them an extra day but today decided that was it............pulled them all up and only had enough beans to make a couple of servings.    I still have beans in the freezer from last years crop.   I'm afraid the undergardener (who loves broad beans) will be disappointed  this year.  

However, as per usual, courgettes are doing well and trying a new varity this year for us Stiato D'Italia.   Nice stripey courgettes should look good in a stir fry.  Must remember to look out my courgette recipies again...........

Picked my first crop of beetroot too today, bit small but thought I'd better get them before the voles or slugs do. 

 Missed the Robins today, in fact there didn't seem to be much life in evidence on the plots - just a few hardy souls and several big fat green catapillars.   Shame my friend the Robin wasn't around he could have had a free lunch! 

Almost come to the end of the rhubarb season and have found some new recipies for using rhubarb so I'll probably put then on the cookery page later this week,   I love rhubarb pies and crumbles but with 7 mature plants I have had to find other things to do with it.   Changed two of the plants this year for Champagne Rhubarb ( used to be Pink Champagne)  had the first cutting and, after being told it was the 'bees knees' as far as taste was concerned,  wasn't too impressed with it, nice but nothing special.   Maybe it will get tastier as it matures.   Hope the weather is good on saturday - planning to turn the compost bin.  Had some good stuff last year but have been offered a pair of Newcastle bins, the undergardener has offered to make them for me bless his cotton socks!   Wonder if I'll find a family of voles like I did last year?  Had to relocate them but they didn't seem too impressed with my choice of field accomodation.  I don't mind sharing my plot with the wildlife but sometimes they just get greedy!

 As I'm writing this the sun is shining outside and the temp is soaring.............well we can all hope can't we?

Deep low pressures causing havoc

Since the last blog we have been hit by two deep low pressures causing havoc on our allotments. Gusty winds in excess of 60 mph have done a lot of damage on our site exposed to the South and South West. This is normally good for ripening fruit and growing bumper crops as we get the sun all day but this type of scenario is bad for us and according to the forecasters happens once in 50 years. Hmmm.
Molluscs are having a bumper feast as their numbers seem to have trebled to the norm and the wind damage is heartbreaking.

We take pride in being able to donate from now on until the end of the season, fruit, herbs and fresh vegetables to give a 'live' feel to the wonderful National Trust's Victorian kitchen in Lanhydrock house but this year it's not going to be so easy with everything well behind and damaged. The young lady who features on our website pages is a National Trust employee who collects whatever we have spare every 10 days or so and I have put a small pic here of our veg in situ.

It's midsummer's day in just over a week now and the evenings will start drawing in again. We have been robbed of the Summer this year, feel very sad especially for the tenants who work so hard to make their plots neat, tidy and productive.
On the plus side, our water barrels collecting rainwater off the shed roofs are full to overflowing!

Improvement must be round the corner, our site is too big to move there though.

Extreme weather problems

Although having had an allotment since 11 years old, I don't recall having such a poor, slow difficult start to the growing season. Seeds failed due to a very dry March, plants raised at home in the greenhouse/cold frame once transplanted were very slow to respond mainly due to cold nights (even a damaging frost Mid May, unusual here) and all in all a frustrating time on the plot. I worry about our 'newbies' who having been told how wonderful it is to grow your own on our very fertile site see their initial efforts not perform as they should. The tip that they would REALLY enjoy a picnic on their plot just isn't happening unless they take hot water bottles and weatherproofs. Even our seasoned allotmenteers are complaining about the weather wrecking the crops and are resowing and replanting new stock hoping they will behave properly this time.
Walking around the site yesterday, I was pleased to see that the recent rain had at last started to move seedlings of flowers and veg but I was apprehensive of the weather forecast for the next day which gave that Devon and Cornwall was going to bear the brunt of a deep low pressure storm which was 'unusual' for this time of year. Sure enough I woke to the sound of heavy rain and gusty Southerly winds which at the time of writing have become worse in the strength of wind. Good job my wife's hanging baskets are residing in the kitchen having been brought inside.
I am not looking forward to seeing the aftermath when I return to our allotment site as it was just starting to recover and now from looking at the damage to my own garden o/s the window, know that bean rows, Sweet Williams, Lupins,
Cosmos will all have suffered.

We are a tough lot and will rectify everything, with a smile of course.

On the positive side, we don't grow maincrop potatoes here due to constant mid season blight problems but yesterday we were visited by a chap who donated 50kg of maincrop Sarpo Mira for us to try. According to JBA potatoes, this are the best blight resistant tubers available so we will give them a try.
    

Important feature of our family friendly allotment site

We are lucky in that this allotment site is very popular with younger, family members who between them have 39 children and grandchildren. The emphasis is on teaching and learning BUT it is important to mix education of the journey in the way vegetables and fruit arrive at our dinner tables....... with play.
With this in mind, a dedicated children's area has been set aside which is well used, especially school holiday time and weekends. All toys are plastic and inspected weekly for damage, splits or dangerous edges when the large area's grass, (seed sown by the children,) is cut.

A wendy house is the base and 'lookout'. Old tyres with scores for kicking the ball through them are liked even if the balls do manage to go over the 8ft deer fence next to them. A sizeable piece of astro turf gives the children a chance to picnic on dry land and a very special picnic table made by workers at 'Resorce' recycling group means mum and dad can sit for a while next to the area and have lunch with Junior happily playing.

  We try to keep adding to the toys but is not always easy as money does not run to buying new all the time so it was a real bonus when Cathy came back from her brother with a whole car boot full of scooters, ride on toys, toy lawnmowers and a kitchen, mini wheelbarrow, etc, too much to list, if you read this David, a big thanks from our younger members.
Future plans this summer include a tent and a sandpit and we may organise a time capsule burying which should intrigue.
The 3 pictures show the area before the children sowed the grass seed in the first year, another at distance showing the whole area and another taken today displaying the new additions.

This area is regarded as an important feature of our site and I don't know of any other allotment site with this extra, email me if I'm wrong please, address on contact page.
 
I have been told several times that the children beg mum and dad to go to the allotments to see what's new which is a change from refusing because 'it's boring up there'.   

Time for the visiting of Flower shows!

Notice the hand prints on the fence?

Interesting working area

Well hot foot from the Malvern Spring Flower show and bursting with new ideas and plans for the plot!  The weather could have been better but the sun did shine in the afternoon.  But nothing could dampen the enthusiasm of the school children that had designed and produced their show gardens.   It was amazing what they did and they were so keen to tell us all about it too. I really liked 'George's Marvellous Garden' by Burlish Park Primary from Stourport-0n-Severn, naturally based on the Roald Dahl book of George's Marevellous Medicine.

Loved the funky orange chicken!

There was a very interesting talk about allotment tips from Terry Walton, of Gardening News fame, he has an allotment in Wales and good to hear that even the professionals have the same problems as I do.  

It was illuminating to hear his comments about the productiveness of courgettes!   As no doubt all of us that grow the said veg have been swamped with the little green/yellow darlings and not known what to do with them - well all recipies are gratefully recieved and will be put on our cookery page.  A prize for the one that uses most courgettes in one go!   I have managed this year to stop the under-gardener from growing more than 3 plants but only by letting him grow tomatoes this year.  

Last years's crop got blight but this year he's trying a blight resistant variety 'Fantasio', bought last year on our trip to the Suttons Nursery and an old variety called 'Auntie Madge' from the Heritage Seed Library.   http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/hsl/variety.

Good to see Hilda planted up on the plot and looking fantastic in her bunting.  Hope to be up the plot at the weekend, weather depending of course, still have lots to do.   Replace the carrot seeds that never made an appearance and check to see if the parsnip seeds have decided to show, mind you it has not been the best weather to sow seeds in-situ so think I will sow in modules this time.  Oh and may even go and watch the 'Olympic Torch ' as it passes through Bodmin, invited them to go via our allotments but they didn't think it was a good idea!

Looking out the window at the moment the sun is shining and the birds singing!   Who would have thought only yesterday the weather could be so foul!   In desperation I planted my sweet peas and Hurst Greenshaft peas, I remember them being a good doer last year, as they were bursting out of their pots.   If I get chance I’ll go up and check tomorrow how many survived the onslaught of wind and rain.   I know we now have a dingy (Hilda) on our site but if it floods up then we are in deep trouble!  Besides I feel ‘Hilda’ is past her sailing days and is best suited to housing the multitude of flowers that Ruth has planned for her. 

 My greenhouse can take no more plants/seeds, you can only just get through the door and definitely no space to swing a cat – mind you Reggie, my cat, would not take kindly to it either.   I’m sure he was a gardener in a past life as he spends lots of his time guarding the plants but my ungenerous under gardener would say  finding himself the warmest spot for sunbathing!   I’ve decided to grow several varieties of French beans this year, Purple Queen, Blue Lake, Magpie, Hutterite Soup and Black Canterbury and they are all growing on well but ........like a lot of people I've spoken to the runner beans are a dismal failure so far. 

Painted Lady has always been a dependable crop but this year only 10% germination in the first sowing.   Probably down to the cold, wet weather and the ground just hasn’t had time to warm up. Still like all optimistic allotmenteers I have done a second batch and eagerly await their germination and if they fail then we’ll just have to hope the 10% that did germinate give me a bumper crop.   Not expecting my Celeriac to germinate well I sowed loads and sod’s law all of them have come through!   Problem is I have an inability to throw plants away and am always stuck as to where to put them, my freezer is still housing several pounds of broad beans from last year.  So if you see some demented old lady on the side of the road at Lanhydrock trying to give away celeriac plants it's likely to be me!

 Got a good crop of lettuces as well  and a surfeit here is no problem as Jack & Paddy, my guinea pigs,  would walk over hot coals to get a tasty lettuce!  The only thing they like better is cucumber, the outdoor variety Marketmore did very well last year.  I tried a heritage variety but it was far too bitter for my liking so sticking to Marketmore again this year.

  

Good weather this evening so all being well hitting the plot tomorrow so will let you know how it goes.