The last planting of 2026

It's continued to be mild and dry for the most part, and at the allotment my cucumbers and tomatoes continue producing, albeit more slowly.  I've started harvesting early leeks, fennel and winter radishes;  the last two only went down at the end of July/start of August.  They're all bulbing up nicely regardless.  It probably helped that this large bed received a huge amount of well composted horse manure in spring:  I grew Charlotte potatoes here earlier this year.  Incidentally, though probably unrelated, it's the only vegetable bed not mulched with wood chips this year (we mulched the potatoes with straw/manure from the stables on site, some of which still remains on the bed).

The whole family turned out to the allotment on Sunday to plant the garlic bed;  I'd been forking this bed gradually after clearing away the courgettes aka zucs and squashes--it was full of bindweed and couch grass runners.  We raked off the wood chips, forked it over again, planted the (newly bought) garlic cloves in rows and recovered with the original wood chip mulch.  I'll try to get a couple more wheelbarrow loads of chips to top it up too.  I know we didn't get all the roots, but if I can keep it well mulched, any remaining weeds and grass should come out a lot easier when we harvest the garlic next May/June.

The son and I planted a sack of daffodil bulbs in our tiny neglected front garden this weekend;  he made some trenches in the grass around the edges of the lawn next to the driveway and street, then we just put down the bulbs, packed fairly close together.  Then we tried to put the original clumps of grass back as they were.  This is the third year running we've put down new daffodil bulbs at home, but I haven't put them in the front for years and years (and those seem to have all disappeared now).  Obviously daffodils aren't edible, but they make me so happy in the spring, especially when everything else is miserable.

My kitchen garden is much less orderly than my allotment:  it's a tangle of weeds with some random small patches of veg, such as a couple of immature cabbages next to the twenty or so pickling cucumber vines, with a kohlrabi or two hiding amongst several tall lettuces gone to seed, next to another fifteen or so strawberry plants, next to...etc.  Everything is still producing just a little bit so I'm not quite ready to clear away--though it really needs it!  So untidy.

Bringing home the squash, harvesting and clearing away for winter, the last apples

It was time to pick all the squashes at the allotment:  13 in total, though possibly I missed one or two;  I picked two from the chicken yard which in addition to the squash vines, is overflowing with nettles so I didn't investigate very closely.  That big green one is certainly a monster!  The yellowy/creamy one is the next biggest in size, but doesn't feel as heavy as the third biggest one (orange).  I offered to lend my biggest one to my coworker for her Guess the Weight contest but she was already given one by someone else.  My largest is larger than that one! but smaller than The Big One in my estimation.

Too much to carry!  The son wheeled this very heavy burden home (four blocks away), September 2026

It's a little earlier than I usually pick squashes, but the leaves had mostly died back and I was worried they'd go moldy on the vines if I left them.  It's happened to me before.  They easily snapped off the vines without cutting, so I know they were ripe enough.  There are still two self-sown squashes growing in the kitchen garden with green leaves and vines--I'll pick them later on.  In the meantime, the allotment ones are on a mat in my living room to cure;  they'll either remain there for winter storage, or possibly move to the windowsill for display purposes.  I expect to eat them over the next six months.

After pulling the squash vines, I then cleared away almost all the zucs aka courgettes and have been forking over that large bed for grass and bindweed roots.  It was newly sheet mulched in the spring and I plan on getting some new garlic into half of it and remulching the whole thing with more wood chips.  After I've at least done one full pass with the garden fork for unwanted roots, that is--it's pretty grassy.  Can you see my compost heap at the middle right of the photo below?  It's in front of that gray shed and behind a white box (it looks like a big pile of vines);  I should try turning it to get it to break down quicker.

Cleared away the courgettes and squash;  still working on the grass, September 2026

Still so many cucumbers!  I've missed a couple too, now going orange;  these will be saved for seed.  Actually this variety, Marketmore, is still good when a little overripe, though it needs peeling and deseeding by that point.  I'm still picking a few at home (the earlier sown vines), and a few pickling cucumbers too.

The last of the apples came off my two trees at home:  Laxton Fortune and Sparta.  Only a few Sparta apples this year, and unfortunately quite a lot of fruit dropped off both trees.  Still, we got several large baskets worth and what is left will keep for a few weeks more.  I've made a couple of apple crumbles, the son made himself a jug of juice, and we've all been trying to eat our apple a day. 

Feed the soil

I was talking to a fellow allotmenter, just two plots away from mine, who complained it had not been a good growing summer for her.  I certainly tried to not to show it, but I had a rather self satisfied feeling at that.  True, it's been far too much work, but at least I've earned a fleeting moment of superiority about my yields this year.  I gave her a cucumber.

Why has mine in particular been so productive?  Here's what I think:  

• The inordinate amount of sheet mulching I've done over the last eight years, involving copious amounts of straw and horse manure
• Additionally, the very thick mulch of wood chips covering nearly every bed this year

The annual (or even twice annual) addition of all that organic material when sheet mulching has made my soil incredibly rich and moisture retentive.  Even though I've been fighting (and not winning) against couch grass this whole time, my beds have been gradually getting more and more productive, as documented on this blog.  I've been using sheet mulch as a strategy against the grass:  to knock it back long enough for my transplants to get a foothold.  Then do it all over again at the end of the season when the grass takes back over.

Wood chips have been a game changer;  until last year I would cover my bare soil with straw from the horse manure pile on site.  It served its purpose of keeping in the moisture but also had some drawbacks:  enhanced slug habitat, quick to decompose (needing regular top ups), and full of weed and grass seeds.  When we began getting free wood chips dumped at the site last summer, many people spread them on their paths;  I went a step further and started deep mulching my beds, starting with just a couple as an experiment.  Truly, it's been pivotal.  It keeps in the moisture like the straw mulch did, but has no seeds.  It also lasts much longer before needing a top up, and slugs don't hide in it as well.  Maybe the woodlice hide in it, but I had woodlice when I used straw mulch too.  

I suspect if I had access to wood chips and not horse manure/straw at the beginning of my allotment journey in 2018, my soil might not be as excellent as it is now (I still have access to both).  I'm also a more experienced allotmenter than I was then, even though I had already been gardening for years by that point.  Growing veg in a couple small beds is far different from keeping a full allotment ticking over year round, and I've learned how to do this little by little.  My overarching goal has been full self reliance in vegetables:  I've never been so close to achieving this, and as well as my hard work and experience, the vast improvement in my soil has been a key factor, in my opinion.

The son was very impressed when I went up to show him (it's a single bunch!), August 2026

Whose idea was this, anyway?

Help, I'm drowning in vegetables!  The son cried off his potato digging duties at the weekend (only one row left of Charlottes to come up), so the rest of us went to the allotment on Sunday to bring back five Savoy cabbages, about a dozen zucs, two fennel and a handful of purple snap peas;  this completely filled my two bags, one an extra large canvas bag.  The husband declined to pick any tomatoes, saying there was no room for them and he'd get them in the evening when he went back to water--after I got home with my heavy heavy bags (the husband took the daughter to the park), I was so glad he'd refused!  I spent about two hours dealing with what I had:  soaking/washing, blanching, freezing, drying and kimchi-ing.  

The majority of the potato bed has been resown now, with beets, carrots, turnips, swede, and two kinds of winter radish.  Some of the seed was old so I really oversowed the bed, just in case.  The beets, turnips and pink radishes ought to be ok.  But if there are big gaps in the bed, I have some winter/spring brassica seedlings to transplant in about a month's time, too.  

Still hoping for some rain, though thankfully it wasn't blazing hot again last week (it's forecast for this week instead).  Our washing machine was out of commission for almost a month, so there's been very little graywater for my kitchen garden until this week (finally!).  I save the water from washing/cooking vegetables, but that just about covers the planters, not the beds.  I've had to drag the hose out a couple of times for my cucumbers and French beans.  

Actually my allotment has much better water retention than my kitchen garden, most likely due to the annual sheet mulch (cardboard and straw/manure over plants and weeds)--my kitchen garden gets a top up of chicken manure once a year, but usually just one bed per year.  I should give it a thick layer all over this coming winter.  Unlike at the allotment which is mostly deep mulched with wood chips, I've had to leave the weeds in the soil in the kitchen garden, just to keep the soil shaded. 

Speaking of hot and dry, I picked my very first aubergines/eggplants last week--I can't believe they've actually grown and ripened on my patio.  They're all in large pots in a sheltered place right next to the house;  the pots are filled with composted chicken manure and a light topping of commercial potting compost.  I made ratatouille with the first batch, and steamed the second batch and seasoned with soy sauce/vinegar/sesame oil--this was even more delicious than the ratatouille, and some of it went onto homemade pizza.  I've got my eye on the next batch, just about ready to pick again.  What's more, I have cucumbers after all that drama:  I've started a jar of gherkins in the fridge, and the daughter and I have been munching the first salad cucumbers.

Let's get it done before summer's over

My summer break off work at last (I work at a school), and maybe I'll have a little more time to devote to my food producing engine--I've got six weeks before the kids and I start back.  I've been racing just to keep up with everything these past couple weeks, particularly since the zucs started.  But it's not just them;  it's also lettuce, French beans, kohlrabi, cabbage, komatsuna (similar to pak choi, which I also have), Charlotte potatoes, snap peas, cherry tomatoes, beets.  I've also been desperately trying to keep a handle on the couch grass and bindweed in my wood chip mulch--I can't let them take it over.

Me at the allotment (zucs in the foreground), July 2026

I'm dehydrating zuc shreds daily, freezing snap peas, putting potatoes into paper sacks;  I've made komatsuna kimchi, made kohlrabi/beet sauerkraut, and I'm cooking up a storm.  We are a family of four:  we can eat a lot, right?  Preservation is a high priority:  I'm unofficially following the Vegetable Challenge (not buying any veg except onions--and even these only rarely) and I'll need vegetables in winter too.

The allotment spoils of the day (heavy!), July 2026

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As daytime temps dropped by about 5C (down from the high 20s), I took a chance and started my late season seeds in pots:  Chinese cabbage, spring cabbage, kohlrabi, lettuce, fennel, pak choi, komatsuna.  Some of these are second or third sowings, but will probably be the last this year.  Most of these have already started popping up, to be pricked out sometime this week.

I'm also sowing my last half a packet of beet seeds in the potato bed now it's been cleared;  probably some winter radish and turnip seed too.  This bed was generously mulched with well composted manure in early spring when the potatoes went down;  I'll gently fork it over to remove any obvious couch grass runners (a constant battle on my allotment) before sowing, and will cover over with insect mesh to protect from birds/cats/slugs/caterpillars, my usual strategy.  I should be able to take the mesh off by around mid September, as the white butterflies diminish.

Plants and weeds at the allotment

I feel like I should be at the tipping point now:  moving from the planting phase to the harvesting phase.  But not quite yet.  It feels like summer:  lots of light, lots of heat, and for the last week no school (half term holiday but back at school this week).  However, the summer crops aren't producing yet and I'm not quite finished planting.  

I pulled back the insect mesh to weed cabbages and plant next year's purple sprouting broccoli at the allotment, May 2026

Of the sad little cucumbers I planted out, most seem to be still alive--maybe lost two out of around 20.  So far, that is.  Using different potting soil, I planted a tray each of the two varieties, pickling and salad, in the hopes they might grow more successfully than the first several attempts.  I can see a couple starting to emerge, but only time will tell if they'll fare any better.  

I spent a couple hours at the allotment over the weekend, planting out broccoli and squash and getting weeds out of my wood chip sheet mulch.  Also topping up the wood chips here and there.  We took the chickens back home a week ago as the forecast was for 30 C, much too hot to go without shade;  unlike at the allotment, our chicken yard at home is in full shade most of the day, so they've been keeping as cool as possible there instead.  In just one week of their being away, several squash seedlings have sprouted in their allotment yard.  They grew there last year too.

Zucs and squashes newly planted in plastic rings;  kohlrabi and cabbages under mesh;  me still digging at the allotment, May 2026

It's been fairly easy to loosen weeds out of the wood chips with a garden fork, no real digging required.  I'll need to keep on top of the weeding though:  I can re-sheet mulch on top of a bed of straw mulch, but I don't want to sheet mulch on top of wood chips as they don't break down quickly enough.  I will, however, keep topping up with wood chips, weeds or not--as long as the council keep providing them on site.

Busy: planting, weeding, tidying, top dressing, harvesting

Two thirds of my allotment with purple sprouting broccoli at the centre foreground;  the other third contains the chicken yard, raspberries and artichokes (not shown), April 2026

Photos!  But don't expect this trend to continue.  

A lot going on right now, both in my personal life and in my garden and allotment.  So busy.  I make my food producing engine a top priority though.  Not only is it important to me to have as much homegrown food as possible, I also enjoy the whole process.  It's my beloved hobby.  This time of year I'm in the garden as much as possible, and at the allotment every day.  I'm still planting out my transplants, bed by bed.

Tiny quince tree in the garden, May 2026

I spent the last two weekends with a pair of leather gloves, pulling out all the nettles from the edges of my garden;  I also did as much of the encroaching brambles as I could (these are harder to pull out but cutting them only encourages growth).  The whole garden looks much tidier now.  Most of it is given to perennials and ornamentals, with good habitat for birds and other creatures;  a certain amount of disorder is therefore encouraged, but I want to be able to enjoy the full extent of it too, without getting stung or prickled.

Another job:  digging chicken manure out of the now vacant yard--chickens currently having their summer vacation at the allotment--and spreading it all around.  It's gone at the base of every fruit tree and rose bush, around some of the garden beds, and anywhere else that looks needy.  There's a whole year's worth of manure there:  plenty to share.  The son and I emptied the coop too, then dusted it thoroughly with diatomaceous earth, to protect against mites.  After mowing the lawn, he put the grass clippings in the coop and nest boxes to dry out into straw;  it will be dry and ready for chickens to move back in after their summer break.

It's never flowered before;  will we get our first quince? May 2026

The purple sprouting broccoli at the allotment is just about finished and I'm pulling up the plants one by one, stripping the leaves to eat like kale;  I've frozen a lot too.  I've also begun regularly picking the first new season lettuce (this is in the kitchen garden), as well as new chives, parsley and garlic.  Though the maincrop garlic isn't ready yet, I've found some volunteers that got missed last year and am cooking them whole: very pungent.  I'm still hopeful for some spring cabbages soon, growing bigger;  and one spring cauliflower--the rest already matured, back in autumn and winter.  Oh, and there is still one squash left from last autumn, alone on its mat in my living room:  time to cut it open.

Experiments with wood chips

It's been windy and a bit too cold this past week;  despite some rain, the wind has really dried the soil a lot.  Our walk to the daughter's school is far less muddy through the country park than it has been all winter.  

I'm continuing to sheet mulch the allotment, piece by piece.  As I mentioned previously, some of the mulch is wood chips, only available on site since last summer.  As an experiment, I heavily mulched my Musselbrugh leeks in the autumn and I notice their bed is the least weedy.  There is probably about six inches of wood chips on this bed, with the leeks growing through out of the soil underneath.  Their stalks were lovely, long and white (normally I don't earth them up or do anything special to blanch them) and surprisingly no sign of allium leaf miner.  This pest has always attacked my leeks and garlic, but maybe the deep mulch prevented them finding the leeks this year?  The garlic bed is right next to the leek bed and it only got a light mulch of straw, but I won't know if the garlic bulbs are affected till I harvest them in June.

I also noticed some nettles starting to grow at the very edge of the leek bed next to the path, where the wood chips were only put down shallowly.  As I was pulling them out, the few nettles in the deep mulch only took a tiny tug to extract a long root, whereas the shallow mulch nettles had a very firm grasp and didn't budge.  I'll definitely keep this in mind as I continue my wood chip mulch experiments.

We're just starting our two week spring break from school and work--even the husband has the time off, but unluckily he also can't walk due to an ankle fracture.  So I won't be getting any work out of him--the son will have to step up a bit.  There's plenty to do both at home in the garden and at the allotment and it needs to be done now, before spring is over.

Sheet mulching and mulching

I've begun sheet mulching again at the allotment.  Truly, I should have been doing it all winter, as my beds emptied.  But you know:  rain, dark, cold, etc.  I didn't.  Technically it's still all of the above, except possibly a little less dark;  however, I've begun at last.  

Actually, I'm experimenting with some wood chips for mulch this year.  The site has always had stables with a manure pile, my go to for mulch (soiled straw);  this has a tendency to sprout new weeds and harbor bugs and slugs.  I anticipate there will be no weed seed hiding in the wood chips, though I can't speak for the pests--possibly woodlice may be a problem.  Still, I'm trying it with the new (and hopefully continuing) supply of wood chips next to the manure pile.  Many people at the allotments have been using the wood chips for their paths.  If I see my next door neighbor there, I may ask her what she thinks about them on the path between us, too.

I don't really mulch at home in the kitchen garden, though every year I dig out some extra good compost from the chicken yard to spread on one bed, in rotation.  I also divvy out the less composted first layer to my fruit trees, as a top dressing.  Though before I start, I need to tidy up the beds:  weeding, clearing spent plants, and so on.  I already let the ducks have a week of slug hunting, but have locked them out again as they trampled a few of my emerging spring bulbs.  I may let them and the chickens in briefly once those flowers are done--if there's time;  I may start planting the beds first.

Tackling the artichokes and making the most of green tomatoes

It was half term week off school and since I work at a school (in the kitchen) I had it off with the kids.  The husband was able to take the week off from his work too, so we had a rare week off all together.  What did we do?  Very little gardening!  

But on a sunny Sunday morning, our last day off together, we all spent two hours doing some work at the allotment.  The first job was digging out artichokes and moving some of them to the back of the plot.  The rest got cut down to the ground and we dragged a piece of carpet and another piece of rubber sheeting to cover over them (both pieces had been smothering weeds at the back where we moved the artichokes to).  Then a lot of wood chips to cover the now bare soil at the back, and my collection of pots and planters filled with overwintering onions on top of the carpet and sheeting.

I will probably have to leave that carpet and sheeting in place all of next growing season, to make sure it kills off what's left of the artichokes--they are very vigorous and we had so much plant matter to clear away first.  I prepared a tall stack of old woody stems to make a bonfire later.

On the same day I cleared away the remaining plum tomato plants and collected the fruits:  about eight pounds of mainly green ones.  We put down some large cardboard sheets over their bed (right in front of the old artichoke bed) for later sheet mulch.  We'd already done a lot of physical work and couldn't face digging out more mulch to pile on top:  soon.

In addition to the tomatoes, I also brought home another five cauliflowers, the last few bolting fennel bulbs and a pile of achocha.  Oh and a container of wood chips from the pile on site to pour into our chicken yard (I'm trying to collect some at least once a week to soak up the mud).  Once home, I started washing and weighing my veg and spent another hour making 6.6 L of green salsa, to ferment.  Although it's mostly tomatoes, I also put in most of the fennel, half of the cauliflowers and all of the achocha:  all chopped into a chunky paste.  Plus a good amount of salt, a handful of minced garlic and 10 small red chilies from a pot on my patio.  

That's pretty much it for my allotment jobs until spring.  Well, other than routine sheet mulching of bare beds and harvesting winter crops.  Maybe about half of the veg beds are still in production.  At home, none of my beds are clear yet, though I'm more than halfway through my early leeks (the late leeks are at the allotment).  Autumn is winding down and so am I.

From tarp to asparagus

How is this grass still here?  September 2025

We had a nice autumn day on Sunday--equinox I think?--and so the whole family went to the allotment to plant out the asparagus at last.  I grew them from seed in the spring and they have been waiting patiently in their pots until now.  

First we pulled out the cherry tomatoes from their planters at the top of the allotment:  all the remaining (mostly green) fruits came home with us to make fermented green salsa.  Then we moved the planters back down to the bottom of the allotment where they will stay until spring, possibly planted with overwintering onions (haven't decided yet).  

Then it was time to pull up the tarp and carpets where the planters had been, revealing a lot of worms and surprisingly a strip of green grass.  The daughter "rescued" all the worms while I dug out the grass;  the husband helped me prepare three rows and plant out while the son pulled out bramble vines at the back of us (not shown).  

I mulched with some wood chips (from a pile near the stables on site) and the son helped me pull the carpets back, to keep the weeds/grass from resprouting.  We moved the tarp onto the path at the side (again, not shown) and weighted it down with bricks.  The path is between us and our allotment neighbor and we generally keep it covered with pieces of carpet to keep the grass from growing--however, sometimes I need that carpet elsewhere.  I don't have enough pieces for both the path and the beds, and it's handy to cover really grassy beds with carpet over winter.  However, I'll be sheet mulching in places too, having collected some large boxes from my work in the summer.

There are still a few jobs to do as we wind down towards winter:  harvesting and clearing away the last of the in-ground tomatoes and squashes, planting out the garlic, and moving the artichokes to the very back of the allotment.  The asparagus are close to the back, but there is a disused space between them and the boundary fence, full of pieces of wood/pallets/wire/other allotment detritus.  It's mainly growing brambles and nettles, but I think it would be much better to grow artichokes. 

A family affair:  asparagus finally planted, September 2025

Rain, and therefore more work

Rain!  The wider back garden, seen from the son's window, July 2025

The evening after writing the previous post, I watched a youtube video (but I can't find the link) about the hosepipe ban from a vlogger with an allotment who lives in my region (with the same water company);  people in the comments suggested visiting the water company's website to confirm than hosepipes can in fact be used in this region for watering food crops.  On the website, the company goes on to ask that a watering can be used if possible but that people won't be fined for using a hose for this purpose.  

I'd already rolled up my hose at the allotment and have been watering by hand this past week--I'm able and willing to do it at this point.  However, we've had a change in the weather:  it's been raining--and typically, it happened the day our school summer break started!  The last rain we had, about two and a half weeks ago, did top up my barrels but didn't much penetrate into the soil.  I planted out some autumn/winter cauliflowers at the allotment last week--clearing away the turnips to make room--and the topmost cm (or less) was damp but under that was pretty darn dry.  Thankfully, after a prolonged heavy rain on Saturday, the soil is moist and soft, perfect for seed sowing:  which I already did at home, moving seven random strawberry plants (and clearing lots of weeds) from the herb bed, and resowing with daikon radish.

Now I can get on with my succession planting at the allotment, which I've put off because of the heat;  I've carried on succession planting at at home as I'm able to water by hand several times a day if needed.  I'm ready to clear away the last of the new potato bed (been digging and eating these gradually) and the snap pea bed (left to dry for seed).  Perhaps I'll also pull out the rest of the kohlrabi and resow/replant their bed too.  

At the allotment I'll sow at least one more bed of beet seed, and one of winter radish (the large cooking type, not the little salad ones).  I also have some asparagus grown from seed;  I need to decide on a long term location for these.  At first I dismissed the allotment because of the ongoing couch grass infestation--but then I reconsidered:  is that really such an issue with asparagus?  Can I make a raised bed for them, perhaps?  Or can I maybe just keep sheet mulching around them as needed to keep the grass at bay?

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In other gardening news, I'm so swamped with vegetables right now it's almost overwhelming.  I reminded the husband about the summer it all became too much, though this time thank goodness it's not for the same reason (I don't think I could handle doing that again!);  this time it's the sheer volume of work I've been doing.  

I watched another youtube video (below) about self sufficiency in the veg garden, and this man, Huw Richards, estimated it took about four hours of work per week.  I would say that's roughly what I've been doing in the active months--mid spring to say mid autumn--but I would have to add that's not all the work that's required.  It takes me a minimum of half an hour every day for preparing, cooking, preserving, etc, in addition to the actual work of growing the food in the first place.  Sometimes I'm at it for two hours in a day, if I've got a lot ready all at once, for instance when I did the big kimchi marathon two weeks ago--or when I picked, pitted and froze all the Morello cherries from my little tree.  I like growing, I like to cook;  but really, the sheer volume of it is getting away from me again.

 

Rain please!

Our area (and many others) started a hosepipe ban on Friday;  we are not allowed to water with a hose until it's lifted--probably not till autumn at the earliest.  On Thursday evening, the husband took up one of our 220 L water barrels--it usually lives under the garage gutter--and put it at the top of the allotment where the pots of cherry tomatoes are, and filled it up with the hose from the water supply at the bottom.  He also gave the whole plot a good soak, for about an hour.  

Now I'm watering up there with watering cans twice a day.  The daughter and I have a good system where she stays at the tap at the bottom of the allotment, filling up one can while I water with the other.  Much quicker than me doing it alone.  I use the barrel at the top for just the pots near it which should last me maybe two weeks;  possibly the son and I can refill it with the watering cans when it's empty. 

I also have planters at the bottom with more tomatoes and a few carrots;  in the ground I'm watering:  plum tomatoes twice a day;  leeks, pickling cucumbers, zucchini and squash once a day.  In-ground plants I'm not watering every day:  corn, beets, kohlrabi, purple sprouting broccoli, Brussels sprouts.  Not watering at all:  potatoes (digging some up every few days), snap peas (letting the remainder mature for seed), raspberries, artichokes, rhubarb, currants, gooseberries (all of these are finished for the year except a few artichokes).

At home watering isn't such an issue:  I'm there a lot more than I'm at the allotment!  I move the washing machine pipe to a different veg bed every day, I'm saving and reusing several liters of washing and cooking water every day, and I still have three water barrels fairly full of rain from a week and a half ago.  Twice a day I have to water my six pots of tomatoes, two pots of peppers and peach tree (in a large planter);  plus there are still some trays of seedlings on my patio table along with most of my houseplants on their summer holiday (my two remaining houseplants in my bathroom need shade--I collect their water in a bucket as my shower warms up).   Oh, and as my two ducks require fresh water daily, I reuse their two mucky tubs every morning too, when the son has replaces them with clean.

My allotment soil is full of organic matter to absorb water and well mulched to prevent it evaporating--my kitchen garden soil is too.  The plants I started early in the season such as beets, kohlrabi, etc, have been surviving fairly well on the sporadic rain because my soil isn't quite parched yet.  The cool-loving snap peas gave up flowering because of the heat but are still green and alive despite me not watering them at all;  actually I'm considering pulling them up to resow the bed with another batch of beets, but I would have to water these regularly until it rains again.  While I want lots more beets, I'm not sure I can keep them alive.  

Though I'm not yet desperate for it, I really really want some more rain--I can't believe I can actually write that:  this is usually a very soggy island!

So busy!

This past week the son and I have done a lot of work at the allotment;  the husband and daughter have made occasional appearances too.  Son and I have transplanted out kohlrabi into a newly sheet mulched bed with fine compost on the top layer (usually I don't have enough compost for the top of a sheet mulch, but there is a pile of it next to the stables on site).  We have also begun planting out the snap pea seedlings, limited by the number of plastic rings I put around them to help acclimatize new transplants--they stay around the plants for a week or two, depending on how fast they grow;  the onions might not lose theirs until harvest.

At home I got out 15 cabbage plants, interplanted with several dozen lettuce plants;  I covered these over with bird netting but something has still been nibbling them.  I'm pretty sure it's a bird, as they were being nibbled while in trays on the patio table too (now also netted).  A couple days later I adjusted the net so it is flush the ground (in all but one or two small gaps)--I'll see if this protects it.  I still have another 10 cabbages to plant out, but I may grow them on a little and try them at the allotment.

Then at the weekend we prepared another bed at the allotment for beet seeds;  it had been sheet mulched a couple months before but was already starting to regrow couch grass--it won't die!  Despite calling myself a no-dig gardener, we dug over this bed and raked out all the couch grass runners we could.  The husband and daughter sowed four good rows of beets (while I planted out a few more peas).  No doubt it'll be overrun with grass again by the time the beets are ready.

Later on that day I took the pots I'd emptied in the morning and refilled them to sow with cucumbers and courgettes--I'd already filled the previously emptied pots with sweetcorn and pickling cucumbers a few days before.  I also pricked out some leeks into trays (I've got three trays so far and not done yet) and the last few plum tomatoes into individual pots--these and the cherry tomatoes are all now in the cold frame next to my back door to harden off for next month.  What's more, I broadcast seeds onto a few larger pots for pricking out when they sprout later:  marigolds, spring onions, asparagus.  

So busy!  Spring is when all the hard work needs doing, as I reminded the son;  once it's done we won't do it until next spring.  For my part, I'm looking forward to a year of vegetables.

Trying to find room for it all!

The blackbird cheepies left the nest yesterday! This is them five days previously, April 2025

Our run of good weather has lasted even longer than I could imagine--my rain barrels are almost completely dry and I've even had to water at the allotment (just the newly seeded planters/beds and onion transplants--the established plants are fine).  Maybe I've even got a tan??

Over the weekend the son and I prepared a new bed for kohlrabi and beets;  the kohlrabi are for transplant and the beets for direct sowing.  This is a bed I sheet mulched earlier in the spring but we've been spreading some fine compost over the top and raking it;  I've been waiting for some rain to sow and transplant (the kohlrabi seedlings are really really ready!).  It's supposed to rain today, finally. 

I also shoveled out some good compost from the chicken yard at home and spread it around one bed in the kitchen garden;  this will be for cucumbers and courgettes hopefully next month.  I also raked a light top dressing onto the next bed for cabbages, lettuce and spring onions, also ready to transplant (has it rained yet?).

Now looking at my beds at the allotment, I have a slight problem:  where am I going to put everything?  Almost all my beds are already in use;  I have only one bed and the chicken yard unplanted now.  True, I should be able to clear away the purple sprouting broccoli by May, giving me another bed (kind of small though).  And in June or July both the garlic and broad beans should be finished.  But I'll need a big space for squash and sweetcorn by June at the latest, along with several other things (climbing beans, pickling cucumbers, tomatoes, etc). 

It perhaps didn't help that I made a tactical decision to cover over the very grassy bed at the very back of the plot with old carpet and tarp, to stay in place until next year.  I admit this bed didn't grow much last year--I got some beets out of it at least, though it wasn't used to its full potential.  To try and get some kind of harvest from it I've moved my big pots and planters back there--despite it being a pain to water--so at least something is growing there.  It doesn't free up much room from where the planters used to be but I'll try to plant up their old space too.

Keep it coming, September 2024

It feels like summer barely began and now it's finishing.  It certainly began late this year (I was planting out some of my summer veg in mid to late June even) and while we've had some warm days, and a few hot ones, there have been a fair few cool ones too.

I cleared away my main kitchen garden bed, home to kohlrabi (mostly they went into kimchi).  After hoeing and raking, I replanted with fennel, winter lettuces, pak choi and a few komatsuna (another Asian brassica).  The son helped me cover it loosely with another piece of netting, more for pigeon deterence than butterfly--I think cabbage butterfly season is over.  

He and the daughter also helped me move our motley collection of fencing materials and wrap them around the perimeter of the veg beds, excluding them and the patio from our two free ranging ducks (chickens are still at the allotment for the present).  Actually I locked the ducks back up too, to let the rain wash away some of their poo off the lawn for a few days.  When they're allowed back out they'll get the whole of the lawn and back garden but not the veg beds or, critically, the patio--they love hanging out on the patio and it gets poo-y quickly.

So even though we are now officially into autumn--equinox was on Sunday--I'm still hard at it.  Not only am I still planting out (got more winter lettuce, komatsuna and cauliflower seedlings), I'm still harvesting a lot of beans (both green and purple podded), cherry and plum tomatoes, and a steady stream of salad cucumbers, beets and lettuce.  I'm not ready to finish yet:  keep it coming!

A tour of my allotment, 30 June, 2024

Let's have a look at my allotment.  Photos to follow!

At the very top of the allotment (not pictured) is a small bed of beets, some of which have been harvested already.  But it's also getting weedy/grassy again so the empty parts of the bed have had some cardboard laid down in anticipation of more sheet mulch.  I just keep on sheet mulching!  There is also a stack of semi-usable wood and other bits of allotment detritus at the very back against the perimeter fence, and to one side is the very grassy/weedy raspberry bed;  we've been picking plenty of rasps over the past week, mostly to freeze.

Then further on is the chicken yard (seen obliquely in a couple photos below), currently not occupied.  I was excited to see some self-sown squash in it but that disappeared about a week later--so disappointed.  I was going to plant it up but maybe I should just put the chickens back in instead.  There is a small bed on the side of the chicken yard, newly sheet mulched and planted with some purple sprouting broccoli.  Slugs love this, but they don't love the new sheet mulch, so I'm hoping it'll grow enough by the time the slugs work out where it is.  Also on the same side (at the very edge of my allotment) are a couple each of:  redcurrant, gooseberry, rhubarb (shown below: broccoli at the very top left in rings, leafy rhubarb top right).

Snap peas at the very front, small squash and corn in the bed, rhubarb and raspberries at the back right, June 2024

The bed pictured above is towards the middle/back of my allotment and has been newly sheet mulched.  The plastic rings are surrounding some of the corn seedlings to protect them from getting stepped on (as they are still pretty small) but also to keep them a little moist and warm as they grow on.  I really like putting one of these rings around all of my transplants if possible, to ease the transition from pot to ground.

Leeks and grass, with climbing beans to the back right, June 2024

This is the other side of the same bed, now fully planted with leeks.  The furthest rows of rings I only just planted out at the weekend;  the ones around the other three perimeter sides are there to prevent us accidentally stepping on them, as these are even smaller than the corn.  This bed has some grass growing through the sheet mulch but I can't deal with it as it will disturb my precious leeks.  I do know through experience that most of my plants will still grow reasonably well while swamped with grass, so long as they get a good foothold before the grass takes over.  There are also my climbing beans at the top right, some starting to grow up their supports.

Broad beans to the front, a climbing bean structure behind (and the chicken house and yard at the back), June 2024

Moving on.  Closer to the front of the allotment is this bed of broad beans which I've been picking every day for a week, but think they're about done now.  I'll sheet mulch over it as soon as I've got every bean.  Next to it (to the right), where it looks so grassy, is a smaller bed of snap peas which have also come into their own.  We've been eating these (and freezing most of the broad beans) and they are still flowering/producing well.  

At the very front of the photo is a bit of insect mesh covering a newly sheet mulched bed I sowed with beet seeds at the weekend.  The son helped me lay the mesh and bury all the edges in the hopes that no slugs and bugs will penetrate it.  I've found they don't care much for beets--even smaller seedlings--but will eat the shoots just as they emerge;  I hope my fortifications are sufficient to keep the beets alive long enough to pass this stage.

Lots of artichokes, all of them tall with small heads, June 2024

Again moving forward (the other side of the broad bean/snap peas bed are more squash, climbing beans and corn, not pictured) is my row of artichokes, stretching across the width of the allotment.  I think there are about 12 plants?  They are very tall:  the artichoke heads at the top are out of my reach entirely and I have to grab the lower stems and bend them over to cut them.  These are coming in at about ten heads every two or three days;  I expect this sort of production over the rest of the summer.  But it's not much to get excited about:  these ten heads give about 3 oz total of edible hearts--not a lot of produce for a whole lot of plant.  Luckily I like the flavor and I have a fairly quick method of extracting the hearts (don't bother washing, just dump in slow cooker and when soft: let cool and peel);  and it's free food after all, being a perennial with basically no maintenance other than harvest. 

Cherry toms and pickling cucs, June 2024

And last on my tour is the front of the allotment, sporting my collection of motley containers and shed.  There are more containers on the other side of the shed (slightly visible behind);  also beyond are my black plastic composters.  The other side of the bed itself has my in-ground plum tomatoes (one white tomato support is just barely showing at the top left corner).  Some of these containers lost their first planting of cucumber seedlings to slugs.  I will be replanting them with a later sowing:  the son emptied out the old compost (and mounded it around the toms, so as not to waste it), gave them a very thorough spray with the hose inside and out--and we moved them to a new spot just to be on the very safe side.  I hope to replant by the weekend.

Still so busy at the allotment

Still pushing to get it all done:  it's truly the final stretch.  Despite the slow start, my allotment is looking a lot more populated, though it also has a couple of really grassy sections too.  I'm still sheet mulching bit by bit--it's a never ending process:  as soon as I reach the bottom I have to start at the top again.  

For the first time since I've been growing there, the local council has provided a couple of tons of compost for members, deposited into one of the bays by the on-site stables.  I've been using the stable bedding in my own compost and as sheet mulch since I started back in 2018, really improving the soil, but obviously it has to compost first (usually there is composted stuff--if you dig it out of the bottom of the pile).  This I have used in sheet mulch and also to fill up about half my planters, as my own compost has run out (I top dressed those planters with the contents of the last bin).

The past weekend I got in all the squashes, some very small still (fingers crossed).  I actually made one more late sowing last week too, in trays, to act as zucchini as my other zuc sowings didn't sprout;  however, I recently sowed a different zuc variety which has begun to sprout--perhaps the late sowing of squash will still have time to make actual squash.  They taste zuc-like when immature--and sweet when mature--so I'm ok either way.

The husband, son and I have all donned gloves several times in the past week to pull out nettles, filling up a couple of emptied compost bins in the process.  This isn't as persistent as the grass and is easier to remove too, despite the stings;  but like the grass, there are a lot of of them.  Makes good compost at least.  I really don't bother trying to dig up the grass except in rare cases where it has sprouted in a new sheet mulched bed. 

At the weekend I also planted out the first tray of green climbing beans and erected a couple of bamboo canes for them to climb, and have been trimming some longer garden prunings to fill in the gaps.  I have several more trays of climbing beans, both green and purple, mostly sprouted and almost ready for transplant.  I'll continue sowing the purple beans (run out of the green bean seeds) probably until the middle of this month.

I even staked most of my tomatoes this weekend;  I've had to pinch out the first side shoots and tie them in already.  My cherry toms are indeterminate--and in planters, not the ground--so these I have just let get on with it.  Most of the cherries are flowering, though not as tall as the plum toms.  And I've put in pea sticks around all the peas now, most of which are now growing a bit better, though not as tall as I'd like.

And finally I got in all my pickling cucumbers (also small, like the squash), though I'm wondering if I should make a late sowing of them too (probably).  I did a late sowing last year--early June--and they had enough time to fruit.  I finally have reached the tipping point on my trays/pots situation:  I've transplanted enough stuff to have some empty at last.  But we are still saving plastic cream pots from the fridge for the future:  next spring I will definitely have enough pots!

Failure and success, May 2024

So it's still not all planted.  Yet.  I've got a lot of trays on my patio in various stages of emergence, though I think I'm going to have to give up on the last 35ish pots of peas, as they are dated from April and still haven't sprouted.  I've had this problem with everything so far this year:  seeds go into little pots and a large proportion of them just don't sprout.  This is for indoor sowing and outdoor sowing, so I'm really not sure what's going on.  I don't have a single butternut squash or romanesco zucchini (indoors), and I'm still waiting on my corn too (outdoors).  Maybe it's my potting compost.

In slightly better news, I do have about half a dozen self-sprouted squash seeds growing in the chicken yard at the allotment--we moved the chickens back home earlier this month.  I generally give my chickens most of my kitchen scraps, which obviously included some squash seed (we still have two left on the living room windowsill, looking good!--and just finished the third to last one).  Hopefully they grow well, as my tray-sown seeds are also very patchy:  only about six I think, from around 24.  These are the big round Kuri squashes from last year:  tasty and good keepers.

Also at the allotment, I've got in the first small leeks, sown back in March.  I have a second sowing just coming up now.  I also got in the next batch of beets, and resowed the tray after I'd emptied it.  The first beets I planted out have really grown, but the peas look kind of puny and sad still.  I wonder if the soil is too rich for them--it's mainly well-composted horse manure that all the other plants seem to like.  My tomatoes look really sturdy, and the broad beans--though a bit short--are covered in flowers.

The husband spent about an hour at this weekend and the previous one making us a new little tool shed at the allotment, using a large wooden shipping container given to us by a fellow allotmenter.  The son and I wrestled it into position onto some old sleepers first (and I dropped one on my foot in the process--limped around for two weeks).  The next weekend the husband bought some wood preservative and painted it inside and out;  and this weekend he fashioned a door for it using a panel (from a deconstructed shed) we'd scavenged from an abandoned allotment a while ago.  It's not quite as tall as me, but is a good size for our shovel and fork, and holds the watering can and still has quite a lot of room.  However it's not quite tall enough/wide enough for our rusty old wheelbarrow.  But that's ok, I can't imagine anyone wanting to steal it--or our tools either:  they're all a bit rubbish.

At the allotment, March 2024

The son and I have been gradually sheet mulching at the allotment, one weekend at a time.  When are we not gradually sheet mulching, though?  Except in the height of summer, we're always at it.  Winter is the best time for it, but early spring works too.  I've got several large pieces of old carpet I've collected over time which I've laid down on our paths, and this weekend I moved some to the very front of the allotment next to the gravel road.  This is more of a long-term grass control than the sheet mulch, but obviously can't be planted--unlike the sheet mulch.  Instead I'm collecting all my planters and large containers for that front carpeted area this year.  Maybe next year I'll shift it all to a new area and use this area for more sheet mulch and planting.

Lovely leeks, Mar 2024

The only thing really growing at the allotment is the garlic bed, planted out last autumn.  It looks good, growing strongly.  I have a few last spindly leeks and the rhubarb is just sprouting up;  we've eaten both of these within the last week.  I'm ready to get planting but it's still a little cold for most seeds.  Need to wait a bit longer.

I did start 160+ broad bean seeds in toilet paper tubes and individual small pots back in the middle of February but I've yet to see them emerge;  they are still stacked up on my patio table.  These will be the first to plant out just as soon as they show me some leaves.  Hopefully they aren't just going moldy...

The last of 2023's (so sweet) parsnips waiting for dinner, Mar 2024

 

I have sketched out a plan for growing at the allotment this year (in pencil, subject to erasure), focusing on just a few main production crops including broad beans and snap peas, corn, squash, tomatoes, leeks and beets.  Then I will also hopefully get my lettuce and pickling cucumbers in planters and maybe I will get climbing beans in the ground somewhere as well (if not, I'll grow them at home in the kitchen garden).  

I haven't sketched a garden plan as such, but I'm also limiting varieties to just a few, mainly cabbage, kohl rabi, zuc and parsnip;  and then following on with late season/successional crops:  radish, fennel, pak choy.  I can't grow these at the allotment because of pest pressure, but the ducks have sorted that out for me at home.