Snow 2010. Again !

Snow !
Some quick shots of the recent snow, over a foot fell in 24 hours and coated everything in a nice blanket of white !

 

Birr Vember !

Down the plot yesterday and I note that the first frosts have hit here in Caterham, quite late in the year I though until I was corrected by the old hats on the plot.

The green manure has spurted up and appears to give a decent cover to the empty spaces, fingers crossed this will mean less weeds come spring !

The onions and garlic have all ready started to sprout, and the leeks are well underway developing nice thick stalks.

I have finished moving the strawberries and raspberry canes, and a number of flower bulbs have been set in the borders to brighten up the plot for next year.  A further job completed was the cutting down of the artichoke stalks so the winter winds don't pull up the tubers like last year. All in all not a bad days work.

Berry berry much.

A quick update and early look at the new strawberry bed under development, there simply was to much grass to deal with this season around the plants so I hope this will help keep the weeds & grass down.

Brrrrr October !

October 2010

What a load of...

Manure! After having the whole plot dug over and weeded in the last few afternoons, I have sowed green manure ( rye grass & trefoil/Clover) in all the empty space left after harvest to improve and maintain plot seven's soil.

I hope that they will be forming a green carpet that stops weeds colonising and prevent nutrients from being washed away.

Last season I had cast some green manure in the vacant bed and I am well impressed in the improvement in soil quality.  So fingers crossed.

Blubs & holes

Well,  I had a spare hour today before the boss got home so I ducked down to the plot and got 50 garlic cloves in. They came from this years harvest , so fingers crossed. I hope they do well with the 50 red onion and 50 shallots that are neighbours. I plan to have rows of marigolds between them in the new year. I really like all the plots I have seen with them this year and they can't harm keeping the bugs and weeds down! I also removed the last if the sweetcorn and I placed the shafts in next years bean trench for added composting, hopefully this should give an added boost that the beans didn't have this time. On Sunday I finished putting down a small decked area at the front of the shed. I plan to have the boss sit here during the summer months to supervise, I was told to make it nice with a chair and pimms on tap !!!

Lots of digging...

Bounty

Harvest time is by far the most rewarding of times at the allotment. The boss and I have spent the day picking another load of the fruits of our labour . Marrow,beans,potatoes,carrots,spring onions and lettuce has been our targets for today. With the weeks "shopping" at the allotment collected we retired home to a lovely bottle of red wine while putting away and storing the food. I have already started to plan where next years garlic, etc are to go and I have learned a lot this year. Tomorrow we will be harvesting half the sweetcorn ! Yum.

Garlic

 

Marrows

 

Beans

 

Lifted the garlic yesterday and they have spent the day drying in the brilliant sunshine, I have taken them home today to string up and dry further, the Marrows have started to "fatten" and the Beans are still climbing and I have taken some harvest all ready from them. Yum !

Sweetie corn !