Photos from week 30 of 2017.

01/08/2017 Theveggrowerpodcast

Each week I share these photos posts I'm always blown away how far into 2017 we are. It seems only yesterday I started in and yet here I am sharing week 30.

Photos of problems on the plot.

Grape vine looking very sorry for itself.

I mentioned that I had a grape-vine on the allotment that wasn't looking its best. well you can see in the picture that the leaves have withered and turned brown and I can not explain why. I have given this a good feed and watering and shall monitor what happens.

Something has also been nibbling on the underside of my pumpkins, my first thought was bird had started to nibble and then other bugs had followed it up and added some more damage. Looking at the damage there is not much in the way of peck marks but it certainly looks like the shin has been rasped at. What do you think has caused this damage.

My cherry tree has had the top blown and snapped. You can just about see it in the photo and although it's not a great result it is a bit annoying. this tree performs pretty well producing quiet a few cherries. If I am honest it was getting a little tall and may have needed a prune soon. This should also make it easier to net next year.

Work on the allotment.

The bed that did have shallots growing in it.

The warm weather over the weekend was a great bonus and enabled me to get a few jobs done on the allotment. One job I managed to do was to harvest all the shallots. This has meant this bed is now clear and will be raked over, more well-rotted manure and compost added then covered until time to plant onions.

The bed to the east of the shallot bed is where the sweetcorn, leeks and french beans are growing and the rain we have experienced over the last few weeks have really helped these plants which are now growing like mad. The french beans harvests are really good and i think the sweetcorn and leeks will also e very good when the time comes.

Spent a while weeding this half of the plot

I concentrated on weeding the newer half of the allotment this weekend. the weather over the last few week has meant I let the weeds get away from me a bit. So with that in mind I spent a good hour solely removing weeds from this half of the plot. while it still isn't perfect I have at least made a good start. I have also noticed the comparison in the older half of the plot. The older half I used the no dig principle of covering the soil in compost and manure. I plan on doing this on the newer half too, however it has been really interesting to see the difference in the two halves between conventional and no dig. for me no dig is the way forward as it certainly saves on the weeding.