August – Bountiful Harvests!
The plot has been at its best and all crops are performing beyond my wildest dreams. I have had bountiful harvests of every crop I planted and the larder is full!
August is the month when most gardeners behave like squirrels and beaver away storing our plentiful harvests for the long, winter days that lay ahead. The only difference to that of the squirrel is that we hopefully remember where we stored what, as the freezer and the shed become our hiding places; those beans of all descriptions and the peas find their way into a frozen world and the shed is readied to house those ripening onions and sacks of potatoes. Salad days are still prevalent on the plot and these are enjoyed while the summer sun still shines as there is no means of storing these for colder days.
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- Watching for Blight
- Keeping weeds at bay
- Bonfire for potash
- Preparing empty ground for Autumn
- Cropping regularly
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"Remember to post your questions on Grow your Own via the handy post box on the screen", Terry
July - Waste not want not!
July is a month of plenty and the allotment is full of many growing beauties. The pace of work has slowed after the period of heavy planting and it is time to enjoy the benefits of the work put in.
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- Keeping the strawberry bed under control
- Prune those raspberry canes
- Mulch crops
- Liquid feed for crops
- Late carrot sowing
- Start a new compost heap
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"Remember to post your questions on Grow your Own via the handy post box on the screen", Terry
June - Burst into Life
June is bursting onto the scene and to me this month signals the true start of summer!
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- Starting the feeding regime
- Planting out members of the squash family
- Watching for pest invasion
- Keeping those tomatoes in good shape
- Earthing up those potatoes
- A special treat for flowering beans
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"Remember to post your questions on Grow your Own via the handy post box on the screen", Terry
May - Sow the Seed
Here we are in the merry month of May and the summer has started early. After the traditional wet bank holiday of Easter and everybody went back to work the sun decided to shine. It went on and on for weeks and the April showers were nowhere to be seen. The allotment became a parched piece of desert land and the mountain water works was called into play early this year. There are myriads of hose pipes snaking down from the hillside behind the allotments to fill our water butts and provide a drink for our early grown crops. This watering chore slowed the progress of many more early seed sowings as each additional row sown added disproportional to the watering workload. Still it has returned to normal again and the month of May brings increased tempo to the work on the plot.
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- Sowing main crop carrots
- Tie sweet peas regularly
- Put up canes for climbing beans
- Continue to plant sprouts, leeks & swede
- Feed strawberries and put straw amongst them
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"Remember to post your questions on Grow your Own via the handy post box on the screen", Terry
April - Take the Plunge
Hopefully I’ve seen the last of winter on my valley hillside as we move into April. The previous month started very cold but at least was compensated by long sunny days. Oh those frosty nights certainly held up any expectations of being able to kick start my planting regime. The ground was also very dry as those easterly winds poached all the moisture from the surface. But the month progressed and the rains came and the temperatures were ascending. So there is a degree of optimism that I can at last get on with my gardening unimpeded, although the season is at least five weeks behind previous years. I am sure Mother Nature will redeem herself and we will soon get back on track.
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- Sowing leek and sprout seed for next winter’s crops
- Successional salad crops
- Getting the bean trench in shape
- Thinning out early sown seed
- Planting tomatoes out in the greenhouse border
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"Remember to post your questions on Grow your Own via the handy post box on the screen", Terry
March – The Vegtrug has arrived!
What a start to the new decade! January and February plunged us back into the ice age with weeks of sub zero temperatures and more days of snow fall than I can ever remember. This has hopefully had a beneficial effect on the soil’s structure and when we get the chance to plunge our fork in to prepare the ground for sowing it will trickle through the tines like sand! Gardeners are also hoping that all those nasty pests and bugs will have been frozen to death but I doubt it and probably the ‘big beefy’ ones will survive to wreak havoc in the hot summer months. Oh, yes it is going to be a hot summer; that is the least reward we can expect for spending months on the frozen allotments.
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- Preparing those potato beds
- Feeding fruit trees and bushes
- Seed sowing
- Checking for early pests in the greenhouse
PS… For all the regular readers of this blog I would like to remind you that I will be at the Garden Centre on Saturday 13th March 2010 at 11am. I hope you can come along and meet me. I’ll be demonstrating how to grow vegetables in containers; the fact that you do not have much garden or indeed none at all is no hindrance to growing your own crops. Anything can be grown in a pot and it is all depends on size. Once you have tasted the fresh, wholesome flavour of what you have grown with your own fair hand you will be hooked and look out you will want more. For those listeners of the Jeremy Vine show you would have heard me talking about the Vegtrug. This is my latest, super addition to my allotment plot. This superb container is the latest thing in grow your own and gives a wide scope to the produce that can be grown and it looks smart wherever you site it. I will be using one of these at the Garden Centre and be able to demonstrate to you its versatility. So come along and join me for an entertaining look at gardening without a garden! Tickets are now on sale at £5 per person from the Garden Centre.
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"Remember to post your questions on Grow your Own via the handy post box on the screen", Terry
February – Sign of a new season
Well, February has arrived and hopefully we can move on from the arctic start to 2010; freezing temperatures and the addition of weekly falls of deep crisp snow. This blanketed the allotments for three weeks and all work was brought to a standstill. The greenhouse sowings were also curtailed for despite the gentle warmth of my little paraffin lamp the temperature in there was only a few degrees above zero. Not the ideal conditions to germinate seed. Still thanks to the understanding of the needs of a dedicated gardener my wife allowed me to borrow some space on her windowsill to sow my onions, cabbage and lettuce. These are doing well and are now back in their rightful place in the greenhouse!
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• Preparing that strawberry bed for the season
• Chancing an early sowing of tomatoes
• Planting a few herbs in the greenhouse
• Picking up those seed potatoes
• Getting in your seed packets to suit your growing plan
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"Remember to post your questions on Grow your Own via the handy post box on the screen", Terry
January 2010 – Start Filling Those Pots
The festive season is now a distant memory and all that remains are those few pounds of 'flab' around the waist after the excesses of the holiday feasting. But never mind, a few dry, cold days in january will soon remove those extra inches as we work away on the plot.
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- Filling those pots to start the early sowings
- Making up your compost mix
- Sowing those early seeds of lettuce and cabbage
- Turning in those green manures and spreading the manure on the soil
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"Remember to post your questions on Grow your Own via the handy post box on the screen", Terry
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