Bonfires and more clearing up

I've spent what little time I have for my plot clearing up. Mainly taking wood and bits from my new plot and adding it to the ever growing bonfire pile. Fortunately the site have been having monthly bonfires so most of it's gone now.

I've not got very far with the new greenhouse - see before and after pictures. I still need to finish the glazing and give it another coat of paint. But the weather has not been kind to me - first rain then frost/snow so not suitable for silicon sealing the glass in (or doing the work!).




I'm still harvesting stuff - some swede and carrots. I've still got brassicas and parsnips to come.

I did manage to plant some broad beans, but no garlic yet.






On a more cheerful note here's some pictures from Bonfire night. We had fab fireworks, a brilliant bonfire as well as pumpkin soup, hot dogs and spiced apple punch!

Clearing up for the winter

Well, I've not blogged much this year! Doesn't mean I haven't been allotmenting, probably just too busy. Sorry folks! Anyway, I had quite a productive year, but the long dry spell in early summer proved a challenge. My potato crop was smaller, my sweetcorn minute and the fruit non-existant, except for raspberries which were very happy.

The big success for this year was tomatoes. I didn't let them dry out and was rewarded with thousands of decent sized toms, the principle borghese mini plum toms were fantastic and I'll do those again. But the shirley, moneymaker, gardeners delight all did brilliantly as well. The only downside was they all ripened in a 3 week space - normally they start in June and go on to November (but generally are quite small).

Squash was a big disappointment - only 4 and one was got by woodlice/slugs and the only butternut squash vanished.

I've now started the autumn/winter clear-up - there's some green manure in, I've got broad beans and garlic to plant and there's parsnip and various brassicas to harvest in the next couple of months. The rest of the beds will be cleared and manured.