An Autumn Harvest

At the beginning of the growing season, I bought myself a variety of pumpkin and squash plants from a local garden centre and threw them into the ground, and left them to look after themselves. Fast forward to September, I noticed some of the plants had started to die back, so I pulled the plants up and left the fruit to mature in the shed. This is the end result, not bad considering they had very little water during the summer months.

A bad tomato harvest

It’s that time of year where I clear out my tomato plants from the greenhouse. Normally I bring back bucket loads of toms that are either ripe or need ripening on the window sill at home. However, this year has been really poor. Throughout the summer, I’ve been picking a few toms here and there, but nothing compared to previous years. Most of the ones I have picked, split almost instantly so I ended up giving them to the chickens.

Tomatoes split when they are allowed to dry out and when watered, the fruit swell too quickly for the skin. Despite my best efforts to keep them watered throughout the summer, it seems the heat was a little too much for them.

The arrival of chickens

It’s been a while since I last posted an update….to be honest, I’ve been really busy over the last 12 months, and I’ve found it difficult to find time to update many of my websites, including this one. Anyway, there’s been some big changes on the plot over the last couple of months. One of the biggest changes as been the arrival of chickens.
I’ve had the chickens for just over a month now. I’ve got three Rhode Rock hens and they are producing 2-3 eggs a day which means the plot could potentially be producing something every day of the year.

At the moment, they are housed in a decent size run where I normally grow my potatoes. The run consists of two parts; the coop and a smaller sized run and then a much larger run. When I’m down there during the days, I let them have the run of the plot.

 

Steve’s Allotment Episode 22 – June walkabout

A quick walkabout at the beginning of June.
The potatoes in the greenhouse are starting to flower and it won’t be long until they are ready to harvest.
Tomatoes are coming along nicely.
Rhubarb is going crazy.
And the pigeons are causing nothing but issues.
Giant marrows have been planted.