Abundance at the Allotment

Our inaugural year as allotment owners is finally bearing fruit (and vegetables) and it is doing so with a great abundance.


The Rustic Fruit Cage, Beans, Sweet Corn, Beetroot and Onions

We have now got bags of early potatoes, and onions. We have gathered small amounts of peas and broad beans too.

Courgettes

The courgettes of various colours and sizes seem to be popping up on a daily basis. The little yellow ones are especially nice sliced (raw) and inserted into sandwiches. The Head Chef likes them lightly salted with Olive Oil but to me that’s too much faffing about.

The Tayberries, Raspberries and Blueberries, all safe in the Rustic Fruit Cage are giving us plenty to nibble on while we slave to weed water and pick everything under the relentless heat-wave.


Tayberries

Rhubarb is growing well, Squashes and Cucumbers are blooming nicely and hopefully, we should get a decent crop of these too.

Nice Weather For Slow Worms

Beetroots are finally flourishing under nets, which seem to have stopped whatever it was that was eating the leaves. The Runner Beans are running up the poles and flowering and the Sweet Corn is looking healthy.

Piles of Potatoes



Rainwater Irrigation System

When it was raining every day during spring and we were simultaneously being told that drought conditions meant countrywide hosepipe bans would be required, my mind turned to the undeniable logic of rain collection and water-buts.

We have a workshop/shed at the top of our garden and I set about fitting gutters to the eves to collect the rain water. Fitting the gutters was actually far easier that I imagined it would be and was almost fun, despite the weather.

Finding water buts in stock was less easy, it seemed everyone had reached the same conclusion but eventually I found and purchased a large capacity one that would fit behind the shed. I channelled the water into the but and it was duly filled to the brim, within a week.

The next part of my project was running a hosepipe down from the reservoir, to irrigate our raised-bed vegetable plot; this is gravity assisted because the garden is on a slope.

I then learned about semi-porous hoses that can be used for watering gardens. I bought one of these, embedded it around the raised bed and then added it to the end of my device.

The end result was very satisfactory indeed; when the tap on the but is turned on, the water gradually beads out of the buried hose, thus watering the parched veg. Interestingly, my activities seem to have had an effect on the children and they have been creating ingenious contraptions of their own for watering hard to reach plants.

Now all I need to do is patent the Porous Irrigation Soaker System and think of a good marketing acronym. Well, perhaps not, but hopefully, this means that if we go away on holiday, I can just turn the tap on a small amount and my peas, spinach and garlic will all still be alive on our return…