Some fab pictures – two greenhouses too!

Another gardening blog – a garden veg grower who is on the waiting list for our site!

I ordered mine from T&M, potted them up and then hardened them off before planting them outside on my allotment.

Mine were plants – but you can grow them from seed too.
Thompson & Morgan has both seed and plants available

Globe Artichoke ‘Concerto’ F1 Hybrid – 5 plants £10.99
Globe Artichoke ‘Concerto’ is the first spineless purple hybrid variety, producing delicious crops with an excellent flavour. The astonishingly tasty hearts make a supreme delicacy when pickled, and the base of the leaves can be eaten too. This majestic perennial vegetable makes an attractive addition to any vegetable plot. It is ideal for the flower garden too, attracting bees to its thistle like flowers when left unharvested. Height: 180cm (71″). Spread: 75cm (30″).

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The peas get wet in the rain just like everything else. They won’t mind the rain though as they need water to grow those peas!

I threw on some chicken muck pellets not so long back so with the rain they’ll all be breaking down nicely so the plants can use the nutrients.
I’ve got lots of pease in – three rows of different ones, plus the spares I sowed later are growing up pea sticks. They’re easy to grow and we love picking the peas and eating them out on the plot.

The mange tout types are::
Carouby de Maussane – “Tall growing mangetout variety with attractive purple flowers. Large pods up to 11cm long. Good sweet flavour. Height150cm.

Oregon Sugar Pod – “Tall growing mangetout type producing really large broad flat pods. For the sweetest flavour pick when the peas are just forming in the pod. Height 100cm.

Using potatoes with a grass mulch – this is the first year I’ve done this. I started on the last section of my allotment to be dug over. I got some top soil to help me – it was being thrown out of a garden so I asked if I could have it. This top soil was put on top of the bed I’d dug over. There’s a lot of couch grass on my plot so I know this is a problem that I will have to work on. Hopefully having potatoes on and earthing them up and mulching will really help though.
This section has grass mulch on. I’ve got another section with straw mulch, muck and a layer of hops. It’s not a very scientific test – and they’ve been applied at different times – and only some parts of the bed had extra top soil. The areas with the extra top soil are doing best though!

The grass mulch is being nibbled away by worms and breaking down which means it should be enriching the soil as well as helping to stop weeds. You can keep topping up the mulch with a thin layer of grass clippings each time you mow your lawn.

Got pallets? Want to make raised beds?

Very simple instructions to follow

Photos of them in action here

Doing well.

Peas

durham earlies – cabbage
fennel from June
courgettes/squash
peas
beetroot
salad leaves – loads of varieties.

See what the local garden centre has or ask on your site what people have spare!

Or possibly the reverse of alchemy – which has the aim of turning material into gold..

🙂

Allotments are growing in North Tyneside at a faster rate than anywhere else in the country.

Over the past decade North Tyneside Council has created 222 new plots, the highest percentage increase of any local authority area in the UK.

The latest addition is 70 newly-created plots developed in North Shields, Howdon and Wallsend, taking the borough’s allotment stock to 1,954.

“The bigger plots are going up in price, but it’s still not too expensive and tenants can pay that through a 12 month direct debit.”

Interesting article on fertiliser teas