13 Mar 2014 - The boring tidy-up session

Since there's not much planting going on, I've been popping down to the allotment to do some tidying between work shifts.  Apparently my shifts are annoying, but you gotta play the system!

I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do, but all the fun stuff was either a WIP, or waiting for timber, so I was just pottering.  Luckily, two guys I know were also there, we'll call it a hot date, cos the sun was out and we had lunch together!

Also joined by the resident ducks, who were trying to nick the nails from one guy.  I helped hold the wood down so he could saw (on his knees!) a bit faster, without it moving around like a spinning wheel!  He thought it was taking up my own allotment time, but I turned it into a coffee break!

My own work was a little less interesting - you could tell, the ducks weren't being nosey.  But I did manage to weed 4 beds (well, nearly finished the last one, but had to go and get ready for work).

The first bed did have Red Popping Corn, Onions & Garlic in, now just Onions and Garlic.
The second bed had Potatoes, Leeks and a tray of unplanted Leeks (which have been transplanted into spaces in the first bed).
The third bed had Brussel Sprouts, Sprouting Brocolli and Leeks (or Onions & Garlic).  I kinda ordered too many Onions and Garlic last year!

3rd bed nearest you!

1st bed nearest you (can't see it)

Tidied up - 1st nearest you!

In the before photo of the 4th bed I got to, which is my failed Munty's Bean's contraption, it's across the path from the tyres bed, with all the bottles stored in it.  There isn't a closer pic, but I can tell you there was a fair bit of nettle and dock in there!

I know it seems a waste to leave just that little bit not done, but I really do need to get to work clean and tidy, and I'd pushed it far enough doing the 3.5 hours work! 

I'll be back another day (soon as I get my rota) and weed that bit, turn it over to make sure I got the dock out properly and I've got some mushroom compost to go in there.  One guy has got donkey manure, so we're doing a bit of a study of that one (as you do!).

9 Apr 2013 - First plantings & protection!

I have several excuses for not getting down to the allotment much this year:
1) Britain under water on my days off
2) 12-15ft snow drifts here, digging sheep out from under the snow
3) Powerlines down on the road to the allotment
4) 237.5 hours worked in January
5) Camping in Formby for a hockey festival in -2c weather

Apart from that......

My usual supervisors...

I've been starting all my seedlings off inside, and those that should be planted straight out (or are quite tender) have been planted in toilet rolls so that I just put the toilet rolls in the soil and the plants are none the wiser!



  
So, on 9 April, I actually managed to cycle to the allotment (5 miles each way) and my little brussel sprouts bounced their way in the basket on the front!
 




As I said before, the weather hasn't been terrific, so I've been saving up alot of 5l juice bottles from work, to make mini cloches for the seedlings, plus some 2l bottles and milk bottles from home.  The first seedlings ready were the brussel sprouts, but apart from protecting the seedlings, I also needed to make sure that the cloches didn't all blow away as well!

Here's what I did, pretty self-explanatory.....

a water feeder added

what you need

tied to the plum tree!

all safe under netting

I also had time to plant out some garlic and onions (alternating) with gaps left in between rows for something tall to be planted.  Not decided whether it'll be the strawberry popcorn or sprouting brocolli, or both!  We'll see which ones come up first at home!





And what I hadn't expected was the mushroom compost to turn up - 20 of these were mine, and I had to wheelbarrow them round to the plot - not normally a problem, but I knew I had to cycle 5 miles home again afterwards!

2 Aug 2012 - success stories

Today was a very successful, but hardworking day.  I had a day off so I spent 5 hours pottering at the allotment in the sunshine - be rude not to!

I mowed some of the lawn, turned over a new bit of plot and planted out some more beans and peas and changed the protection of the cape gooseberries.  I also put in a rose plant to attract bees (and hide a wee gap under the mesh). 

potatoes & raspberries

The newly dug plot gave us a few potatoes, which was a nice surprise - I swear the guy before us planted nothing but potatoes!  Also managed to rescue a few more raspberries (raspberry fool, anyone?) and 4 redcurrants - see if you can spot them..... I guess any redcurrant jam on our shelves will be bought this year!

brocolli & sprouts

There were some other pleasant surprises - in the row of brussel sprouts is a very nice looking brocolli!

flowers on squash

There are also some flowers on the squash plants, although most of them are ornamental gourds, which is something I'm going to have to learn to dry out (or whatever it is I'm supposed to do with them (afterall, you never see one in the shops with a giant hole in it where the seeds have been taken out!)

Apart from that, everything else is coming along nicely, if not a wee bit behind schedule - but we have had a pretty wet summer. 

I've been impressed with the fact that the sweetcorn has grown - something that never grew for us at the old allotment.  It looks like one is definitely going to produce, not sure about the others, but fingers crossed!  We'll be freezing sprouts till the cows come home - that's the best crop we've got so far, and it looks like turnip wine might be on the list of things to try soon!  The garlic is doing well, but it looks like something had a nibble at one - will need to watch for that next year.  The carrots are coming along now as well, we were using up old seeds, so it's going to be a colourful Christmas dinner - there's samurai red, purple, orange and who knows what other carrot seeds we put in!

22 July 2012 - how it's going so far!

Me & my turnips!

Mike & his snack

Amaranthus Calaloo

 My plan for putting toilet rolls round each seed so I'd know when an experimental seedling has come up - got a big FAIL - here's the 4 different types of seedling for amaranthus calaloo - definitely recognise 2 of them as weeds!  No idea what the plant should look like... Google images, here I come!

Leaves bed 1

Here's the first "leaves" bed - the brussel sprouts have survived their rabbit attack, nasturtiums doing fine and the toilet roll farm is growing well (whether they are seedlings or weedlings is a different matter altogether!). Got some brocolli and cauliflower come up, the leeks are doing fine between the leaves rows and the spinach is surviving at the end of the bed.

Sweetcorn

The sweetcorn has started to come up, I'm not sure if we'll get any crop but this is inspiring because I never got this far with sweetcorn at the previous allotment.  Very excited to see more coming up too!  It's not the crop, it's the growing something that counts (that's the link to when all these were planted!)

Here's the first roots bed, with the turnips that we're thinning out gradually (in the middle).

Mike's protected the Jerusalem artichokes at the end (just behind the sweetcorn, and I've protected the smaller sweetcorn and carrot seedlings.

At the front, we've protected some of the Scorzonera and right at the front is some carrot and the unknown-but-probably-beet seedlings coming up.  We've got a few beetroot coming up right by the turnips as well.

Sweetcorn, Carrots, Artichokes

Everything's a bit slower this year, probably because of the amount of rain & lack of sunshine, but here's hoping that everything works out!

Ornamental Gourds plants

Globe artichoke

Potatoes bed 1

First raspberry crop

2nd turnip crop

Slug eater bathing!

2 June 2012 - filling in the gaps

 The latest bed that was cleared of weeds, the toilet rolls have got the cauli in, so I don't pull up my last 5 seeds thinking they're weeds! - in this half theres:
chickory, purple cauliflower, green kohl rabi, kale, rainbow spinach and savoy cabbage.

In the other side of that bed is:
purple brussel sprouts, nasturtium, purple sprouting brocolli, pak choi and purple kohl rabi






at the very end of the bed are some old seeds - that may, or may not come up.... sweet pepper bush and a licquorice scented herb plant.... well, may as well give them a chance....

 Then there was filling in the other end of the roots bed, and filling in the gaps where no seedlings have come up.  Because nothing goes to plan (and I wouldn't have it any other way.....) one envelope split, so in my hand is possibly spinach beet, or beetroots of some sort.  I put it at the end and we'll see what we see!

we have some new flowers in the pond ;-)

the raspberries get bird-proofed

 

Have a look at the quick 30 second video - my first attempt at uploading one on here - the resident sheepdog rounding up the chickens! 
Round and round and round she goes - when she stops, nobody knows!

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