June Plots

Goodness, you've got plenty to keep you busy - and fed - there! All looks great. Trying to find space to grow some veg myself and have to say I fancy trying the squash/pumpkins as am impressed by their quick germination and subsequent growth. Now, I just need to knock down the shed to make room!

things have grown quickly in the last month, all looks great, the potatoes have done well too. Yummy yum yum!!

Everything is coming along in leaps and bounds now. The amount of growth plants make at this time of year is amazing.

Its all so neat and organised. What occurred to me was, gosh, are you really going to be able to eat all that...

Good to hear Gerry is well enough to go to the field.
Interesting pictures.
Someone else on Goy had her greenhouse blown over.
Must be an awful shock.

Great to see so much effort rewarded. The peas are looking terrific and you can't have pigeon or rabbit problems to see them look so healthy.
I don't grow veg here, we are surrounded by both the above so feel that I would just be providing yet more food to increase their numbers!
Though...I do fancy growing a few potatoes sometime as you can't beat your own new potatoes for flavour - even the Jersey ones!

Thanks you all for taking the time to read my blog on our allotments in May/June.

Tuesdaybear: Will knocking your shed down really give you all that much extra space? Just one or two Pumpkins/Squashes will occupy the space left vacant!

Oliveoil: Things certainly put a spurt on once June started! Must've been the combination of the days of maximum sunlight & the warmth that seemed to arrive with June. I thought the month might live up to its name of "Flaming June", alas it didn't! :-((

I agree that the potatoes are looking good, I'm only harvesting them this year as we need them which means just a few plants a week. Just hope Blight doesn't put in an appearance again this year, though the weather this year is totally the opposite of what we had last year! Then it was quite cool & rained a lot for a long time whereas this year June was warmer & sunnier as well as drier than last year.

You are quite right, Hywel, growth has come on tremendously since June. Making up for the very cold spring we had. Everything is trying to make up for the 3 or 4 weeks by which we are behind this year.

Steragram, we probably won't be able to eat all that as you say but then many things are planted to last a fair period of time - hopefully! I say that because I sowed Lettuces on 3 or 4 occasions with the intention of having a supply over several months but they have all come together & now I have a glut of Lettuces! I took a bagful into church with me yesterday to give to the congregation. I have another bagful at home - far more than we can eat in a week or two! I had to compost a couple of dozen from Gerry's plot as they were bolting. :-((

Diane, the GH blown over was one of these light metal frame ones with plastic covering. They can be knocked over fairly easily in a good gust of wind! Our daughter may not have had much in it anyway thus it wouldn't have been very heavy. The Pumpkins I sowed for our granddaughter are making very good progress! On Saturday I noticed the first flowerbuds in the crowns of the plants as I was watering them! With the hot weather of the last week & what we are forecast for the coming week at least, they will be sprawling all over their allotted bed by August!

Honeysuckle: I don't understand what could have happened but the CULINARY peas are turning out to be SWEETPEAS! I was weeding around them last week & then I realised the leaves were a greyer shade of green than peas & they weren't as think either. I hadn't looked at them closely in more than a month as when I go down to the allotments I have so many things that need to be done I don't often stop to look at things. Besides which they are growing on the division between the two half allotments where I also made a path about 3 years ago. So I tend to walk along the path that divides the 2 plots to go to mine which is further down the allotments field & on the other side of the central path & don't stop to look at them. Last week I decided they needed weeding so I got down on my hands & knees, a hoe can't be used among the plants, they are far too close together, & started to pull out the weeds. Then I noticed they looked strange for culinary peas & looked more like Sweetpeas! There are a few plants of culinary peas & comparing the two the difference is immediately obvious! Though how they "metamorphosed" from one to the other I'll never know! I DO know I sowed culinary peas all along the division as I stuck the packet on the plastic milk bottle I use as a marker with the date they were sown. That was just before going to visit our family in Spain at the end of April. The explanation would seem that as I'd grow Sweetpeas on the division 2 years in a row their seeds, especially last year when I could hardly get down to the plots, must have fallen into the ground & germinated this year when I sowed the culinary peas. I watered along the division much more frequently after returning from Spain.

In the future photos I take I will have to change the name from peas to Sweetpeas!

We don't have problems with rabbits, as far as I know as I've never seen one nor has anybody ever commented on seeing them, pigeons we DO have! They make a right mess of Peas & Brassicas if they aren't covered properly! As my peas are covered in netting they are safe but may also account for why I didn't notice the difference between them & the Sweetpeas much earlier!

Blimey, mate, you're in for a bumper crop by the looks of things.
What a great turn around from the state of affairs a few months ago, just after you & the wife came back from the Christening in Spain, eh? Lol.
Must be a relief, after such a long winter, too.
Well done, Balconey!

Thanks, Mouldy! We are just beginning to reap the rewards of our hard work of a few months ago!

I dug up all my potatoes from my plot a week or so ago. I thought I couldn't leave them much longer as it seemed we were heading into perfect blight weather! As it turned out Blight doesn't seem to have put in an appearance this year. Last year it was very bad on the Allotments Field & everybody lost their potato & tomato plants. I had just finished harvesting my New Potatoes 'Rocket' when it struck so they weren't affected. The later ones were but even so we'd got quite a good crop.

This year both Gerry & I have bought some seed potatoes that are supposed to have some tolerance to blight. They are all planted in the same big bed & so far look quite good in spite of the very hot & dry July we had. One variety I bought, 'Red Cara', is yellowing but the other variety 'Picasso' is still looking pretty good. As I planted 'Red Cara' between Gerry's 'Picasso' & my 'Picasso' there is now a yellowing patch between the two green patches!

You're just the man to ask.
Why has one of my potato plants gone yellow?
I'm assuming, just like trees, it's because it's reaching the end of it's cycle.
The other two are just starting to turn yellow.
I'd appreciate any advice, mate. Thanks.

I'm no expert on veg growing Mouldy, more flower growing. Like you I think it maybe because they have now reached the end of their season, but I think it may also be caused by two completely different things.

1: If you sowed a First Early or 2nd Early variety these are definitely ready to be lifted.

2: They got too dry during the very hot weather we had during July. Especially if they are Maincrop. These need a much longer growing season than 1st or 2nd Earlies.

A third possibility, but I think this is probably a long shot with the hot, dry weather of this year, is Blight. That makes them go yellow then brown before they collapse completely.

They're Charlottes, sown as early as I dared, Balconey.
The packet said to lift them from Sept, once the foliage turned brown, so I'm assuming we're both right with the end of cycle theory.
Once this 1st one is brown I'll lift it & hope for the best.
I've had a wee pry & the spuds are turning white, so, fingers crossed, it'll be ok.
I'd no idea gardening could be so stressful. Lol.

I lifted one of the two maincrop varieties I'd planted earlier in the year on the allotment I share with Gerry. Almost all the plants had died & the soil was being washed off the tubers exposing them to light. If they are exposed to light for long they turn green & that part of the spud is inedible, as well as poisonous, to humans.

I was very surprised to see them die down so soon as they are supposed to be Maincrop spuds & should have continued another month or more before dying down. Now I have an excess of spuds that I can't store!

I sowed a lot less this year compared to last year as well! I only planted First Earlies & Maincrop. The 2nd variety of Maincrop spuds are mostly alright - in fact a few plants have just started opening their first flowers while the rest of the plants have flower buds just starting to emerge from the stem tips.