Repairing the storm damage

Back in August I planted a row of strawberries through black plastic to help them crop earlier and to suppress the weeds, I held it down with stones, but at the time I thought it might not be good enough to withstand a strong wind.

Went to the allotment this afternoon and I was right, most of the plastic was ripped up and strewn across the plot. What it really needed was for the edges of the plastic to be buried, so I dug a trench all the way round, weighted the plastic down and then refilled the hole. Hopefully that should be good enough.

Luckily none of the strawberry plants have been damaged.

Also dug the remainder of the gladioli bulbs still in the ground.

The garlic I planted in the autumn is starting to peep through, thought the progress would be a bit faster.

Crops today, cabbage, carrots, beetroot, spring onions and leeks. 

Preparing For Next Season.

I've already bought all my seeds for next season and I'm raring to go.

Last year I bought a few packets of seeds from a company called Premier Seeds on Ebay. Their seeds are half the price of the regulars such as Suttons and T&M, you get more seeds in a packet and the germination rate is excellent.

Seeds of note:

Onions: I've always grow seeds from sets, but Glen has grown then from seed in the garden and they've done well. When you compare the price of 99p for 1000 seeds as apposed to £2.99 for a bag of sets I thought it was time I gave seed a try. I read on some allotment websites that onions do do better grow from seed.

Flowers: Bought quite a few flower seeds so I can grow cut flowers for the house on the allotment.

Fennel: Never tried fennel bulbs in cooking, bought a packet of seeds, will give them a try.

Curly Leaf Parsley: After the success of flat leaf parsley this year I thought I'd give this a try.

Sweetcorn: Fed up with mini corns, so I've bought "Rising Sun F1" seeds to grow a full sized corn. I don't think the Highland summers are warm enough or long enough, but it's an early ripening variety so it might work if it's like this year. 

Red Spring Onion:  Variety Lilia, the white spring onions did exceptionally well, so I thought I'd try a white variety as well next year.

Gherkin: I love pickled gherkin. Another experiment.

Red Cabbage:  I grew red cabbage in 2012 and they did brilliantly, not sure why I didn't grow any in 2013.

Broccoli: One of my favorite vegetables, in my experience they tend to all crop at the same time and then run to flower, I'll have a read up to see if there's anything I can do to avoid this.

Apart from these I'm growing things I grew this year. I can't wait to get started, once Christmas is over I'll start digging the allotment and get some manure.

Winter Veg

It might be only 3 weeks to Christmas but there's still lots of fresh produce available on the allotment.

Carrots, beetroot, spring onion, cabbage, leeks and even parsley. 

Most root vegetables will last through the winter, my still plenty of carrots and beetroot on my plot.

The leeks are cropping well this year, they also should stand up to the winter weather, although the outer leaves do tend to go a little much when it's very cold.

Despite the summer vandalism by the caterpillars I still have lots of cabbages, like the leeks the outer leaves might go a little bit off in very cold weather, but they can always be peeled off and the rest used.

The spring onions and the parsley will not fair so well in the snow, but at the moment they're still doing well.