Life on The Weald - August 2024

and other distractions

1 August 2024

We hadn't seen the plot since 16 July as we had been on holiday touring the Basque country and were not sure what we would find on our return. Much of the chard had bolted and run to seed...

1 August - Rainbow chard

... the cobs on the sweetcorn were beginning to swell; there was considerable leaf growth on the squashes, but few female flowers and no sign of beans climbing the corn on our 3 sisters bed. They seem to have been victim of the snails and slugs.

1 August - sweetcorn and squashes

The broccoli was protected from the pigeons but not from snails who had stripped many of the lower leaves, but thankfully they had left the kalettes alone.

1 August - purple sprouting broccoli

Among the squashes, I spotted what I thought was a patty pan squash ready for picking - which I did. It was growing where a patty pan had been planted but it was not until I picked it that I realised it was not a patty pan but an unripe Turk's Turban which had trailed across the bed from where it had been planted.

1 August - not a patty pan but a Turk's Turban

1 August - an unripe Turk's Turban

I am hoping that it will ripen indoors. There was a rather large courgette, the size of a marrow, and quite a lot of Cobra climbing French beans ready for picking.

1 August - French beans, courgette and squash

The lawn at home was rich with clover and a few dandelions but also the rather pretty flatweed (also known as catsear/cat's-ear or false dandelion).

1 August - Flatweed

2 August

The birds appeared to have feasted on the blueberries whilst we were away, but we did manage to harvest a few. There was also a plentiful supply of blackberries from the brambles that seem to have taken over the the bottom of the plot.

2 August - blueberries

2 August - blackberries

I was also pleased to spot a Gatekeeper (Hedge Brown) butterfly on the chives. We have had few butterflies and moths this year and they are important pollinators.

2 August - Hedge Brown butterfly

5 August

More butterfly good news, as I spotted a Red Admiral on the nettles.

5 August - Red Admiral

The Marmande tomatoes were much smaller than past years but to date have not been attacked by birds or slugs, so I decided to pick them as soon as they begin to ripen ie change colour. Once the ripening process has begun, they no longer depend on the plant for nutrients and they begin to produce ethylene gas which stimulates ripening so they will continue to ripen off the vine with nodetriment to taste. They don't even need to be in the sunshine - they will ripen perfectly well in a paper bag or kitchen drawer. Putting them in a bowl with ripening bananas will also hasten ripening as the bananas also give off ethylene.

5 August - ripening Marmande tomatoes

7 August

The Charlotte potatoes had been in the ground longer than I had expected and the foliage had died back. We didn't need to lift them earlier as we had a plentiful supply of first early Red Duke of York. Charlotte are a second early and I was worried that having left them in the ground, the slugs might have got to them. The area where they were growing was now covered in field bindweed! - but we were lucky. They were large and undamaged. We also picked a ridge cucumber.

7 August - field bindweed on the potato patch!

7 August - Charlotte potatoes

7 August - Charlotte potatoes and cucumber

The Teepee French beans were flowering and I am hoping for a good crop.

7 August - purple Teepee French beans

There were several flowers on the squashes but still mainly male ones!

7 August - squashes

A pile of Wood chip and leaf cuttings had appeared in the central car park the day before, so it was a good opportunity to continue to repair the footpath and the area between the beds.

7 August - Woodchip

7 August - renewing the footpath

9 August

With a plentiful supply of woodchip I extended the footpath, removing bindweed and couch grass and laying cardboard topped with the woodchip.

At Seedy Sunday, in February, I had bought the last odd few remaining maincrop Pink Fir Apple and Orla potatoes and planted them in grow bags. All the foliage had now died back so I emptied the Orla bag and one of the two Pink Fir Apple bags leaving the other for later. They weren't heavy croppers but the Pink Fir Apple were delicious.

9 August - Pink Fir Apple potatoes

9 August - Orla potatoes

More work on extending the footpath....

9 August - extending the footpath

10 August

Today was a day for finally doing something that I had been putting off for months - clearing the shed! I hadn't realised how much space we had. I also discovered another pile of plum stones with tiny holes where the kernel had been extracted - i'm told that these tiny holes are typically the work of field mice.

10 August - inside the shed

10 August - plum stones

10 August - inside the shed

11 August

I decided to lift the red onions. Some had previously grown scapes which I had broken off. These ones will need to be used soon as they probably won't store well as they coould rot from where the scape (flowering stem) was removed.

11 August - Red onion that had bolted - scape removed

14 August

With people coming to stay at the weekend and the prospect of a garden party, it was time to tidy up the back garden. I was delghted to see a Mint moth on the Lemon balm.

14 August - Mint moth

The large pot in which the Moroccan mint was growing had developed a large crack and when I tried to move it, the pot fell apart. Little wonder as the plant was completely pot-bound.

14 August - pot-bound mint

I saved a few bits of root and repotted them and disposed of the rest. There are many varieties of mint and it is so easy to grow - but best grown in a container or it will take-over a vast area. For general culinary use, I think Moroccan mint is the best. I gave the rest of the garden a general tidy-up and mowed the lawn. It was sad to see the flatweed go but they probably wouldn't have survived the grandchildren's kick-about at the weekend! I was very pleased to see the proliferation of berries on the Spindle bush (Euonymous).

14 August -fruit of the Spindle tree

16 August

Part of the tidying up process was to store the onions that hadn't bolted. We have found a use for old tights, other than repairing a car fan-belt! They are excellent for hanging and storing onions.

16 August - storing onions

It was the beginning of the big weekend when family descended upon us for a weekend of celebrations in advance of my 80th birthday the following Wednesday - but it was also my step-son's and two of my grandchildren's birthdays within days of each other, so a big party at a beach-side venue on the Saturday and a garden party on Sunday.

17 - 25 August

17 August - 4 days premature

18 August - in the garden with family

And we also celebrated my grandson Shay's and granddaughter Kitty's 18th birthdays.

Kitty and Shay celebrate their 18th

My big day, and a rather nice T-shirt

21 August 2024

Obviously a lot to celebrate. Having reached 80, I have a letter from the DWP to say I will get and extra 25p per week because of my age! Last of the big spenders.

We had some family staying with us until Thursday 22 when we set off to North Wales to take Ross, our nephew, home. Having dropped Ross home, we stayed at a hillside campsite in Denbigh in our campervan where we experienced 70mph gusting wind. We headed south the following day intending to spend a few days in the Cotswolds and west country but after one night near Cirencester and torrential rain we decided to cut short our break and return home on 25th.

22 August - preparing for departure

23 August - Denbigh

25 August
Having got home in the late afternoon I ventured to the plot in the evening to see how things were and was pleasantly surprised. There was a Turk's Turban squash. some Patty pan and French beans.

25 August - Turk's turban

23 August - Custard Patty pan

23 August - Cobra climbing French beans

26 August

We seemed to have left the wet weather behind and it was a glorious day.

26 August - looking south

I weeded one of the vacant beds to begin preparation for the autumn planted onions.

26 August - bed preparation for onions

The Borlotti beans were ripening nicely and the snails seem to have left them alone whilst they have munched the leaves of the French climbing beans.

26 August - borlotti beans

27 August

We harvested one of the remaining cucumbers and a few Cobra beans...

27 August - cucumber and Cobra beans

...and lifted some more Charlotte potatoes

27 August - Charlotte potatoes

28-30 August

We spent a couple of days tidying up before heading off again.

I was pleased to spot a buff-tailed bumble bee on the winter savory.

28 August - bumblebee on the savory

Sylvi emptied the bottom trays of the wormery which were full of worms. The compost had not fully rotted down but, nevertheless, I spread it on some vacant beds to complete the process and get it integrated with the soil.

30 August - compost from the wormery

This was our last visit of the month and on Saturday 31 we set off for a weekend in London for the 2024 Big Half

John Austin

Hove, August 2024

Life on The Weald - July 2024

and other distractions

1 July

We had plans, made some time ago, to visit the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford for a matinee performance on 3 July. Guildford is only 33 miles away and about an hour and a half drive. We had planned to make it a day trip - but now we have a Campervan we decided to make the visit a trial outing. This meant the allotment would be neglected for a few days!

1 July - preparing the campervan

I did manage a brief visit to the plot, however, and managed to pick some cavolo nero.

1 July Cavolo nero

2 - 4 July

We found a very convenient campsite at East Horsley....

Day 1 in the campervan

...and spent an enjoyable couple of days around Guildford

Guildford town centre

6 July

Saturday was a glorious day and one suited for gardening but we had booked tickets for a theatrical event at Stanmer Park, although we did get a chance to stroll round the park.

Stanmer Park

Teasels in Stanmer Park

7 July

I had bought some kalette plugs from a garden centre to replace the ones grown from seed, which had been devoured by slugs. I had potted on the plugs and I planted these in the "fruit" cage and covered with bottle cloches, surrounded by a mulch of strulch. The new "fruit" cage is now the home for brassicas and hopefully safe from the pigeons. It remains to be seen whether the mesh is fine enough to keep out the cabbage white butterflies.

Purple sprouting broccoli and kalettes

The broccoli had survived the slugs but I noticed there were a number of snails on the plants. The one surviving kalette plant seems to have recovered well and not affaected by the snails.

The surviving Kalette plant

Purple sprouting broccoli

I also planted out another patty pan squash, picked some chard and cavolo nero and also a few lower leaves off the broccoli and red cabbage and lifted some Red Duke of York -potatoes

Cavolo nero, chard and brassica leaves

Red Duke of York potatoes

10 July

I lifted the Stuttgart onions. Some had developed flower stalks (Scapes) which would impair storage.

Stuttgart Onions

The sweetcorn and squashes in the 3 sisters bed were looking good but many of the climbing beans appeared to have been devoured by slugs.

3 sisters bed

There had been a delivery of woodchip and leaf litter to the site and I collected as much as I could for repairing the footpaths and areas around the beds and for use as a mulch when I get round to it. In the meantime, I have left several piles around the plot.

Leaf litter and wood chip

11 July

At home the fruit was setting on the container grown tomatoes which will need a good feed with liquid tomato fertiliser.

11 July Sungold tomatoes

11 July Marmande tomatoes

Some months ago we had acquired a cold frame, in need of repair, as several panes of glass were missing. We had put it out of the way on a weed infested, neglected part of the plot, pending repair, but it was now taking up valuable space that could be used for cultivation. I removed some of the pernicious weeds from within the cold frame and then laid cardboard on the ground. There were several deep cardboard trays available from the community food project and I thought I could use these, filled with a mixture of manure and compost, as instant raised seed beds in the cold frame.

11 July Coldframe lined with cardboard

11 July - Cardboard storage trays in place

11 July - trays filled with compost
instant seed beds

Once in place I sowed some beetroot - Boltardy and Detroit - then surrounded the seed beds with woodchip/leaf litter.

Before leaving I lifted the Rumba onions.

11 July - Rumba onions

Rumba had been advertised as an improvement on Stuttgart but my initial impression was that these were smaller that the Stuttgart harvested earlier. Both sets had produced a number of scapes (flower stalks) which I had broken off. This will not unduly impair the onions but will reduce their ability to be stored.

12 July

There is quite a lot of ragwort on the site, otherwise known as "Stinking Willie".

It can be harmful to dogs and horses if they eat a lot but fortunately they tend not to and I don't have dogs or horses on my plot. Its dangers are greatly exaggerated in my opinion. It's not a good idea to grow it near stables or where grass will be cut to feed animals but It is attractive to essential pollinators and therefore beneficial on the plot. I tend to pull it up if it is growing in my vegetable patches but I leave it around the pond and uncultivated areas. It can cause skin irritation, so it is always a good idea to wear gloves when weeding. I usually pull it up after flowering to prevent it going to seed but it is an attractive plant and is the main food source for the caterpillars of the beautiful Cinnabar moth and the caterpillars don't seem to harm edible crops. It was good to spot several cinnabar moth caterpillars.

12 July - Ragwort (Stinking Willie) by the pond

12 July - Caterpillar of the cinnabar moth

13 July

I lifted the red onions for storage. Like the white/brown onions some had developed flower scapes. We put this down to the changeable and unseasonable weather that we have had. I also lifted more of the First Early Red Duke of York potatoes.

Red onions

red Duke of York potatoes

14 - 16 July

I planted out some red cabbage plants that had been grown from seed on Sunday 14 which was just as well as the following two days saw heavy rain and we were off to Spain and France in the campervan on the Thursday so there was not much opportunity for gardening that week and then we were away until the end of the month.

Whilst we were away, the record for the world's hottest day tumbled twice in one week, according to the European climate change service. On Monday 22 July the global average surface air temperature reached 17.15C, breaking the record of 17.09C set the day before! So we were not sure what the plot would look like when we returned.

John's Blog

Wednesday 18 September 2024