Pulling up the onions

The onions have had a lot to put up with this year.  Soon after planting the sets, the moles moved in, that must have been a bit traumatic for them being pushed up out of the soil before they were ready, but they seemed to recover and carried on growing.

Then as time went on the weeds arrived and took over. Now I know that onions don't like competing with weeds, they like their own space, but we were busy moving house and so the poor onions got neglected, but they continued to grow.

At this time of year it's now time to harvest the onions. All around me on the neighbouring allotments I can see racks of onions drying out in the sunshine. So I decided it was time to pull my onions up. I have to say that although I did try to do a little bit of weeding in the onion patch over the last few weeks, the weeds won. So when it came to pulling them up, I had great difficulty in finding them amongst the weeds. But I managed and I was amazed to find big onions.

I laid them out to dry in the sunshine on the greenhouse staging which we dragged out from its summer storage behind the shed and also in the cold frame.

And so, despite all the trauma of bad growing conditions, the onions have done well and seem as good as in previous years. I'm pleased with my harvest.

Clearing out the pond and bog garden

The allotment pond has been much neglected in the last few months and every time I have been down to the allotment recently I have looked and thought I really must do something about it. The plants in the boggy garden around the pond needed deadheading and the weeds were growing tall around them obscuring the pond. The pond itself was completely covered in pond weed so that I couldn't see if the tadpoles were still living in there.

My time on the allotment has been limited recently so the most important jobs have been getting vegetables in the ground and looking after them.  But I recently found myself fairly up to date with the jobs and having an hour to spare I decided to tackle the pond.

I started by weeding around the pond and deadheading the plants. The irises, trollius, candelabra primroses and marsh marigolds had all gone over, so they got cut back. But the lovely pink lythrum was flowering away and I was so pleased because I only planted it last year and then earlier this year decided I had planted it in the wrong place so decided to move it. At the time I wasn't sure if I had done the right thing, but it seems to like its new place.

The rodgersia has lovely red leaves, but is still quite small. This plant should grow really tall when it gets more established.

Once the weeding and deadheading had been done I could find my way to the pond and using a small metal tea strainer I scooped the pond weed off the surface of the pond, leaving it on the stones at the side so that any little water creatures could get themselves back into the pond easily.

 I put this water soldier in a few months ago.  When I bought it from the garden centre it was quite small and I nearly bought a couple more.  I'm so glad I didn't, it has grown quite big and I have since heard that it can be quite invasive and may not be suitable in a small pond. So I will watch it carefully.

The pond and bog garden looked much better after this tidy up and peering into the water I could see that the tadpoles were still there swimming around. I was even more delighted when I spotted two huge frogs next to the pond and when I moved and disturbed them they both took a big leap into the pond and disappeared. At least I know there is plenty of wildlife in there.

Competing with moles

When we first took the allotment on  4 years ago we soon became aware that there was a mole on the plot. As well as finding little piles of soil around the plot we also saw the earth moving.  That was quite weird.  Most of the time  the piles of soil were at the edges of paths and next to the shed so we weren't too bothered.  But the mole has now decided to take over one of the big beds where this year I have been growing onions.

I often used to find soft spots in the bed as I was planting or weeding and sometimes there would be a mole hill, but never any damage to plants. This year I have been growing onions in the bed and 

soon  after I planted them I found some of them had been disturbed by the mole. After a while I decided to admit defeat as more mole hills appeared in the bed. I thought that was the end of the onions. But remarkably they seem to have survived and they have been swelling nicely the last few weeks.

This week I have planted the first lot of leeks. I always plant one lot at this time and another lot after the onions have been lifted. The first lot are usually ready for harvesting in the autumn and the others are ready after Christmas.

I always enjoy planting leeks, making a hole with the dibber, popping in the leek seedling and then topping up the hole with water. This year though it has been quite a challenge as the bed is now riddled with underground mole tracks and the ground is quite soft in places. Some of the planting holes must have gone down a long way underground as when I topped up with water the water just went down and down and down. I wonder how the mole felt about having his home flooded!  One leek seedling disappeared underground with the water. Well despite all the mole holes I still managed to plant the leeks, carefully choosing firmer ground. I just hope they don't get dug up.

Through the garden gate--June

June was a busy month for us as we moved house. No time for gardening, but now I am getting settled in our new house I am gradually starting on the garden.

So maybe you need a tour of our new garden. The front and side gardens are quite pretty and have been well maintained. There are shrubs and a few flowers. In the front garden by the front door is a hydrangea.  There are lots of flower heads yet to open. I am waiting to see what colour they are.

There is a giant scabious in the border which I have been cutting to bring in the house and add to my shop bought flowers. I don't normally buy flowers, I have always had enough to cut from the garden, so I will have to get planting so that next year I will have plants for cutting.

We brought lots of plants from our other house and I have the chance to go back for cuttings as our daughter now lives in our previous house. This could take some time though. I would like to plant up the front garden with more flowers to give it a more cottage garden look. 

One plant I have not been able to identify is this. It smells lovely and I am wondering if it is ginger mint

The back of our new house needs some work doing. It is just a lawn and it slopes. But we have plans, it is a project we will be working on for some time.

Holly the cat is settling into her new home and enjoys sitting at the kitchen door looking out at her new territory.

This monthly 'Through the garden gate' post  is hosted by Sarah at Down by the Sea

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.

Getting back to work on the plot

The allotment has been really neglected the last few weeks whilst we have been busy moving house. Our time has been taken up with so many other things. I have been to the plot to water and check over things and every time I've been so aware of all the jobs which needed doing but I didn't have the time to do them.

This week, feeling more settled in our new home, we finally managed  a couple of sessions on the plot to do some much needed jobs. There was the greenhouse to sort out. The tomatoes needed side shoots removing and then staking. I had plants to get in the ground, some Savoy cabbages and flower sprouts. As this is the first year I am growing flower sprouts I wanted to make sure I got them planted.

Arriving on the plot we could see that the moles had been at work in the onion bed. The onion bed also needed a good weed. In fact the weeds were growing in abundance all over the plot. But it was good to see other things doing well. The Sweet Williams are full of flowers and the sweet peas are just starting to flower. The peas and broad beans have got pods on now and we will soon be picking them. 

And the brassicas are growing well too, although I did spot a couple of caterpillars on one cabbage even though it was covered in netting. Those cabbage white butterflies are very good at finding ways to get under the netting.

We set to work, Richard weeded the onion bed and sorted out netting frames for the cabbages whilst I planted courgettes, cabbage, flower sprouts, cauliflowers and swedes. The tomatoes got a good tidy up and it was good to see some fruits appearing.

I decided not to get too stressed about the weeds, it's more important to get the food crops looked after, the weeds will get sorted eventually.

Tomatoes are planted up

There is so much to be done on the allotment now. I go down there to do certain jobs and then find there are so many other jobs also need doing.

The tomato plants have been growing well and I have been potting them on into larger pots until it was time to plant them up into their final planting positions.

This year I have grown five varieties-- Moneymaker, Ailsa Craig, Shirley, Gardeners' Delight and Red Cherry.  Last weekend I potted them up into big pots in the greenhouse.  We have had to move out some of the staging in order to make room for them and as I gradually move seedlings to the cold frame I will be able to move out more of the staging to make room for more pots.

I used a mix of home made compost and multipurpose compost to pot them up into big pots.

They are looking really good and strong and I am so looking forward to picking the first tomatoes. Eating them straight from the plant is probably the best way of enjoying them, but I love to make chutneys and soup too.