Allotment Diary–Saturday 06 August 2016

We are cropping into dustbin bags now, which is pretty cool and much cheaper than freezer bags, but quite a heavy load to carry home on foot.  I felt like Santa with the bag over my shoulder.  I was pleased to be able invite Geoff onto the plot to pick a decent crop as well as he’s not been able to work his plot this year.

I cleared a couple of rows of Kohl Rabi which was now ready for harvest, there’s chard growing next to the space we’ve cleared which will provide a lot of shade, but a couple of rows of radish should grow and crop before that becomes a problem.

The radish rows, with the chard on the right

I planted a few rows of Autumn carrots at home yesterday, but we get through so many carrots I’ve popped in a couple of extra rows at the allotment where Debbie cleared a row of mixed lettuce, that’s destined for smoothies etc.

The rows of carrots, hopefully the chard will be gone well before the carrots grow big enough for it to cramp their style.  I’m starting to pay a bit more attention to over crowding crops now, after a few months of mistakes.  I’ve been very successful at growing at twice the recommended density for many crops, but a little more care and attention is still a good idea.

We also fully topped up the two active compost bins, the reserve bin is now lovely and crumbly and 2/3 it’s original size and we have one bin that we are drawing from, we used it today to earth up the potato bags, which are now growing on nicely.   We also gave the whole plot a good water and I gave the compost bins a drink.

Finally Debbie cleared the area where the new giant cold frames are going to be built next week and I filled the water butts.

Much of the day though was taken up by allotment duties, cutting the grass and transporting, assembling, disassembling, transporting and packing away the marquee – which was requested for the Ashton Garden’s centenary.