Allotment Diary May 2007

Wednesday 30th May
Mum weeded on bottom plot. Dad cut grass and hoed a little. Dwarf french beans, peas, mangetout and broad beans are sprouting.

Saturday 26th May
Me, mum and dad went down in the afternoon and planted out the leeks. There were 72 Musselburgh and 82 Autumn giant. We then weeded and hoed between the potatoes to keep on top of it all. Mum harvested 3 cabbage and I decided to get an extra one to try keeping it hanging in the garage.

Thursday 25th May
Mum weeded on bottom plot and harvested several cabbages. Dad lit incinerator and burnt some weeds, he also cut grass, hand weeded strawberry bed, watered and laid some turf from home on top plot between shed and raspberries.

Monday 21st May
Mum weeded bottom plot, potted some raspberries and put them in the greenhouse. Mum and dad put two barrow loads of manure into the compost. Dad weedkiller-ed nettles in the raspberry patch. Dad made four cloches and eight ends and dug out some more fire ash.
In the evening me and mum went down and planted out 3 courgette, 2 pumpkin and 8 cauliflower. We covered the cauliflower with wire cloches and lettuce with fleece (because I'm not convinced it is slugs doing all the munching).

Saturday 19th May
I went down in the morning and planted out the sweetcorn. I had taken down the cauliflower and the courgette plants but it kept raining heavily so I was dodging the showers in the shed.

Friday 18th May
Mum weeded on bottom plot, lit incinerator and dad started making cloches from rolls of wire.

Wednesday 16th May
Mum and dad bought 3 rolls of wire to make more cloches. Also bought herbs (chives and oregano).

Tuesday 15th May
Mum and dad planted one full double row of Peas (Hurst Greenshaft) and one full double row of Mangetout (Oregon Sugar Pod). Mum weeded on bottom plot and burnt a little in the incinerator and dad weed killered around edges plus some couch grass and dandelions. Dad dug over the soil next to the salad leaf and raspberries. Harvested a spring cabbage. Planted a replacement Purple Sprouting Broccoli as one had been devoured.

Monday 14th May
Mum and dad planted two double short rows of broad beans, about 150 beans in total. Planted two full rows of dwarf/bush beans (The Prince and Tendergreen) about 70 of each. Harvested spring cabbage.

Sunday 13th May
I planted the lettuce, leaf salad, spinach and rocket with mum. Dad continued digging over the bottom plot and weeding out the fire area as well as raking over where we had put our footprints and compacted the soil. We harvested some rhubarb and a spring cabbage.

Saturday 12th May
Me, mum and dad went down mid afternoon, dad did some digging over and weeding on the bottom plot. Me and mum planted out the Beetroot and planted another row the same length as the seedlings from in the greenhouse. This went 2/3 of the way across a plot. We also planted out the Kohl Rabi and sowed another row the same length as the seedlings from the greenhouse. The rows went from the top of the plot to the compost stillages.

Friday 11th May
Mum and dad weeded on bottom plot. Harvested spring cabbage.

Tuesday 8th May
Mum and dad weeded on bottom plot. Harvested spring cabbage.

Monday 7th May
Bank holiday today so I am lucky enough to spend most of the day at the allotment. Me, mum and dad went down in the morning and took lunch with us. We were there until just before tea time.
Me and mum weeded and broke up the soil on the top plot before planting could start. I planted out the summer cabbage (Kilaxy and Capricorn about 45 altogether), Brussel Sprouts (6 best), Purple Sprouting Broccoli (6 best) and Calabrese (6 best). I had planted lots of seed in trays, pricked out the best into pots and then selected the best from the 8 or so in pots to go into the ground at the allotment. The spare will be kept on in the greenhouse for a while in case any fail. We then set about covering with wire cloches, we used all of them and could have really done with some more.
I watered the Brassicas we had planted out in and watered where we planted the parsnips and carrots.
Mum did some more weeding around the top plot.
Dad put the good compost from the large stillage in between the japanese onions and then dug from one bin into the other until they were at the same height. We might put some of the manure into the bins to rot down at some time. Where the fire has been on the bottom plot dad started to weed out any bits that were left and put the ash on the plot. The soil is very clay on one plot and it should help to break it up along with the manure. Any weeds that were coming up were burnt in the incinerator to stop them growing.
It then rained quite heavily so we called it a draw and packed things up to go home. The plan is to put the black plastic compost bins where the fire was.

Sunday 6th May
Me, mum and dad walked down in the afternoon and I watered the parsnip and carrot seeds while mum and dad weeded and did other little jobs (dad measured the half way point on the bottom plot). We also had a cuppa using the cooker that we bought.
We harvested a spring cabbage and some rhubarb for tea.

Saturday 5th May
I pricked out the tomatoes that we need. I went for 16 of each variety which should provide us with a lot of tomatoes! In the evening me, mum and dad walked down after tea and watered the parsnip and carrot seed rows.

Friday 4th May
Mum and dad weeded on bottom plot. Fire was still smouldering. Watered seed rows.

Thursday 3rd May
Dad fitted catches to greenhouse doors then weeded on bottom plot. Mum lit fire and it burnt quite well. Mum weeded around the onions. Watered seed rows.

Wednesday 2nd May
Mum and dad weeded on bottom plot. Harvested a cabbage. Watered seed rows.

Tuesday 1st May
Mum put pumpkins and chilli peppers into larger pots. Mum sowed 2 rows of carrots, Autumn King 2 and F1 Eskimo. Harvested a cabbage. Dad mowed grass and tidied around. Mum and dad bought more water trays and 3 sacks of potting compost. Took 2 sacks of compost down.