Housework at the allotment

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!

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!!!

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' !!!

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!

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!

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!

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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!

' 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!

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

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.