Planting Out Tomatoes

Well the British summer consists of two fine days followed by a thunderstorm. We didn’t quite have the thunderstorm, but the rain came along pretty well as predicated at 4pm. It wasn’t bad though, more spits than showers.

Free Slabs!

My next door but one neighbour has had her back patio re-vamped and that meant she’d a load of slabs going spare. I didn’t even need to ask, my reputation for recycling (ok, scrounging) was enough and they offered!

They’re 18″ slabs, which is about as large as I like to handle nowadays so I’d stacked them at the front of the house. Within days Larry had scrounged 4 for his greenhouse, but that’s alright as there’s plenty left to make paths between the raised beds.

Loaded 14 into the car along with the tomatoes and headed down to the plot. 4 have gone onto plot 29 in front of the greenhouse, which looks a bit tidier, and the rest were stacked on plot 5. I’ll transport the rest over the next week or so.

There were a few people on the site when I got there. One couple were happily watering their plot. I really don’t understand why some people (they’re not the only ones) think they have to water everyday.

Even when the soil seems dry as a bone on the surface, more often than not there’s moisture underneath. If in doubt, stick your finger in the soil. If it comes out damp then it doesn’t need watering, except for seedlings.

Had a nice chat with Gianni and another plot holder who’s name escapes me. I think we discussed everything from corruption in the democratic process to the price of rail tickets with a slight deviation into the effects of retirement on lifespan.

Bit like our allotment forums really, conversations that meander far from the original starting point. Life would be so boring without wasting a bit of time.

Planting Out The Tomatoes

Eventually I got started on planting the tomatoes out in the greenhouse. They going into the beds which I filled with compost a couple of years ago. First thing was to add a load of fish, blood and bone to the compost. This provides the base nutrition although I’ll be adding specific tomato fertiliser later.

This year I’ve less plants so they’re better spaced. It will be interesting to see what the overall yield is like. Interplanted a few lettuce whilst I was at it. They should be ready shortly in the greenhouse with the outdoors ones coming in after.

I planted one of the Ailsa Craig and Sungold in the small greenhouse border, following the same pattern. I like to spread the risk, so if blight say gets into one greenhouse, the other may be clear.

Left the plot around 6pm, the rain wasn’t too bad but with the heavy grey sky and drops I didn’t fancy doing much more. We’re promised a bright end to the week so looking forward to getting more done this week.

Posted in Allotment Garden Diary

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