Gardening Blog
Allotment Diary
April 21, 2009: of potatoes and pumpkins
It's only April, but Terry Walton's potatoes have already decided to come up for a look. Meanwhile half a plot is being readied to house a gargantuan pumpkin
The warm sunshine over the last week has certainly warmed the soil and there have been some decent showers mostly at night. So it was with shock horror when, on close examination of my potato patch, that I observed large eruptions on the surface of the soil. There, to my mixed emotions, were the large leaves of the potatoes, emerging from their shadowy home. I was glad to see that they had grown so well - and quickly - but had a slight worry that they had appeared so soon. Well, it is still only April and frosty nights can still plague us.
Still there is an easy solution to this situation and with the stokes of my mattock I can draw the soil back over these emerging leaves and tuck them safely back below the surface. This may seem like scant reward for all that effort and perseverance but I can assure you it is in their best interests to remain hidden a little longer.
If these well buried 'beauties' have found their way to the surface so quickly, what else may suddenly appear in those barren-looking, but well-sown, areas of soil rather more quickly than expected? We shall watch those spaces of barren soil with eagle eyes over the coming days.
The greenhouse sowings are also benefiting from all this warm sunshine and it is quickly filling with large, healthy plants. The chrysanthemum stools have yielded plenty of new offspring and these exhausted stools are now ready for eviction. I have had all my new requirements and these are placed outside my greenhouse door for any other allotment holders to take cuttings if they so desire. The cold frame stands idle after the cabbages and lettuces have been despatched to their news home under cloches in the soil. This space in the cold frame will soon be filled as the onion plants and brussel sprout plants take their turn to be hardened off.
The strawberry runners that reside in the pots in the greenhouse have a mass of lush green growth and are covered with profusion of white flowers. Where are those pollinating insects to convert those flowers into little strawberries? I am already excited at the prospect of large red fruits.
One border of the greenhouse is practically cleared and the canes are in place to accept the first tomato plants. Summer is on its way!
However some sowings are still taking place and now it is the turn of the members of the cucurbit family. These are the squashes, courgette and, this year, giant pumpkins.
Last year I was unable to grow a giant pumpkin and I missed this fun part of the gardening year. One of my colleagues on the allotment is not using his entire plot this year so I volunteered to dig it and keep it clean so I can grow this roving monster. The deal has been agreed, so half a plot has been prepared, a large hole dug and filled with well-rotted manure ready to nourish this large beast. This plant will roam over twenty four feet and grow ten feet wide just to feed one massive pumpkin.
Three seeds have been sown and the strongest will be chosen to occupy this half plot. It will be treated well, even spoilt, to produce a seventy-kilogram-plus pumpkin.
The pressure is on, and this growing monster will provide a great deal of interest as it swells its massive girth. If it does well it will go to a good cause.
So it is not always about growing just for food, there is fun and a challenge for us all.
Useful links
- April 22, 2008: it's pumpkin-planting time
- Over here and taking over - Terry plants some US giant veg
- Terry Walton's weekly allotment diary archive
- How to get an allotment
- Don't lose the plot - get to know the laws of the land
- How to start growing vegetables
- When to start growing vegetables
- Growing interesting varieties of vegetables
- Chat to other gardeners at Saga Zone
My Life On A Hillside Allotment
Terry Walton is a regular contributor to The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2 and has written a book called, My Life on a Hillside Allotment, published by Bantam Press. The book is available from Amazon
