Wednesday 6 June 2012

Rain stopped play

We were too slow this morning and didn't get to the plot till lunchtime - unfortunately that's when the showers started. Some of them were really heavy so we kept having to run for cover in the container.
We did get some digging done but had to leave when we were picking up so much mud on our boots. Jamie found this little spider in the earth. We thought it may be a red spider mite (bad guy) but have found that it's a velvet mite, a good guy - eating other mites and small insects in the ground.
Velvet mite - a good guy on the plot
Back home another of our squash seeds (the 2nd Cornells one) has actually started growing. The germination of the 6 seeds has been very sporadic over the last 3 weeks. One of the green courgettes hasn't done anything (yet) but we've got 2 of each of the others (Butterbush, Cornells bush delicata and Rocky cucumber).

Tuesday 5 June 2012

Nice weather for snails (again)

A very quick visit to the plot this afternoon - we just wanted to check that our cloches had stayed on and the little sweetcorn plants were still upright (they are). It's cold (about 15°) and rainy.

All we saw, in the way of wildlife, was a few birds - one pigeon which we freed from a plot holder's netted cloche - and these snails.
Both these were on the thyme flowers
Pretty - brown lipped banded snail

Monday 4 June 2012

Tidying and weeding

After a too long walk yesterday I didn't have the energy to do much on the allotment today. Did a bit of tidying this afternoon and sat around while the sun shone.
The peppers look a bit more at home on the plot now
The rainfall yesterday has really made the site look happier, but the weeds have gone crazy on the overgrown plots! We weeded throughout the onions and shallots and have given the onions a new mesh cloche so that they're not touching the top - apparently they'll stop growing if they bend over and they've a long way to go yet (leek moth and downy mildew permitting..)

We planted out our 11 little sweetcorn plants. Protected with bottle cloches because they're only small. And Jamie sowed some Early Nantes 5 carrot seed so hopefully more of this sowing will germinate...
Earlibird sweetcorn

Saturday 2 June 2012

Jubilee digging!

There were quite a few of us on the allotment this afternoon - we could hear music from the Hungerford jubilee celebrations in the background. It was pretty hot but very little sunshine.
We cleared another area on the new plot - we were going to have a bbq but weather wasn't nice enough for us.
Jamie earthed up the rest of the potatoes - definitely only two of the Orlas are doing anything which is a shame but not too bad as long as the rest give us plenty of tubers!

I sowed some petit pois (Peewee 65).
Our little robin is getting very cocky - he comes within a couple of feet from us now. He takes some food away but mostly seems to be eating it himself!

Friday 1 June 2012

Beans, beans, beans!

Had another fab day on the plot today.
Jamie's dark side :-)


A lot of sitting in the sun chatting but also got some weeding and sowing done: 2 rows of Speedy dwarf French beans and 2 rows of Express broad beans - covered with plastic cloches for a bit of protect.

Legume quarter
We dug over the area for the sweetcorn; 11 of 12 have germinated. And Jamie earthed up some of the potatoes, including the 5 purple congos which were accidentally left in from last year.
Cinnabar Moth
Managed to snap this lovely cinnabar moth and the brilliant forum members from Wild About Britain pointed me to this website to identify this yellow fly... I think Trypeta Zoe is correct based on the wing pattern. There were several hanging round our radishes - which, by the way, are going to seed :-(
(male) Trypeta Zoe