It was the first reasonable day for a few days today and so we took advantage of the dry weather and spent a couple of days down at the allotment this afternoon. The overall structure of the planting beds is really coming together now and we've managed to plant a few seeds (carrots and parsnips) strawberry plants and a couple of rows of onions.
The main problem we're encountering at the moment is the way that the plots are getting completely waterlogged from the rainfall and because it's a heavy clay soil it's just puddling everywhere as you can see in the photo below! This is the corner of Little P's triangular shaped bed, she was very worried today that her seeds would never grow as her bed is full of water......and to be honest I'm inclined to agree with her. I was supposed to plant my seed potatoes today but I'm going to leave it for a few days to give the water table a chance to drop (I hope), otherwise the potatoes are just going to rot in the boggy soil.
One thing that is growing really well is our Rhubarb! We were given a clump by a good friend about a month ago, at the time it just looked like a rootball and now look at it.....it's growing away like a trooper! Three cheers for Rhubarb!!! Can you see the puddle of water just to the right of it? And yet it still grows!! Looks like I'm going to have to plant up the entire allotment with rhubarb!
Fingers crossed for some prolonged dry weather- I've got broad bean seedlings and about 60 onion sets all ready and waiting to be planted.
The main problem we're encountering at the moment is the way that the plots are getting completely waterlogged from the rainfall and because it's a heavy clay soil it's just puddling everywhere as you can see in the photo below! This is the corner of Little P's triangular shaped bed, she was very worried today that her seeds would never grow as her bed is full of water......and to be honest I'm inclined to agree with her. I was supposed to plant my seed potatoes today but I'm going to leave it for a few days to give the water table a chance to drop (I hope), otherwise the potatoes are just going to rot in the boggy soil.
One thing that is growing really well is our Rhubarb! We were given a clump by a good friend about a month ago, at the time it just looked like a rootball and now look at it.....it's growing away like a trooper! Three cheers for Rhubarb!!! Can you see the puddle of water just to the right of it? And yet it still grows!! Looks like I'm going to have to plant up the entire allotment with rhubarb!
Fingers crossed for some prolonged dry weather- I've got broad bean seedlings and about 60 onion sets all ready and waiting to be planted.
Mr B wanted me to point out the newly washed camper sitting proudly in the car park on the top photo!
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