Growing

The hot dry weather was too much for some crops while others loved it. Figs and drying bean flourished. We did much better with peas, broad beans and French beans that last year and although some apple trees suffered, our little apple tree that "never" fruits was weighed down nearly to breaking point. 

We now have 4 trail cameras that provide entertainment and show the antics of the varied wildlife around the allotments and poly-tunnel. It's probably best to leave them to illustrate our furry & feathery visitors. In addition to the still photos a few of the 100s of videos will be at the bottom of this page eventually.

The Visitors

The poly-tunnel gets its share of visitors.

We'd rather not have the mice which eat the figs as soon as they are ripe and this one was trying to tunnel under the beetroot. It eventually gave up when we put bricks over the hole.

The robin is much more welcome and comes in all year to find insects. In the early spring it visited every day.

Another regular is the wren that picks greenfly, caterpillars and insects of the beetroot plants.

The small birds are not so keen on the poly tunnel in hot weather, but tend to warm up in there when it's cold outside.

The raised beds get some attention from a variety of creatures.

The magpies are regulars and strut up and down the raised beds, preferring the edges.

The foxes usually dig for worms which can be annoying when there are seedlings in the bed. The netting over the garlic is there to stop it being dug up!

We had blamed the wind for blowing the plastic off the bed but it was a crow methodically removing it.

Then the crow crouched down and spread its wings over the ant nests to let the ants clear the mites from its feathers. How do crows learn that ants build nests under the plastic though?

    

The pigeons frequently seemed to be looking at the camera although they sometimes settled down to sleep on the soil if it was uncovered,

or they came to meet their best friends. (also see calendar picture.)

The pond was particularly popular during the hot very dry weather.

There are a few places the rats can be seen regularly but usually looking for food apart from the warmer weather.

The foxes all came to drink too.

Not sure what the pigeon is doing as it usually drinks closer to the camera.

Under the pine tree is the busiest place.

The robin appears most days and like the other 4 robins turns up when we are there.

The squirrels bring things to store away or

... eat on the spot.

The sparrows stop by to clear up left overs.

so does the mouse.

The fox was interested but the baby blue tits had already fledged so the box was empty.

A great tit also comes to help clear up after the squirrel.

It was great pleasure to see the thrush as they are not so common now.

The magpie also brings its own food.

Altogether 4 robins have territory that overlaps our two allotments quite apart from the one in the poly tunnel.

This one turns up to supervise potato digging (see calendar pictures.)

It  darts in when it spots something to eat.

Then waits for you to start digging again. During the winter months it has come and demanded we turn the soil or the pine needles until it sees something, even when the ground is frozen or much of the allotment flooded. It is probably the boldest and may well be the one that was lurking in the same area while it was still in its immature plumage last year.

Last year's news featured butterflies. Sadly the council have cut not only the hedge, but the hedgerow so we have seen far fewer butterflies of the small brown and blue ones.

We did have one of the speckled bush crickets venture out from  the brambles to check out the leek seedlings.

Produce

The weather didn't suit some crops which were disappointing. We did have enough cucumber for relish and 35 pounds of tomatoes. The winter squashes and courgettes were a dead loss and the marrows kept us going until the end of November but nothing like last year. On the other hand some things did really well.

The early onions in the poly tunnel were OK

Together with the outdoor ones have kept us going so far but not brilliant

At times we had the perfect mixture of 2nd early potatoes, peas, French beans and carrots.

The early tomatoes were OK

The first figs were OK and the main crop was so good that we have 250 poached in honey & spices to last the winter. They did need picking slightly early before the mice nibbled them.

The white corn was excellent but limited quantity. The old yellow variety we have grown for 40 years is a little tougher but far more reliable to grow and produce a good crop

There were a few good courgettes, rubbish winter squash, decent marrows & cucumbers.

There were enough tomatoes to bottle a few litres and they lasted until mid December before we needed to buy any for salad or cooking.

It was a good year for drying beans

and French beans.

The 2nd early potatoes were really good, while the main crop was made of big potatoes but a bit damaged by pests. They should last us till March though. 

Some of the cabbages were OK both red  and white, but not spectacular. The winter/spring ones are looking much better so far.

Parsnips are good so far and the carrots fairly mixed. There is still a row of carrots in the poly tunnel and the parsnips both in and outside might last till March, We have 2 good rows of beetroot inside together with 4 decent rows of celariac.

As usual the black beans are the best,

followed by borlotti. Altogether we stored over 5 kilos of dried beans.

These sweet little apples are the best in 40 years and should last till well after Christmas. The other trees were not so good with the wind finishing them of before we could pick many. The Bramleys and Russets that are usually the best producers were disappointing.

The Floods
No captions, the pictures speak for themselves. The poly tunnel flooded twice, fortunately just rainwater that cleared in 48 hours unlike the allotments. At least the 8 raised beds with winter vegetables in did their job and stayed above water level.

A few other pictures.

See new section for a "few" videos of the allotment visitors.