#purple sprouting

Good evening (20/05). Really hot today so tonight is just carrying on with watering from this morning though I do have to pick some sprouting broccoli for my dinner. There no sign of rain for the next 10 days. It’s creating a concern as I always prefer the rain water to tap water.

I’m looking forward to having more of my vegetables. The sprouting broccoli is really tasty.

Purple sprouting, one of my favourites. Personally I prefer this to broccoli. This is late developing but enjoyable treat for me.

I planted up the last few of my celery plants; using them to help keeping the netting in place.

I use plastic bottles and bamboo canes to support the netting to allow my brassicas to grow. The netting is a fine mesh which should keep the white cabbage butterflies out.

Planting out the last of my brassicas; kalette and purple sprouting.

The plants on the right were planted about three weeks ago so I was expecting them to have grown a little but you can’t tell the difference. Slugs are enjoying the tasty treats.

I’m planting them about 600mm apart. I just fitting the row in the space.

Success stories: list of veg heroes!

This year on the allotment has been epic already. I’m not keen to jinx it but I wanted to make a list.

I’m not big on list posts but this list is a great achievement for us.

New Crops Here’s some of the stuff we either never grew before or never had any luck with.

1. Walking onions 2. Soya beans 3. Achocha 4. Gherkins 5. Purple sprouting broccoli

Improved stuff Here’s some stuff where the yield…

Plot Time: 17.00 - 19.00

Weather: Cloudy but mild. No rain! We have had heavy rainfall everyday this week interspersed with the odd bit of sunshine. The hosepipe ban that spanned parts of the country has been called off and many parts of the UK are now experiencing bad flooding

Jobs completed:

Planted out the purple sprouting broccoli. We walked on the soil to firm the bed down first then planted each seedling deep in the soil adding a handful of lime and water. This helps prevent clubroot. We then put some bamboo canes around the bed at about waist height and netted the broccoli to prevent the birds getting to them

Plot Time: 16.30 to 18.00

Weather: Warm but overcast in the morning. Getting hotter and sunnier throughout the day 

Jobs completed:

Tied back the campion in the front flower bed

Pulled out the purple sprouting broccoli and composted the remains. Started to prepare the bed for the next crop