Fork it ... a Gloucester allotment

Come rain or shine!

2009-07-24T12:05:00.005Z

I was told by friends earlier in the year that we were supposed to be having a proper summer this year, I'm not qute sure what's happened. I know it's not been cold but my God the rain!! It seems to have been beautiful sunshine one minute and then we get a torrential downpour the next,. I'm getting very worried about the risk of blight as this warm and wet weather is perfect breeding conditions for fungal disease. I'm not so worried about the potatoes as we had fab earlies and I can rescue some main crops now if blight comes. What does drive me mad is trying to get my tomatoes to ripen in time. I grow all my toms outside so the chance of blight is higher, I am determined to have a greenhouse before next spring though.

The browny/rusty coloured plant in the picture above is a parsnip from last year which I have left on purpose to get the seeds, I'm amazed at how tall they grow!! It must be at least 5 foot tall. I'm not sure if the seed will be much good but they always say that parsnip seed must be as fresh as possible so I thought I'd have a go at saving my own.

We've started to harvest some of our onions, I think because of the weather being hot one moment then raining the next that they are confused and some have started going to seed. The ones that have started to do that must be used up first as they wont keep but the rest have been set out to dry and then will be tied into strings.
We've also harvested our garlic which is the first time we've been succesful with garlic, I bought the garlic to plant from an ethnic supermarket down the road from us and it's worked really well.

I've also just harvested my first ever cauliflower!! Just the one!! But boy he was a whopper, almost the size of a football. I decided to use some for tea the first night we harvested it and then I blanched and froze the rest, I'm never sure about freezing things as they always seem to loose something in the taste and texture.We've also planted loads of pumpkins and squash this year, if you've never had roasted squash then you haven't lived! I love butternut squash as you get a really nice sweet and nutty taste when roasting it. This pumkin looks like it's going to be a big 'un, it's early days but it's going for it, I've just lifted it up and put some wood under it to stop it from just sitting on the damp ground and rotting.

And finally our 'cutting garden' side of the plot is starting to blossom like mad, the sunflowers were such a success last year that we decided to try some more, I think this lot are 'little leo'. 3 in a vase on their own look great, such a smiley flower!!

Summer time! (...and it's hot, hot, hot!)

2009-06-30T22:04:00.004Z

'D' strimming the plot

So ... lots has happened since my last posting on here about the plot. Sadly we suffered more vandelism, I once again stomped my feet and said 'stuff the allotment' and was ready to jack it in for all of 5 minutes! I suppose it is part of having an open garden but it still hurts to find things trashed.

Anyway, we've bounced back and despite the heatwave that is making us wilt lots is growing well at the plot. Watering has been increased to try and help the plants cope with the incredible heat, most days it has reached 32 degrees this week!!

We're just about at the end of the broad bean season which has been great. I never used to like them but we tend to double pod them mostly now, it makes such a difference and removes any bitter taste. The new potatoes have been great, a really nice flavour from both the Belle de Fontenay and Carlingford varieties.

'Globe Artichokes'

A veg I have never eaten despite having a HUGE plant on the plot is Globe Artichoke, we planted it more for the look of the structural leaves than to eat! However it has produced loads of 'Globes' this year so it felt criminal not to have a go at cooking some. I never knew how to cook Globe artichokes but like most things a quick internet search gave instructions. Basically you just cut the stem off the base to make a flat base, snip the points of the scales with scissors, slice the top off (like a boiled egg) and then sit it in boiling water to half way up the globe and simmer for 20-40 mins depending on size of globe. When ready one of the scales should come away easily when pulled.

To eat it, pull each scale off one at a time and dip in butter or sauce and scrape the end with your teeth to eat the flesh, once all the scales are eaten then you eat the artichoke heart, firstly you remove the furry inner bit to expose the heart flesh at the base of the inner part of the globe this is a saucer shaped bit at the bottom, eat in the same way dipped in butter or sauce. Very simple to do and delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Most of the rest of the plot is doing well, most things are bigger than previous years and crops are generally producing well, we put lots of effort into digging in manure and preparing all the beds this year so it looks like our hard work is paying off, here's to a good summer!!

Long time no see!!

2009-06-28T19:52:00.003Z

I have been told off for not updating the blog by friends so this is a quick post to say hi to all!! The allotment is blooming away and feeding us well, I've been so busy with work that I haven't had the chance to update the blog. At the moment we're harvesting new potatoes, broad beans, red onions, peas, strawberries, raspberries, rocket, courgette and artichokes.

I don't have any pics at the moment so here are a couple of the garden at home!
After a marathon 5 hour session in the garden yesterday it is looking great, the pics don't do it justice as I ran out a few minutes ago to take the pics and its getting dark now.The tomatoes are doing well, I've suffered from blight for the past couple of summers and not actually managed to harvest ripe tomatoes. This year I'm trying out the ring culture method of tom growing, it apparently gives more root structure and a stronger plant which can hopefully withstand disease more.

The other edibles that I'm growing at home are chilli plants (in window boxes), figs and tumbling tomatoes (in hanging baskets). These are all at the front of the house as it gets more sun then the back garden and the brick walls of the house radiate the suns heat. Tomorrow is an allotment day for us so I will take pictures and try to get back to my regular updates!

Spring!

2009-03-23T22:05:00.006Z

First Asparagus spear

Believe it or not these are the hands of someone in their late thirties although you would be forgiven for thinking I am at least seventy by this picture!! Anyway, this (I am VERY proud to say!) is our first ever Asparagus. Sadly as this is the first year of planting we won't be able to eat it as it needs to build strength for the first couple of seasons. I'm chuffed though that it has come through as we planted it in the middle of all the VERY cold weather when it went down to -10c some nights, so I wasn't sure it had survived. I must plug 'Victoriana Nursery Gardens' again for their excellent mail order/internet order service.

With Easter being at a more normal time this year ( very early last year) I decided to jump ahead for planting the first early potatoes. I've tried to stick to planting on the traditional day of 'Good Friday' in previous years but we will be travelling this year during Easter so I decided to do them now as it's been such good weather. I've chosen Belle de Fontenay again for my 'firsts' as they were very good for us last year, good result and taste.

This year I have only put muck in the trenches, last year I also put shredded paper with the idea that it would help conserve water, I'm not sure if it made much difference so I'm only doing muck ... LOTS of muck!

Potato trench

After a good week of weather we've been able to get to the plot quite a few times to start the season off and whilst it's still early in the season it's starting to look ok. We've got loads of parsnips still from last year and the Purple Sprouting Broccoli is bloomin' GORGEOUS almost as nice as fresh asparagus tips.

I've also managed to get the first of the peas in which I started off in toilet roll tubes last Autumn at home. I've got several more lots just sown for successional sowing as this year I'm hoping for bumper crops of fresh peas!!! You can't beat the taste of peas eaten straight from the pod.

Peas against Hazel sticks

Asparagus planting

2009-02-02T06:36:00.001Z

'D' examining the new Asparagus bed and harvested carrots in foreground

Well, after a very long break in the blog I'm back! Sorry to anyone who has been waiting for a post (especially the Suffolk contingency!!)

So, when we first took on the plot I didn't think we knew that it would last for as long as it has. Part of me wondered if it would be a flash in the pan but no, here we are in our 3rd year. One of the veg that I LOVE is asparagus but one downside of growing your own is the time needed for the plant to mature to the point of being harvestable (is that a word?) I've taken the plunge now and decided that if we're now in our 3rd year that we may well still have the plot in a couple of years so I went and bought some asparagus plants.

I'm really excited at the prospect of cutting our own fresh asparagus, steamed and smothered in butter and grated parmesan....yuuuummmmmmmm!!!!!!

I say I went and bought some plants when in reality I sat by our roaring log fire and perused a brilliant website for a nursery in Kent and ordered them. The nursery is called ''Victoriana Nursery Gardens" and is owned by the Shirley family. I first used the nursery a couple of years ago when I was on the search for a 'Brown Turkey' Fig tree, I was so impressed by their service then that when deciding to buy the asparagus, a crop that will be in the ground for many years, I decided they would be the place to get them from.

I have to say that once again I'm really pleased by the service I received, a cardboard box arrived with my plants well packaged and masses of literature to read about them and other things. I couldn't resist buying some cauliflower plants from them at the same time as I'm normally rubbish at growing them so I thought I'd start off with some good plants.

Planting the Asparagus 'plugs'

We went up to our rather soggy plot and dug over a spare bed and then 'D' planted the asparagus plants (well big plugs with roots!) whilst I put the cauliflowers in. Fingers crossed, I can smell the melted butter and parmesan now!!!!

Save the environment .... compost your kitchen waste!

2008-11-09T15:43:00.010Z

My 'compost cake' showing rotted and half rotted compost

Believe it or not but part of the fight against Global warming is home composting. We throw away an amazing amount of uncooked food waste in our kitchens which when put into landfill tips releases harmful greenhouse gasses as it tries to decompose buried under tonnes of rubbish. The answer is to save it and put it into a home composter to prevent that and also to provide beautifully rich compost to either pot up plants with or enrich flower/veg beds.

The secret to successful composting is to make sure that you have a good mix of different types of waste. Things fall into different groups ...

BROWNS ... Woody garden cuttings twigs and sawdust, cardboard, egg boxes, toilet rolls, newspaper, shredded paper.

GREENS ... Old flowers and bedding plants, uncooked kitchen scraps, peelings, t-bags, grass cuttings, annual weeds.

NEVER PUT IN ... cooked food, meat, perennial weeds with roots, dairy products, diseased plants, cat/dog muck.

The way to compost well is to make sure you have an ample mix of the above ingredients, keep it damp and just keep feeding the bin.

It takes about 9-12 months for the ingredients to rot down properly. I find that the best way to access the usable compost is to remove the bin by lifting it up and revealing the bin contents as a 'compost cake', you will find that the usable stuff is in the bottom 1/2 section and as you move up the layers become less rotted. I did this the other afternoon with the 2 bins at home, I took the top layers off and put them back into the bin to carry on rotting and then I sieved the usable stuff to produce the most fantastic compost for FREE!!!! About 6 big plastic sacks full! Go on, do your bit for the environment AND your garden!

Compost cake (courtesy of wrap website)

All is well

2008-11-03T18:45:00.000Z

Well, after having not been up to the plot for weeks due to the weather/vandalism/lack of oomph and stuff, we finally got there to do a bit of tidying up. What with the vandalism and other issues it has been difficult to feel like going and sorting things out but once we got there and got going it reminded us both just how therapeutic it can be.

The weather has now taken a big turn for the worse and we've had several frosts now which has knocked back all tender plants, it is amazing how one day it can be all green and lush with things still in flower and then the next day it's all brown mush. The next couple of pics were taken a few days before the frosts arrived so we still have chrysanthemums, marigolds and sunflowers in flower.

Calabrese in the foreground with nasturtiums and the remainder of the borlotti beans drying on the canes behind

'D' mowing the grass on plot 2 where all the Chrysanths and Sunflowers are

Rocket (gone to seed) producing the most beautiful flowers

The plot is still producing masses of produce, Parsnips, courgette (marrow sized!), Curly Kale, Cabbage, Calabrese, Summer sprouting broccoli, Carrots, Swede, Squash and pumpkins. I actually like autumn and winter crops a bit more than spring ones I think, nothing can beat oven roasted root veg with a beef casserole and dumplings! The parsnips really have been amazing this year, I chitted the seeds at the beginning of the year (see here) and can only think that is why they germinated so well and have produced such HUGE sized roots. Sadly the carrots haven't been too great due to slug and carrot fly damage. The fly damage has been really bad this year and I am going to have to put up some sort of barrier next year to prevent it. Apparently they can only fly to 30 cm or so height so if you put a barrier of fleece around the outside of the bed at that height they won't get to them, sounds a bit far fetched but maybe worth having a go.

We also harvested the last of the Borlotti beans which I'm drying off to store so that they can be used in stews and soups later on. 'D' surprised me with an early birthday present before we went up to the plot, a pair of Felco secateurs which I had been after since I saw them at Chelsea flower show. They're not cheap and boy can you tell when you use them, they actually work well and cut things properly unlike the £10 ones we normally make do with and they should last a lifetime! The model is number 7 which has a rotating handle to eliminate stress on the hands when using them, the handle swiveling as you squeeze them together feels odd at first but it really does make them feel so easy to use. I can't believe I'm getting excited about secateurs ... I think I'm getting old!!!!!!

What a washout!

2008-09-15T17:54:00.010Z

I have now officially given up on summer!! Why can't we have a proper summer!!?

I haven't put an update on here for a while as I've been mad busy with starting a new job, I've gone into lecturing which is complete change from standing up cutting hair all day and means as I learn the new ropes I haven't had as much time to update the blog ... sorry!!

The onions dried nicely in the plastic greenhouses and I have trawled dozens of websites for plans and tips on how to tie them into strings. I feel really happy with the end result and I've hung them from the beams in the garden room next to the kitchen.

When I planted the seed potatoes I put loads of shredded paper, manure and rotted compost into the bottom of the trenches to help conserve moisture and give some food etc for the developing tubers. What I never expected was a gift wrapped spud to appear. Amongst the shredded paper I put in lots of xmas wrapping paper and obviously amongst it I accidentally put in some of the ribbon that the parcels had been decorated with. When I dug up some of the potatoes last week this one, perfectly wrapped with ribbon, came out. It had grown through the ribbon so it looks like I have actually tied ribbon around it!

On a sad note I received a phone call from our plot neighbour to tell me that the plots had been vandalised, I went up yesterday to have a look for myself.

Our shed has had the front kicked in to gain access and loads of stuff taken out and thrown around the plot. The pics below show the damage, the metal tin area on the right is the door still securely locked, the smashed in bit to the left was the front wall of the shed.They also smashed the brassica cage and tore all of it's netting (the pic doesn't show the damage properly) And all of this was done by children who were apparently about 8 or 9 years old!!! One of the plot holders came in when it was happening and apprehended them. I'm so shocked that this amount of damage can be done by such young children! But the people that really should hold there heads in shame are Gloucester city council, we have been on this site for nearly 2 years now and we have had constant reassurance that the site would be made more secure. We were told at the beginning of the year that £1000 was available to do works and we all agreed that a new gate with locks would help the site. Not only have we not had that but the lock on the current gate went walk abouts about 2 months ago and despite them saying it would be replaced the council and contractors have done nothing ... so now we suffer.

They have also promised since we arrived that the trackways onto the plot ,that look as if they are breaking health and safety rules, would be dealt with. The next picture shows what the track looks like now. It has rained a lot but this happens after the slightest downpour, as you can see by the mud on the car we are constantly getting stuck in the track and often risk damaging cars and other people. The cul de sac we drive through as we come and go is also getting covered in mud and debris as we come and go, small kids beware!!! Sorry for the rant on here but it has got to the point of being ridiculous now despite an allotment officer having been appointed earlier in the year. A plot gives lots of pleasure and I'm not too down about things but the constant lack of sun and too much rain plus this damage and lack of support from Gloucester City Council has left us all feeling low!! Next update will be positive, I promise!

Summer progress

2008-08-04T18:57:00.002Z

Things are moving on quite nicely at the plot, I spent about 4 hours there today mowing and pottering about.
The beans are producing MASSES, I planted half the amount of runner beans this year and we still seem to be inundated with them. The french beans are also going mad but I prefer them anyway so I'm happy to have lots of those and please don't anyone mention courgettes!
I transplanted the different brassicas into the bed that the broad beans had been in and covered them with the cage. The ones you can see in the picture are Calabrese, Wok broc (summer sprouting stir fry broccoli) and Romanesco.

I decided to harvest one bed of onions as they had all had foliage die back and looked ready. They aren't the biggest onions you'll ever see but they will keep us going for a while. I have stacked them inside one of the plastic greenhouses at home to finish drying off.

One of the things we were keen to do this year was to grow our own flowers for cutting. We always spend loads of money buying flowers for the house or to take when going to friends that we really wanted to give this a go.
'D' planted loads of flowering plants on plot 2, the pics below show the sunflower bed, sweetpea tripod with cosmos and in the foreground you can just see the chrysanthemums starting to bloom. As plot no.2 has been work in progress this year we only have a small selection of flowers but still it provides us with enough for the house. Next year will be even better as we will have finished digging the new beds and borders.

The sunflowers have been fantastic, we've got several different varieties but I think the 'Velvet Queen' has got to be our favourite and mingled with the rust coloured chrysanths they look amazing!

I am still alive!

2008-07-21T14:00:00.000Z

I wish I could say that due to the endless hours of sunshine we have spent hours at the allotment which has prevented me from posting on the blog, sadly we haven't had any sun at all!! We seem to have been really busy with stuff, we were expecting a royal visit from my father which sent us into a flurry of activity sprucing up the house and garden (so much so our neighbours thought we were preparing to sell and move!!) anyway he didn't manage his visit due to family problems, maybe another time (He lives in Sheffield and hasn't seen this house hence my mild panic!)

The plot has been turning out some fab produce, I'm such a sad git but I was so impressed by all that we got one night that I had to set up my own little harvest festival type display to show how much we got in one sessions picking!

The new pots have been quite good, not a huge amount but we've done much better than last year. I reckon the best were 'Belle de fontenay' and 'Winston' but I didn't really rate much the 'international Kidney' (Or Jersey Royal)

I've now dug up the remainder of the new potatoes so that the bed was available for the leeks that I had been growing on at home in tiny pots. This is an idea that Monty Don had on Gardener's World before he left. Three to five leeks are sown in small pots and grown on and then planted out as they are when the time comes, normally you dibber a hole for each individual leek but Monty reckoned if you just transplanted each pot as it is then you will get smaller more baby type leek. I've already got leeks planted at the plot in the traditional way so I thought this was worth a try, I'll keep you posted!

I also got rid of the Broad Bean plants as they had stopped producing and I have a nursery bed full of brassicas waiting for a more permanent home. Brassicas LOVE to follow on after legumes in the rotational plan as Legumes enrich the soil with nitrogen which will feed the brassicas well hopefully producing healthy and huge greens! I haven't transplanted them yet but I have Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Wok Broc (a summer sprouting Broccoli ideal for stir frying) Calabrese (what most people think of as broccoli) , Romanesco (weird spirally type cauliflower) and good old Savoy cabbage. How's that for your five a day!!!

Reclaimed pergola

2008-06-20T13:27:00.005Z

I've been wanting to do this for ages and we finally managed it. Our neighbour at home gave us a load of old wood for use on the allotment and we have constructed a pergola to sit under and admire all our hard work. When I say 'we' built it I of course mean 'D' built it with good advice and foreman skills from me!!!

I have said this before, and sometimes I sound like a broken record, but I do love allotment architecture that is made from old reclaimed and recycled materials, it is supposed to look a bit wonky and home-made, to me that is part of the charm and apart from a handful of nails it didn't cost a penny.

I still need to tidy up bits around it but we have already started the beds alongside it, on the left hand side is a 'Golden Hop' (Humulus lupulus Aureus) which is a prolific climber. On the right hand side I have planted a climbing rose that I produced from a cutting at home. It's a rose called Veilchenblau which I found rambling through our hedge at home when we first moved in , I have tweeked it out and trained it over an arch and I have taken this cutting from it. It produces the most beautiful small violet blue roses and it really is a beautiful rose. The other plants are Origano, Lavender and a couple of 'Gentle Hermione' rose cuttings.

The other rose cutting of 'Gentle Hermione' that I put up at the plot last year is blooming fantastically at the moment, much better than the parent plant that it came from at home.

I love taking rose cuttings because of all the plants I feel it is the one that feels like you are getting a lot for free by creating a new plant. They are so easy to do and I have done ll of mine by taking a stem approx. 18" long and literally just pushing it into a pot of compost and watering in. I don't use hormone powder or any other fancy tricks but I do quite a few so you cover for failures.

Our broad beans have been great this year, we've had masses and we've had some really imaginative meals using them like Brod bean pesto and pasta and broad bean,lemon and feta linguine (sublime!) They are tarting to slow down a bit now but still loads to go and if anyone is wondering about double podding then the answer is yes, do it, it does make a big difference to the taste.

The next crop to come through for us I think will be the new potatoes which I'm disappointed with so far as everyone else seems to have been having theirs for weeks. I think I plant them incorrectly to be honest. I put them into trenches and the put the soil back over them in a ridge so they were earthed up from day 1 and I haven't really earthed them up since. So in effect I have planted them too deep so they have taken longer to grow and flower. Oh well, you learn something new every day I suppose!

The days are drawing out more and more as we head to the peak of the hill tomorrow, I wish this time of year would last for ever.

Allotments really do EAT time!

2008-06-03T21:20:00.007Z

When I first thought about taking on an allotment I really didn't appreciate how much time it takes. Now obviously it is relative to the amount of space you have and how low or high maintenance your plot is. I don't say this to put off anyone from taking on a plot but it really is (I think) one of the factors that make people give up plots so quickly. Our plot has large areas of grass, the paths and the space where we park the car are grass and this take a lot of my time in mowing but I do like the look of the grass but I must admit it is tempting to do away with some of it.

On the flip side of that though is the fact that when I'm at the plot on my own I disappear into a place of my own. Our allotment site is tucked away behind housing estates and next to a railway line which doesn't sound idylic but it is sufficently private enough that it's like a hidden oasis.

One of the jobs I did in my 5 hour marathon session on Monday was putting in the leeks, a job that I find really nice to do. For leek planting virgins it couldn't be easier, you make a hole with a dibber, drop in a leek and pour in some water to settle it and that's it, no filling in with soil or anything else, it really must be the easiest veg ever to plant.

Leeks in holes, Gladioli in background

The parsnips that I chitted in the tupperware tub are doing really well, I spent ages hand weeding the bed as last year we fell behind with weeding and I really do want to keep things tidy. I also thinned the carrots which is why they look a bit bedraggled in the picture!!!

Parsnips and Carrots

Generally things are looking great and we've just had our first crop of broad beans which were fab. Loads more to go in but it's filling up nicely!

Catch up

2008-05-26T20:58:00.005Z

I think it shows that at this time of year we're all just so busy at the allotment that we don't have time to update our blogs, I subscribe to several and there has been a noticeable slowing down of postings as the spring leaps forward. It's the end of the month, bank holiday Monday and this is my first post since last bank hol at the beginning of May.

We've been up at the plot loads and things are looking great (apart from the endless weeds!) Watering duties have increased and loads more plants have gone in. D has been putting in lots of ornamental stuff on plot 2 and I've finally got the climbing beans in (Borlotti, French and runners) put loads more brassicas in under the cage and also put a few of the army of courgettes in.

A lot of our time has been taken up with other things including going to 2 top RHS flower shows... Malvern and Chelsea.

As I mentioned in my last post I volunteered to help run a stand at the Malvern Spring Garden show. I joined the "Gloucestershire Organic Gardening Group" (GOGG ) in February. They are a great group which holds regular monthly meetings and organise loads of different events including the potato weekend that I mentioned in a previous post on here. As well as helping to man the stand, which was great fun, I also helped to set it up on the Wednesday evening with another member of the group, it was a really fantastic experience because when I arrived the BBC were filming right in front of our marquee and we saw loads of famous horticultural people inc. Carol Klein, Joe Swift, Rachael De Thame, Jekka McVicar etc. After we had set up our stand we were able to walk around the showground and see all the exhibits and show gardens. As most people had finished setting up the place was really empty and it was if we had been given VIP preview tickets, we were even present when the RHS judges presented the medals to the show gardens!

Sue Jollans' (Gloucestershire designer) garden won Gold and 'Best in Show' at Malvern

I also decided that I wanted to go to the Chelsea flower show this year, I always love watching it on TV and always regret not going. We stayed with a great friend in London and went to the show on Friday afternoon. The weather was beautiful and we had a fab time, we even managed to witness Alan Titchmarsh filming a piece for the later BBC programme.

Alan Titchmarsh preparing for filming at Chelsea

The show gardens are what Chelsea is most famous for and I have to say they really are amazing to see, it's hard to believe that they haven't been there for years. My favourite was Andy Sturgeons Cancer Research Garden which won a very deserved gold medal.

Andy Sturgeon's Cancer Research garden Gold winner

As I finish writing this it is once again tipping it down, so much for bank holidays! I've just received a Golden Hop through the post from 'Crocus' and I'm dying to get to the plot to plant it let alone all the other plants that are preventing us from using our patio! Until next time ...

Bank Holiday weekend

2008-05-05T18:13:00.004Z

Things have been hotting up with sowing seeds, all the frost tender seeds have now been sown (indoors) Courgette, pumpkin, squash, (several dif varieties of each) Borlotti bean, french bean and runner bean. We really need to buy another heated propagator as we're battling to get things into it, germinated and out so the next thing can go in! Seedlings and young plants have taken over the windowsills, the lower patio and table and all 3 of our small greenhouses.We managed to get up to the plot on Bank Holiday Monday, the weather was ok for a while but eventually rained us off around 4pm. We did however manage to build one of the brassica cages which I've been desperate to do. The idea is that it fits exactly over one of the beds and provides netting protection from pests but is easy to move off to get in and weed or harvest produce. We haven't finished stapling the netting to it yet, a quick hours job in the week maybe.

New brassica cage

The site was really busy with at least 7 plots being worked (that's busy for our site!) Sisters Heather and Hazel who are new to the site this year have thrown themselves into their plot with huge gusto and are slowly starting to put the rest of us to shame, today was no exception with the arrival of their latest addition 'Roger the Scarecrow' !

Hazel, Roger and Heather

Through out this last week I've been frantically sowing different seeds including starting the seed trial that I have been included in. I was chuffed to bits to be included in the 'Gardener's World Seed Trial 2008'. I'm really not sure how I did get involved in it but I received an official looking BBC package with the 2 varieties of toms that I will be trialling and the questionnaires to follow the progress. Exciting stuff! God I hope they grow ok!

Gardeners World Seed Trial 2008

I owe a rather belated thank you to Paul and Melanie at 'GROWING OUR OWN' for awarding me with an award of excellence for this blog, thank you, thank you, thank you!! It's really nice that people enjoy your blog, I now have to pass on this award to another blog and after much deliberation I have decided to award it to a recently discovered blog 'PLOT 61a'. Tim is developing a beautifully tended plot and enjoying the wildlife in the process, it's a great blog.

I have a busy week ahead of me, I've volunteered to help in the organic marquee at the RHS Malvern Spring Gardening Show. This will involve helping to set up the stand on Wednesday night and then to man the stand on Sunday (with others) and then help take it down later. I will tell more after the event. I need lots of strength this week!

Rain, rain go away!

2008-04-21T09:53:00.006Z

Am I the only one wishing the weather would get better! When it's nice it's great but I keep having to run for cover when we get a sudden downpour. Last year at this time we were still in the process of creating the plot from the wasteland that we inherited, we are much further on in the season compared with then but it always feels like I'm chasing my own tail trying to get on with sowing seeds and digging new beds on plot 2. Don't get me wrong, I am loving it (mostly!) and the tantrums I had every time we tried to dig out a 20 foot long weed root are now much, much less (much to D's relief!).

I've had a few MARATHON session up at the plot, last Monday I spent 7 hours digging and sorting things out and it was great. Man's best friend was with me and loved it too (I think), he tends to warn anyone who gets too close to the plot that it is his domain but if they did get too close he'd only lick them to death! He spent most of his time on the parcel shelf of the open boot in the car lapping up the spring sunshine

Tuesday and Wednesday saw me up at the plot after work for a couple of hours each time, I spent an hour or so putting up the 2 rows of bean canes ready for our bumper crops of runner, French and Borlotti beans. I'm not going to grow as many runners this year, we had SO many last year that I couldn't give them away quick enough and there is only so much runner bean chutney you can make (mind you it's bloomin lovely stuff).

On plot 2 I managed to get in the rest of the onion sets in, we now have 2 beds containing a mixture of Stuttgarter (120 sets) Red Karmen (54 sets) and Sturon (64 sets) giving us a grand total of 238 onions in total, a couple of weeks ago Monty Don said on 'Gardener's World' that onions were expected to be in short supply this year pushing the price up so make sure you plant loads, I think I've gone mad but we do use a lot of onion at home.

I've got loads of jobs to get on with, I'm about to build a portable brassica cage from wooden battens and netting which will cover an entire bed, it should make it a lot easier to weed the beds as it will be easy to lift on and off as opposed to the set up we have now where we stake netting into the ground all around the bed. The pricking out and sowing season is threatening to taking over most of our house at the moment, our window sills are completely covered in young plants, I could do with early retirement to cope with this growing your own malarkey!!!

Spring has sprung ...

2008-04-13T18:51:00.006Z

April is living up to it's reputation as being a wet month, one minute we have a beautiful clear blue sky then 5 minutes later it's bloody pouring down!!

I've just had the allotment mower serviced and last weekend we managed to take it to the plot on Sunday afternoon, as we left the house the sky became darker and darker, as I started the mower it proceeded to snow like mad, I carried on mowing looking like a walking snowman, 10 minutes later we had blazing sunshine again ... British weather!

On Monday I went up to the plot in the afternoon and ended up spending approx. 4 hours there. It was so peaceful and apart from one other person arriving for about an hour I had the entire site to myself.I have been trying out chitting parsnip seeds prior to sowing them, this process is very simple and hopefully eliminates the renowned poor germination rate of parsnips. An empty tupperware type container is used with a wet paper towel in the bottom, the seed are sprinkled onto the paper and the lid put on, this is then left in a warm place (airing cupboard, on top of radiator etc.) for the seeds to sprout, it takes about 5 days to a week. Once this has happened you sow the seed into a seed drill using a pair of tweezers to gently transfer them. I station sowed 3 seeds every 6-9", when they show on the surface they can be thinned out to leave the best one.It sounds quite fiddly but it really isn't and hopefully it means that you are guaranteed a perfect row of parsnips. I also put in a row of unchitted parsnip seed so it will be interesting to see if there is much difference between them. (Varieties, Tender and true and white gem)

Chitting Parsnip seed ... 'White Gem'

One of the things I love about allotments is the make do and mend mentality, my shed is a prime example of that, it looks as if it has had another layer added every 10 years for the last 40 years and it leans slightly to one side, it's so ramshackle looking that when D's Mum and Dad were with us his Mum thought it was just a pile of old wood and metal waiting to be used for something, she didn't realise that it was a shed!! For ages I've been wanting to make the inside look a little better and I decided to staple all the old seed packets to the wall to almost wallpaper it, there are some lovely designs on the packets and it also becomes a visual reminder of what you have planted in previous seasons and years.

Seed packet wallpaper (and brewing tea!)

The last couple of jobs were to sow some carrots 1 row each of Early Nantes 2, Fly away and Amsterdam forcing and then dig over one of the beds on the new plot to put onions in.

Likal ... Gloucester Community Website

2008-03-27T21:19:00.004Z

I received a rather interesting email the other day from LIKAL a community website saying that they hoped it was ok with me that they had taken a picture from my blog to promote Gloucestershire allotments!! I'm slightly stunned and quite chuffed to think they feel my plot and blog are that good. (D is more suspicous and wants to know who they are!)

Anyway when you go onto their home page there is a thumbnail pic of my plot advertising allotments and then when you go onto the allotments page there is a bigger pic and a link to my blog saying ...." Gloucester Guy Blogs his Allotment experience - read and be inspired."

How nice is that, if only they knew I haven't got a clue and make it up as I go along!!!

Easter weekend

2008-03-24T16:16:00.009Z

D with his Mum and Dad

Well, we had HUGE plans for Easter, then I saw the forecasts on Metcheck and BBC weather and didn't hold out much hope for our planned allotment bonanza.

Our main plans for this weekend (apart from the plot) was the arrival of D's Mum and Dad for the Easter break, they came on Friday morning and stayed until Monday and we had a fantastic weekend of too much wine, food and some allotment visiting!

The forecasts had promised snow and more but in the end although we had the odd flurry we luckily escaped with just freezing wind and the odd hail storm intermingled with sunny periods (see I have the technical talk now!) We took D's parents up to the plot on Friday to have a look, they'd never been to it before so it was great to be able to show them where we spend half of our life! I took up some broad beans that I'd grown in newspaper pots to fill in the gaps where the slugs/pigeons had taken some.

Spuds in shredded paper and manured trenches

Saturday we decided to get some spuds in, tradition has it that they go in on Good Friday as this was the first holiday for the working class man when he was able to get the spuds in and the veg patch started. I have decided to try a new method of planting preparation this year to see if it makes much difference to the crop. I dug out trenches and filled them with a layer of shredded paper and well rotted manure, then in went the spuds before being covered up with soil.

As Easter is a bit earlier this year I decided to only put in my earlies (International Kidney, Belle de Fontenay and Winston) I'm going to give it a couple more weeks before I put in the maincrops as we could still have some bad frosts especially the way it's been lately!

Green Manure ... Phacalia Tancetifolia

I then dug in the green manure, I planted Phacalia Tancetifolia, a plant which is sown as a green manure, in a vacant patch of ground to prevent goodness in the soil being leached out by the rain. Before it gets too big and flowers, you dig it back into the soil so that it breaks down in the ground and deposits back all the goodness it has taken from the soil and it also creates a blanket cover to stop weeds growing on empty ground.The mad Strimming Dad

D's dad came up with us on Sunday and strimmed some of the grass, our mower seems to have given up the ghost so we had to use the petrol strimmer in the meantime, we only thought there would be enough time to go around each bed to define it and keep the main bits down but he was like something possessed and just went for it and never stopped. We'll have to invite them down sooner next time!!

On Monday I dug out the remaining leeks and prepared the bed for the French and Runner Beans, I dug the whole bed over to get rid of any perennial weed roots and then I dug trenches out where the bean poles will be going. Similar to the potato trenches I filled them with sheets of newspaper and composted manure, the idea with this is that it will help to retain the moisture in the soil during the hot summer, presuming we don't get flooded out like last year! Beans don't like to dry out when they are setting flowers otherwise they won't produce the bean pods, so hopefully this method should help keep them in peak condition.

I did a very quick video on Sunday afternoon just to show what it looks like now and maybe I'll do another in a month or two to see the progress, excuse the comedy wurzle impersonation at the beginning, I don't know what came over me, maybe too much exercise!!!!!!

Roses and beans.

2008-03-11T22:24:00.003Z

The broad beans that I sowed into some of my newspaper pots have developed really well. The above picture is about a fortnight old so they are now well established little plants and probably ready to go into the plot just as soon as I can get there! When they do go into the ground the entire pot will be planted and the newspaper will just rot away leaving the plant to romp away without any transplant shock. I went mad the other day and spent £2 on a new rose from Woolworths, I love allotments that have a mixture of ornamental and veg and places like Wilkos or woolies are great for these sorts of bargains, I'm going to take regular pics of this rose throughout the year to show how it does and see if cheap roses like this do any good. I have a large bed at the front of the plot which already has one rose in it (from a cutting I did last year) and a Globe artichoke which I love for it's architectural leaves. so I threw 'Woolie rose' in there (with lots of manure and TLC!)
You can also see in the above pic the autumn sown broad beans in the 2nd bed back. They're doing well despite a couple of casualties either from slugs or pigeons. Once I get up to the plot with my bean plants from home I'll fill in the gaps.

Behind that bed is the remains of my leeks, these were a smaller crop than I wanted but due to me not potting on the seedlings earlier than I should have, I'm thinking of starting them in a seed bed at home this year rather than seed trays and then moving them up to the plot once they're tall enough.

We haven't manage a trip up to the plot for a few weeks now, a combination of appalling weather and us spending time decorating at home. D's parents are coming to us for Easter and we stupidly told them that we would have a nicely decorated bedroom for them to stay in so we've been slogging our guts out to try and finish it. One of the joys of living in a house built in the 1800's is wonky walls and crumbling plaster, so normal decorating takes twice as long to do. I mustn't grumble really, this will be our third year in this house and we've been very lazy in our restoration approach, gardening just seems to get in the way!!

Anyway, Easter is the BIG weekend for working at the allotment, last year was amazing weather at Easter but then this year it falls much earlier, so fingers crossed for a bit of sun. We plan to do lots there anyway and the first potatoes have GOT to be put in on Good Friday (it's gardening law!!)

Newspaper pots

2008-02-17T21:31:00.008Z

There is nothing nicer at this time of year than to be sat inside by a roaring log fire preparing for the forth coming growing season. I'm in full swing at the moment making newspaper pots for plug plants and seedlings.

An easy guide to making pots from newspaper.

1. Take a sheet of newspaper and cut in half, lay on surface and using the inside from a loo roll, roll the paper around it, with one end of the loo roll right up against the paper edge.2. At the other end push the paper into the loo roll, this is going to form the base of the pot.3. Pull the loo roll out of the pot.4. Turn the paper edge over to form a 1cm fold at the other end to make the top of the pot.5. The top of the pot with the 1 cm turned over lip.

6. To make the base of the pot get a cylindrical object (I use an aerosol spray) and push it inside the pot and bash down the turned in paper you did in step 2 to form the base.
The finished pot!

These pots are really useful, they replace the need to buy small plastic pots and can be used in exactly the same way as peat pots. Fill them with compost, sow seed into them, when the plant is ready to be planted outside you plant the entire pot as it will rot away naturally allowing the plant to grow without having had any transplant shock! I use these for all sorts, when I buy small plug plants (Busy Lizzies last year) I use these to grow them on before planting into the garden, I've also used them for Tomatoes, Peas, Runner beans, French beans etc. The added bonus is that they are very eco friendly as you are recycling old paper and not using Peat pots! Happy pot making!!!!!

(p.s. if your pots grow mould on the outside whilst your seedlings are developing don't panic, mine always do this with no harm to the seedling plant.)

Wilko's Cheap Onion sets

2008-02-17T20:34:00.000Z

I find the lure of the seed catalogues very hard to avoid but this year I decided not to buy my onion sets from Marshalls or other seed company. I might regret the decision to buy them from Wilkinsons but price wise they could not be beaten! I went to a couple of cheap pound type shops and ended up buying a bag of white onions (stuttgarter) and red onions (red karmen) from Wilkinsons @ £1 each and some Sturon from the '99p store' this is a big saving on the seed companies who charge between £2 an nearly £5 depending on variety.

At the moment they're sat waiting for warmer weather before they go into the plot, our plot neighbour (Will) starts them off in little pots in the greenhouse so that they have a head start, might be worth a try.

Starling aerobatics

2008-01-29T22:51:00.000Z

Below is a video of the spectacle we are subject to every evening as the local flock of starlings performs it's aerobatics. It is the most amazing thing I have ever seen, they cover the roads, houses and cars in muck but for us it is a small price to pay to watch this natural phenomenon.(Excuse the quality and VERY anoying clicking it's from a digital camera)

Keeping a note

2008-01-26T23:25:00.000Z

I started this blog for two reasons, the first reason was to keep a record for myself, I wanted to be able to keep a digital record of my allotment from day one before we had done anything and it was an overgrown meadow, to have somewhere that I could have notes and records plus photos of the progression. The other reason was that I wanted to make my notes and musings available to others, to offer other people my experience and mistakes so that my experience may help them ( that sounds big headed and it's not meant to!) I gained so much information and help from other peoples blogs before I took on our plot and I still refer to lots of blogs to see what others are doing, so I wanted to do the same and offer up my experience.

I've also kept notes in an old journal in which I draw a plan and keep copious pages of notes and diary entries, as much as this blog is a fantastic way to record stuff there is something very satisfying about putting pen/pencil to paper and doing little scribbles and notes which by the end of the year has produced (in my mind) a thing of beauty. My journal from last year ended up with scribbling, things crossed out and others added when we decided to add a new crop, it has left a mish mash of a plan, sometimes splattered with mud when we were at the plot, I can look at it and remember at a second what went where and it instantly brings back memories of the previous growing year, the successes and the failures. Technology is great but sometimes good old pen and paper can serve much better.

One potato, two potato, three potato, MORE!!!!!!! Lots more!

2008-01-21T20:22:00.000Z

Ever heard of a potato day? Well basically it's an idea that has gained huge following in the last few years as growing your own has become more popular. Potato days (or in this instance an entire weekend!!) are events where a nursery sell around 100-200 different varieties of potato by the tuber or by weight. Obviously there are lots of different types of spuds available to the home gardener and this is a brilliant way to be able to buy just a couple of a variety to try out rather than having to buy an entire sack.

Our local potato day was held at Dundry's nursery between Gloucester and Cheltenham a fab small nursery that is a rare small nursery that seems dedicated to the gardener and very unlike one of those huge 'garden centres' that seems set on selling you perfumed candles and has an overpriced bistro cafe.

We went on Saturday afternoon not long before they closed and we were greeted by a HUGE selection of spuds in one of their glasshouses, I'd worked out before hand roughly what I wanted but I still ended up buying more than I had planned, the list as follows...

Earlies

Belle de Fontenay (10)
International Kidney (Jersey Royals 10)
Winston (10)

Main Crop

Cara (10)
Pentland Squire (5)
Picasso (5)

Chitting is the process that now follows, this is the process of allowing the spuds to sprout in a cool place before planting them, some people disagree that this does any good but others swear that this helps produce quicker and better plants. One of the best ways to put spuds out to chit is to put one per section of an egg box and then put them into a shed, greenhouse or garage to form shoots, then plant them out in March (sheltered areas) or April in more exposed areas.

Potatoes in egg boxes ready for chitting

Seed Swap Heaven

2008-01-12T20:04:00.000Z

Box of seeds on dining table

I've just been involved in a seed swap 'pass the parcel' through the fab website Allotments 4 all. I'd seen several 'pass the parcel' swaps being set up through the forum over the last year or so that I have been a member but I'd never been involved with one.

The basic idea is that a dozen or so members are involved in a parcel of seeds being posted to each other, one person sets it up and posts a parcel of seed packets to the first person on the list who takes out a selection of what they would like and then adds unwanted seeds from their own seed collection. By the time it arrived to me it was a small box packed to bursting point with an amazing collection of seeds. I had a really fab time sorting through the massive selection and selected quite a few varieties of seeds that I probably wouldn't have gone out and bought and it gave me the chance to go through my own collection of seeds and pass onto the parcel those seeds that I know I wont sow or I just have too many of. Such a simple idea but a really good one!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

2007-12-21T23:10:00.000Z

Ok, hands up I've been a lazy so and so for not posting anything on here for a few weeks, in my defence I will tell you that I have been mega busy with work as we head up to the big day and also to be honest there ain't much happening horticulturally at the moment!

I have got some peas growing in gutters at home which are doing well and I will run them up to the allotment some time over the Christmas break to bed them in. We have decided to try these a bit earlier this year as others were having fab crops a lot earlier than us with our later spring sowing.

I've managed to race up to the plot most weekends to pull up some carrots and parsnips for our Sunday roast plus the odd cabbage so we're still managing to provide a lot of our own veg. The plot does tend to get a bit waterlogged so it's not easy to do much else up there at the moment even though we have loads of work to do on the new next door plot.

Anyway, I will take some up to date pics of the said pea plants and plots soon and let you know about my plans for a mini greenhouse on the new plot soon (recycling here we go!!!)

Have a FABULOUS Christmas and New Year!!!

One Year old!!!

2007-11-21T08:35:00.000Z

Yes it's true, this blog is officially one year old today!!! I've amazed myself that I have updated it on a reasonably regular basis, I'm normally the sort of person that starts something with great gusto and then the initial buzz and enthusiasm fades away, we've also just had our first anniversary at the allotment.

Last visit up to the plot was a couple of weeks ago when we spent the day shovelling horse shit!!! I finally managed to get D to come to the biggest pile of shit you've ever seen at the local riding stables and help me fill bags. The heat generated from the heap was incredible and even when we'd driven it back to the plot in bags it still steamed when spread across the beds!

We spread muck on all the empty beds and then filled up the muck bin that I built at the front of the plot with the rest to rot down for later on and next year.

The biggest shit heap in the world!! (...and I don't mean the car, although it is knackered!)

Steaming beds!

It feels sad that most things have now finished for this year, I can't complain really as we've had a fantastic year considering the unbelievable weather (Gloucester was just a tad wet!) and also considering that we converted the overgrown plot that we found into this ...

The pic shows the front part of the plot. The front left bed has Japanese / overwintering onions in it with the tail end of some spinach and gladioloi.

The right hand bed with the canes is the broad bean bed with the beans I sowed about 3 weeks ago, the b. beans I sowed in spring were not really a good crop and loads of people have told me to sow in November for an earlier crop in spring which will also hopefully avoid the blackfly problem. Will and Sue (plot neighbours) did theirs like that and had an amazing crop this spring.

The 2 nearest beds show one covered in muck and the tiny leeks that we planted out quite late, I'm hoping they'll come to something at some point but I'm not holding my breath! I've learnt loads about the timing and planning of crop growing this year, hopefully as we have already got beds dug and a proper plot working now I'll be able to stay on top of things.

D has been continuing with clearing plot no. 2 which has been mown several times and beds marked out, the next pic shows the first bed de-turfed and now it has been dug properly and manured.

I feel even more excited about next spring than I did this time last year, we've now got one plot working reasonably well and plot no.2 well on the way plus some experience under our belt.

The influx of new people on the site is great with several of the old overgrown plots already being well tended and promising looking plots developed. In a way it was nice when it was just a few of us as it felt like our own secret garden and the overgrown plots kind of gave it hidden feel, of course at the time I moaned like mad at not having a full and well tended site, no pleasing some people hey!

One year down, loads more to come ....

We are now 2 plots!!!

2007-10-18T13:40:00.000Z

A very long story which I won't bore you with but D has now officially got his own plot at the allotments!! It is the vacant one adjacent to our current plot which we had been strimming the weeds to stop the seeds straying over us. So although that will be 'HIS' plot and the current one will remain 'MINE' we will actually be making some changes and blurring the lines between the two plots so we'll have one huge one!

'D' standing admiring 'HIS' plot next to 'MY' Plot!

We had talked about it for a long time, wondering if we would be slightly mad to take on another plot ( I think we probably are!) but what the hell, you only live once. We plan to use it to grow more veg on but also there will be a lot of flowers for cutting. We spend a small fortune on flowers from supermarkets, for ourselves and for friends when we go for dinner or the weekend, so we're hoping this will put an end to that and enable us to grow our own.

I went up to the plot on Monday to dig over the bed for the broad beans to go in. When I arrived Sue and Will were busy digging next door but kindly stopped long enough to inform me that I have a family of rats living by my shed!! I HATE RATS!!!
Sue was telling me that they had seen them climbing up the sweetcorn plants, so we walked over to find that the little bastards had stripped every single cob completely clean. Over the next half hour we saw THREE of the buggers which just makes my skin crawl, I am not going to mess about, I've already got some poison from mice we had earlier in the year at home so come the weekend Roland and his friends will have to say bye bye! I'm also looking at getting a battery operated sonic wotsit which I can put in the shed to keep any others away.

Oh the joys of communing with nature!!!

Champagne and onions

2007-10-10T09:50:00.000Z

We wizzed up to the plot on Sunday for a quick half hour session and we ended up being there for about three hours instead!

I had decided to take the Japanese (over wintering) onion sets to put into the plot, I managed to get them in plus one row of garlic before Sue and Will, our plot neighbours, arrived. They really are fantastic people, always offering help and advice and on Sunday as a sort of toast to the end of the growing year and to challenge us to more and better next year they had brought a bottle of bubbly to share with us!!! Will called us over to be presented with a paper cup each of bubbly, it was one of the most surreal things to be stood on an allotment site toasting each others good health etc with champagne. Who said allotments is old men and flat caps!

Japanese Onion bed

So after our liquid refreshment it was back to digging some of the beds over in preparation for spring cabbages and manuring, I still haven't made my trip to the stables yet to collect some muck, something to look forward to!

Holiday (Yes another one!) and Malvern Autumn Garden Show

2007-10-01T22:38:00.000Z

The panorama that heads this page is of Southwold in Suffolk, we've just spent a glorious week at D's parents down there and had a fab time. Much to the annoyance of my hairdressing clients who always, without exception exclaim "Another holiday?!" when I tell them I'm going away for a week. This is, I have to insist, only a week out of the four weeks that I take off from work but the buggers think I have too much!! Anyway......

Our trip to Beth Chatto's Garden near Colchester should have been the highlight of the week but sadly ended up being a washout, we went in the pouring rain and when we arrived we went around her garden nursery, spent money there and in the tea room (V. V. expensive) and then left! Oh well maybe next time it'll be dry for us to go around the gardens.

Beth Chatto Nursery

In contrast the place that we went to thinking that it might be a quick jaunt was Wyken hall and Vineyards.

From the moment we drove down the impressive drive to be greated by the Great barn converted into Country store and restaurant I suspected we'd be there for longer than we initially thought.

Again not a cheap place to go to but if you are in the Suffolk/Essex area it really is a stunning place. The Elizabethan hall at the heart of the estate is surrounded by beautifully landscaped gardens including knot garden, maze, kitchen garden etc. Not huge gardens but beautifully executed and the entire place ooooooooozes style and sophistication!

Wyken Hall

One thing I had decided to do this year having gone down the grow your own path was to exhibit some of the produce from the plot. I'd love to say that below are some pictures of my produce but sadly for one reason and another I didn't get around to doing it.

The show in question is the Autumn garden show at the Three Counties Showground in Malvern (Worcestershire) which is only around 20 mins drive from us and just down the road from Ledbury where my salon is.

I love these type's of shows, they do a Spring garden show too (click here to read of our trip to that) which to be honest is the better one but the Autumn one is fab for the Harvest Pavillion with the veg exhibits. I have never seen such impressive veg in all my life!! Thank the lord we didn't try this year!!!!! I am however determined to try something next year....watch this space!!

Mowers and cabbages

2007-09-16T20:32:00.000Z

The plot is looking really good at the moment, I replied to a FREECYCLE offered email for a Mountfield petrol mower which needed a bit of tweaking to get it back into workable order but it is now running well and helping us to keep the plot looking neat and tidy! I'm amazed at what people are willing to chuck or give away, this mower is only 2 years old!!! It cost us £15 to have it serviced and Bob's your Uncle!

D is doing a bit of a catalogue pose here in this picture as he waters the new leek plants....bless him!!

Several of the beds are now empty and need to be properly dug over to remove perrenial weed root which still persists from our initial digging at the beginning of the year, we are beating it though!

Once dug I'm going to be sowing some green manure on them to stop weeds growing and to add some goodness to the soil.

The beds by the shed are really coming into their own now as the crops in them are growing like mad. My favourite bed is this one with Cabbage, carrots, parsnips and french marigolds in, I think it looks really fab.

The sweetcorn is also nearly ready, I'm really looking forward to trying this as it's supposed to be fantastic when eaten fresh from the plant.
There is now a real feeling of Autumn coming, the mornings have had a definite cold feeling to them and the nights are drawing in (which I hate!) I'm determined to get the broad beans in during the Autumn to get a head start and I'm also wanting to put Japanese onions and Garlic in.

We've seen several new people up at the plot the last few times that we've been up, there has been a bit of a push to let out the empty plots and apparently we have a waiting list now to get onto this site.
It feels odd to see strange faces after being only a handful of us for so long but it is nice and hopefully it'll secure the future of the site a bit more and give the place some life!

Littleover allotments open

2007-09-03T09:38:00.000Z

Whilst visiting friends in Derby this weekend we managed to shoe horn in a trip to an allotment site which was open to the public under the 'National Garden Scheme' which helps raise money for charity.

I am an avid fan of the website 'Allotments 4 all' and it was through this site that I found out that the allotments would be open.

I have to say that I am SO jealous of the plot holders that manage to get a plot on this site. 'Littleover' allotment site is the most wonderful place with it's own museum, school reception centre and purpose built loos!!

It's a huge site with long pathways between neatly clipped hedges and the mix of different plot styles is fantastic.

The 2 pictures below show plots owned by 2 fellow 'Allotments 4 all' users and in my humble are 2 of the most amazing plots I have ever seen!

Above and below

Plots belonging to 'Allotments 4 all' membersThe next 2 pictures show an amazing plot which belongs to a wonderful lady who insisted that we take some plants home with us. She has created a mix between ornamental and productive garden and it looks fantastic!

A lot of these plots also back onto houses so people have been able to rent the plot behind their house and extend their growing space.

Above and below

Ornamental and productive plot

The next pic was taken whilst standing inside a Dahlia growers plot, the most amazing array of dahlias I have ever seen, this pic only shows a small selection of them but it also shows the incredibly neat hedging between plots and the sweet little gateways that each plot has.
And the last couple of pics show how inventive we allotmenteers are when it comes to shed building. Regular readers of my blog will know I LOVE allotment buildings and especially ones that look wonky and are quite obviously made from left over bits!

I would urge anyone to visit this site when it is next open, we had a great couple of hours, the site was beautiful , very peaceful and the people were some of the friendliest people I have ever met. They opened in May aswell this year so I'm hoping they will do the same next year and we'll squeeze in another trip.

Housework at the allotment

2007-08-30T20:15:00.000Z

So, the story so far...we took over a completley overgrown patch of an overgrown field and laughingly reffered to it as 'our allotment' and had very nice dreams of how we'd turn it into a productive allotment in no time at all. That was November of last year (06) and amazingly we're not doing to badly even though the reality of what we'd taken on hit us very hard after about 5 hours of strimming couch grass!!

So here we are nearly 9 months later (some people create humans in that length of time!!) and we decided that we had got to the time of year where we can relax with the tending of plants and do a little bit of housework by tidying up the plot a bit and continuing our journey in making it look like a proper allotment and not just a field with veg growing in!

Everyone knows that to be a proper gardener/allotment keeper you must create great steaming mounds of compost and also have an area for fresh horse muck to rot down before it is spread around. In true lottie style I had built up my collection of very useful bits of wood, old doors and bits of old tin sheeting.
So, D and I decided to build a compost bay towards the back of the plot, it's made from 2 old doors (the fanlight can be seen on the back one!) and it consists of 2 bays so that when one side fills up the other side can be started leaving the first one in peace to rot down into wonderful rich compost. It's a great feeling to be more organised and it's starting to look more like the sort of allotment that you see from train windows!

Compost bins made from doors

Next we decided to make the 'muck bin', this is made from 3 sheets of old metal (old shelves I think) that I found lurking at the back of my garden when we moved in.

We've dug a new bed out of the grass to continue the flower bed area so that come next summer we should have loads of flowers to be able to cut for the house. In the corner of this bed we've put the said muck bin which is right next to the track so we can easily dump muck when we drive in. I've just been told of a riding school locally that allows you to collect as much muck as you want for free, looks like we have a trip planned!! (much to D's horror!)

Tin shelf horse muck bin and new flower bed

Sometimes it's bloody hard work!

2007-08-12T22:07:00.000Z

Ok let's admit it, I wanted to do this allotment malarkey thinking it would be all fun, writing blogs and Peter rabbit/Mr. McGregor type gardening BUT (and it is a big but!) it bloody well 'aint like that!
I've avoided adding pictures of the plot as a whole in the last few weeks as it's been a Weed ridden field! But now after a few hours of work I can show you a picture of a semi-decent plot!

BUT (another big but!) I really need to stress something here, it has been very hard work digging, strimming and cutting but I have had my very capable other half 'D' toiling away in the background and whilst it has been tough going there is a HUGE amount of pleasure and satisfaction too!

To be able to stand back and look at our plot looking cared for is so satisfying and rewarding, I feel an enormous amount of sadness for all the people that we know have only just started this year on our site and already given up but I do understand the pressure they must feel .... we feel the same pressure. It doesn't always feel good but when it does it feels bloody great.

Same view from last November

Tonights meal was Lamb tagine served with Carrots, peas, french beans, cabbage and new potatoes, all from the plot (well, not the Lamb obviously!) The Lamb Tagine (Moroccan Lamb Casserole) was cooked in the slow cooker all day whilst we were at the plot so by the time we came back it was ready. All that was needed was to cook the fresh veg that we had brought back from the plot. It really is an amazing feeling to cook and eat a meal using all your own produce.

So to anyone out there thinking of giving it all up...DON'T!!! I was told to do a little bit at a time when I started but me being me and with the help of my AMAZING assistant 'D' we had to attack the entire plot, we are getting there, it's an uphill struggle but the feeling of satisfaction is fantastic.

SUN!!! Oh My God We Have SUN!!!

2007-08-09T08:39:00.000Z

Maybe I'm speaking too soon! But my God it's nice to see some sun instead of the endless rain.

The plot is in a weird state at the moment, all the rain in the last month or so has meant that we have been unable to get to the plot to work so it is heavily overgrown with weeds and the grass paths are have grown like crazy. On the good side the crops seem to be doing amazingly well.

'Jug of baby carrots'

We have managed a couple of jaunts to the plot to retrieve crops that are going mad! The courgettes are really fab, when I went up on my own one evening I was greeted by small marrows rather than courgettes but they have still been wonderful in soups and roasted with other veg. I also decided that the carrots that I had thought were a bit of a dead loss needed thinning out. I had had very poor germination rate with both the carrots and the parsnips earlier in the year but with subsequent sowings and all this rain we now have a couple of really good rows of carrots and a smattering of parsnips which is much more than I expected.

I had read somewhere that the best way to thin carrots is in the early evening when carrot flies are less active and also to leave them until the carrots are baby roots so that the thinnings can be eaten. I have to say they were great, it was a bit of a laborious task thinning them out but we had a great crop of really nice sweet baby roots!

Marrow sized courgettes and baby carrots

I'm still finding it hard to believe that the crops that I sowed with my bare hands are actually producing veg, that may seem an odd thing to say but I kept thinking I wouldn't actually be able to grow much, I doubted myself and nature too much! Being a complete veg growing novice it is a fab feeling to be picking veg that you have grown.

Sweetcorn

Peas

Cabbage, parsnip and carrot bed (Before weeding!)

As I've said before I love allotments that have a mixture of flowers and veg and I've tried to put some flowers in, this year is a steep learning curve and the gladioli that I put in had been rescued from being 'unstaked' by my fantastic allotment neighbours Sue and Will. I turned up one evening to find that they had kindly propped up the huge flowers that I had not given a thought to since planting them earlier in the year, this really shows the allotment spirit of helping each other out. The flowers really are great, really big bold splashes of pinky purple and now that the pot marigolds have come out by the side of them it is a complete clash of jewel colours.

Not a good picture! They look better in reality!

The Globe Artichoke that we had at home earlier in the year was suffering from being in a pot and I put it into the plot not really expecting much from it but it's now producing flowers/globes.
The dilemma is, do we leave them to come into flower to appreciate how beautiful they'll no doubt be OR do we cut the buggers off, cook 'em and eat 'em??It has produced about 4/5 small to medium sized heads so maybe we just nibble a couple!

And finally at the plot ... Onions! What a bumper crop of these! I'm not sure if ours will last that long as when we harvested them they seem all to be quite thick necked (apparently a thick neck is not good!) and very wet, I have used one of the plastic plant house/greenhouse at home to put them in to dry out and hopefully they'll be good to store. They should 'keep' for months, well into next year, we'll have to see.

Drying onions

And the very last and final picture this posting is of one small corner of the garden at home, in a rare moment of blazing sun I ran outside with D's re-discovered camera and snapped away!

The most prominent flowers in this picture are the Lavatera (big pink flower shrub at very back), the dark pink rose on the right (inherited from last house owner, an amazing flower show!) and the Nicotiana (cream/white flowers in centre of pic) Nicotiana are in my opinion one of the best flowers anyone could put in their garden, the perfume is AMAZING! It doesn't really smell much in the day but come 7/8pm it is as if someone has flicked a switch and the perfume is just wonderful. The other nice thing is they are dead cheap to buy as seeds, very easy to grow and will self seed in following years as these have done here from last years plant.

That's all for now, the sun is forecast to disappear in time for the weekend just when we intended on going to the plot and making an area for the compost heap, it might be a wet working weekend.... wish me luck!

I'm 'Shed of the week' !!!

2007-08-02T07:09:00.000Z

You'll all be jealous as hell .... Jane Perrone (Allotment authoress and blogger) has only gone and made my tumbling shack 'Shed of the Week', how cool is that!?

I have more plot updates coming soon, with the rare bit of sun we are having I just 'aint got time to blog.

The camera has been found too so new pics to follow soon......

I bought myself a toy!

2007-07-19T07:02:00.000Z

Just before we went on holiday my rechargeable grass strimmer finally packed up so by the time we returned to the UK the grass paths at the plot were more like a wild meadow up to our bloody thighs! My plot neighbour told me that ARGOS were doing some very reasonable strimmers so I popped along to look. £49 later I am now the proud owner of a great Spear and Jackson petrol strimmer and the plot is looking tons better.

Unfortunately I am camera-less at the moment, I broke mine earlier in the year and had been using D's instead but that now seems to have mysteriously disappeared, so I'm unable to show any pics of the plot, probably a good thing though as it's gone totally crazy with weeds! Having said that though the crops are all doing well and we are slowly munching our way through a complete potato mountain. The broad beans were never a success as they got blackfly in a bad way and I hadn't put enough plants in either, we did have enough for about 2 meals but that was about it. I am determined that I will sow mine in the Autumn/Winter this year to give them ahead start and use a normal variety not 'The Sutton' which is a dwarf variety.

We're doing ok though with the rest of the plot and actually seem to be have a good amount of different plants coming on :

Onions (red and white)

Carrots (Autumn king and early nantes)

Potatoes (Nadine, Maris piper, Duke of York, Pentland Javelin, Pink Fir apple)

Beans (Runner best of all and Wisely Magic, French beans, Borlotto / borlotti)

Peas (meteor and Greensage)

Butternut Squash

Cabbage (Savoy best of all, tundra and some B&Q bought plants that were going cheap!)

Courgette (Tondo di chiaro di nizza)

Sweetcorn

Parsnip (Tender and true and White Gem)

So it's now going in the right direction but there is SO much work to be done, once the paths are sorted we should be able to stay on top of things now that we have the strimmer, I really need to get a compost bin built and I have never finished sorting out the door for the shed (see earlier Laurel and Hardy experience!)

Bloody hard work 'aint it this allotment malarkey!

We're back!! And mixing with the famous people...darling!

2007-07-06T23:45:00.000Z

So, whilst the entire UK was submerged we were sat in Greece experiencing one of the hottest summers that they've had for 50 years! 34 degrees at night!! So whilst I'm not excited to be back in rainy blighty, I am glad to be feeling a tad cooler. (And the bloody watering system in the garden wasn't needed was it!!)

Anyway, back to normality...

Before we went on hols, Cole, my regular stalker/comments contributor (only kidding Cole!) told me that Cath Kidston's garden would be open to the public on 1st July. To anyone who doesn't know who Cath Kidston is, well she's a designer of homewares, fabrics, retro kitchen accessories etc. basically a modern day Laura Ashley (not sure if she does clothes though) and she's married to a famous record producer, so a rather famous lady in the world of fashion and design.

We were very near to not going because of the weather being so rubbish but there were enough breaks in the rain for us to drive 20 mins over to her FABULOUS Cotswold farmhouse/manor house and boy am I glad we went. The gardens were beautiful, stereotypical English gardens with topiary, herbaceous beds, masses of roses and loads of Lavender. The house is set within the most peaceful valley with a very long drive down to it so it feels very secluded and a great feeling of peace and tranquility pervades over the place.

We spent ages walking through the garden which much like Hidcote consists of interconnecting rooms and amazingly it stayed sunny all the time we were there.

'D' sat in Cath Kidston's summerhouse

Back by the side of the house there was an open sided outbuilding where three beautiful young girls were serving afternoon teas assisted by Cath Kidston herself, I presume the girls were her daughters. It would have been rude to refuse the offer of scones, clotted cream and tea and it gave us the chance to talk to the lady herself which was great and she came across as a really nice person. After the tea and numerous failed attempts by Ms. Kidston to force more scones upon us we walked with her over to the plants sale area and bought plants that we didn't really need but just couldn't resist, unbeknownst to me while I was looking at which plants to buy Cath Kidston and D were stood behind me with her sneakily giving D a packet of 6 Scones and tub of clotted cream to take home because they'd got so much left over! What a bizarre but fantastic afternoon, a beautiful garden, a break in this mad weather and an amazing opportunity to meet someone famous! Ooh I do get starstruck!

Back at the allotment things are looking good, obviously the rain was good for our crops, I dug up our first batch of new potatoes to have with salad for tea, they weren't that small mind you, more like maincrop potatoes than small new pots.

Anyway lots planned, things to do, hopefully this rain will slow down soon or maybe I should start building an ark??

Gutter peas and Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetcorn!

2007-06-13T00:03:00.000Z

I'm dead excited to have planted sweetcorn, I completely adore the taste of it smothered in butter (or maybe flora in our house!) Plus they are one veg that they reckon really does taste better for being picked cooked and eaten in less than 10 minutes, something that is obviously impossible with shop bought.
I finally managed to get them into the plot in a bed of their own apart from the squash/courgettes I planted around their bases. This is almost a '3 Sisters' approach, only the beans are missing from this. In a 3 sisters bed you plant corn, beans and squash. The idea is that the beans use the corn stems to grow up, and the squash grow happily in the unused space on the ground below the beans and corn. Obviously in this instance the beans are on the other side of the plot in their own bed with bamboo cane supports.

The peas that I've been growing at home in gutters went in today.

You sow the pea seeds into gutters and get them growing, then when they are ready to transplant to the plot you just tip them into a ready dug trench, pea roots hate being disturbed and this method respects that and it seems to have worked...yeah!

I've been flying around like a headless chicken as we're soon to depart for foreign lands leaving the house, garden and allotment in other capable hands whilst we are away, I don't want to leave it all as it's all just coming to life!! Someone told me that if you take your holiday at this time of year that you are obviously NOT a serious gardener!! PAH! That is what I say! I spent a bloody fortune on a computerised watering system for the garden and charmed the allotment neighbours, see I know how to do it! Plus if you click on this link HERE you'll see that Gloucester in Bloom and Gloucester city council are using a photo of our garden from last year when we won 'Best City Garden' in their publicity for this years competition. (Ours is half way down the page on the right hand side in the civic pride award section) They're also using it in the official leaflet for this years competition, so we aint doin too bad eh!? Adios for a week or 3!

Toms and beans

2007-05-30T22:27:00.000Z

WOW, can someone hold the clock hands still whilst I get some planting done pleeease!!!! I have so much to do and it feels like the year is whizzing by, our forthcoming hols add to the pressure of getting plants in and settled.

I managed to get another row of canes in for beans, this time I have planted 'Best of All' runner beans and my 'Borlotto' beans (the Italian ones with red streaked pods) I've got just enough space left for french climbing beans which I've sown in modules inside.

By the look of the pic I've also got a carrier bag tree....nice 'aint it!

The other VERY over due job was to sort out the toms. Due to the watering side of things I decided that these will have to stay at home. Directly outside the back of the house is an area that I always call the 'Ginnel' area (a good northern name for a narrow passage between two houses or a back lane behind terraced houses) anyway, this ginnel area is directly outside the back of the house before you go into the rest of the sprawling estate. It's the perfect spot for my toms in grow bags and I also put a big pot with 3 canes in to grow some french climbing beans on (as if I didn't have enough beans!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I grew beans there last year before the allotment entered our lives, it was so nice to be able to walk out the back door and grab a handful for tea, hence me doing it again.

In both of these pictures you can see one of my plastic planthouses that I've used to propagate most things. I'd love a 'proper' greenhouse but I just don't know how we'd fit it into this garden, it's big enough but there just doesn't seem to be the right space anywhere, I'll have to ponder that one a bit more though and convince 'D' that it's a good idea!!! :)

Some of my Sweetcorn, Leeks and Nicotiana seedlings

Madeleine McCann Missing

2007-05-25T21:59:00.000Z

Not horticultural but a very important posting..... people all over Europe are being asked to keep the image of Madeleine McCann in the public eye. Anyone can download pictures of her to make into posters or include a phot of her on their blog or website so that hopefully (please God) she can be returned to her loving family. Please do your bit. This took me less than 2 minutes to include in my blog....I'd love it if it helped to bring her back!

These photos show her very distinctive eye birthmark. Click the title of this posting or click this writing to be taken to the official Find Madeleine website.

Evening therapy

2007-05-22T07:18:00.000Z

I decided that the runner beans that I've been growing at home in loo rolls really needed to be liberated so I went up to the plot at about 7pm last night. My day off was full of important stuff like going for therapy to sort out my 'flying phobia' (Greek holiday looming ahead) and going to the dentist, so I didn't get chance to get to the plot in the daytime as planned.

To be honest there is something quite magical about the evening time at the allotment, I'm not sure what it is but I always love the feeling of peace. Most of the time when I've been up there at that sort of time I'm the only person there and I just love the feeling of pottering which is when I find gardening really therapeutic.

I've got loads of stuff almost ready to put in the plot all growing like mad at home in loo rolls, newspaper pots and modules. The beans that I planted last night are 'Wisley Magic' runner bean and I have 'Best of All' runner beans, French climbing beans and Borlotto beans to put out as well. The plan is to have 2 double rows of canes with a different variety bean on each side to accommodate the 4 different varieties. I think my problem will come when we have the harvest to end all harvests and we're eating beans until we go blue in the face....I just can't do it by halves!

Video below shows the plot on Easter Monday (9th April) once we had dug all the plot and before we'd put many things in. If you have your speakers on you can hear the birdsong (very peaceful) and then at the end the train going by, the track runs right behind my plot. For some reason you have to click the arrow twice to play this video. (Wed 23/5/07 Just found that at work I don't have to click twice! Oh the joys of modern technology!)

pics

2007-05-17T21:40:00.000Z

I managed a quick jaunt up to the plot on Tuesday evening, it's still been raining like mad and I was intrigued to see what had developed at the plot in my absence. I'm chuffed to say that after a failed attempt at the beginning of April, my second sowing of carrots has germinated!!!!! I almost danced for joy that I'd managed to get them to grow, I think it proves that it was just too hot and dry for the last lot.

The above picture is a panorama that I took of the plot and shows next door's traditionally cultivated plot (immaculate!) and obviously my bed system (not immaculate!)
We have left the first 5 metres of the plot (far left of pic) undug so that we could park the car on it when we need to, the only problem though is that I'm starting to feel like I'm running out of space and also when I went there the other day, on the bike, the lady who has a plot almost opposite me arrived and parked on my plot without saying a word (apart from 'Hi!' ) She just parked up like it was a local car park and walked over to her plot to work on it. I do feel a bit scrooge like that I have now put obstacles in the way to prevent it happening again but it does seem a bloody cheek and to not even ask if it was ok! I really do need space for the squashes etc. so I do think I'll be digging some of it up soon anyway.

The potatoes had grown amazingly well in the week or so of rain that we'd had, it just shows how essential water really is. The picture to the right shows the potato beds, the nearest one shows 2 rows of first earlies and a row of Pink Fir Aplle which are only just poking through!

The garden is looking great, unfortunately it appears devoid of flowers when viewed from afar as in this picture which was taken from the bathroom window (my overhead vantage point for planning changes and viewing my vast estate!!)
The iron tree plant support from Malvern spring show can just be seen in the bottom of the pic with clematis now attached to it.

The other pic shows the garden as dusk is taking hold, on my home pc this is quite a good pic but on my work pc it's crap!! Apologies if you can't make it out.
What I'm trying to show is the lighting system that I installed recently which consists of small lights strategically placed amongst the plants and a spotlight bathing the apple tree in light to create a feature at night. I think it looks great, D is slightly unsure and has made comments about 747's wanting to use it as a runway! Cheeky sod! You just can't find the right class of partner/garden help these days! :)

... and the heavens opened!

2007-05-14T21:25:00.000Z

OMG (as the yoof of today say) it has rained like it has never rained before! I was very kindly given complimentary tickets to the RHS Malvern Spring Garden Show (as seen on 'Gardener's World' no less!!!) D was hesitant to go due to the expense of tickets (complimentary tickets sorted that out) and the imminent bad weather conditions (NOTHING could sort that out!) We set off on Sunday morning around 11 am on our 20 minute car journey to Malvern. Approx 1 hour later we were walking around the wettest show ground I have ever had the misfortune to be at! But we had the most amazing time. We had watched Friday's Gardener's World programme with salivating mouths, I always love the big RHS shows. We weren't disappointed. The show gardens were brilliant (especially Chris Beardshaw's)

These sort of shows are very tempting but we try and behave ourselves and only buy things that we have never seen before or we would kick ourselves for not buying. Both these pics show these. Above is a picture of our latest Obelisk/willow wigwam (Top Pic) Although we've obviously seen these elsewhere before we never find ones this well constructed and they seem almost impossible to come across, so I quickly snapped this up and walked around the rest of the show with a bloody great big wigwam attached to me!!

The other purchase is the wiggly iron tree in the other picture.

This was bought from a really lovely couple who sell under the name 'Straysparks' They were seen on Friday nights GW programme when Carol Klein borrowed a wrought iron wigwam they had made for the presenters border that she was making.

I would have loved to have bought one of those but finances dictate otherwise (forthcoming hols etc!) Anyway this is their plant trees, designed to be pushed into the ground or a pot and then used to support a climber (in our case a clematis that we bought 10 minutes later!)

By around 3.30pm we decided to call it a day and trudged back to the car. When I was a child I remember getting as wet as this after playing in the local stream, as an adult I don't think I have EVER been so wet whilst still in clothing! I almost expected to be told that I was not allowed back into the house in that state and that I would have to strip off at the door! Obviously I am a grown up (apparently!) and the only person that could have told me to strip was D and he was as wet as me!

Ne'er cast a clout till May is out

2007-05-06T16:39:00.000Z

Well the old saying may be correct, the weather is changing but we still managed to wizz up to the plot today and spend a few hours pottering about. D strimmed all the paths which makes such a difference to the look of the place. I dug a couple of bean trenches to fill with half rotted compost and newspaper to help hold in water for the beans when planted. I also erected one of the bean pole rows, it's amazing what a difference it makes to the place, it almost looks like an allotment!

As important to all the work that we did was sitting, enjoying and planning. We set up a couple of fold out chairs and put the whistling kettle on the camp stove for a quick brew whilst we planned what else there was to be done and where other crops would be planted. Nothing like a bit of procrastinating with a good brew!

Garden holiday

2007-05-04T20:54:00.000Z

I'm just coming to the end of my 'Garden Holiday'. I did the same last year, took a week off work and spent the whole week doing all the overdue jobs and spring cleaning in the garden that never get done in a normal day off or weekend. I managed to stain and varnish all the furniture, as we have two patios there is a fair amount of it and it is bloody tedious and laborious!

We had some friends from Glasgow come and stay, we became friends with them years ago when D first met them in Corfu and we meet up most years in Corfu but they'd never been to our place back home in the UK. Anyway, we'd rattled on about how our garden has progressed from when we first move in 18 months ago and that we'd won best city garden in the 'In Bloom' competition so the pressure was on to make sure that it did look good when they arrived (It's looked totally crap all winter!). To be honest I don't think any one else would notice if it wasn't perfect but when it's your own garden you notice EVERY imperfection, well I do and I become like a thing possesed trying to kill myself in the process of cleaning and sorting. So true to form we spent ages blast cleaning the patios, mowing, digging, weeding etc and by the time they arrived it looked great but better than that was the fact that the weather was fantastic, their company was superb and we had a really relaxing and over indulgent few days.

...................................
D and friends on top patioI went up to the plot mid way through the week to weed, water and hoe. The carrots and parsnips that I sowed hadn't appeared and to be honest I think it was through lack of watering. I re sowed the two rows of carrots and today I managed to repair my mountain bike which has only taken 2 years ! So now I am able to ride the bike from house to plot in 5 mins, water hoe and back in no time! It was great to do actually, it felt so good to be able to get to the plot without having to take the car.

The other big job for this week was to sow all the outstanding veg that I have been meaning to do. I spent around 2-3 hours sitting on the patio at home in the blazing sun sowing beans, courgette, squash, peas, sweetcorn, cucumber and lettuce into loo rolls, modules and pots, a very therapeutic way to spend an afternoon (especially if you've got a good red wine and fab weather!!) The runner beans always intrigue me, they're just beautiful, the markings on them are amazing, the feel of the beans is like a worry bead, they are so tactile, they really are beautiful things.

So, now I've got the bike up and working there shouldn't be any excuse to pop up for 10 mins or so when I get home after work to slosh some water around and a quick bit of weeding...well that's the idea anyway!

Time in the garden

2007-04-17T20:32:00.000Z

I feel slightly guilty, we spent all weekend at home and only went to the allotment for 10 minutes on Sunday evening to quickly check and water.

I went to the car boot on Cheltenham racecourse in the morning to go and get some more tools for the plot and home. I may have mentioned it before (I forget!) but car boot sales are just fab for bargain tools and things! I've managed to get all the tools for the plot at approx. £1 an item and this Sunday was no exception I bought a really nice old garden fork for £2 and a fab old galvanised watering can for £2! Bargain! I hate the idea of vandals stealing things from the plot but at that price it wouldn't be as financially crippling.

Some good friends that we don't see enough of came around unexpectedly for lunch so we had a fab time eating salads etc in the garden appreciating how nice the garden is looking with all the spring flowers.

Later in the afternoon (after one too many pimms!) I constructed a brick path that I have been promising to do for ages (to myself) . We have a couple of gravel paths in the garden which look nice but come the wet weather I end up with half the gravel stuck to my boots so I decided to add a brick centre path leaving the gravel around the edge.. An amazing website that I found called Turning Earth has some amazing artistic elements and is the sort of garden that I LOVE!!! I have copied the brick paths (quite unashamedly! This lady has FANTASTIC flair and style when it comes to design) from this garden. The millennium shed is great, an old outhouse that she converted herself, knocking down walls etc. to create an open fronted summerhouse...inspiring!

D has gone berserk buying Lavenders, delphiniums and foxgloves for the garden and spent the weekend constantly asking where he was 'allowed' to plant them! Sometimes I think I am to dominant with the garden and allotment....talk about 'Get OFF my land!!'

The garden is looking great at the moment and I have a good feeling about it's prospects for the rest of the year, I'm also nicely content with the plot at the moment too, it really has helped getting it all dug over the other week, I feel so much more relaxed about it (until next visit!!!)

Carrots and Parsnips

2007-04-10T21:02:00.000Z

I've sown the first seeds on the plot which to me was a momentous occasion, ceremonial almost which I was relishing in the peace and quite of a remote allotment site until the grandchild of one of the plot holders starts screaming that he needed 'a wee wee Grandaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!' at the top of his voice to try and get his Grandads attention over the drone of his rotovator! Poor kid didn't realise that on this site you find a convenient bush and.....

Anyway, I managed to get in 2 rows of 'Early Nantes 2' Carrots and 2 rows of Parsnip 'Tender and True' plus loads more digging of couch grass root.

Back at home I sowed loads of Nicotiana (Tobacco plant) for both the allotment and the garden. Last year we had one Nicotiana plant at home which was absolute bliss, the perfume in the evening was just heaven, I have a real thing for heavily perfumed plants/flowers so I've decided to include some up at the plot. I also sowed Calendula (Pot Marigold) and Sunflower, again for both the plot and home and then finally I pricked out 48 Leek seedlings into pots to grow them on before planting out.

Easter Bonanza

2007-04-09T20:15:00.000Z

Well we did it! We have finally manged to dig all of the plot! We spent something in the region of 10-12 hours at the allotment over the Easter weekend and managed to dig every bed. D was a saint, he managed to de-turf every single bed and dig them over roughly!

I followed in his wake fine digging the beds removing as much perrenial weed root as possible and boy was there a lot of root to remove!! The pictures really don't do it justice and it seems amazing that it's taken that long to dig it all but my God it was tough going!! So we now have 10 workable beds and space to put in some more as and when we need more. I had a mad idea of making a bench/seat out of some of the turf so D stacked a load up at the back of the plot to create a living bench, once the grass grows over it and we sow some flower seeds around it it'll make a nice place to sit and look at all our hard work.

My Good Friday plan of getting the remainder of the potatoes in worked, so I now have 60 potatoes in, I also managed to sow some parsley so that's the devil taken care of (see previous entry for explanation!)

On Saturday I put in the 'Red Baron' onions (44 sets), deciding to only sow half a bed of those as we don't use them as much as white ones.

The weather throughout the entire weekend was amazing, we both caught the sun, it also brought out loads more plot holders so we've met loads more people which is great. We finally met our neighbours and they seem to be great, a couple called Will and Sue. They were there for most of the weekend too and worked like mad.

Now I'd better go and fill the beds with edible stuff!

April fools!

2007-04-03T07:12:00.000Z

' D' working like a trouper digging new beds

We spent a huge part of Sunday afternoon up at the plot. After my (now compulsory) sulk and teenage rant when we arrived, we set to with lots of digging. I say WE because D came with me again today having not been up for a little while, it's SO nice to have the extra help and calming down!!

D set about de-turfing and digging beds and I followed along digging out couch grass root and breaking the soil up. It was very hard work but once we got into a rhythm it was good. The weather was fantastic and when we first arrived we were the only ones there (apart from Scottish John who is ALWAYS there) Within about 20 mins or so we'd been joined by another 5 plot holders and their families including our neighbours who we have never seen so that was good. It was really weird having spent so much time up there alone to suddenly be surrounded by others but it was also really nice.

On Monday I popped down in the afternoon to get some onion sets in, I prepared and raked one bed and managed to get in 84 sets of New Fens Globe, I then netted the bed to stop the birds from pulling them all back out. I've still got the Red Baron to put in but they'll have to wait until the weekend.

There were a few people around again which was nice, I wanted to chat with Scottish John about our bills that had arrived for the plots, it seems that there has been a raise since last year and John was far from happy. I can see his point but to be honest I still feel that it's cheap, mine is just over £31 (I can't remember how many pence!) which I feel for the size of plot is good value, people are always shocked at how little allotments cost to rent when I tell them.

The weather has been amazing and it is predicted to last for the rest of the week and weekend (fingers, toes and other bits crossed!) I'm wanting to get down again on Friday (Good Friday) and put in some more pots and onions. It seems that Good Friday is traditionally the day for putting in spuds and I've also been told that you should sow parsley on Good Friday to ward off the devil!
I'm a sucker for traditions and old wives tales!

Netted onion bed.....

Ups and downs and spuds in!

2007-03-27T07:07:00.000Z

A jaunt up to the plot yesterday to dig more and to check things over. I also decided that I'd put some of the potatoes in (some from the potato mountain in the shed at home!)
I have a small journal type book for the allotment to keep a check on things and I'd written down in it how far apart the pots needed planting and how deep etc, so there I was hunched over one of the beds with a book in one hand and a spade in the other, refering to the book as I'm planting the pots, like a novice cook refering to a recipe book "....now plant your potatoes 4" deep, cover with soil and leave to grow for 3 months"

Pic...Duke of York spuds & a GIANT silhouette

I do feel like such a novice, I keep wanting to feel much more at ease and not so pent up about it all, I mean for God's sake it's only growing veg! Things happen though that you don't expect and it leaves me wondering what I did wrong. The one thing that has puzzled me are the broad beans. When I planted the first rows I covered them in lemonade bottle cloches (apart from one plant) I removed the cloches last week as they'd reached the top and I left them to it. When I arrived yesterday all the 'cloched' beans had gone black on the edges of the leaves and bits of the stems, they also look a bit leggy and floppy. I think I know the answer, I think they should have been left without cloches in the first place, I've made them too tender and with the cold snap we just had I hadn't hardened them off properly. The one that hadn't ever been in a cloche is fine. Of course if anyone has any other thoughts on this please let me know!

I attempted to dig another new bed, previously we have had to de-turf each bed first and then dig the soil over but as the plastic has been down for a fair time now it is not necessary to do the de-turfing, the grass layer has broken down more so I am just digging through it all with a fork but it's still BLOODY hard work. I hate this bit, I wish the beds were all dug over so that I could get on with the growing bit! Just reading back over this entry I sound very 'down' this week, I do feel it and I'm not going to delete this, much as the temptation is to do that! I think there will be lots of ups and downs with the allotment...I prefer the ups!! :)

Allotments and recycling

2007-03-19T20:10:00.000Z

I love the way allotments are made up of begged, borrowed and found materials and objects. When we were looking at getting an allotment we visited a couple near by and I was instantly taken by the ramshackle way in which they have been created, on one site a shed had been made using an old glazed door for a window and a great big old window for a door! MAD! But it has a fantastic charm to it, it worked and what's more it's free!

I am saving anything and every thing to use in the garden and the plot and today I took a load of lemonade bottle for cloches and lots of little bottles from the yogurt bio drinks that we have every day for cane ends up to the plot.

When I arrived the broad bean plants in bottle cloches were escaping out of the top of the bottles, I'd decided they were going to be liberated today anyway so I quickly set them free. I planted up 16 more broad beans that I took up with me and covered them in bottle cloches. Total broad bean plants now 26.

...Broad bean plants in trug ready to go to plot (spot the snail!)

Now, the idea of the yogurt drink bottle going on top of a cane is for 2 reasons, the first is that any cane tops are covered to protect your eyes and the second is that in the wind they will rattle and scare away any birds trying to eat the crops. Good idea you may think but while I was crouched planting (having set up the yogurt pot canes already) a blackbird flew down and landed on the bed about 2 feet away from me and just stared at me! Oh well, you can but try!
I also managed to dig 2 of the beds that we'd already de-turfed, I haven't made the seed bed as hoped (soil still bit too wet) but at least I have space now for potatoes to go in soon.

Broad beans in bottle cloches with number 1 helper in background!

There has been a fair bit of work on the site by different people since I went down there 2 weeks ago. It's really nice to see actually, I've only been on site since November and not really seen much activity and the site looked a bit rough to say the least but now it's starting to wake up for the spring. The forecast cold snap hasn't been too much of a problem either, I've covered a few delicates in the garden with fleece and put the paraffin heater on in the greenhouse as a precaution but I think it would have all coped anyway. Isn't it great as things are waking up, even small set backs like a cold snap seem less of a problem and only a slight hiccup in the start of a gardening year.

Impatiens!

2007-03-15T21:40:00.000Z

All the tweaking of newspaper has paid off, here is a pic of all the busy lizzy plants potted up in their little paper pots, when ready to plant in the borders they get planted ... pot and all! The pot rots away like a peat pot. I did this last year and it worked really well, the greenhouse that they are in is a cheapy polythene planthouse from Focus, once it is free of plants in the summer I aim to grow a couple of Capsicum pepper plants and maybe a cucumber in it if there is room. (it is bigger than it looks!)

SPRING!!!!!

2007-03-14T22:56:00.000Z

View from balcony of our holiday home!

We went to Pembrokeshire (Wales) last week with some very good friends for a much needed quick break. I lust after the main fortnight holiday of the year when we go to hot climates but equally these shorter breaks in our own country are bliss!!

When we got back on Monday Spring had arrived in our 4 day absence, the garden has changed SO much in such a short time and we have been able to work in it without fear of getting stuck in the mud. New roses planted and new herbaceous plants placed on beds ready to plant.

The one thing that I really love to see at this time of year are the hedgerows coming to life. We're lucky to live in an outstandingly beautiful area on the edge of the three counties Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire and we have some amazing, wonderfully maintained ancient hedges and hedge laying appears to be on the up in our area rather than neglecting them and or worse still grubbing them out altogether.
I love the almost acidic lime green colour of the new foliage unfurling and the way in which the hedges and trees are just speckled with this green as if someone has loaded a big paintbrush with lime green paint and flicked and sprayed colour all over them, pure magic and such a welcome sight after the barren months of winter.

This weekend is supposedly going colder again but hopefully it will remain dry and I can get down to the allotment to attack some more beds, the chitting potatoes in the shed are coming on well and I really need some beds prepared for them and a good seed bed created too...hopefully!

by 'eck

2007-03-02T22:02:00.000Z

Well, I'm a Derbyshire lad by birth and spent a large chunk of my early years growing up in the Peak District so you'd reckon I'd be quite hardy to the weather down here in Gloucestershire considering that it's the south in comparison but we've had some cold weather again that's been a bit of a shock to the old system!

I've spent the last couple of nights making newspaper pots to transplant seedlings into and I'm glad that it's a job that could be done sitting in front of the fire in the sitting room, folding paper around a jam jar and tucking the ends in creates a surprisingly robust little pot which of course can be planted out complete once the weather and seedling are right.

I was hoping I could get down to the allotment this weekend but I'm not sure it's worth it, as I sit here typing the rain is battering the window and the wind is howling, a real horror movie type scene!

I've just bought some plug plants for the garden, Tesco of all places are selling a good selection of plugs so I bought up a load of busy lizzy plugs. I had busy lizzies last year and they really were amazing, I planted them in May and the first frost at the beginning of November finished them off...not bad going! Lets hope the weather improves so I can start the potting up process, I feel that it's going to suddenly get warm, spring will arrive and I'm going to have to be working every hour God sends to keep up with it all, let's hope he's on my side through out spring!

I planted something!

2007-02-26T19:52:00.000Z

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I've finally planted something!! Ok so I've put in some raspberry canes and a climbing rose but this is a 'real' crop. I planted the broad beans that I grew in loo rolls (at the same time as the sweet peas, previous entry click here) I spent the morning adding more to the living willow fence/hedge in the garden and then this afternoon I drove over to the plot with 10 broad bean plants (The Sutton) I've planted them with a lemonade bottle over each one as a mini cloche, I don't think it was essential that I did this but I'm concerned that the birds might rip them out if they're unprotected.

Well, let's see what next weekend brings, hopefully they'll still be there!...(pic to follow next weekend (hopefully) , I forgot to take one today!)

Living willow fence AKA 'Fedge'

2007-02-26T10:56:00.000Z

Not to do with the allotment but hey what the hell I'm gonna tell you about this. I decided that we needed to do something about the hedge between us and next door.
Most of the way down the garden it's ok, a privet hedge that D spends his entire summer cutting to within an inch of it's life! Unfortunately at the top end by the patio it's more of a wild bramble mixture and a bit spartan in places.

So our problem this year is that next door are in the process of creating a patio area by the side of this area of hedge which is also by our patio, we explored options of bamboo and other ideas but I was really taken with the idea of doing a living willow fence which also go under the name 'Fedge'. The principle is easy, you take willow cuttings and push them into the ground, weave them together and keep them watered until they root. Come summer they will be in full leaf and create a hedge/fence

I placed a wanted post on FREECYCLE website to see if it might be possible to get some free willow, as the small amount that I needed would cost between £40-£50, a very kind lady responded and yesterday lunchtime was spent in her garden cutting the off shoot willow away from her living fence.

By 6pm I had pushed, tweaked and woven all that willow to create the beauty that you see below (it carries on behind the shed) It was SO therapeutic doing it and now hopefully come barbecue season we shouldn't feel as if we're dining with the neighbours!

an inconvenient truth

2007-02-14T23:33:00.000Z

Last night we sat and watched the DVD 'an inconvenient truth' with Al Gore, to say that this DVD was fascinating almost feels wrong to say but I urge you to watch it if you get the chance. Now I can hear you saying 'yeah? what's it about?', well it's a documentary film about GLOBAL WALMING, exciting stuff eh?! I could ramble on and say loads and having seen this film I would love to stand on the highest roof to shout the message to anyone who would listen, but the simple truth is that you have to see the film yourself to realise that we MUST change and we must change NOW!

I have never felt so excited about seeing a documentery or so sh*t scared!
I am not some nut who would stand on my soap box spouting biblical extracts or political quotes but this DVD has really hit the mark when it comes to what we are doing to our planet. Simple changes are the start, use energy light bulbs, drive less, cut down on food miles! One of the reasons that I wanted to grow our own veg is to know where the produce is coming from, what has been sprayed on it (or not hopefully!) and to also cut down on food miles.

When I named this blog 'Fork it' I also thought of calling it 'One foood mile' because it is one mile from plot to house. One simple mile. Why do people want food out of season? Why would you want strawberries that have been flown half way around the world and taste naff in December when our own from this country are FABULOUS! Why not wait and look forward to wonderful tasting produce at the correct time of the year and celebrate good British grown produce!

Think about it? Next time you are in the shop buy British and next time you are changing a light bulb put in an energy saving one...you will be saving money as much as you are saving the planet!! www.climatecrisis.net an american site related to this film but SO worth 5 minutes browse... you never know you might just tip the balance!

Another view!

2007-02-13T19:30:00.000Z

This morning I posted the previous entry below about our attempt at attaching a door onto the shed. When I got home I found that D had sent an email to friends and family about our weekend which I am always sent a copy of. The following is his version of events....

'I had a day of working in a field in the rain yesterday - trying to make a new door for Chris's shed. We were freezing and muddy and bloody and not best happy - but we created a door of great beauty which swung and fitted so snugly as make one sigh with delight. Then we stood back to admire our work. And God decided that we had spent 2 hours creating a thing so terribly beautiful that he was jealous, and he sent down a holy wind to whip the door back so fast that it smash to pieces in front of my eyes - and also smashed the climbing rose which we had planted up the shed shortly afterwards to complete the perfection. God is a bitter and unjust old sh1t. We came home.'

Funny how people view it eh?? I knew I was frustrated but his version seems so much more comedic, bitter and frustrated! To any devoutly religious people I apologise for his view of God!!

Some days I just wanna say...FORK it!!!

2007-02-13T08:06:00.000Z

It had been planned for the last week that the weekend would be a productive weekend at the plot, he above had other ideas!

'D' was a star, he'd booked a day off on Monday so that we could go together up to the plot and sort out a few things. We'd thought that we'd maybe get some digging done but after all the snow on Thursday and Friday (followed by non stop rain) we decided to just sort out the shed and fix a door onto it.

It felt like I was in a Laurel and Hardy sketch! We arrived, it rained, we spent ages fixing new door in place...it looked great (with allotment eyes that is!) the wind then blew it off and we were back to square one!! This is the point that I sort of lost it and behaved WORSE than a 13 year old, I knew it was going to be hard but this was BLOODY hard. We were wet, cold and very frustrated, luckily for me D is a very calming sort of person and stopped me in my tracks, sat me down and gave me a good talking to.

Once I'd calmed down we decided to clear a small patch to plant 5 raspberry canes that a hair client of mine kindly gave me. We de-turfed an area in front of the shed and planted them, it did feel much better to actually plant something. I also planted a bare rooted climbing rose 'New Dawn' in front of the shed, hopefully it will scramble up the shed and make it look beautiful!

So the door came home with us for repairs, I WILL make this allotment work, if only we could have some dry weather, it is winter though so I suppose I should calm down and be patient.

Ledbury in the snow

2007-02-09T19:10:00.000Z

Well we were warned that it was going to snow and boy did it snow! Thursday morning I woke to find snow outside the house but it wasn't too bad on the roads. I work in Ledbury which is approx. 15 miles from Gloucester, the nearer I got to Ledbury the worse the roads were, I have a feeling this doesn't bode well for our forthcoming allotment weekend that we have planned.

Today was the worse day though as the morning was clear but by the afternoon it was blizzard conditions and approx. 250 cars were abandoned on one local road!

Gloucester Garden Website

2007-02-06T18:16:00.000Z

I've decided to include a link to my website (or should I say web page!) for my garden, the garden is very new and the website is very new and very basic so please forgive me! (The link is to the side of this page)

This garden is our first garden in 15 years having lived in a flat all that time, it has given us lots of fun and frustration. We were very lucky to win an award at the end of last year for it which bowled us over, then 2 weeks later we were told that 'Gardener's world' magazine were going to publish pictures of it as their November make over garden. If that wasn't enough they sent us £100 worth of gardeners vouchers which was amazing. We still haven't spent them as we liked the idea of buying a nice bench/ornament/'thing' for the garden rather than spend it on smaller items and not have anything to show for it, if you get my drift, and we just can't decide what to get...oh the dilemma!!!!

Cold frames arrive!

2007-02-04T22:04:00.000Z

So, 'tis the time of year to make cold frames pay their keep. I spent most of today reassembling the plastic one I bought from Aldi last year and then building two new ones from FREECYCLED bricks and old windows given to me by a hairdressing client.

Our garden is long and narrow, very typical of Victorian terrace houses, the working end of the garden is at the very top and because cold frames need regulating and checking most days I have decided to set them up here and not at the plot. I still have loads of bricks left over and a couple of old windows, so I may also set up some cold frames at the plot later on but we'll see.

Yesterday on the way home after work, I bought my supply of seed potatoes from a local garden centre . The list is as follows :-

Duke of York...First early...10 tubers

Pentland Javelin...First early...3kg

Nadine...Second early...3kg

Maris Piper...Main...3kg

Pink Fir Apple...Main...10 tubers

I've thrown everything around in the shed so that I can squeeze in a small table by the window to accommodate them whilst they are being chitted.

Toilet roll sweet peas

2007-02-02T14:51:00.000Z

I decided to start some sweet peas off early by sowing them in old loo rolls indoors. We saved some seed from the sweet peas in the garden last year so I'm hoping that they'll be OK, I love them and now that I have the allotment I thought it would be good to grow some up there as I can put more plants in than the garden on it's own.
I've been told that it is quite usual for the loo rolls to grow hair!!! Apparently it is not detrimental to the new seedlings.....we'll see!

Wet, wet, wet!

2007-01-26T08:00:00.000Z

Totally and utterly wet, drowned, quagmire etc etc, I now feel like a broken record rattling on to people about how wet everything is! One mistake you make when you take on an allotment is to tell the world and his dog that you have done so, at first this is great because they ask all the right questions and are excited for you etc but then when like me you haven't been able to do jack all they still ask all the same questions (am I making sense? I think I'm rambling now!)
It's great that people are wanting to know how you're doing but now I'm constantly saying ' nah, too wet at the moment, just a load of mud. Roll on spring'

My job, I might add, is hairstylist so I see approx. 10 - 14 clients a day not to mention all the other stylists clients. The thing with my job is that generally I see a client around every 5 - 6 weeks so when they come in to see me for the next trim etc we play catch up with each others lives, hence me talking about the fact that people keep asking me about the plot. I'm starting to feel like I'm loosing the plot!

I don't work Mondays so generally I think that is going to be my day down on the plot aswell as evenings in the summer. I had a quick jaunt down there on Mon just gone to go and check on the plastic that's down to make sure it was all pinned down still.

Skip Raiding!!
Wombling activities have now shot through the roof!! We've had a skip around the corner from our house since before Christmas which I've had a steady stream of items from (picture the scene.... 2 grown men struggling and I do mean struggling to lug home some old breeze blocks) breeze blocks, windows, guttering, stone etc etc It'll all come in handy, I just need to be careful that I don't allow the plot to start to resemble Steptoes's yard!
I managed to remember to take the camera with me, the one above is standing at the shed looking back down the plot, it doesn't really look much different from the photo in November when I was clearing it. Look at it as a (very much) before picture, I'm going to take pics from here to compare over the summer.

Normal service has been resumed.

2007-01-03T21:49:00.000Z

I'm going to sound very 'Bah Humbug' now, thank the lord we are back to normal life! I do like Christmas but I really can't cope with the chaotic build up and commercialism (I will remind the readers that I am only 34 although I sound like an 80 year old).

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I'm so glad that we are in 2007 and to celebrate I ordered my seeds for the allotment last night (I do know how to live!)
I ended up spending ages poring over seed catalogues trying to work out what to buy. I have now bought all my seeds from three different catalogues.
I wanted to support The Real Seed Company, as I mentioned in an earlier post but I also quite liked the idea of trying different companies to see who offered good service, delivery and so on.
So my list is thus :

The Real Seed Company

Broccoli..............................'Green Heading'
Courgette..........................'Verde di Italia' and 'Pattison Orange'
Leeks................................'Bleu de Solaise'
Squash..............................'Waltham Butternut'
Sweetcorn........................'Double Standard'

Simpsons Seeds

Cabbage.........................'Savoy Best of All' and 'Tundra'
Courgette......................'Tondo di Chiaro di Nizza'
Green Manure.............'Phacelia'
Spinach..........................'Bloomsdale'

Marshalls

Onions...........................'Red Baron' and 'New Fen Globe'
Tomatoes......................'Gardener's delight' and 'Alicante'

Potatoes have yet to be ordered and they are probably going to be from an offer in Gardeners world magazine. I have spent a reasonable amount (not too much) and I'm really excited to get sowing which I know isn't for a while.

It's suddenly crossed my mind that someone out there might actually be reading this and if that is so would you please accept my apologies for the bad spelling, grammar and punctuation!!!!!!! Also if you are reading this and you have loads of useful information, tips, handy hints or you just want to say hi and tell me about you then please do, I'd love to hear from you!

A Gloucester allotment

It's on the horizon

2006-12-21T13:35:00.000Z

Yep the good old season of goodwill seems to be well and truly upon us and it's only 3 more days until Christmas day arrives....it's looming on the horizon!
I haven't been to the allotment since the 12th December because it hasn't stopped raining since and I don't want a repetition of the last visit! I've continued to study the seed catalogues and I've come to the conclusion that it's all a guessing game and nobody knows what they're doing really they just have a go and fall lucky! Well that's my theory and that's what I'm going to do I reckon, I'm just going to order loads of stuff, stop trying to work it all out scientifically, planning every last square inch and just bung loads of seed in and see what happens.
A bit like the attitude of Robin in the book 'Allotted time'. This is quiet an interesting book written by Robin Shelton and his friend Steve about his experience in 'doing' an allotment. Not a bad read! His attitude is '...stuff grows' (or some similar quote!) and I suppose that's correct, if you sow seeds they want to grow and ok maybe they need some attention as well now and then but generally it's not us that are the experts but him above or nature! I think I'll go off now and do some chatting to him above to see if he'll go and dig my plot over while I'm busy at work...you never know!

A Gloucester allotment

And God said...let there be rain!

2006-12-12T11:21:00.000Z

Ok so he didn't really but at the moment I am sailing the car in and out of the allotment! I went down there yesterday to put some odds and sods there that we had rescued from skips (door, pallet etc) There is a central track that leads through the middle of the site and at the moment it is a total quagmire, I got half way along and came to a grinding halt with the wheels just spinning! I don't actually know the right way to get out of that sort of situation (apart from phoning someone in distress!) so I floored the accelerator and hoped for the best, it worked. Of course then I had to do the same in reverse to get back out but luckily I managed without getting stuck.

It's so frustrating to stand looking at this plot of ground wanting to dig it but not being able to, the ground is just so sodden that it just sticks to everything, totally impossible to do.
I keep day dreaming about the summer and imagining what it will be like then...at the moment that feels a long way off!

I had a very garden influenced birthday the other week, I had some fab presents including : New spade, secateurs, trowel, hand fork, 2 allotment books, digital radio (for the plot), parsnip seeds and garden vouchers, I felt totally spoilt.

I've been trying to gather seed catalogues together to work out who to buy from but so far the only one that really inspires me is the real seed company. It's a small family owned seed company that appears to stand for all the values that I would like to have in growing veg. I don't like the fact that the multinationals are so dominant and that older varieties are dying out.

A Gloucester allotment

Lets go wombling...

2006-11-26T20:30:00.000Z

We drove over to collect some wood from a freecycle request of mine this lunchtime. I placed a wanted posting on freecycle for any old planks, wood of any kind etc. I received a reply from a lady who is in the process of demolishing some sheds in her garden, she kindly left the wood on the drive for us to collect at our leisure.
We took a fair bit including the old shed door and drove over to the allotment to deposit it. I really do love freecycle, it's the most brilliant idea, you don't want it, see if someone else does before you dump it! Without freecycle I would have had to buy wood to repair the shed, build the edges of the beds etc or at least taken ages finding bits here and there.

I spent a really nice afternoon pottering on the allotment, it had rained loads over the last week so it was a bit like a swamp. However, I managed to replace the floor in the shed with odds and sods from the old floor boards that were there and the freecycle wood. I was half way through and going about it in a very heath robinson way when I was suddenly aware that it was very slap dash and very recycled looking BUT this is what I wanted, I worried a bit that maybe I should take longer to make it look neater but this is what I have always found attractive about allotments and sheds...the hap hazard look! The floor is solid, it should be I used way too many nails, it looks quirky and robust and very allotment like.

I had a chat with John who has a couple of plots at the other end of the site. John's a Scot who has had his plots here for around 4 years, he is the gaffer (not officially but he knows his stuff and cares about the site) John is great for offering advice on things, he lives behind the site and keeps an eye on things, there is still vandelism but not as bad as it could be.

So, I need to bang some extra bits onto the outside of the shed, fix some things inside, and attach a door....easy.

A Gloucester allotment

So here it is...warts and all!

2006-11-25T11:00:00.001Z

So this is it, this is what greeted me on my first day at the plot, it was really strange that it didn't look this over grown when I was viewing it with Mrs. Baldwin.
Somehow in the couple of days that passed between me taking on the allotment and arriving on the Saturday morning to start it had grown at least 3 foot of weeds! Oh well that shows how fertile the soil is!

So it took 3 days on the first weekend with a petrol strimmer to clear the weeds and then on the next weekend we had a huge bonfire (you can just make out the burnt patch) next came the prep work for the 10 beds that are going in. Black plastic bought on Ebay was cut to size and pegged down, bed no.1 has been dug but boy was it HARD work! Taking up what basically had become turf and trying to dig out the couch grass roots. I am determined to do this in an organic way.

A Gloucester allotment

In the Beginning...

2006-11-24T12:37:00.000Z

"Meet me there at 12pm" She said.
She being Mrs. Baldwin, Anita to some, somehow I don't think I'll ever call her that.

Mrs. Baldwin is in charge of all the allotment sites in Gloucester, the Hawthornes site was the only one to have any available plots on it. I arrived in plenty of time and took a minute to look over the gate into the field that is in front of the allotment site. Hawthornes is a locked site so I had to wait for Mrs. Baldwin's arrival.
When she arrived she unlocked the gate and we walked into the field and started to walk towards the hedge and the opening that divided the allotments with this field.
Suddenly Mrs. Baldwin stopped and started to tell me that certain plots had been taken and certain ones hadn't, I thought she was just preparing me for the site before we walked into it but oh no, I quickly caught up and realised that we were talking about the field that we were stood in!!! The wild, overgrown meadow that she was calling 'Allotments' !
There really was no evidence that this field had ever been an allotment site adjacent to the other one, it was just a field. The developers are hovering apparently , it hasn't been used for digging in 4 or 5 years from what I can gather. There was however such an outcry from locals when it was going to be developed that apparently the council said something along the lines of use it or it goes, so it seems that they are trying to encourage people back onto this site.
Now, call me lazy or shortsighted maybe but the thought of trying to dig a field over didn't really excite me, we carried on walking up the track into the next field, this is still cultivated. This is 'Hawthornes' and the other one is 'Tredworth Fields' (rather apt!) now here was a site that I could see me being on, it's unruly, shabby, tin huts in some places and that is just the sort of allotment site I had envisaged!
Plot 28a (to be renumbered at some point though) totally overgrown but I just had a feeling and it also had a shed, well some would call it a shed, originally a wooden shed that is now clad in corrugated iron, for some reason I find it really cute.
The door is missing and the floor is rotten, one freecycle request later and I have a door waiting to go on and I've pulled up the floor in preparation for a new one...and I thought the field plots looked like hard work!

A Gloucester allotment

Crikey!

2006-11-21T21:37:00.000Z

Ok, so this is blogging! Oh God I don't know if I should be doing this, oh well I've bloody well done it so I'd better carry on!

The names Womble....Glosterwomble, similar to the London variety and vaguely related ( a sort of country cousin) but slightly more 21st century and not so much the scavenger, they tend to 'find' stuff, us country wombles are that little bit more refined and we prefer to surf for it! You never know where internetting will get you!!

1) Need a boyfriend...Gaydar (I'm forever grateful, he is my life!)
2) Need a house...Fish4 (They did a great line in perfect Victorian houses in Gloucester)
3) Need an allotment...Gloucester city council website (Plot 28a, Hawthornes site, 6ft of weeds...mine!)
4) Need a shed door!!...Freecycle (4 doors later)

So, one boyfriend? Check! One Victorian house? Check! One (totally unruly overgrown) allotment? Check! One shed door? Check! Ok so lets get on with it then, shall we?

A Gloucester allotment