25 June 2012 - new growth

Pumpkin (possibly)

My brother very nicely got me some seeds for Christmas, I had planned to have a whole bed of my favourite pumpkins, but so far, all that's come up is the ornamental gourds!  Well, at least I've got something, but how do I get them to be ornamental?  I'm guessing I've got to get the seeds out, but you never see holes in the ones in posh shops.....Time to learn a new dark art!

ornamental gourds

I lost the label, so the plant in the root-trainer pot is possibly a pumpkin, marrow, melon or courgette!  You can see how well the roots grow in these pots (they split in half for easy access and reuse).

before....with weeds

after

Here's the "leaves" bed - at the front is brussel sprouts, then further back (in toilet rolls) is some cauliflower (plants & seeds), brocolli plants, amaranthus calaloo seeds, cos lettuce seeds and rainbow spinach plants.  Between the rows is leeks.
  

Purple brussel sprout

Turnips & Nasturtium

Corn & Jerusalem Artichokes

Globe Artichokes

We've got some fruit coming through - and plans to start making rhubarb wine!

Gooseberries

Cape Gooseberries

Redcurrants

Raspberries

Rhubarb v boot!

Plums

 

resident

relaxing after some hard work

29 April 2012 - tidy up after holiday

We had a fantastic holiday camping round the south west of England & popped across to Newport in Wales and then had a fantastic weekend with the hockey lot, last game of the season, then baking cakes for the cake sale (no, I didn't go for the courgette cake this time), manning a stall at the club's coffee morning & sales, then relax! 

So today I thought it'd be a good time to pop down to the allotment and see what's been happening.  I expected to have alot of work to do, but pleasantly surprised I was able to get most of the beds weeded in 2.5 hours.

Here's some before and after photos:

fruit bushes

fruit bushes

raspberries

raspberries

strawberries

strawberries

beans & strawberries

beans & strawberries

see the row of turnips?

artichoke & roots

garlic - to be weeded

potatoes - to be weeded

We've also been given extra beds that someone else has given up.  The two beds are covered for now and just at the end of our plot (includes the broken compost bin, a gooseberry bush and globe artichoke plant.  There's just a walkway between the two plots - nice'n'handy!  Here's the new plot:

And the addition to the allotments - our very own slug eaters!

The seedlings didn't cope so well, but not all bad, we'll just have to wait and see.  On the plus side, if you remember the experiment with the carnation sprigs I did earlier this year, well, all of them have taken and all the one's I donated to the hockey sale all sold before I got to see them!

11 Mar 2012 - Transplanters, more than meets the eye

A bit like Transformers?!  Nah, didn't think so....

Just a quick update - We popped up to the allotment this afternoon to check on how things are going, and the fruit bushes transplanted in January have coped really well considering it wasn't suitable time or weather for it.  The blueberry wasn't affected by the rabbit(s) investigating the roots and there are signs of new growth on the blueberry, redcurrant and gooseberry plants.  The rhubarb didn't take long to force, and there is possibly one more (which looks a bit dead) that we've started to force now.  There are 10 transplanted strawberries that are showing signs of new growth too, so we're really happy with how things are growing!

Blueberry

Redcurrant

Gooseberries

Rhubarb

Strawberries

One of the neighbours had mentioned that the rabbits had been eating his onions!  We inspected our garlic, which is growing nicely (including the bits that shouldn't be there because I'm sure I dug over the whole area!  And would you believe it..... the tops have all been nibbled!   We had a skeet round the other plots, to see how they were protecting plants/beds/plots against the rabbits and pheasants, because in the old plot we only had to deal with longtails and geese.  The tops of all the chives have all been nibbled as well! Walt Disney lied to us!  "What's up Doc?"

19 Feb 2012 - Seed Swap Day

Well, Lovely Greens has been involved with planning this day for a while, and I've really been looking forward to it.  Yesterday we got some snow and I was a bit worried we wouldn't get there afterall because of the hills in and out of the area, but I still got my seeds ready - in eager anticipation.  Snaefell is already closed this morning, due to snow.

Bramley Corner recently went to a Potato Swap Day, which I was very jealous of, so hopefully this will make us even!

Going to catch up with The Looney Leadleys and hopefully meet some people from our allotments since we haven't been there long!  I've put my blog address on the back of the seed packets so that hopefully there will be more of us on here chatting away and passing on tips, although it is great reading what people are doing in other areas as well!  (Claire, you've created a monster!)

Of the 24 packets I made, the seeds I chose were: Capsicums (jalapeno), Kohl Rabi (green), Carrots (orange), Artichoke (purple), Spinach (rainbow), Komatsuna (Japanese spinach), Scorzonera (black salsify), Brussell Sprouts (red), Perpetual Spinach (leaf beet), Aubergine (purple).  So, not too many, but enough variety and some exotics in there as well ;-)

Girlie Gardening set up a wee stall in one corner

The weather turned out okay, no problems - the Laxey Sailing Club very nicely put the fire on for us and the turn out was so good that they were running out of members to sign us all in! 

Mike & the Looney Leadleys

Seed Swap table

We caught up with Alison & Tony and the skeet from The Braiid allotments, and we all shared our findings, so we have a few things to experiment with and can compare notes later - see what grows better in the north and centre of the Island!  Also caught up with Vic & Karen who are neighbours at our new allotment, got some potatoes from them and Vic giving us tips on what did well down there for them in previous years.  No sign of Richard, but did find out which plot is his, and it's not the one with the cage.

So, what did we end up with?  Well, we're now the proud owners of Feverfew (herb), Jerusalem Artichoke, Pink Fir Apples, Echinachea, Black Forest Squash, Cape Gooseberry, Garlic Chives, Brocolli - white and purple and Amaranthus Calaloo Red Leaf (which we think is a Jamaican spinach) - so all in all, a fab afternoon spent chatting about things we love! 
What more could you want in life?

If you were there, I'd love to hear what you thought of it, what you got and what you swapped!  If you weren't there, I'd love to hear what other allotment groups get up to!  Thanks for reading.

29/30 Jan 2012 - new growth!

gooseberries, currants & blueberry

 The fruit bushes have started showing signs of new life - I was a bit worried about them being transplanted on 7 Jan, but they seem to have coped well.

My theory comes true again - if it wants to live.....it will.

 

garlic

 The garlic that I dug up after the previous guy left them in the ground has started sprouting - there is no technical reason for the netting, just to remind me that I'd planted something in that section of the bed.  Have got something coming up at the other end, which is curious because I'd dug that over and that's where the garlic came from.  Was quietly confident there was nothing down there....well you know what thought thought!

Here's how the fruit trees are doing, got a bit of blossom on, anyone know what we might get?  I just hope it isn't mango.  It's the only fruit I don't like! (but wouldn't that be funny - proof that I do live on a tropical island with sandy white beaches and palm trees!)

red and green brussel sprouts

 
The seedlings are doing well too, planted on 14 Jan - looks like I'll be able to share some sprout plants with friends if these all do well!

Below is some purple cauli, savoy cabbage, green kohl rabi, violet artichoke, nasturtium, red spring onion and cucumber

That's about it for now, thanks for reading - come back soon for a nosey because I've got 4 days to play with and will be tidying up the plot a bit every day from tomorrow.  I'll also be introducing you to a Christmas present my friend made me - you'll be jealous!