Just live.

You live and learn, so goes the old saying; that is oft appended in our house with "but in my case, you just live." Went to the plot in shorts recently because it was a lovely day, and got bitten twice by whatever bug it is that I have an allergic reaction to (I think it's ants). Now every warm day I have to change back into long trousers to visit the plot. One day I will learn my lesson.

We've had a mild winter and I was able to keep up well with the plot until we went on holiday in May. The warm weather and rain made the weeds grow like mad and I had a real job on my hands when I got back, things only now getting back under control. 

Over-run with weeds in late May. Note bike trailer in background

I planted some French beans direct in the soil in mid-May, judging it to be warm enough, but I didn't bank on the solid week of cold rain that followed, it was more like March than late May. As a result all my beans rotted in the soil. 

I was wondering how to get my compost bin and some plants down to the plot when I didn't have use of the car, and hit upon the brain wave of using the Tiny Human's bike trailer. This worked well for the compost bin but when I went to check the four courgette plants, I found they had tipped upside down in the trailer and scattered the contents. I couldn't have destroyed the seedlings more effectively if I had taken them out and stamped on them. Luckily I left a couple of spare plants at home that wouldn't fit in the trailer.

My disasters have been made up for by generosity on the part of my gardening friends, family and colleagues. I received three home grown cucumber plants from Wise Mike, which are now doing well under a plastic tunnel. I also received 14 sweetcorn plants from Derek, which came in 'Rootrainer' pots which I was very impressed with. I planted up the sweetcorn the same day and bought my own rootrainer pots to start off some replacement French beans at home, which are also coming along nicely. Derek also donated some lovely chilli plants, which have been planted at home in the garden where I can keep a closer eye on them.

The trouble with seeds

Moog thinks the most annoying thing about this allotment business so far is the seeds. How anything grows in the wild apart from weeds is anyone's guess.

The most disappointing seeds so far have been French Marigolds, which I planted to add a bit of colour and fragrance to my plot (they're supposed to keep insects off too). Out of an entire packet of seeds I've got about 10 little plants. That's still good value but not the big border full of colour I was hoping for. The most successful seeds so far are lettuce and courgette seeds. The lettuces are quick and almost all of them come up and start turning into viable plants. The courgettes also produce big healthy looking seedlings, none of the spindly stems that frequently collapse as soon as you water them. Moog thinks they're in proportion to the size of the plant so maybe I just need to grow big things.

I have had the following disasters so far, which have all tested my patience to varying degrees:

1. French bean seeds rotted because they were too cold and wet (despite being on a warm window sill in a propagator). All rotted except one single solitary magic bean which now a foot tall. Replacements coming on fine.
2. Chillis and peppers took ages to germinate. Consequently I managed to separate the seeds from their labels. I was just about to give up on seeds and buy some plants from the garden centre when they all started sprouting. The trouble is, peppers and chillis are identical as seedlings so I now have no idea which plants are which. Luckily, the tomatoes I had put in different shaped pots so I can identify those.
3. Leeks came up well but it has taken me the best part of a weekend to pot them all on into bigger containers, and I have no idea if they will all survive; time will tell. I would like to know how my next door neighbour John has got leeks like sticks of rock while mine are still like blades of grass.
4. When things did come through I was slow potting them on, as I expected them to get a bit bigger first. Moog now tells me I need to pot things on as soon as the first couple of proper leaves come through, otherwise little seed trays/pots get full of roots and the plant stops growing.
5. Some plants germinate but then just fall over dead. I don't know why, I am attributing it to "damping off" according to all the books which say it is due to fungal infection. Seedlings are so fragile, I don't know how wild plants make it on their own.
6. Leggy seedlings have been a feature, as I haven't really got a suitably light-but-not-direct-sunlight place to put them. The kitchen and spare room window sills are too dark, the greenhouse is too hot. Where is the Goldilocks zone for seedlings? Any advice welcome...