A neighbor very kindly offered me the contents of his compost pile which I gladly accepted and used to finish off mulching around the tomato plants. I gave him a head of lettuce in return for two carts of compost. What a deal! 😀 #gardening #allotment #zone6b #NewEngland @gardening #compost
Well, as I said a few days ago, as an experiment I stopped cutting off the flower stalks of the very mature rhubarb I have and this is the result. It's teeming with hover flies and other small flying insects that I could not identify. #BloomScrolling of a sort! #gardening #allotment #zone6b #NewEngland @gardening
That's the #allotment trip done - as expected the grass was up to here. I've strimmed until the batteries were dead, so it's another visit during the week to get the rest done.
Unexpected - the sweetcorn & pea plants I put in before our holiday have gone - no sign they were ever there! No sign of the carrots or beetroot coming up either.
Morning! Another very sunny day. Not sure yet what I’m going to do with it. Tom’s going to try out his new lawnmower, woooo! Might go for a walk somewhere. Any plans your end?
We've got to go to the #allotment - there are brassicas in our garden that need planting out, and I'm sure the grass and weeds will be thigh high there.
If Mrs Mike can get up (she's not had a restful night) then we'll take a picnic lunch and make a bit of a day out of it.
#today I got my garden cart back from the neighbors so I was able to move all of my mature compost and use it to mulch around my tomato plants. This used up all the compost that I currently have, so the remaining area will be mulched with a mixture of leaf mold and grass clippings over the course of the season as they become available. While I was doing that, #BeetBear spent some time with his beet crop, cultivating and weeding. 😀 #gardening #allotment #zone6b #NewEngland @gardening
This year we’ve grown just six beds of field or fava beans 🫘 Five beds of Vespa field beans and one bed of Sutton Dwarf broad beans (Fava) The Sutton have already flowered and set beans so we’ll have a crop soon 😛 The Vespa are getting taller and starting to show flowers. These produce tiny beans, many more per plant🪴 and they are so tasty 😋 #Allotment#Today#GrowYourOwn#Gardening
Happy 39th wedding anniversary to my partner in the garden and best friend, @SusanRollinson
To my Lilly of the Valley from your dandelion. Looking forward to the next 39! 😀 #gardening #allotment #anniversary
The removal of the tomatoes from the greenhouse benches gives us room to get the first planting of sweetcorn (Flagler) started. We put 5 seeds to a pot and 32 pots make a row. Once those are big enough and the weather warm enough they will get set out in to a row and another planting will be started. We try to have 2 weeks between plantings to extend the season. Last year we brought ~ 230 ears of corn to the table. #gardening #allotment #zone6b #NewEngland #BeetBear #Today #sweetcorn
Did a big batch cook of Bolognese style ragù last night, using the really great local beef mince we did the burgers with. It's so beefy.
So good old Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner.
Using some wholewheat spaghetti.
With rocket leaves, broad bean seedling leaves, and broken up asparagus spears from the #allotment stirred through the spaghetti before dolloping the ragù on top and adding a grate of parmesan and a few twists of pepper.
#today#BeetBear and I got busy and planted up our cucumbers (Marketmore), zucchini (Dunja), yellow squash (Sunburst), and butternut squash (ButterBaby). After the tomatoes went out ,we had room to do this. Once these get large enough in a few weeks time, they will go out to grow on in the garden. There are 4 seed trays of each type, each tray has 6 seeds. The contents of each tray will be set out as is (minus the pot) in a hill of it's own. #gardening #allotment #zone6b #NewEngland
The mother hen on the allotment field now has only three babies. I'm sure there were around 9 or 10 a couple of weeks ago.
Stigg lets the birds roam free, he let the cockerel breed, he doesn't care if the birds or chicks live or die, he only got them to piss the council off. A dog killed a hen a few days ago, he laughed. He feeds them stale white bread and they have no shelter.
The council have told him to get rid of them, especially the cockerel but he won't. #gardening#allotment#chickens
An overhead shot of the downslope allotment from a raised perspective. I stood on the neighbours fence! Well, I've been digging over his area for him and getting access via the fence, so I took the opportunity. #gardening#allotment
Spent the day sorting out brassica netting and bean frames. Will plant out my first lot of brassicas outside and aubergines and tomatoes in the greenhouses over the next few days. Beans and squash will go out later this month.
Also did more swaps, this time broccoli and lettuce for some of my spare cucumbers and marigolds 🌱
Greenhouse changes 😎 One of the reasons we accepted this allotment a few years ago was the greenhouse 🤔 We knew that we could fix the issues with the structure and state of the plot 🫣 Here a a couple of before and after images #Allotment#Gardening#GrowYourOwn#Today
Tomato time 🍅 We have planted the vine tomatoes this morning 🌅 6 Honey Comb and 11 Black Moon. Both exhausting and exciting 😎 Just 8 Summerlast bush tomatoes left to plant 👍 We have also planted marigolds and basil in front of the watering pots 😎#Allotment#Today#GrowYourOwn#Gardening
Hey there #compostodon — what is the best way to compost material like this. It's very juicy fresh spring growth but with tough twiggy old wood. I only have a basic mulcher that works on branches but clogs with short and leafy stuff. I don't have a lawnmower.
If I was to invest in a tool to make material like this more compostable what would be best? Petrol mower? Some sort of garden mulcher different to the basic branch crusher one I have?