Give, and ye shall receive.
At work, we get a lot of stock delivered from all around the continent on pallets, which we struggle to get rid of. A couple of local old boys come round and collect the standard Euro sized ones, which they presumably sell on. Most however are odd sizes, which neither of them ever seem to want to take. So I've used a fair few on the plot. Chatting to one of the ladies on the plot, she asked where they'd come from, so I offered her as many as she wanted. She had a use in mind for them so, one evening after work, I loaded the Land Rover up with a load and dropped them at her plot for her.
After my tomatoes succumbed to the frost, I cut a couple down to short stumps, in the hope they might recover. They started to put out new growth, but two weren't going to be enough, so I stopped off at the roadside and picked a few Moneymaker plants up from a local selling them from a cart. I wasn't however overly happy with either having to do this, or the relatively mundane crop I was going to end up with.
One evening, as I pottered around the polytunnel, watering what had survived the cold, the lady who I'd given the pallets turned up with a tray of 6 tomato plants. A fantastic array of varieties - from Gardener's Delight, through yellow tomatoes to a Costoluto Fiorentino. To say I was happy was an understatement. I'd been intent on growing all my own stuff. Buying stuff just seems like cheating. Swapping stuff however seems well within the spirit I'd intended, so they were very gratefully received. Now safely planted out in the polytunnel, they're growing great, so I may have a decent tomato glut later in the year after all.
Now the weather has improved, I've also taken a chance and stuck a couple of sweet potatoes out on the plot. Hopefully we won't see any more frost now, but I've got them under a couple of cloches just to be on the safe side, only allowing them out into the fresh air when I'm around to guard against attack from wildlife or weather.
Sweet Potato progress
I don't think the sweet potatoes are at risk from rabbits or pigeons, but I'm a bit cautious at the moment, as the pigeons are presumably suffering from the effects of a harsh spring. After escaping their attentions, my swedes suddenly got ravaged by them.
Battered Swedes
I hate having to do so, but the above has forced me to start netting things. A trip to the local garden centre later, armed with flexi balls and canes, I've now got a net covering the swedes nicely. I did try the same with the rest of the brassicas, but only had cheap nylon netting left, and the frustration of trying to get it to work in anything approaching a sensible manner had me swearing and lashing out, so I gave up and left it for another day....
May 26, 2010
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One Comment
Tags: pallets, swede, sweet potato, tomatoes В· Posted in: General, Vegetables
One Response
I like your blog. I have just got my allotment this month. Turned over a few areas as its not in too bad a condition. Its full of snow now so busy searching the net to see what I can do when the snow melts. I am now looking for pallets to use on the allotment – keep up with the gardening news as I am picking your ideas.
Many thanks
Hertfordshire
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