
The Hatfield Peverel Allotment Association has been around for over a hundred years, below is an article written by David Goodey and makes good reading!
Read moreThe Hatfield Peverel Allotment Association has been around for over a hundred years, below is an article written by David Goodey and makes good reading!
Read moreRhubarb & custard cocktail
An elegant vodka-based drink that'll wow your guests - it's made with creamy advocaat iqueur and homemade fruit syrup
The Hatfield Peverel Allotment Association has been around for over a hundred years, below is an article written by David Goodey and makes good reading!
Pasta with Asparagus and Courgette
Asparagus and Courgette are made for each other in this dish!
Growing Tomatoes
Tomatoes fresh from the vine are hard to beat, but with the many problems with growing tomatoes, including the dreaded blight are they worth the hassle on the allotment?
Flea Beetle
Adult flea beetles are very tiny, just 2-3mm (1/10 inch) long. They're black, brown, or bronze sometimes with stripes and with enlarged hind legs. They jump like fleas when they're disturbed. The larvae live in the soil and are thin, white, legless grubs with brown heads.
Potato & Tomato Blight
Potato and tomato blight is a disease caused by a fungus-like organism which spreads rapidly in the foliage and tubers or fruit of potatoes and tomatoes in wet weather, causing collapse and decay. Once you have it, it is pretty much game over for the infected plant, so how do we limit its effect.....
Sweet Corn
Sweet Corn needs plenty of space as it can grow up to 2m (6ft) tall depending on the variety, and must been grown in blocks as it is pollinated by the wind knocking together the plants so they pollenate each other. Nothing beats fresh Sweet Corn, in fact my little lad likes nothing more than to pick a cob and munch it straight off the plant!
Now is the height of summer, the days endlessly long, temperatures usually at their peek and you should be reaping the rewards of your hard work in the preceding months. Watering in this month is crucial to stem off premature bolting, tomato blossom end rot and splitting skins.
August is the month of plenty, virtually everything you planted and sown will be giving you a crop, daily trips to the plot are recommended this month, harvesting, watering, and weeding all needing doing this month!
Sow seed outdoors
Vegetable growing really takes off this month. Chit and plant out second early potatoes in the first half of the month, maincrop potatoes in the second half. It's also time to sow seed outdoors in well-prepared soil.