BACK TO THE ALLOTMENT

 

                                                BACK TO THE ALLOTMENT

Although gardening is very much in focus just now as lockdown and lack of holidays abroad has meant many folk have been busy at home in their gardens. My daily exercise is most often in our garden around the house or up at City Road on the allotment plot. You then become very aware of how plants are growing and if success is down to your skills or just great weather.

Raspberry Polka

The early long sunny spell of dry weather followed by a fair bit of rain, and thunderstorms lasting a long time, has been brilliant for plant growth. However I always manage to keep a huge compost heap and practice green manuring on all spare land. Thus plants never go hungry, and combine it with an exceptional summer so now many plants have gone into supersonic growth. I have never seen so many different plants grow way beyond their allocated spacings. Courgettes are all massive and plentiful with spares going to fellow plot holders and the public boxes of free fruit and vegetables outside our gate on City Road. Pumpkins needed no encouragement from the courgettes.

Bramble Helen

They decided to take over a large section of the plot, invading adjacent dwarf French beans, strawberries, chrysanthemum bed, gladioli block, front flower border and leapt the fence to climb up my neighbours lilac tree. It now has a large fruit swelling up, six feet above the ground. Afraid the long knives came out to cut back a few of the massive pumpkin leaves where they were crowding out other crops. Potatoes were just as active unable to contain themselves as they expanded south into my rose bed which fortunately has tall roses. As these are maincrop varieties they wont get lifted till autumn. Casa Blanca my first early potato has all been lifted and gave a very heavy crop, so I wont need to lift my second early for a few more weeks.

The heavy rains that ended the long dry sunny spell did no favours for my onions as white rot affected a lot of them, so they all got lifted and dried off for storing.

All the brassicas have loved the growing weather, but a crop of large cauliflower Klapton were all ready at the same time. Anna however found a great recipe for roasted cauliflower soup both for immediate consumption as well as some for the freezer.

Apple Discovery

Swedes are growing very strongly but crowding out an adjacent row of parsnips, so again a few leaves have had to be removed.

Salads are normally grown as successional crops, but all had massive growth so each row of lettuce, rocket, radish and spring onion was more than we could use. I had one Lollo Rosa lettuce got a wee bit over excited and reached four feet tall, without going to seed, before I got round to cutting it.

Four feet tall Lettuce

First crop of peas suffered some pigeon damage, but second crop of pea Onward is making up for it.

Fruit crop harvesting continues with bramble Helen ready from early August, autumn raspberry Polka, autumn strawberry Flamenco and now I am picking my first figs. However the fig bush has put on a massive amount of growth so it will get pruned once cropping has finished. Large pots of

Cape gooseberries placed against a warm south facing wall, enjoying Scotland’s brief heatwave, are all producing a good crop of fruit, but none ready just yet. Apple Discovery is swelling up and turning bright red, so should be ready to pick by end of August.

Flowers in tubs, baskets and borders have put on a great show but are now needing a wee rest,

before they grow again and go into late summer with their second flush. Geraniums have stopped growing but hope they will recover with a late summer flush and back to strong growth for autumn cuttings. Oriental lilies and gladioli are now at peak flowering as they revel in the summer weather.

Wee jobs to do this week

Collect pansy seed

Seed pods saved from the best pansies has dried off, cleaned up and seeds extracted ready for sowing in mid summer. Once a good crop of strong young seedlings emerge they will be pricked off into cellular trays to grow on to produce sturdy plants for autumn planting in tubs, pots, baskets and borders looking ahead to a display next spring and summer.

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