Allotment/Garden Update - June

It's been quite a while since I did an update of what's happening at the allotment, largely due to the fact that I haven't been there much of late. OH has been popping in regularly to water and I popped across to put in some cucumber and courgette plants last weekend, but otherwise, it's been a couple of weeks since I did any real work there.

In the mean time, there's been quite a lot of activity on the site.  An open day was held last weekend to allow local people interested in getting a plot onto the site to take a look and learn more about how to get started.  I wasn't able to attend unfortunately, as I was due to work, but it sounded like it had been reasonably successful and quite a few people had come in.

In addition, one of the plot reps has also managed to organize for a green gym group to come onto the site and do some clearing of rubbish and an old compost pile that wasn't breaking down, with a view to creating some more small raised beds for someone to tend.  All good stuff and all credit to her for getting it organised.

The same rep is also trying to get our site added to the National Open Gardens Day list, so that more people will visit and suggested that we might even sell seedlings. She seems to be working very hard to raise the profile of the site and get it into shape, which is very admirable.

We, meanwhile, have been on the receiving end of some positive comments from other plot holders with regard to our plot, which has been very nice indeed. I have to admit, that it wasn't looking quite as tidy as it was a couple of weeks ago and needed some weeding doing once again, but it didn't take too long to get it back in order.

Today, I headed over there and started pulling out the weeds that had grown back. It seems to be never ending. I guess I'm still dealing with the legacy from the plot being a bit neglected when I took it over and the weeds have just self seeded over and over.  I'm trying to get rid of them before they have a chance to do the same again. I know eventually I'll get them under control, as much as anyone can, it's just a matter of perseverance and not giving up.

I've lined up some sort of matting that I'm going to buy from the CS, to keep the weeds down over the winter, so that should help going into next year and cut down the amount of work I'll have to do next spring. To be honest, being so busy at work, I'm glad of any passive methods to help me out and save time. It will be interesting to see if it works.

Anyway, a bit of weeding and hoeing worked wonders and here are a few pictures of how the plot is looking now.

We've been having some problems with some of the potato plants which have died off, so we're not sure we'll get a good crop this year, but we're removing affected plants and hoping for the best.

The tomatoes are growing well thanks to OH's care of them, with several trusses now visible and there are now some peas, climbing beans and bush beans starting to grow, after I sowed them a couple of weeks ago. Of course, you'll notice that the dog managed to get into the photograph, bless her.  She loves to have a snuffle around the site when OH goes to water the plot.

I decided to plant out some of my dahlia plants into the small raised bed, as the dahlia tubers I put in didn't grow (save for one).  I'm hoping they'll survive and start flowering soon.  I've got some lovely flowers on some others I have in the garden at the moment. I forgot how much I love these plants. These particular ones haven't started flowering yet, but I'm hoping they will soon, so long as the snails don't destroy them.

The rhubarb has gone mental and I just don't feel like eating it at the moment, so I'm thinking of making some rhubarb jam, as that's possibly the only way I'll get anyone else to eat it with me. There's no way I can eat my way through it all.  I'm just not feeling it this year. I may need to remove some of it and replace it with some other fruit bushes or something.  I'm thinking about it anyway.

At home in the garden nothing much has changed.  I had a sweep around the decking today to tidy things up a bit.  I also moved a few plants around to situations that would better suit them.  I bought a Canarian Date Palm today from B&Q for £6. (It's there in front of the gate) It's quite a small one, but I've immediately potted it up into a much larger pot, so I'm hoping it will have grown a bit before I put it in the garden, as I'll be removing some very established shrubs to make room for it.

I'm seriously into ferns at the moment and want to buy lots more to put in the garden.  Trouble is I don't know where to buy them from.  I need to find a good nursery that sells them.  I've been pinning lots of fern filled gardens on Pinterest to give me inspiration.

Some of my Dahlias are starting to flower which is making me very happy.

The lettuce in the raised beds is all cut and come again this year.  I'm not too keen on it to be honest, but the headed lettuce seeds I sowed didn't germinate this year, so I missed that window of opportunity.  I've stocked up on lots of autumn and spring varieties for later in the season and next year though, so we'll just have to make do with this for now.

It feels good to have caught up with garden and allotment jobs today, so I can go back to work on Wednesday knowing that there isn't lots of work to do on them this week. How is your garden?