Went along to the local stables at the weekend to collect some manure. They charge 50p per bag or for £1 you can take all you want. so we took my work car and filled it with 21 large sacks of well rotted horse manure.
It was just enough to tip onto the top of my empty allotment beds – hopefully the worms will pull it down into the soil and turn it all in so that by the time spring comes around we have well recovered beds – all ready for a good crop of summer veg.

I still have another collection to make this year I think – It’s looking like I will soon need to pull out and eat the brussel sprouts, cabbages and brocolli. We’ll see. If we keep getting this good weather down here we’ll have nothing left in the winter.

Anyway – as the summer veg has been removed from the majority of the beds now it is time to start planning any changes to the layout of the plot. Time to lay out the paths a bit better and make sure that the central path goes right to the back of the plot now – having a few full width beds this year was quite annoying.

anyway – here is a little picture of the plot with the newly manured beds on the left. still a few beans going on the right.

One lovely looking dark Green pumpkin has emerged from amongst the runner beans – I had given up on this plant – I thought it had withered away but has suddenly started crawling around the base of the wigwams.
I’ll be keeping an eye in this and probably making sure that it doesn’t try to produce any more fruits – as I would be amazed if there is enough nutrients in the soil after the runner beans have depleted it.
The largest pumpkin I have been able to produce so far was about the size of a lawn bowls ball (not a bowling ball) so I am hoping to better that at least – I would love to try to grow more next year – i love pumpkins and they store so easily.

The second wave of sunflowers are now flowering – These ones have much larger petals – and smaller centres. Some of them are about 11 feet tall.
they create a bright colourful welcome each time I arrive at the plot.

I finally had a bit of time and inclination to complete the shed. I filled the hole in the front of the roof – with rusty steel slats that I found thrown away outside an exhibition hall. I have also removed the polycarbonate window that was on the side of the shed and replaced that with more rusty strips – to make it so that the whole shady side is clad in the same thing.
I’m quite happy with the final result – its quite odd looking and i will probably make a few more amendments – but it is at least waterproof now and has a lockable door.
I am going to start removing items soon though as i have heard that the autumn and early winter is a bad time for break-ins.

after 2 weeks away it seems that the Rocket, Mizuna and Mustard have decided to shoot to flower – and before going on holiday I had only harvested about half a dozen mustard leaves..
I love the Rocket flowers but am not so keen on the Mizuna flowers close up – I guess the next step is to dig them out and re-seeded for a new batch.

We have a second wave of Mizuna coming through – but I had not planted any more Rocket – I think I used up all my seeds in one go.

The plot is looking nice and colourful though.

My bright purple Orach has reared its head about 2 weeks after planting.
They are looking very healthy and bright – but I think I may need to get some more netting to protect them from the local pests. I have built a few more frames to staple the netting to but need to get hold of some more netting.
I’ll take some pictures next time I get to go up to the allotment.

8th July – Picked a small bunch of the Orach leaves for a salad yesterday – along with the Rocket, Perpetual Spinach and Rocket – it made a great salad mix – went well with some some of my dressing and a sprinkle of roasted Pumpkin seeds and Parmesan cheese.

Here is how the Orach is currently looking – and I have just read that it will produce leaves until the first frosts and that it will grow to about 1m tall and can self seed if the seeds are left to dry out.

Spent 4 hours of Saturday at the plot. Got a lock installed on the shed door and built another brassica net.
We did lots of weeding too – they really are trying their best to take over. The bindweed needs constantly pulling out – but the roots only come out half of the time I am starting to think i am on to a losing battle by just yanking them out.

The runner beans and courgettes are all taking off now – there are flowers on the courgettes and the beans are finally spiralling up the canes.

One of our raspberries seems to have bitten the dust and we can only assume that too much manure was left around the base of the stem.

I took a couple of pictures on our departure…

In September my son is going to start at a school that has an allotment plot in the same site as ours. I wandered past the other day on my way out of the gates and was struck by how great it looks.  It seems like they take it seriously – although I have not seen any children on the plot since we got ours 3 months ago. But then again – I am not there very often on week days as I have a full time job.

I love the coloured balls on top of the canes.

And they have a great insect tower too.

Here are a few pictures anyway.

We met some friends outside the allotments yesterday evening – so that they could get our advice on which of the available plots they should choose. There are about three 5 rod plots being offered as well as some half sized plots.

Whilst looking round we realised that the plots on the other side of the track from ours (just up hill about 100m) have a sea view. You can see all the way to Hastings. I am jealous now – but it’s good that our friends are getting a plot too. we’ll have more of a reason to have a BBQ.
Also – getting to know a few more of the other allotmenteers. A really nice old fella called Reg as well as Simon, my neighbour that I had never seen at all yet until this last weekend.

Transplanted a few brassicas at the weekend.
2 rows of Savoy Cabbages, a row of Purple Sprouting broccoli and a row of Brussel Sprouts. I have made every effort to protect these from the slugs and wind and birds by placing a net over them – although it was a bit of a rushed last minute affair as I was leaving.