June 2014

Plans:
- leeks to go in behind the onions
- saw a thing in America where a guy puts in basically a couple of post and runs a couple of supports of them to tomatoes.  As I've got a million tomato plants at home I might just give that a go!

Sunday 1st June 2014
Back from hols.  First job to get the site weeded.  Then got pumpkin plants into the raised bed thing.  I bought a couple of 3 metre net cloche things from Homebase before going on hols so used one of those.

Pumpkins in the big raised bed - am hoping they'll have enough space. 

Peas are coming along slowly - had to weed after pic taken

Going to have to replace some of the french beans as something's had. em. 

Purple broccoli under cover.  I put ends on this as well to keep bloomin rabbits out. 

Friday 6th June 2014
Popped up after work to get another row done.  Got a row of 6 cauliflowers in - 3 Summer ones and 3 autumn ones that someone gave us.  Also got my plot mowed and did a bit of the neighbours' bits as well.

Row of cauliflowers to right of the purple broccoli's

Sunday 8th June 2014
Long old session down the lotty.  What did we get done?   6 Sweetcorn plants gone into the metre square raised bed - it's been nettered as well (although pictures don't show it).  A third of a row of beetroots gone ine and a third of a row of carrots gones in.  Also netted the beans properly and put slug pellets down everywhere.  Final job was to put some cabbages in - when I got home though I realised I've actually planted some summer brocolli - that's what happens when you don't label things up properly - what a fool!

Sweetcorn in the old metre square. 

Third of a row of carrots and beetroot - in the root section of the plot! 

A row of mainly summer broccoli with two cabbages - must label things propery in future!

Monday 9th June 2014 - battle commences

The pests have cast the first stone - something has had most of me cauliflowers under those cloche things.  I think the barriers at front and rear are just a bit too big to be effective.  Anyway got the row of cabbages done, have left one cabbage in the row of broccoli as something had had most of the broccoli in the little pots - next year will have some shelves with a net over for protection I think for growing stuff in pots.  Also definitely going to have a fence round the plot. 

Netting all round the beans that we did on Sunday. 

The beetroot and carrot bed - will need thinning when they poke their heads up - can see a worrying hole in the netting. 

Golden Acre Cabbages to the left, mainly summer broccoli to the right!

Sweetcorn - netted up!

Thursday 12th June 2014
Been up to water stuff and there's nothing to water hardly.  Caulis, cabbages, broccoli disappeared, peas been attacked but barely surviving same with french beans but whatever it is hasn't the same appetite for runner beans (or perhaps it's coming back for them at the weekend.  Well p***ed off with it all.  Not taken any pictures as it's too disheartening.  Fence will have to be done. Will ask me dad if he can put his sledgehammer in the car on Sunday.

Sunday 15th June 2014
Bought some fence stakes from Hangar 4 on Saturday morning but didn't have any time to get on with fence until Sunday morning. So down the lotty about 9am, did a couple of hours on it then back for brunch.  Then Father's day lunch at the Ketch, then back to Lotty later on (on the bike no less!).  Dug a spades depth down and a spades width all the way round the plot apart from the top bit where the IBC is - am pondering on just how to do that but am leaning towards the lip of the mesh going under pavers for that bit.

Monday 16th June 2014
After work, tea and taking dog a walk I got up to the lotty.  Continuing work on doing the fence - should have done this at the start of the year but I thought we'd get away without a fence in year one.  How wrong can you be!!

Anyway the fence is coming on.  Firstly I decided I could go past the gooseberry bush (not a euphenism for anything) to get right to the top left corner (if the shed is at the top!).  So I dug that bit out and got one of the longer stakes hammered in - the top starting coming to bits on the stake so am going to need a cunning solution to fix that something like a whopping big pip clip thing I reckon.

Dug this bit last night - it's beginning to come together in my head now!

Then decided that the poles for the bean row and the pole that held up last years bean row needed to come out for the sake of making a decent job of it so that was done and a bit more dug out.

Bean poles out for a straighter (although not bang on straight) fence

Next got a post in at the bottom left of the plot (if the shed is at the top), wasn't happy with the straightness (lack of) so moved it 4" more to the left and it's a bit better but not bang on.

The netting on the bean row is pushing it out but it's not far off straight

As it was getting a bit dark and progress needed to be made I thought I could do the bottom edge of the plot so got four stakes - the width of the bottom left and bottom right stakes came to exactly 4.8m so using my darts maths I decided we'd have two stakes in between at 1.6m and 3.2m - treble 16 = 48.   So I got those in and decided that was enough fencing for a Monday evening.

The one at the end isn't as straight up as I'd like but it's very, very solid as it's a good 2 foot down so, you know.

I watered stuff then got off for about 10pm - counted four rabbits as I went down to the car.

Tuesday 17th June 2014
After walking dog and what have you I got down the lotty for a bit after 8pm.  Got stakes in up both sides.  There one I want to redo and another one to go in for where I'm putting the gate (a couple of feet down from the Gooseberry bush).  Am still pondering the top bit where the little herb raised bed thing is.  Am kind of thinking that with that raised bed and paving slabs on the ground I probably don't need to worry so much about the mesh going down and under.

Down the left side it's not really as straight as I'd like it but it will do - just going to redo one stake. 

Was getting a bit dark by 10pm but I think that just to the right of gooseberry bush is where the gate will go. 

Posts down the right hand edge are much straighter!

Wednesday 18th June 2014
Went down the lotty didn't get a great deal done as was really planning it all out on the hoof.  Am glad I didn't get too much done as it didn't come to me how it will all go regarding the fencing until I got home. Anyway it's getting there.  I dug a bit out round the IBC which is where the problem is - I still need to be able to get round the raspberry patch so the fence can't inhibit getting past the IBC so it needed a bit of clever thinking applying!

Above: problem is that I don't want getting round the IBC to be any harder. 

So have decided we'll go tight round the raspberry patch and then come in five foot onto the plot and then fence across as follows (I think the b of Raspberries is about where the post you can see above is):-

Above: This is the current gap between IBC and Raspberry Patch

The IBC is sitting on pavers so am not going to be able to dig the fence down there - on saying that Rabbits can't dig through pavers either so what I might just do is fold the fence under more pavers on top of these pavers!!!

Saturday 21st June 2014

Up to lotty for about 8am did a bit of prep and then nephew Ben turned up to help hang the fence as he's a bit of an expert at it.   Think it took him an hour and we were all done. 

This is the bit that took all the thinking about

Two slabs down on top of fence so rabbits can't get under/ 

Fenced all the way round just waiting on Ben who's doing me a new gate.

Actual final fencing pretty much as below.  Am debating whether or not to to enclose the area around the mini herb area.  We'll see.  

Thinned beetroot to 4" gaps, need to get another mini row of them buggers in soon. 

Monday 23rd June 2014

Letter from allotment committee about our plot being overgrown.  Not going to comment on that.  Went to lotty about 8pm, came off 10:20pm - mowed, strimmed, tidied and nephew Ben came and put a gate on and it's grand.  Got work to do so that nowt can come under the gate but we can do that.  Watered everything  

Beetroot coming on nicely.

Fence looking good

Tuesday 24th June 2014
After tea I walked to the lotty with the dog.  Bosskat came in car to collect dog and drop off a 2 x 2' paving slab, 2 breeze blocks and the cart to trag them up to the plot.  I then spent about the next forty minutes sorting out the gate to make sure no rodents can get in.

This is the underground final defence. Wire mesh

Under the 2' x 2' slab there is another breeze block just in case

The gate - bloody marvellous job done by young Ben. 

So in the constant quest for getting the plot up to acceptable standards I thought I'd get the peas weeded.  To be honest, it's questionable as to whether we'll get anything from em as something had a go at them when we were unfenced.

.

Am thinking of having a tub next to the metre squared that has sweetcorn in it to put some french beans in - not made me mind up totally but that's what I'm thinking of doing.

Thursday 26th June 2014
Went up to lotty - weeded the brassica bit and put in the slender stemmed broccolli in that me mum and dad bought me.  There's some cabbages that survived the rodent attack so am trying to get them going again full on.  You never know, if they don't recover I've got some coming on in modules.  Watered everything too so all good stuff.

The gubbins on em

Slim Stem Broccoli and Golden Acre Cabbage

Something the rabbits missed - a mini punnet of Strawbs!! 

Sunday 29th June 2014
After being away most of weekend and Sunday lunch at the Ketch we nipped down the lotty to have a look. Watered most stuff and did a load of weeding.  Have about four bags full to go to tip if it was ever open when I was about!

Added another mini row of beetroots which will need thinning in due course. 

Monday 30th June 2014
Walked Lily to Lotty and bosskat picked her up.  Did a load more weeding, dug out the remaining little bit of grass that used to be across the middle.  Also watered everything and generally tidied up as am having the plot re-inspected today!