I am still alive!

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

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!

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

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

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!

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 ...

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.