Allotment Vegetable Growing in August 2010
Tomato BlightThis year has been ideal for blight, plenty of warm, wet weather creating Blight Smith periods. Whilst blight is primarily a problem for potatoes, it effects tomatoes which are in the same family. I'd planted 4 plum tomato plants through weed suppressant matting and this is all that is left from them. Brown, skeletons. You can now get tomato varieties that resist blight |
Tomato Blight Close UpThis shot shows the effect of the blight in close up on the stems. The brown patches are hard to miss. The only treatment is to spray with fungicide preventively or at the very earliest sign of the disease. Personally I don't like spraying tomatoes as the spray is going onto the fruit and I don't want to eat spray. |
More Blighted TomatoesThese are at the top end of plot 5 and had got off to a good start until the boot of blight descended from the sky. I had hoped that spreading my plants out across the plots would provide some security and I'd at least get a couple of plants cropping. It was not to be. |
Blighted Tomatoes, courgettes, comfrey and bolted lettuceThe tomatoes on plot 29 caught the blight as well, although a little later than those on plot 5. Oh well, some years you can't win and others you just lose! The comfrey is to left of shot and the courgettes are slightly mildew struck behind them. The bolted lettuce won't be wasted, they'll be converted into eggs by the daughter's ducks. |
Me & My CabbageI harvested a pyramid cabbage for my daughter and she snapped this shot. I'm stood by my Wonderwall brassica tent with some more conventional netted brassicas to the rear. The tomatoes may be a bit of a flop this year, but I can't complain about my brassicas. The outer leaves will be chicken food, by the way. Waste not, want not. |
Carrots Doing WellThe carrots are coming along nicely. At the moment we're eating the thinnings leaving the rest to grow on. So some lovely meals of sweet young carrots. Behind the barrels you can see the dying tomatoes in the raised bed coldframe. |
Grafted Chilli in Large GreenhouseThis is the border of the large greenhouse, you can just see some ripe red chilli peppers on the middle plant. This is a grafted plant from Suttons I bought to try. The fruiting stock is grafted onto a strong root stock and the result is faster and greater cropping. The marigolds in the front are to deter whitefly. |
Chilli Pepper in Small GreenhouseNot quite as advanced as grafted chilli in the large greenhouse, this ordinary chilli pepper in a pot in the small is doing pretty well. I think the restriction of pot growing sometimesforces better fruiting than the border grown. It's just a generic cayenne, plenty hot enough for us.
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Sweet Peppers in Home GreenhouseThe leaves may look a little moth-eaten, well it's snail-eaten actually, but there are plenty of fruits developing. The pots are sitting in my Vitopod propogator which is unused at this time of year. |
Tomatoes and Peppers in the Home GreenhouseThe tall peppers and two tomatoes on the floor of the home greenhouse, which is a lean-to that I built myself from wood and polycarbonate sheeting. The window on the right is into the home office where I'm typing this. It tends to serve as a bit of a store as well, hence the bits scattered around. I'm a bit worried about on of these tomato plants - it's escaped the blight but the yellowing leaves don't look good. They may be a magnesium deficiency and I'll be giving them some epsom salts.
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View down plot 5This is a snap down plot 5 to the Wonderwall. In the foreground you can see the red clover green manure is sprouted and coming up fast. Further down the squash and pumpkins are doing well and then the sweetcorn.
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Tomatoes in the Large GreenhouseThe cordon tomato plants in the large greenhouse look pretty good but just one ripe tomato so far. You'll notice some of the leaves are curled on the nearer plant. This isn't actually a problem, just a reaction to the temperature difference nearer the door from day to night.
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My One CucumberJust one cucumber plant, a Romanian variety, survived the snails as seedlings but that's OK. We're getting one cucumber a day on average! It's in a large pot on the bed and trailing along some wires. |
Brassica CollectionWe'd brought these back from the plot and Val had cleaned and prepared them onto this tray. Just looks too good to eat so I had to take the photo. 3 cauliflowers, pyramid cabbage, ball cabbage and calabrese. |
Our GardenWe mainly grow on the allotment so the garden is more of a decorative than productive area - apart from the cherry tree (rear left) and some tomatoes and saladings out of shot. It's a big improvement on the bare prison exercise yard we had when we moved in. |
Pixie hunting butterflies in the peppersOur cat Pixie was happily stalking a butterfly in the greenhouse. Unfortunately we've failed to train her to hunt snails, which would be really useful. The holes in the leaves of the peppers are caused by snails which seem to be around in huge numbers in our garden. |
Lottie on the GreenhouseOur cat Lottie, one of three kittens originally named Allie, Lottie and Mental (as in allotment) she's full of beans and has found out how to get onto the top of the greenhouse. It's a great place for her to survey her garden and show off to the other cats! |
French Allotment 1We finally managed to get some photos of French allotments on one of our day trips. Usually we've spotted them from the motorway and it's difficult to stop! The big difference to our allotments is that the French allotments are very regimented and neat. Not a home made shed or greenhouse in sight. |
French Allotment 2In this shot you can see how the sheds are split into 4 with each one having its own water butt. They look to be about 500 litre butts as well - not the small ones. |
French Allotment 3The sunflowers were the only touch of colour on the whole site but it was a very grey rainy day. I was surprised to see people working on there as it was getting wetter as the day went on. Later it was power-shower rain! |
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