Tidying up the strawberries

 Last year the strawberries on the allotment didn't do at all well. There were other allotment people whose strawberry crops had failed too. They blamed it on weevils, which apparently eat at the roots and so destroy the plants. I think my strawberries failed because they were old. Strawberries work well on a 3/4 year rotation. It's usually best to get rid of them by the third or fourth year as they start to flag and don't produce much fruit. My strawberries had seen better days, when I thought about it I realised they were probably about five years old.

I grow my strawberries in big tubs and the bath and usually have year 1, year 2 and year 3 tubs. Each year I take cuttings from the runners to start a new year's crop. Well, that's my plan, but I haven't been very good at working to it for the last couple of years.

Last year I bought some new plants and planted them up in the bath, but being their first year there wasn't much fruit, they should do better this year. So this year I decided to get rid of all the old  plants in the other containers and start again. Back in February when we had that lovely weather  I potted up lots of plants from the runners of the old strawberries which were rooting themselves all over the plot. I had a good clean up, getting rid of the weak ones and selecting the healthy looking ones. 

I also tidied up the strawberries in the bath, getting rid of the dead leaves which looked such a mess. 

All the new potted up strawberries have been in the greenhouse for a few weeks now and are looking really good. This week I moved them to the cold frame. Soon they will be ready for planting in their big containers.

Remembering a few years ago when I couldn't pick the fruit fast enough and I made lots of strawberry jam, I'm hoping for a better strawberry harvest this summer.

Not just a bit of watering

Popping down to the allotment to water the greenhouse plants can take longer than expected at this time of year. There are quite often nice surprises in store.

The strawberries are ripening fast now and every time I go to the plot there are more to be found. There are always more than I think, they hide under the leaves to reveal big clusters of juicy red fruits. I have to pick the strawberries as soon as they are ready as they won't stay there for long, the slugs or the birds will have  them if I don't.

Looking at the vegetables I can see that the first little cauliflower heads are appearing, the calabrese have heads forming too and after all the heavy rain we've had this week the sweet corn seem to have grown several inches taller. The sweet peas are flowering now so I need to cut them regularly to keep them coming.

Some of the surprises are not so welcome though. Some of the  kale which I planted last week  have been eaten by slugs. But considering I have been so busy at home recently and haven't had as much time to spend on the allotment, things are not doing too badly.

Pottering around the plot

strawberries all over the place

At the allotment in the last few weeks whilst Richard has been putting up the new green house, I have been pottering around doing other things. Pottering around is about all I can do at the moment with the damp weather. 

The fruit bed badly needs sorting out. The strawberry runners are all over the place, but the ground is still too wet at the moment to do any digging up. I managed to tidy up the strawberries in the bath and that looks much better.

a bath full of strawberries

The rhubarb which had been on Helen's old plot got dug up before Christmas and I left the crowns until I had more time to divide and pot up. They have now started to show signs of new growth, so I spent some time splitting them up into smaller plants and potting up. I was amazed at how big and woody the roots are. I have planted some on the allotment and given some away to friends but there are still rather a lot left.

just a few of the rhubarb plants

I didn't get chance to clean out the wildlife pond in the autumn, so that's another job I've done in the last couple of weeks. Armed with rubber gloves I got down on my hands and knees, scooped out the leaves, dead plant foliage and some of the silt from the bottom. A week later there was even more silt so I was back doing it all again. The silt is coming down the drain into the pond from the plot above us and with all the rain we have had recently there is  more coming down the drain than usual. I know that a certain amount of silt is needed for the pond creatures, but this is a bit excessive, I want a pond not a bog.  So my next plan is to empty the pond of all the plants and rocks, so that I can get more of the silt out and then start again with a fairly clean pond. That's if it doesn't rain too much.

murky overflowing pond

Strawberries

It's getting to that time of year when we go to the allotment to do work but half the time is spent harvesting produce. That's really good. At the moment that produce is strawberries. There are loads of them. In fact this must be the best year ever for growing strawberries--for me that is. I have never had so many strawberries.  I'm really enjoying them and I'm wondering what I'm doing right that makes this year's crop such a good one.

Well  the strawberries had plenty of manure early on in the year. Then I put straw under the plants to keep the fruit clean and netted them against the birds. Some of them are still being munched by slugs, but most of them are beautiful fruit. I don't mind sharing a few fruit with the wildlife as long as I get most of them. In previous years I never got around to putting the straw and netting down and it was always a race to get to the fruit before the birds or slugs.

Last year I potted up a lot of plants from the runners and these new plants were planted in the bath at the allotment.  The strawberries I planted in the bath  are not as good, and the ones in my garden also have not done as well. So the allotment beds seem to be providing the best conditions. But strawberries need to be replaced every three or four years.  They get better after the first year and then start to get less productive after the third year. The ones in the bath are in their first year and those in my garden beds are probably in their third or fourth year.  So that might explain why they are not as productive.

 We are really enjoying our strawberries.  The best way to eat them I think is from a bowl topped with cream or ice cream.  I have also been having them for breakfast with granola and Greek yogurt or with scotch pancakes and honey.  But this week faced with a massive box of them I decided that I would have to make jam. I've never done  much jam making before but with other types of fruit growing at the allotment I'm having to learn. And I really love the jam labels my granddaughter has made for me.

Getting the jobs done

Here we are in June and still waiting for summer, will it ever arrive? This week we've had some lovely warm days and maybe summer has finally arrived. But we've had some strong winds recently which have tested the stability of our allotment plastic grow house. Fortunately Richard secured it well to a strong base. This is its second year and probably its last. The zip has broken down one side and although we could probably buy a new cover I don't think it's worth it. It's served its purpose and Richard is making a base for another grow house or poly tunnel type of structure which he will build himself and will be much more stable. We don't buy things for the allotment if we can make them.

Things are starting to grow and it's looking nice and green with rows of broad beans, peas, salad leaves, onions, garlic cabbages and Brussels sprouts. The pea and bean frames are in place and so is the brassica frame.

This week I have planted out celeriac. I love celeriac but haven't quite mastered the technique of growing it.  Last year's crop was very small, but I will keep trying. I have also sown fennel, swede, more peas and more climbing french beans.  It always seems a mad rush at this time of year to get everything in the ground at the right time.  I don't want to miss out on any vegetables because I forgot to sow the seed at the right time.  But I feel I am getting on top of things and ticking off the jobs on the list in my allotment journal.

The strawberries are looking healthy.  They have had some lovely flowers and are now starting to form the fruit.  I have put some straw underneath the strawberries in the bath and still have to do the ones in the fruit bed. This year I must remember to net them before it's too late and the birds eat them all!

Every allotment should have one

When we first started allotment gardening Helen and I were given an old bath.  We weren't quite sure what to do with it but we soon realised that if you had an allotment you also had an old bath.  People grew things in them, used them to collect rain water or made them into ponds. Some allotment people had more than one bath-- the height of luxury!  For about three years our bath was left lying at the back of the polytunnel on plot 10b amongst the weeds and brambles doing nothing.  We weren't sure if we had room for it anywhere, and I did wonder if we really needed it.  I considered getting rid of it--giving it to another allotment person.  But I looked around at the other allotments and saw that there didn't seem to be any allotment which didn't have a bath being put to good use. It was obviously the thing to do, it would be wasteful to get rid of it.

Last year we noticed our next door allotment neighbour had the most amazing strawberries growing in his bath. We would love to have strawberries like that. So we decided this was to be the year of the bath and we really must  grow something in it. We moved the bath to plot 8 and after much thought a suitable place was found for it at the back of the growhouse. A lot of work was required to get it in place because it had to fit in amongst the new drainage system which my husband was working on and this seemed to be the best place to put it.

Finally last weekend it was there in  place and I could fill it with compost and plant it up with strawberries. I have to say it looks really good and I am so looking forward to having some really juicy strawberries this year.

 

A new fruit bed

the fruit bed and apple tree last year

Plot 8 is progressing well and our latest addition is the fruit bed.   Last year when we took the plot on we found an apple tree amongst all the rubbish and tangled mess of weeds. In another part of the plot we found some raspberries. We decided we would have a fruit bed centred around the apple tree.  We dug over this area, moved the raspberries and recently planted strawberries around the apple tree. We also planted some rhubarb.

the new fruit bed

My daughter was given a plant which she was told was an apple tree. It was very pot bound and we have planted this in the new fruit bed. It has perked up quite a bit since being planted, we are not convinced it is an apple tree though. Also in the bed we have planted a blueberry. In the last few weeks the fruit bed has been extended and we have planted more raspberries, some gooseberries and a redcurrant. 

I'm really loving this fruit bed having seen it develop from an area full of weeds, rubble and all sorts of rubbish to a tidy controlled space. All the plants are looking happy, and we are looking forward to seeing fruit later in the year.

Fruity

It must be a good year for fruit. I have never seen so much fruit in my garden.  Well I only grow strawberries and raspberries, but there are loads of them.  I keep thinking this will be the last good picking I have of them.  Then a day or two later I go up to the top of the garden and there they are again, waiting to be picked. Then there's the allotment-- gooseberries, blackcurrants and rhubarb.

In the kitchen there are bowls of strawberries in the fridge waiting to be eaten, trays of raspberries and blackcurrants in the freezer, and more fruit already bagged up. I'm considering buying another freezer for allotment produce.  I think though that I really need to get into jam making, that is the answer I'm sure.

Draining plot 8

We made a start on plot 8 our new allotment last weekend. We didn't really know where to start, there is so much rubbish and it has been very neglected. We sorted through broken plant pots and seed trays, managing to salvage some big pots which would do for growing potatoes in. We started to make a pile of bricks, there seem to be hundreds of them all over the plot, but they will be useful. There are lots of other stones and rubble lying around which again will be useful, especially as we are needing rubble to lay the foundations of the paths on plot 10b. The very flimsy raised beds still had the  remains of dead plants in them, which we cleared.  They seem to be not very deep, lined with membrane and filled with compost, but we can use them this summer as overflow beds for plants from plot 10b. We noticed that there were two small beds with strawberries in so we will leave those, give them some TLC and see if they produce any fruit. The whole plot seems to have had membrane, bits of carpet and wood thrown down in an attempt to suppress the weeds.  I don't think it has been dug over in years.

Down one side of the plot, part of the boundary fence has a conifer hedge, which we could tell had not been cut in a long time and our neighbours confirmed this.  They keep their side well maintained. Richard made a start on cutting it back. Although he has cut into the wood which means it will not grow again on our side, we have probably gained a few feet of extra space.

 

As  we worked with our clearing up Helen's husband David got a fire going on our other plot to burn the debris and hedge cuttings. We still finished up with a big pile of rubbish which couldn't be burnt.

All the work  was made more difficult because of the water running down the plot. Some areas are very muddy, making it very slippy. So Richard has also been tackling the drainage problem. He has dug out a drain from the top of the plot where the water source starts. This is channelled down to the pond and then out to the bottom of the plot onto the lane.  He intends to put some drain pipes into the dug out areas to make proper drains.  This is the most important job at the moment on the plot. We can see some improvement already as the path and steps into the plot has now dried out and we can enter without worry of falling over in the mud.

As we spend more time clearing up our new plot we are forming a plan in our mind of how to lay it out.
We've a lot of work ahead of us though.