So at the end of last week we had rain. Not a lot, not enough by any means, but a couple of hours of this wet stuff has made everything green again (including the chicken decimated sections of the lawn) and my allotment has burst into life.
We have our first crop! This is very exciting as we have never grown anything edible on the allotment before, the only thing we've taken off the plot is rocks and weeds! I'm excited despite the harvest being a small one.Four little radishes which I took home and munched in a salad for my tea. I shared them with the boyf of course!
The weediest, greying of all the seedlings, my calabrese and purple sprouting broccoli have come back with such vigour I am now fearing the gluttiest of all the gluts...
The current darlings of my plot, my beautiful red cabbages have sprung up and are looking even more lovely now than in their purple seedling state. I never thought of myself as a cabbage fancier but these girls have got it going on...
On the advice of a friend, as well as Alys Fowler in The Guardian I have begun a rigorous regime of mulching with lawn cuttings. Luckily the boyf always has a van load from his gardening round so there’s no problem with supply. I covered the raspberry plants a couple of weeks back and the soil which was once dust and concrete dried clay has now become soft, moist and full of worms. My three sisters, corn, courgettes and beans, (currently two sisters as my beans are taking a while to get going) have got a specially thick layer as I am out to prove to the boyf that companion planting is the way forward...
As you can see, his onions are growing obediently in their perfectly uniformed lines. The jig is up though and he’s noticed my little carrot seedlings popping up in between. I’ve just about convinced him that my carrots and his onions are a dream team....time will tell.
Have you got any successful companion planting pairngs? I’d love to know, I’m all about trial and error at the moment! Parsnips and artichoke? Rhubarb and sweet potato?
