Allotment

2010-04-25T14:07:00.000-07:00

I have had a couple of very useful weekends at the allotment. Plenty has been sown - radishes, lettuce, spring onions, leeks, corn salad and beetroot (all now germinated) and parsnips, perpetual spinach and kohl rabbi (sill awaiting germination). At home in pots I have runner beans - almost ready to be transplanted, greyhound cabbage and brussels sprouts (growing nicely) and courgettes and cucumbers (just sown today). I am not harvesting anything except purple sprouting broccoli at the moment, but it is magnificent! I dug up the last of the leeks last week, and shall be sorry to see the end of them. They lasted all the way through winter. I hope this year's will be as successful. The really big news, however, is that the tame photographer built me a fruit cage to cover the raspberries, gooseberries and blackcurrants. Apart from the netting, we didn't have to buy anything; we just used an assortment of iron posts and canes and it looks just great.Rather like a see-through marquee. You can't see it in the photo, but there is netting on all the sides as well as the top of the cage. And the following is a view skywards.This was taken before the sides were attached.

My other big news is that a friend two plots away has let me use three of her beds this year so that I have room for courgettes and butternut squash and whatever else I need. She is going to be too busy to do much gardening so the arrangement suits us both well - she gets her plot looked after and I get a bit more space. I have begun to dig the beds over, but they are full of weeds - couch grass and bindweed mostly. The marestail is beginning to appear in my plot, so I will have to deal with it quickly and not let it get out of hand.

It hasn't rained for two whole weeks (until today) so I have had to water once again - but only the seeds. And finally - I had the first rhubarb last week - and it was delicious.

Spring is here!

2010-04-11T10:11:00.000-07:00

At last - a spell of lovely weather! The sun has been shining, the rain has held off for at least five days and I have been to the allotment and dug, dug, dug. I have also got sunburned shoulders, nose and ears!

So - since Friday I have planted all the potatoes, first earlies (rocket), salad potatoes (Anya and Charlotte) and maincrop (Picasso), sown red and green salad bowl lettuce and tom thumb lettuce, french breakfast radish, spring onions, corn salad and leeks. I have also planted a couple of dahlias that I had dug up last autumn. Of course all this planting and sowing has meant a correspondingly large amount of digging, raking, tilthing and soil preparation, but I have enjoyed it. The upside of all the rain is that the soil is easy to dig and the weeds give up the grip much easier than normal.

The broad beans have germinated and are growing well in the sunshine and the onions and shallots are all sprouting and taking off. The gooseberries are flowering and the three blackcurrant bushes I transplanted last autumn are looking good.

I have dug up the last of the leeks and parnsips and all we are eating at the moment is mounds of beautiful purple sprouting broccoli.

We have also begun the fruit cage over the raspberries, gooseberries and blackcurrants. The tame photographer has pounded in some tall posts and we started to cover it with netting, but on account of my inability to count properly, we need to buy some more netting to finish off next week - otherwise it looks good, and hopefully will keep the birds of the precious fruit. The strawberries have to remain unnetted for the time being, but we can spread netting over them for the fruiting period.

At home, I have sown greyhound cabbage and runner beans for planting out when the weather is a bit more clement.

All in all - a hugely productive and enjoyable weekend!

2010-03-01T14:05:00.000-08:00

Rain, Rain, Rain

I haven't done anything at the allotment, gardening-wise for simply ages (except harvest once a week - mostly brussels sprouts, leeks, cabbages, parnsips, kale and parsley. The purple sprouting broccoli is just about to start.

The following photos will show you why it has been impossible to to anything practical!

No more needs to be said, I feel - but it hasn't rained today so maybe things are looking up!
The last photo is not my plot, but one of my friend's. They too are suffering! The two photos before that one are the plot neighbouring mine.

End of January

2010-01-31T15:19:00.000-08:00

I didn't get to the allotment last weekend - other pressing activities and rotten weather. Today, however, the rain held off for a short while, but when I got there, the frost was still heavy, making digging nigh on impossible, and when the sun came out the ground got soggier and soggier - so I didn't really do much. I picked brussels sprouts, and beautiful January King cabbage, some kale and parsley and two parsnips - not bad for a freezing winter day. I looked at the raspberry canes, but decided to deal with them next weekend!

I did get my onion sets - enough for a couple of rows of white onions and a couple of red onions and some shallots, as well as two bulbs of garlic. I also got the seed potatoes - Rocket for first earlies, Picasso for maincrop and Anya and Charlotte as salad potatoes. I didn't get many of each, but enough to enjoy next summer, hopefully. The are already chitting in eldest son's currently vacant room. All I need now is some some decent weather so I can get the plot ready for spring.

My next task is to get my seeds sorted and ordered. I have been very remiss about that this year.

Happy New Year 2010

2010-01-02T07:28:00.000-08:00

A new year and a new start to regular blog-keeping, I hope.

I made a New Year's visit to the plot yesterday in glorious sunshine, but bitterly cold weather. I had accumulated three buckets of compost over the festive period and a black bin bag's worth of paper shredding so I spent most of the time dealing with the compost. I cleared the old compost and laid down the shredding and then covered that with the old compost, new compost and a barrow-load of stable droppings. It looks good enough to eat! I then cleared a bed of weeds and covered it with the manure for winter.

Given how beautiful the weather was, I was astonished to see that the whole site was deserted, but it was wonderfully peaceful and I really enjoyed being there.

The Tame Photographer and I went again today, to carry on clearing beds and covering them. TP cleared one bed while I worked on a second one and we got one covered. Hopefully tomorrow will see the completion of the task. Some of the beds are far to wet to work on, but a couple of days without rain should help. Also, the heavy frosts we are having should help kill off some of the pests. Today the soil was frozen to about 4 inches down.

I harvested my first January King cabbage today - and it looks magnificent, as well as leeks, beetroot and brussels sprouts. Also growing at the moment are parsnips, swiss chard, perpetual spinach, kale, purple sprouting broccoli, parsley and sage.

There is a lot to be done - tidying the shed, emptying the old manure heap and starting a new one, clearing and covering the rest of the beds, cutting down the raspberries and manuring them and so on. But now I have only one plot and have really got going again, the whole things seems much less daunting and I am really looking forward to 2010 on the allotment.

Starting my blog again

2009-10-30T13:47:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted since May and a lot has happened. I have had varied success with my crops - The courgettes were fantastic - and far too many - five plants is too much - next year I will do just two, and maybe one yellow one for fun. The marrows produced well but didn't get as big as we hoped - but I made some delicious marrow and ginger jam with them. I have had a good crop of butternut squash and squash, but only one pumpkin - albeit a very handsome one! It will be carved for Halloween tomorrow if I have time. Also on the new plot were excellent potatoes, jerusalem artichokes, sunflowers and dahlias.

On the old plot I had mixed results - fantastic strawberries, gooseberries and raspberries - we had the last helping last week which is amazing. The rhubarb really was not great for some reason - I think it might be old and tired. The beans - all of them were pretty sad - I'm hoping for much better next year. The winter onions did very well, but the summer ones were disappointing. The shallots were brilliant. I had some fantastic cucumbers and carrots and beetroot and the chard and spinach beet did well. The fennel was not good - in fact I had no harvest at all from it. The lettuce and radishes cropped well as did the greyhound cabbage. The calabrese did well, but I don't think I will bother again - a lot of growing for only one head didn't seem worth it. However, the Cavolo di nero kale and brussels sprouts and cropping very well indeed, inspite of a whitefly invasion. The sweetpeas did very well until I went on holiday and the dry weather and lack of picking did for them. So, as you can see, a very mixed result - possibly because of the very dry weather we had this summer.
This was my harvest last weekend - not bad for a week before November!

I haven't mentioned the show! I entered in several categories and won 2nd prize for my courgettes and raspberries and shortbread and third for blackcurrant jam and rock cakes! I was very chuffed. My victoria sponge was disappointly unplaced as was my delicious beetroot chutney! Never mind - there's always next year!

I have decided to give up my second plot - with some regret, but it was becoming a bit of a chore and I felt I couldn't do justice to both plots. One of the main problems was that the plots were so far away from each other. I think if they had been closer together, it would have been easier to manage. Anyway, I think I have made the right choice and I shall have to move my blackcurrant bushes before next week, when I have to hand it back to the council. I shall just have to be very careful about what I choose to grow.

A month ago I found this lawnmower in the skip and couldn't resist it. The tame photographer is going to smarten it up and it will a make a perfect machine to move the grass paths.
This is just a short post to get me back into the habit of posting more regularly - I do have plenty of photos taken over the summer, but it will take too long to post them all. If I come across some really good ones, I might post them, but I think I will just start again from now.

To finish up last week we tidied up the old plot in preparation for giving it up - harvesting the remaing crops and emptying the shed - all that is left if to transplant the blackcurrant bushes and rescue the metposts and wish it farewell and hope it has some energetic new owners.

In the old plot I did a bumper weeding session and the harvesting. What I really need to do this weekend is turn the compost and put down some manure on top of the empty beds in preparation for winter.

Bank Holiday Weekend

2009-05-04T14:18:00.000-07:00

This has been an intensive allotment weekend. I have managed to persuade the tame photographer to come with me to the allotment on Saturday, Sunday and Monday - but we have had to curtail the length of time there as he seems to have lost his staying power.

The better weather and longer days have really brought on the crops. Everything looks good, and I was very glad I didn't give in last weekend and plant out my beans as the touch of frost on Monday and Tuesday nights got most people's beans and potatoes. Our potatoes seemed to unharmed and I earthed them up yesterday, pulling out bindweed as I went along. We harvested our radishes - French Breakfast - and they were the best radishes I have grown and we also had a bowl of mixed salad leaves for supper.

Other major tasks included quite a lot of weeding, preparing the soil and planting out a row of Greyhound cabbages, a row of calabrese, a row of brussels sprouts and four walking stick kale plants. I thinned out the salad bowl lettuce, iceberg lettuce and tom thumb lettuce and the tame photographer tidied the path edges and pulled up the purple sprouting broccoli plants while I dug up the remainder of the leeks, to make way for the brassicas. I also watered the strawberries with some tomorite to encourage nice fat juicy fruit.

Up at Lakey Hill the tame photographer laid 9 paving stones as a foundation for the shed on Sunday and today we erected the shed. We haven't put the windows in yet, and the roof is very makeshift, but apart from that it looks good. We are planning on a corrugated iron roof which extends four foot on two sides to create a veranda effect. The only problem is that it is very hard to come by corrugated iron - if anyone out there knows where we can source some close to South London - please get in touch.

The blackcurrant bushes I planted a week ago look fine - well two of them do and I have hopes the third one will perk up soon. The dahlias are no progressing very fast, but the potatoes look good. I had a real binge on the bindweed, but I'm sure it will all be back by next weekend.

2009-04-26T13:37:00.000-07:00

Goodness, how times flies! It's a month since I last posted an entry and lots has happened. The weather has improved, meaning I have been to the allotment a lot, and it has been the Easter holidays which has given me more time. Also, eldest son was home from university and encouraging me to visit the allotment.

Where shall I start? I guess, with the harvest. We have been eating purple sprouting broccoli for some time now, in fact I think today will be the last picking as it is all beginning to go to flower. It has been quite delicious and a totally satisfactory vegetable to grow. We are still picking leeks and spring onions but everything else from last year has finished, except for some spring cabbages which are still not ready to harvest. We have had the first rhubarb of this year - twice already so far, and the first thinnings of the radishes.

The two plots are both looking good - but Home Farm is really beginning to look like we mean business. I have sown red and green salad bowl lettuce and it looks almost ready to pick, the leeks are growing well and so are the iceberg lettuce and the tom thumb lettuce. The parsnips have germinated and the spinach and swiss chard are coming along fine. The onions - winter, sturon and red and the shallots and garlic are all looking good and the beetroot and carrots are taking off. I have sown peas, and some have germinated and others have not - I shall have to fill in the gaps with more seeds. The broad beans are growing, but do not look nearly as good as last year. The strawberries are in full flower, so I am hoping for a good harvest there. The gooseberries have fruit developing on them and I have netted them against the birds - we might even get a bowlful!
In my greenhouse I have three types of brussels sprouts, calabrese, kale, kohl rabi, courgettes, pumpkin, marrow, runner beans, french beans, cucumbers, sunflowers, and cabbage all growing away nicely, ready for transplanting into the alloment as soon as I have prepared to the ground for them.I also planted out my sweetpea seedlings so I'm hoping for a good show of flowers later on.
At Lakey Hill things are improving. Eldest son and I planted the potatoes just before Easter and they are now emerging and almost ready to be earthed up. This weekend I planted three blackcurrant bushes and four dahlias - an odd mixture, to be sure but it should look good. We are still digging and trying to removed as much bindweed as possible - but it is a neverending task. The grass at the top end of the plot had grown to knee height so the tame photographer and eldest son set to with a scythe and garden shears, and did a remarkably good job cutting it down. We will need to get hold of a strimmer, though to keep the grass at bay.Today we acquired a second hand garden shed for Lakey Hill. A friend of mine had one she no longer needed so the tame photographer and I dismantled it this morning and took it to the allotment. Next weekend we will try assembling it and we will be a two shed family (that is excluding the four sheds we have in the garden at home!).

2009-03-29T13:03:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's a long time since I last posted an entry on my blog. Time seems to have sped past. The weather has not been kind, and we have been busy - however, I have managed to get up to the allotment most weekends so I will now do a fairly quick recap.

On Lakey Hill we have turned over the soil and weeds for about half the plot and begun to dig up any brambles outside the main patch at the back of the plot. I have been rather taken aback by the amount of bindweed root I have been uncovering - but hopefully, some serious digging will sort it all out eventually. I have also done a fine dig at one end of the plot and removed as much weed as I can find and it is now ready for the potatoes to go in next weekend! The rest still needs quite a lot of attention. Three of the trees on the plot are completely dead and will need to be pulled out shortly but the others are just about in blossom and hopefully will produce some fruit in the autumn. There is one bit of rhubarb which is looking a bit feeble at the moment. The tame photographer is planning a grand shed with a verandah around two sides for total sun catching - all he needs is the time to complete it.

Things on Home Farm are looking good as well. The purple sprouting broccoli is cropping really heavily at the moment. One neighbour told me last week that it was "Waitrose Quality"! What higher praise could you hope to achieve. And, incidentally, it is quite delicious as well as looking good. There are still leeks but not much else at the moment. The winter onions are doing well as is the garlic. I think the white onions are ok, but I can't remember seeing the red onions or shallots. I shall have a closer look next weekend. There are some spring onions ready to harvest that have been growing all winter. What else? The broad beans have not done well - only about half germinated but I have replaced the gaps with new seeds, so hopefully they will grow on. I have sowed radishes, swiss chard, spinach beet, leeks, parsnips and salad bowl lettuce, most of which has germinated. The parsnips and leeks haven't appeared yet, but they always take a bit longer. The spring cabbage I planted last winter is beginning to grow, so hopefully that will be ready in a month or so. My gooseberry bushes are looking good, the rhubarb is starting and the raspberries are also beginning to put on new growth - so all looks well.

Last weekend we turned the compost - and I was a bit surprised that it didn't look as good as I expected - but the turning and the warmer weather will probably bring it on quite quickly. We also tidied the shed as it was a terrible mess after the winter, and also a rodent (rat or squirrel) had helped itself to our bag of well rotted manure and spread it all over the floor of the shed. The manure now has to live in a bin outside the shed to keep it away from rodents and the shed has been left with an interesting aroma!

Well, that was a whistle stop tour of the last three weeks at the allotment - and hopefully the tame photographer will send me the pics soon so I can add them to the blog.

Spring is in the air

2009-02-22T14:14:00.000-08:00

Finally, the weather has improved enough for some serious allotmenting.

On Monday, I met up with the allotment manager and he showed me where the boundaries are for the new plot. It is all a bit hit and miss, but when we did some digging this weekend, we did find several posts hidden the grass that were probably the original boundary markers. I started doing some digging, but I have to say it is very hard work. There is a horrible amount of bindweed in the ground, but most of it is large whitish roots quite near ground level so not too hard to see and remove. The one advantage of digging at this stage is that there is nothing in the ground to get in the way - you can just dig and not worry about other plants being disturbed.

This weekend the tame photographer joined me and together we managed a goodly chunk of digging - about half of the area we want to cultivate this year. I must say, without the tame photographer, the digging would take forever - once he gets going, he is a real power horse! This is only a preliminary dig - just turning the ground over. I will do a finer dig and weed removal later on.

The only other major work was planting two gooseberry bushes I got for Christmas. They have been installed at Home Farm as the ground at Lakey Hill (new plot) is not quite ready - also there is already one gooseberry bush at Home Farm so it seems sensible to keep them all in the same place. The existing gooseberry is showing some good buds and I hope the new ones will follow this one's excellent example and produce buds soon. I also managed quite a bit of weeding during the week. Home Farm is looking very spruce at the moment. We are still eating January King cabbages; they are delicous and I shall be growing them again next year. We still have leeks and it won't be long before we start on the sprouting broccoli. I really need to get the onions and shallots in, but it will have to wait until next week. We bought the onions and shallots from the allotment shop a couple of weeks ago.We also got our seed potatoes from the shop - which we didn't last year. Also, I think I need to sow a row of broad beans to go with the aqua dulce broad beans that are just beginning to grow. The garlic is growing nicely now after a winter of very little action.The tame photographer brought me home a large bag of compost so that I can get started on sowing seeds ready to plant out as soon as the weather improves. I can't wait to start using my new lean-to greenhouse - it will be a treat not having seed trays all over the house this year. I have just checked the potatoes and they are all beginning to chit nicely.

I have just realised that I never posted any pictures of the great snow we had at the beginning of February. The pics are mine and not the tame photographers - so please excuse them!The rest of the photos of this week's work will follow as soon as they arrive.

A New Plot

2009-02-01T12:50:00.000-08:00

This week I signed the contract on my second 5rod plot. I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew, but I am really excited about the extra space so that I can have room for more crops. This new plot is at the other end of the site from my existing one and is situated at right angles to it, so that it gets the sun all day. It also seems to be less sheltered. It is slightly uphill and I know for a fact that there is no mares tail at that end of the site. However, a very brief dig today revealed plenty of bindweed root. At the moment about half the site has fruit trees on it, and there seems to be some rhubarb, and asparagus, I think. We shall see. It is quite overgrown, so it will be a challenge to bring it up the standard of our current plot. From the pictures below you can get an idea of the state of the plot.This is looking up the hill from the main path. Our plot is the one in the distance. It begins where you can see the shed on the left (that is not our shed but belongs to the plot next to ours). This is a more close up view, showing the state of the weeds - quite some digging to be done, me thinks!
These weird logs have been "planted" at the end of the site. They have holes drilled in them at intervals and some of them are filled with a wax plugs. I have no idea what they are for, and suggestions include some sort of insect haven, or a mushroom log - does anyone know? Please let me if know if you have any ideas. Otherwise, I'm afraid they will probably find their way onto the fire.And finally, a view from the end of the plot looking towards the path which is just the other side of the sheds that you can see in the distance.

My plan for the new plot is to use it for more permanent crops like artichokes and asparagus and more fruit - some currant bushes and perhaps a grape vine. I also thought it would be a good place to grow pumpkins, marrow and squash as they need so much room. I want to use Home Farm (existing plot) for most of the veg growing, not least because it is is better nick and I have an emotional attachment to it.

The allotment shop was open for business today following it's winter closure and I got my seed order. It feels as though spring is just around the corner. However, the weather is certainly doing its best to belie that! It was freezing there today. There was ice on the water tanks and at one point it began to snow. It was far too cold to do any work on the new plot (the wind was whistling straight up there) but back at Home Farm we did manage a little. I picked that last of the brussels sprouts and pulled up the plants. I then dug over the patch and the tame photographer collected some manure to mulch the bed with, to prepare it for potatoes later in the year. I then cut down the raspberry canes and the tame photographer collected yet more manure to mulch them. You can see the pruned raspberry canes on their way to the communal dump as I felt they would take too long to compost. Also, there is a lot of bindweed amongst them, including quite a lot of bindweed seed which I really do not need. Again, a very cursory dig revealed vast quantities of bindweed root. I really am going to have to make it my mission to curtail the stuff. I also dug up a parsnip. By this stage the cold was beginning to infiltrate every part of me, and some hours later I am still not completely warm.

An update on the state of Home Farm is as follows: the sprouting broccoli is almost ready to harvest, there are several healthy looking January King cabbages ready to harvest, as well as plenty of leeks and still a few parsnips. Above is one the beautiful January Kings. The onions are growing, but looking very chilly and the garlic looks fine (see below) and the spring onions are just about holding their own. The little spring cabbages are hanging on in there as well and I think there is some corn salad ready to be picked.

The broad beans have germinated and we have covered them with this shop bought netting. It looks a little poncey for the allotments, but it does the job, and in about half the time! Below is today's picture of Home Farm! Not bad for a freezing February day, if I say so myself. For Christmas I got two more gooseberry plants, but the weather has been so cold and wet I haven't been able to plant them, but maybe I shall get it done next weekend.

My birthday card

2009-01-09T15:48:00.003-08:00

I have wanted to post this card that was made for me by my mother-in-law. My birthday was a couple of months ago, but this card was so wonderful that I had to share it.

The pictures to go with the last post

2009-01-09T15:06:00.000-08:00

Here, finally are the photos that go with the previous post. Below you can see a recent harvest and the parsnip in all it's glory!This was almost a perfect specimen, only one straight root, and very tasty it was too. And the January King Cabbage and very fine it was!I forgot to mention in the blog that we spent one Saturday removing an old water tank from behind the shed so that we could use the space for our enlarged leaf mould collection. The water tank, albeit rather attractive in an old metal sort of way, was extremely heavy to shift, not least because it was full of soil, but move it we did, and the wheelbarrow even survived the experience. You can also see the new leaf mould container, which is now full to the top since our trip last weekend. Now for some Christmas presents; the edging shears in action and the pitchfork, both in silhouette and in action at the manure heap.

And finally, the storm kettle in action. You can see the Christmas present trug with a collection of twigs for the storm kettle, and if you look carefully, the new pair of green gardening gloves!

Happy New Year

2008-12-31T08:38:00.000-08:00

Christmas has happened since I last posted and there was an excellent garden related haul. I got a lean-to green plant house (green house) which I am going to install in the garden so I can get seedlings ready for the allotment. It has been too cold recently to put it up, but as soon as the weather warms up a bit, I will do just that. I also got a pair of long handled edging shears so I can keep the grass path tidy, a new pair of gloves, two netting tunnels and the tame photographer got a very handome pitchfork (shit shoveler!).

We ate our own produce for Christmas lunch - along with the turkey (not ours!) we had brussels sprouts, parsnips and butternut squash - all delicious, needless to say!

We haven't done much gardening in the last couple of weeks - Christmas shopping taking up far too much time and then, of course, the festivities themselves. But we did get down there on the day after Boxing Day. The new pitch fork was christened by moving a couple of loads of manure to our holding heap - and, amazingly enough, it really is better for the activity than an ordinary garden fork. We also baptised our new storm kettle. This is a fabulous device that we got for our birthdays. It involves making a small fire with twigs in a dish at the bottom of the kettle, which then heats up some water. It was fun to do and will be perfect for warm drinks and even soup on cold winter sessions. The great thing is that it only uses tiny twigs and the like, which are easy to collect round and about the site. I also used my new edger to great effect, and wore my gloves.

At the allotment the onions are beginning to grow nicely. They have almost all sprouted and the first broad beans are just beginning to show above the ground. The garlic has just started to grow and the spring onions and spring cabbages look good. We are currently harvesting leeks, parsnips, brussels sprouts, January King cabbages, spinach and the sprouting broccoli is just about to start cropping. It's quite something that we are still eating so much from the plot and I haven't had to start up the organic box delivery since I stopped it last spring. I do have to buy potatoes, carrots and the odd veg here and there, and I have just used the last of the onions.

Last week I put in my order for next year's seeds - it will cost about £30 or so and I have chosen a mixture of veg that did well last year and completely new ones for this year. I am still hoping to get another plot, and I really would like to have more space for all the crops I would like to grow. I still haven't done anything about flowers, but I would like some dahlias, sweet peas and sunflowers.

2008-12-10T15:09:00.000-08:00

The weather has been unremittingly awful since I last posted an entry - almost a month ago. We have been along to the allotment every weekend, just to do a couple of things. The ground has been far too wet to do any digging, but we have tidied up the area behind the shed and a couple of other small jobs. The tame photographer has been collecting manure from the communal heap and stacking it up in our third compost bin so that it can rot down for the coming year. Last year that worked quite well, so we thought we would try again. I have done a bit if weeding, and sown the broad bean seeds - two rows of aqua dulce. They haven't emerged yet, but maybe next week.

It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago and I got a garden shredder, so I have been doing a bit of pruning at home, shredding it, and then adding it to the compost, which all means the compost heap is getting to be a good size.

The brussels sprouts are still being harvested, the original cabbages are finished, but I picked the first of the January Kings this week. The spinach is doing fine, still and we are eating delicious parsnips. The purple sprouting broccoli is just about ready to start harvesting, but the rudolph is not quite ready yet. All the winter onions look good as are the spring onions so there is still quite a lot going on. Oh yes, and there are still plenty of leeks.

As I went to the allotment last week in the wind, rain and freezing cold, it did dawn on me how lucky we were with the weather last year. For the first couple of months, the weekends at least were sunny and not too cold. If it had been weather like we are experiencing this year, I'm not sure our enthusiasm would have been as great. However, such a brilliant first year started us off on the right track and this year the dreadful weather doesn't seem to be deterring me one bit. And hopefully it is killing off any horrible pests that might be lurking.

Latest pics

2008-11-13T15:28:00.001-08:00

I've just got the latest set of pics from the tame photographer so I thought I would post one or two of them.
This heap is the well rotted manure which has been maturing for the last year - and it looks pretty good. Just behind you can see the row of sprouting broccoli which looks really healthy. The next pictures shows the start of next year's well rotted - but that is all we have been able to collect (see previous post for the sad state of manure following the credit crunch!) Hopefully some will have been delivered this week so we can continue the good work.
Below you can see the strawberry bed which I spent a good deal of half term weeding and tidying. I find it takes about three sessions to completely weed it - and it is backbreaking work. It looks better in real life that this photo, I think!
Last weekend, as I think I mentioned was wet. This picture show the brussels sprouts in remarkably stormy conditions, but I didn't stop our robin from visiting and looking full of it on his perch.

Rain, rain, rain

2008-11-10T09:01:00.000-08:00

Nothing doing this weekend, I'm afraid. It has rained all weekend. I did collect some sage leaves and a cabbage but that was all. Also there has been no delivery of manure recently, which is what I really need to start next year's heap. Maybe it will arrive next week.

My neighbour, who is the eternal pessimist, suggested that the credit crunch would affect manure deliveries because people would not be able to afford to keep horses any more and so there would be less manure. Well, my view is that unless they actually kill the horses, which is unlikely, they will exist somewhere and if they exist they will no doubt produce manure. The only difficulty is if they decide to move to the country - then we are stuffed!
My most recent bit of manure spreading, next to the newly planted onions.

Birthday photos

2008-11-03T15:12:00.001-08:00

The tame photographer has just sent me the latest pics from the allotment, so here they are, without a lot of text, as I posted the main blog yesterday.A birthday view, with the plot looking pretty good for this time of year.
As you can see, the weather has been changeable recently, to say the least. Runner bean seeds for next year.

Supper - and they taste as good as they look.

Our first leek.Late Tom Thumb lettuces, which are doing well under fleece. It's quite exciting having home grown lettuce at this time of year.The winter onions, planted in ridges to keep them dry and warm, and under netting to protect them from birds. If they don't produce a decent crop it won't be for lack of effort!
The french window cloche - not quite finished yet. And, finally, my most used tool - often lost and rediscovered some weeks later in the compost!

Happy Birthday

2008-11-02T15:16:00.000-08:00

It's eactly one year since we got our allotment and I feel it is a good moment to sit back and take stock.

I can't quite believe a whole year has passed, but as we start to tidy up for winter and the beginning of a new year we can, I feel, look back on a very successful year.

The amazing thing is that we have had so much success. We sowed, or planted, or took advantage of, at least 35 different crops - broad beans, french beans, runner beans, onions, shallots, leeks, potatoes, beetroot, carrots, radish, lettuce, spinach beet, swiss chard, brussels sprouts, cabbage, sweet corn, kohl rabi, broccoli, pak choi peas, turnips, parsnips, rocket, courgettes, butternut squash, coriander, sage, corn salad, tomatoes, rhubarb, strawberries, and raspberries. Most of them have produced quantities of delicious veg (or fruit) with a couple of exceptions. The pak choi germinated and started well, but rapidly went to seed before we could eat it, the carrots were a complete failure, the tomatoes suffered from blight and nobody liked the turnips, even though they grew well. Apart from that, the rest has been fantastic. I haven't brought a veg box from Able and Cole since May, and we are still eating our own grown veg, except for salad stuff - although currently I have some lettuces doing very well under fleece.

It would be hard to say what was most successful - possibly the strawberries and raspberries but in fact almost everything else was good.

From an all round point of view, I have been very pleased with the way we have kept the allotment neat and tidy. On the whole, I have kept the weeds at bay (even the bindweed and mares tail) and it still looks pretty much as it did when we took it over. Given that I am not a tidy person by nature, this is quite remarkable. The shed needs a winter tidy, but it is still usable, the compost looks good and the manure seems to have rotted down well enough for us to use it.

As I now settle down to the seed catalogues to try and decide what I want to grow next year, I look back on the last 12 months with enormous satisfaction. I have grown vegetables and fruit good enough to eat and to keep a family of four going, I have had a lot of excercise and fresh air and I have made new friends by the bucketload. The tame photographer and I have found a pastime that we both enjoy together, taking from it different aspects, (although I suspect I enjoy it more than he does!) My one regret is that we only have 5 rods of space. I have so many other plants I want to grow, I really need more room - artichokes, asparagus, pumpkins, more potatoes, currants, dahlias, sweetpeas, more peas, to name just a few. I have put my name down for another plot, but the waiting list is long, and to be fair, those without plots should have first choice - but more space would be top of my wish list at the moment.

Well, Happy Birthday Allotment, and here's to the second year and all that it brings!

Almost a year

2008-10-20T13:04:00.000-07:00

We have had our allotment for almost a year now and this weekend we were as busy as ever. We are still harvesting and eating our produce. With our Sunday roast we had butternut squash, parsnips and our first brussels sprouts, and today we had spinach. Quite amazing really.

Last weekend I picked 10kg of butternut squash which is currently ripening in the kitchen. We have eaten quite a lot and I hope it will keep well for a couple of months.

Even though I talked about the sad fate of the sweetcorn in my last post, I thought I would add a photo of one of the cobs we did manage to eat - and it was a delicious as it looks.
The weather has been a bit unpredictable recently, but the rain did allow the tame photographer to get this rather fetching shot of a damp cabbage leaf. We are still eating the cabbage, and there are some January Kings hearting up nicely, as well as several spring cabbages which I have just transplanted. They look a bit feeble at the moment, but hopefully they will start growing soon. All the sprouting broccoli looks healthy, but I don't think it can be harvested until later in the winter. There are plenty of brussels sprouts, though.
Last weekend I did quite a lot of weeding, and some winter digging, while the tame photographer started work on the french window cloches. If they ever get finished, I will post a picture. The job was quite difficult as the windows are hugely heavy. This weekend, I carried on digging and then planted two rows of onions and some garlic. Having watched Gardeners World last weekend, we followed their instructions and planted the onion sets at the top of little ridges. This is supposed to keep them out of the damp, and to allow more sunshine to get to them. We'll see. As the weather is getting colder, I covered the lettuce plants with some fleece. It might be a bit late for lettuce, but they should grow if it remains reasonably mild.

Today, I collected the shelving from a school library that was being thrown away. There are loads of metal uprights and I thought the metal shelving might make good edges for some raised beds. It seemed like too good an opportunity to miss. Unfortunately, as the car was full of this stuff, we had to take it to the allotment this evening in the pouring rain. It's a good thing the tame photographer has a reasonably mild temperament!

Finally this following is a view of the allotments, that has a really autumnal feel about it.

Autumn has arrived

2008-09-28T06:15:00.000-07:00

It's been a month since I last posted on the blog and it's now time for an update. The summer holidays are long gone, I'm back at work, youngest is back at school and eldest has finally returned to University. Peace has descended on our normally quite noisy home. I have been to the allotment regularly during the summer, but never seem to find the time to settle and write a blog.
Mostly, during the summer, we have harvested - and quite a lot at that. The french beans are now over, but were prolific. The runner beans are still producing, although not quite at furiously as earlier. We have had a constant supply of spinach as well as salad and courgettes. The tomatoes got blight before they ripened at all which was disappointing and we did get some sweetcorn before the animals got it. I still can't believe it was badgers because there simply wasn't enough sign of digging under the cage for a badger to have got in or out. It must have been a smaller animal, but which one I'm not sure. The cobs we did eat, however, were delicious! The potatoes are finished but we still have a plentiful supply of onions.

We are still harvesting beetroot, parsnips, turnips, runner beans and spinach. The butternut squash look good (there are 7 ripening as we speak, two of which are huge). We have just begun to eat the cabbage and will be having one tonight. The brussels sprouts are looking good and there is purple sprouting broccoli for the spring. The leeks have got some awful maggot thing and I'm not sure if they are going to survive. They look dreadful at the moment, although I have covered them in derris to see if that would help. I have just sown some lettuce to see if we can get some before winter sets in, and some spring onions. I also have some spring cabbage seedlings waiting to be transplanted in a couple of weeks, as well as my winter onion sets. The raspberries are just about finishing, but have been wonderful and today I eat a handful of strawberries which had appeared.

As far as work is concerned, I have begun to dig over some beds as the become available, trying to dig out as much bindweed as possible. The roots go down as amazing distance, right into the subsoil. I really don't know how to deal with it other than with poison which I really would rather not use. But maybe ...

A friend delivered to us the other day two huge Edwardian french windows which he no longer needed. They are enormously heavy, but think could be turned into a cold frame; a winter job for the tame photographer!

Jam Making

2008-08-23T04:45:00.000-07:00

The weather being so good for soft fruit, I have taken to jam production in a big way. I have done it before, but I've always found it a bit tedious, and the washing up endless. This year, however, one the old boys on the allotment told me about using the microwave and it has revolutionised jam making. You take on pound of soft fruit and the juice of a lemon and put them both in a large microwavable bowl (glass is best). I have a large pyrex one that is perfect.You microwave the berries and juice on high for four minutes. Then you remove the bowl from the microwave and stir in one pound of caster sugar (golden or white) and stir until the sugar is dissolved. You can tell when it is ready because the there is no more gritty feel when you stir. You then return the bowl to the microwave and cook on full from 10 to 20 minutes depending, stirring every 5 minutes or so. When you think the jam is ready, about 10 minutes or so, test it for set by putting a little onto a saucer that has been cooled in the freezer. Push the jam with your finger and if it crinkles as you push it, it is ready to pot up. Pour the jam into jars that have been well washed and sterilised in a warm oven (100 C) for 10 minutes.

This is all amazingly quick, and clean, it is so easy to turn one pound of fruit into 2 jars of jam.

Still enjoying the holidays

2008-08-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

The holidays continue, and finally, we have had a day of glorious sunshine. I took myself off the allotment for a spot of quiet contemplation and some gardening - both of which I did.

The above is a view of the sweetcorn cage we built a couple of weeks ago in order to protect our crop. The news is that the animals attacking the sweetcorn are badgers. They come down from the common specifically to eat the sweetcorn in the allotments, it being their favourite food. This is not brilliant news as they are so strong I suspect no amount of protection will save the crop. Some suggestions have been to hang something that makes a noise or leave a radio on all night or to put some creosote coated cloths around the area as they don't like the smell. Accordingly, today I hung an old wind chime in the sweetcorn enclosure and made a noise device using two terracotta flower pots. I will post a picture soon showing this (assuming the badgers don't break in tonight and demolish the lot).

I planted out some sprouting broccoli (I dont know if its green or purple - its called rudolf which sort of indicates red to me - but we'll see) and did some weeding. I picked raspberries, runner beans, corn salad, french beans and courgettes today. The raspberries are doing really well - inspite of constant attack by bindweed. I have made 4 jars of jam with them, as well as eating them most days.

We have some albino raspberries in amongst the normal red ones. I don't know if this is a genuine white raspberry cane, or a throw back. I doesn't really matter as they are quite delicious.

The brussels sprouts and cabbages are looking good and we have been enjoying our maincrop potatoes. And , at last, there are two baby butternut squashes!

On a related note, the weather, though not a perfect summer, has lent itself brilliantly to soft fruit and all the local bramble bushes are heavy with fruit. I, and the rest of the family, have picked and picked and I have made blackberry jam, blackberry jelly and blackberry and apple jam, as well as endless blackberry influenced puddings and frozen some for the winter. WOW!It was about this time last year that we went looking for allotments, and as I look back, I can't help but be pleased we got ourselves into gear and started vegetable gardening.
Finally, just look at our beautiful sunflowers - Moulin Rouge from Unwins Seeds, if you are interested.

2008-08-11T16:31:00.000-07:00

We are well into the summer holidays now, but the weather has forgotten that. After a very brief warm spell, we are now back to semi-winter and lots of rain.

I haven't done much at the allotment over the last couple of weeks, except harvest as required. We have had a steam of visitors, which doesn't leave much time for gardening. However, they all enjoy helping to pick beans and the like, and certainly seem to enjoy eating the result. We have harvested plenty of maris peer potatoes (second earlies), french beans, runner beans, spinach, and raspberries, as well as some more lettuce, radishes, corn salad, rocket and turnips. By some miracle, the courgette plant has come back to life and is now producing courgettes again. I don't really understand it, but it might have something to do with the fact that I weeded out all the comfrey that was growing around it.

The brussels sprouts, cabbages and sprouting broccoli are all doing well, and as of today, the sweet corn looks fantastic. We had been told that in the past couple of years, the sweet corn crop gets attacked by some largish animal (foxes and badgers seem to be the most likely) and so we have constructed a chicken wire cage around our crop in order to protect it. Hopefully it will work. Our poor neighbour's crop has been attacked, in spite of quite significant protection so I do go along most days with some trepidation, but so far, so good. There are plenty of cobs developing fast and we will be disappointed if the fox gets it first.

I lifted the last of the onion crop today (about 50 onions) and they are now drying in the kitchen. It's far too wet to leave them outside at the moment. They look splendid and should last some months. I then spent quite a while weeding as the soil is lovely and soft at the moment. There is, as usual, masses of bindweed to deal with. I simply don't know where it all comes from. Last autumn there didn't seem to be any, and now it crops up everywhere.

The butternut squash is growing fast, and producing lots of flowers, but as yet I haven't spotted and fruit. It might be a bit cold and damp for them. The raspberries are producing enough for a helping for four people most nights at the moment, which is a real treat. They are big and juicy - probably the result of all the rain we have had.

School's Out for Summer!

2008-07-23T15:32:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of school for six whole weeks and I celebrated by making a quick visit to the allotment. While there, I did a bit of urgent watering and picked a pound of french beans, some runner beans, radishes and our first helping of raspberries.

To bring you all up to date - so far I have made 6 pots of strawberry jam, and one large jar of pickled shallots and frozen 4 pounds of broad beans, two kohlrabis and 2 packs of french beans. I also have three strings of onions and a large net of shallots. All this is in addition to the food that we eat directly. In effect, this is our surplus for the lean winter months!

Spot the difference

2008-07-20T02:43:00.000-07:00

I thought I would post the pictures the tame photographer took yesterday during our flying visit to the allotment as the growth that has happened is spectacular. If you look back at the pics on the previous post you can compare them with the current ones.

You can see the sweetcorn here. Most other allotments are a bit further ahead and have small cobs appearing. There are rumours afloat that the cobs are the favourite food of foxes and that we needs to completely enclose the crop to prevent it. The tame photographer is planning this as I write. I also wonder whether the problem is squirrels, in which case no amount of protection will make any difference. We'll see.
The leeks are growing well:

As are the runner beans

And just behind the beans, if you look carefully you can see the sunflowers which I am growing as part of a trial for Gardeners World. They are called Moulin Rouge and are a dark burgundy colour - quite stunning! They also produce lots of flowers off side shoots which would make them ideal for cutting. The cabbages are beginning to heart up nicely, the brussels sprouts are looking good, and I'm really pleased with the parsnips - not many meals' worth - but they look very healthy. The french beans are cropping well, and the salad bowl lettuce never seems to stop! The butternut squash is beginning to put on some growth as well.

The cabbage and sprouts look like a lady wearing a veil, but it is only the anti-pigeon control. Everything has to be netted to protect it. The tame photographer is thinking of making the whole plot into a giant fruit cage!

And finally and nice snap of our friendly robin, the wheelbarrow and a flowering artichoke:And finally, a general view of the site.

Master Class in Transplanting Leeks

2008-07-19T16:02:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, the tame photographer was with me as I transplanted the leeks from their seed bed position to their new home and he took photos of every stage.

First the leeks had their roots trimmedand likewise their leaves to about six inches
Then, using the dibber that had been left in the shed, I made holes about six inches deep, and about six inches apart and dropped a newly trimmed leek into each hole. (a good tip here - I used a pen and marked a line about six inches from the bottom, so I knew how deep to push in the dibber)
Finally, each hole is filled with water and the leek is settled into its new home for the next three or four months.

Strike Day

2008-07-19T11:44:00.000-07:00

I was on strike this week and that meant that on one of the days I managed to spend a morning at the allotment. I started clearing the strawberry beds of weeds and straw, but it was back breaking work. I managed about a third of the area, and will continue over the course of the next couple of weeks. Next I dug up one row of broad bean plants. The rest I will leave in a bit longer so that the nitrogen in their roots can get nicely fixed into the ground. I then attacked the bindweed in the onion patch with a vigour. I really don't know what I can do to keep on top of it, but I may have to resort to weed killer to attack certain plants where I simply cannot dig. All the plants are doing really well and we continue to eat spinach, broad beans, french beans radishes and potatoes. The runner beans will be ready soon and the sweet corn looks very good. Only the courgettes are not doing as well as I had expected.

Finally the last month's worth of pictures arrived from the tame photographer so I shall post them all here, with assorted captions, rather than try to insert them into old posts.

First, from several weeks ago: the peas (now almost over)

The spinach (still going strong)
The onions we planted last winter, dug up and drying (now hanging in strings and being used)
The last of the strawberries
Me picking a Tom Thumb lettuce (now we only have two left - but there is plenty of salad bowl lettuce)Now a picture of the purple sprouting broccoli - which I sowed myself, and you can just see the sweet corn in the foreground

and below is a snap of the sweetcorn seedlings in their own private greenhouses!The kohlrabi which were brilliant, and very easy to grow - I will certainly grow more of them next year.
Potatoes (Accent, I think)
and finally the splendid dwarf green beans.And the whole lot together!

2008-07-14T13:06:00.000-07:00

It was a week of very few visits to the allotment - and I did miss going. I get enormous enjoyment from my visits and after a busy day at school, the peace and quiet and undemanding nature of the allotment is exactly what I need. It rained most of last week, and I had heavy after-school commitments all of which prevented me visiting the site. However, on Sunday, they whole family were off doing various activities so I packed a lunch and several drinks and took myself off for a reviving day of gardening.

As I had predicted, the week of rain had left the soil pleasantly damp and soft enough to weed - so that is just what I did. I managed to extract two or three bucket-loads of weeds from the ground and it looked much better for it. I haven't tackled the strawberry plot yet but I will do next week, with any luck. I cut down the comfrey and filled my two bokashi bins with it. I had already done this once this year, and the resultant juice makes a fantastic liquid feed. You can really notice the difference when you water it on to the plants. The bokashi system of waste management seems to me to be a bit of waste of time but the bokashi bins are perfect for this job as they have a drain and tap at the bottom and a lid so you don't have to come into contact with the evil smelling mush that the comfrey leaves turn into. The rest of the comfrey went on to the compost.

I also harvested - broad beans, french beans, beetroot, salad bowl lettuce, tom thumb lettuce, corn salad, rocket, potatoes and spinach. I have dried the onions and shallots, and am looking for a place to hang them all at home - so far the dining room table has had to suffice.

One of the other joys of the allotment is fellow allotmenteers (well most of them). They are friendly and most will stop to chat and give advice, if asked. Most are fairly busy with their own plots, so the conversations generally are quite short - all of which suits me fine.

I am desperate for a bit more space. My 5 rods is just about big enough, but I would dearly love a bit more space for fruit bushes, asparagus, artichokes and the like. Also there are some crops which we would love more of, like peas. The double row I planted has delivered two good meals of peas - but we all love them and more space would equal more peas! I have rung the council to put my name down for a larger plot, or a second smaller one, but with waiting lists being what they are, I suspect I will have a very long wait!

2008-07-07T14:57:00.000-07:00

Wow - it's ages since I lasted posted any news. It's not that I haven't been to the allotment - more that all my other commitments have rather taken over my time, so once I have been to the site, I have no time left to write.

The strawberries are now finished - but what a crop they proved to be - almost 20lbs, most of which we ate fresh, but three pounds of which I turned into six pots of jam. I am not quite sure what to do next but I think I should clear away the straw, tidy up the plants and look out for runners which I can turn into new plantlets for next year. All the books say the plants should be changed every three years, but I have now idea how old the ones I have are, so I shall have to make an executive decision on what to do next. I should hate to jeopardise such a wonderful crop as this year's with the wrong decision.

Since I last wrote, mostly I have weeded, watered and harvested. We are still eating broad beans, spinach, turnips, lettuce, rocket, radishes, beetroot and have now added peas and the first french beans. I have harvested the winter onions, dried and strung them. I have also dug up the shallots which are currently being dried out. We have almost finished the first early potatoes (Accent) which were very tasty, but didn't crop as heavily as I expected. The cabbages, brussels spouts and purple sprouting broccoli and sweet corn look very healthy, as do the leeks and runner beans. In fact, I haven't bought any vegetables from the shops (except salad veg - tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers etc and carrots) for the last three weeks or so.

Finally, this week, it has started to rain, after several very dry weeks and the ground is beginning to get soft enough for some serious weeding to happen. As soon as the rain dries up I shall be out there trying to get on top of the weeding. The bindweed grows apace, as does the marestail. The rest I can deal with, but those two are menaces.

2008-06-22T11:15:00.000-07:00

We had lovely day today - well, I did. We spent about five hours at the allotment doing various bits and pieces. The tame photographer was on hand to help, but did spend a bit of time on the internet (via his laptop). I find if he is happily occupied, there is less urgency about returning home!

I weeded - a constant task - and watered (another constant task) and prepared the soil and planted out my purple sprouting broccoli seedlings (which I had sown myself at home). I have planted out 9 plants. I don't know how many more I will need - but I am going to sow some green sprouting broccoli - some maybe another 9 plants will be enough. We also netted the broccoli. I think we spend about as much time netting things, as any other task (except weeding and watering!). The tame photographer devised a neat way of netting the strawberries. He has put foot high stakes in each corner of the bed and a nail in the top of each stake. The netting then gets hooked over the nail, and thus reduces the need for bricks and other things to hold the netting in place. He says to mention that he didn't invent this system, but copied it from one of the ace gardeners on the site.

I can't believe this is all we did in the time - but I was busy the whole time, except for a brief break for lunch - egg sandwiches, banana and ginger cake, plus coffee in a flask.

We also harvested - broad beans (which came to 1lb when shelled), turnips, radishes, masses of lettuce (tom thumb and salad bowl), strawberries and the rest of the kohlrabi (most of which I will freeze) and 1 1/2 lbs of new potatoes. Yesterday I picked another 1/2lb of broad beans (when shelled), spinach and radishes.

What is rather surprising about the allotments - and we have noticed this on several occasions - is that the place is almost deserted on weekend afternoons no matter how lovely the weather is. There is always a smattering of people working on their plots, but I would expect far more people to be there when the weather is as glorious as it was today. I'm not complaining, however, as the peace and quiet is to kill for.

Pictures to follow.

2008-06-16T16:17:00.000-07:00

I made four pots of strawberry jam today - that makes six in total. I have tasted the first lot, and its fine -I am a definite fan of the microwave jam making technique. It's quicker, easier, cleaner and cooler than the traditional method, and seems to be more foolproof.

Strawberries, Strawberries, Strawberries

2008-06-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

It's ages since I last wrote and things are really happening fast in the allotment. The warmer weather, plus the occasional rain shower has really brought on the fruit and veg. We have begun the harvest and eat our produce, and I have to say, there is very little to compare to the excitement of actually eating what you sowed as a tiny seed only a couple of months ago.

In the last two weeks we have picked 13lbs of strawberries and they are delicious - we have had strawberries as snacks, strawberries and cream, eton mess, and almost every other way of eating strawberries that you can imagine. Today I made strawberry jam in the microwave. I'm not quite sure about it - it seems mostly to taste of sugar, but it might improve by tomorrow. We have also had several helpings of spinach, masses of salad, turnips, radishes, courgettes, kohl rabbi, rhubarb, and today our first potatoes. WOW!
The turnips:
The courgettes:
and the kohl rabbi:This is last week's produce, and there was more this week!

What have we done - well, lots of watering when the rain doesn't oblige us; lots of weeding because the minute we leave it the weeds seem to take over; lots of netting to keep the wretched birds off the fruit and veg. This is me netting the cabbages and brussels sprouts - which have done really well since the birds have been kept away. You can see the improvement in the snap below: I have sown some more turnips, beetroot, radishes and parsnips. The recently sown rocket, salad bowl lettuce and tom thumb lettuce have germinated as have eldest son's row of 'surprise veg'. (They mostly seem to be radish, but here's hoping there's more to it than that!) Today we spent ages at the allotment today and transplanted the leeks into their final home - have prepared the soil nicely. We also planted the sweetcorn seedlings and the butternut squash.

Last week the tame photographer set to and created the most impressive system for keeping the shed door open. Left to its own devices, the door would swing shut, so we always had to hook or prop it open. Anyway, last week while I was busy weeding he made this fantastic device, with only a saw and a hammer!As you push the door open, it pushes up the bar and then fits neatly into the groove, thus holding it open.To shut the door you merely push up the bar and the door swings shut using gravity. It's, quite simply, magical. We need to creosote it so it doesn't rot away - maybe next week!

And finally, the shed got a much needed tidy.

2008-05-28T15:19:00.000-07:00

It's now three weeks since my last post and a lot has happened at the allotment. Most importantly, the weather has warmed up and there has been an immense amount of growth. I have just looked back at my last post but one (22 April, I think) and looked at the picture of the broad beans quite clearly just beginning to grow. Now they are about two foot high and in full flower and looking really healthy, providing you don't look closely enough to see the gradual encroaching of the blackfly. I read yesterday that I should be pinching out the growing tip to discourage blackfly, so I will do just that tomorrow. There are plenty of ladybirds, hopefully gobbling up the pests, and I have also seen plenty of ladybird larvae as well.

The potatoes are growing, and we have filled in their trenches, the lettuce and radishes have been harvested, and resown and we have also eaten the thinnings of the beetroots. The spinach is almost ready to harvest and most other plants are doing well. The slugs are under control with the help of slug pellets, but the worst damage is being done by the birds. Everything needs to be netted to keep them away, and even then they seem to get to the plants. The pak choi, peas and brussels sprouts have suffered, but hopefully, now they are covered they will do better.

The french beans germinated very poorly, but I think I sowed them a little too early. I have since grown some in peat pots at home and they are doing better. I have transplanted the first batch, and second batch are doing well. I have also sown purple sprouting broccoli and sweet corn and butternut squash and they all seem to be doing fine. One huge disappointment was the runner beans. They germinated very slowly in the ground (I think I sowed them too early as well) so I sowed some at home to fill the gaps. Somehow, however, they sprouted as broad beans. I think I must have had too much to drink that evening. Fortunately, some friends were only too happy to accept our excess broad beans - but that still leaves me a little short of runner beans!

The strawberries flowered prolifically and are now setting fruit, so following advice from other allotmenteers, we bought some straw and tried to place it around and under the fruit. This was not at easy task, but it looks ok at the moment. I have managed to net half the strawberries, and this weekend I will finish the job - hopefully before the birds get too interested in them.The other major task - before this week's rain - was watering. I fear this is going to be a major chore. It's a long walk with a heavy watering can, and there is a lot that needs watering. It can take an hour or so. I discovered that using a wheelbarrow saves my arms a little bit and I can then move two watering cans at once, halving the number of journeys but I really think we will have to invest in a hose, and very long one at that. I have checked and we are allowed to use hoses, provided there is not a hosepipe ban.

The bindweed war continues. I am just about on top of the problem, but it seems to be appear from places that were cleared only the previous day. Following this week's rain I have really tackled the weeds as it is much easier when the soil is damp. The annual weeds are quite satisfactory to deal with and the plot looks so much better when they are gone, and they come up easily. The perennial ones (bindweed, marestail, dandelions etc) are much harder work.

No pics so far, but I think some are in the pipeline. (I have posted the pics for the previous post, finally) Eldest son is back from university for the summer, so hopefully he can help with the watering now and again, and maybe take some photos for me when the tame photographer is unable to come to the allotment.

2008-05-06T14:13:00.000-07:00

Now that's what I call a Bank Holiday! The weather was fantastic and we got masses done at the allotment. I now have a new condition - gardeners' burn! My lower back has a strip of sunburn where my t-shirt didn't quite meet the waistband of my jeans. My face is quite untouched by the sun as it spent most of the day facing the ground, but my back quite clearly was facing sunward for quite some time.

As I said we did masses. I continued the great bindweed war with some successes and the tame photographer has taken to destroying the marestail -both are long-term jobs, but only by constant vigilence will they be kept at bay.

Other jobs included weeding, watering and planting out some cabbages, brussels sprouts and kohl rabi (all bought at the garden centre) and re-seeding where germination has been poor. We also succumbed to slug pellets as finding your veg gobbled up is a bit soul destroying. I also planted a sage bush - my first herb. The next will be a rosemary and some chives and maybe a couple of thyme plants.The great coffee grounds experiment is at an end. All the plants where we had spread coffee grounds have completely disappeared. There appears to be no sign of slug damage - we think the coffee in some way killed the plants. Gardeners World should have warned us.The other major task was creating a bed on top of the manure heap for two courgette plants. The seem very happily esconced up there and we hope for a large harvest.Youngest daughter accompanied us to the plot on Monday - a rare treat for us. She took up residence under an apple tree while she tried to revise. She did also help by watering the plants.

No photos yet - they will be posted as soon as they arrive. (Three weeks later they are now up!)

2008-04-27T13:37:00.000-07:00

The glorious weather on Saturday meant that not only did I get a burnt nose, but also that we managed to achieve at lot at the allotment. The Tame photographer seems to have recovered from his most recent illness and set to with vigour this weekend. Also, he has a new camera (This time a Nikon D300) so he found plenty of opportunities to use it.

First of all, a round up of progress. The potatoes are beginning to sprout:There is still no sign of the first earlies, but there are plenty of second earlies and maincrop, so I hope the first earlies will appear shortly. Maybe this hot weather will help them along. The broad beans are doing well, but something is eating them - some insect or another. The radishes will be ready to harvest before long and strawberries are in full flower:Almost all the other seeds have germinated - spinach, spinach beet, parsnips, beetroot, carrots, pak choi, lettuce and peas. We took the fleece off most of them for the day, but still covered them when we went home as they seem a bit vulnerable at the moment to attack from animals intent on digging. The peas have now got a chicken wire cage to protect from from predation by birds. Also the wallflowers are looking wonderful but will have to be dug up next weekend to make way for the brassicas.This weekend we sowed two rows of dwarf french beans and the runner beans and commenced battle with the bindweed. I was aware that mares tail was going to be a problem, and indeed so it is proving, but the bindweed took me by surprise - where did that come from? These last couple of days saw it sprouting prodigiously! It is particularly bad in the raspberry bed, but there are outcrops in the strawberries and other places as well. I will have to try a battle of attrition -just dig out as much as I can whenever it appears. I did manage to eliminate it at home that way. It is awkward when it is tangled with the roots of plants, but I will do the best I can. I managed to dig out quite a lot yesterday. Something else I did was spread coffee grounds around the lettuce plants to try and protect them from slugs - as suggested by Alys Fowler and Monty Don. Unfortunately, we don't drink a lot of coffee, so this might not be totally sucessful!I suspect we will need industrial quantities to make any difference.

This was all very hot work, so we needed copious rest and occasional 'gasoline' stops.Before going home I watered just to keep everything growing well.And just to show off the new camera, a couple of snaps - the neighbour's apple tree and a beautiful weed:
I harvested some more rhubarb this week and this time turned it into rhubarb fool.

2008-04-22T13:42:00.000-07:00

I've finally got the most recent snaps from the Tame Photographer. These cover the last couple of weeks - so here goes

A view of the broad beans and onions:The radishes and lettuce seedlings:A lovely shallot:and finally the bed where Tame Photographer sowed his carrots!I did go along to the site after work today as we had a couple of days without rain and I wanted to make sure none of the seedlings were getting too dry. More potatoes has begun to appear - the second earlies mostly. None of the first earlies seem to have sprouted yet. The beetroot and turnips seedlings look good and the spinach is just beginning to show and everything else looked ok, but needed some water, which I gave them.

2008-04-21T13:57:00.001-07:00

I'm back at school again, and missing my trips to the allotment. I did go on Sunday, just to see how things were going. The turnips are germinating well, as are the second crop of radishes. I have also seen a couple of potato plants beginning to shoot and maybe just a hint of spinach here and there. We also had our first harvest - rhubarb, which I turned into a rhubard and ginger upside down pudding - and very nice it was too. Not much else to report. I did quite a lot of clearing up of the strawberries the other day, and they are looking very healthy at the moment. The raspberries, on the other hand, seem a bit peaky but I guess they will perk up in due course.

Spring Break

2008-04-17T03:09:00.000-07:00

It's the two week spring break (rather than Easter Holidays) and I don't think I've looked forward to a holiday as much as this for a long time. I was hoping the weather would be consistently spring-like so that I would be able to go to the allotment every day (or thereabouts). However, April showers are here to stay - and hopefully bringing with them May flowers - here's hoping. Anyway there have been breaks in the showers, and apart from Sunday when I came home drenched, I have been to the allotment plenty of times and kept dry.

Last week the Tame Photographer took to his bed with a nasty cold, and he also had to work on Sunday, so I had a couple of trips to the allotment without a photographer. I did take some photos of my own, but they really are not a patch on the real thing! Most of my visits have been concerned with making 'a fine tilth' for sowing seeds, and then duly sowing them. I have sown perpetual spinach, spinach beet, turnips, more radishes, pak choi, peas, tom thumb lettuce, January King cabbage, and parsnips. This year I thought we would grow a large variety of vegetables to see what do best, and then maybe concentrate of them next year. I thinned out the original radishes and salad bowl lettuce and the coriander, beetroot and carrots have all germinated. You can't imagine how excited I get when I see these tiny seeds gradually developing in small plants. It really is miraculous!

I prepared a couple of new beds, this time digging in some ancient 'rooster' (pelleted chicken manure) we found in our garden shed, and a bit of growmore for luck. Also, at the moment I am covering everything I plant/sow with either chicken wire, netting or fleece, mostly because the local wildlife enjoy digging in freshly prepared soil that smells strongly of chicken manure. Everyone to their own, I guess!

Yesterday, the tame photographer arose from his bed and came with me to the allotment. He continued the process of creating a fine tilth (a job he is spectacularly good at) and sowed himself a half row of radishes and a half row of carrots. I pottered around weeding and digging and the like. We then made a foray to B&Q and bought some chicken wire and a new sieve (for the continued production of 'fine tilth'!). I had also been back to the allotment to show a friend around. She is interested in getting an allotment herself so wanted a guided tour. At one point we were accosted by an old boy asking if we had permission to be there - the first time I had met someone who was not totally welcoming - and I did wonder what he thought two middle-aged women were up to (maybe a spot of vandalism, or more likely industrial (or horticultural) espionage).

I've just looked at my photos, and decided not to post them - too embarrassing. I'll just wait until better ones appear.

Weather has taken a turn for the worst - again

2008-04-06T07:26:00.000-07:00

Just when it seemed that the weather was becoming springlike - so it kicks us in the face again with winter proper!

When we went to the allotment yesterday, one of the main tasks was going to be to cover up the seedlings with some fleece in anticipation of the winter weather that was forecast. First however, there were some other tasks to be undertaken. Our very competent neighbour had put up his runner bean wigwams(teepees) during the week - so we felt that we should do to same. I removed the covering of mulch while the tame photographer set to creating the structure - very much in his line of things, and I have to say they look the business.And the artistic version
In the first photo you can see the beautiful wallflowers the previous owner left for us. I really want the land to prepare if for the brassicas, but I cannot bear to part with the flowers just at the moment.

All the mulch that I am removing is being relocated to the new manure heap. When it is full, I am going to cover it with a layer of top soil, and hopefully grown some courgettes or squash on it.

The warm days during the week encouraged the plants to grow, and at last our rhubarb is beginning to look like it could be harvested at some stage. Also, the broad beans are beginning to take off. However, every time I get enthusiastic about something growing some other plot owner or other will tell me terrible tales of all the awful things that will happen - foxes, mice, parakeets, pigeons, slugs - to name just a handful. If we manage to harvest anything it will be a miracle. (I think I've said that before, but I would like to hear some cheerful thoughts on occasion, not just the awful things)And finally, the fleece went over the germinating salad bowl lettuce, corn salad and leeks and non-germinating radishes and coriander. And a good thing too, because we woke this morning to a blizzard - well thick flurries and lying snow. Having seen eldest son off the university for the summer term, we popped along to the allotments to see the snow.And below - my poor broad beans!

Better weather - at last!

2008-04-01T12:44:00.000-07:00

The weather seems, finally, to be perking up a little, but having very little faith in all matters meteorological, I insisted we go to the allotment on Saturday morning before the rain started again. Things did look more promising than they had done the previous weekend. The gooseberry bush (newly planted only a matter of months ago) was looking in fine fettle (see above snap). We'll see how it goes this year, but I think we will be adding at least two more plants before the end of the year. Our potato trenches from last week still looked good, so we added two more trenches for the second earlies (maris peer). While the tame photographer was busy digging potato trenches, I busied myself tidying up the edges of the grass path. At home we have the greatest difficulty growing grass, but here at the allotments there is no stopping it.
The next task was to cover the newly emerged broad beans with netting. We have heard tales of ravenous green parakeets which are especially fond of young green shoots so, anticipating the worst, we set to. We found some blue piping in the shed that had been left by the previous owner and used the netting I had bought the previous week. I must admit, it was a harder job than either of us expected, but we were very pleased with the result. And to cap it all the following day one of our neighbours commented that it looked like a very professional job.
The above is the view you might get if you were a rather stupid parakeet and got caught under the netting! If you look very closely you might see the broad bean plants. Every single one has germinated - a miracle!

I finished off by sewing half a row of carrots and half a row of beetroot and digging one of the newly uncovered patches, ready for sewing later in the month. Before we left, one of neighbours offered us some of his leeks as he had too many. Well, of course, I was unable to refuse - and they do look delicious!
The following day the sun was shining again but the tame photographer had lost his enthusiasm for gardening. I did, however manage to persuade eldest son to come along. He dug yet another trench for one row of maincrop potatoes which we duly planted - and that will do for potatoes this year - we have run out of room. I raked off a bit more of the winter mulch and dug over the soil and then sewed some radish seeds, coriander and salad bowl lettuce. The radish seeds say they should germinate in 4-7 days so maybe we'll see them next weekend. This doesn't seem like much, but it did take a fair bit of time. After tea and hot chocolate (which eldest son deemed too watery) I tidied the shed a bit as it was getting very hard to get to anything.

Finally here is a picture of the tree at the end of our plot in full blossom - and very pretty it looks, too!

Happy Easter

2008-03-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

What a dreadful fortnight it's been - from a weather point of view. We did get to the allotment last weekend (16 March), but it was so cold and so windy that all we did was empty the compost bin and come away again in the hope that this weekend would be nicer. It was not - emphatically so! It has been the worst Easter weekend I can remember for the longest time - cold, rainy, snowy, windy and downright miserable.

We did manage to get to the allotment on Good Friday - but only by the skin of our teeth. The weather in the morning was not too bad so I took the bull by the horns, and the tame photographer, and went. Things weren't too bad there. The corn salad has germinated, the broad beans are beginning to show (just in time to be caught by sub-zero temperatures) and the onions are finally getting moving. This picture shows an emerging broad bean plant.Our major task was planting the first early potatoes. The tame photographer dug two deepish trenches, and I added some compost and a general fertiliser and duly planted out the chitted accent potatoes, and covered them to the depth of half the trench. The idea is that when the leaves begin to show we shall fill in the rest of the trench, and this will do instead of 'earthing up'. We shall see. The rest of the plot was too wet for any other activity, so we duly left. On Sunday eldest son decided he needed to do something at the allotment, so I set him to work raking off some the overwintering mulch. Again the weather was dreadful, so there wasn't anything else to be done.(The chitted accent potatoes - I have plenty to spare as we could only use about half of what we had got)
(A newly planted potato, just before it got covered up)

On Easter Sunday, after church, eldest son and I dashed to the allotments so that we could go to the shop as I needed some fleece and netting to protect the broad beans. Unfortunately the shop's weekly opening hours coincide almost exactly with church so it's one or the other, or a very quick dash from one to the other! I guess you can either worship at the alter of God or the alter of gardening, but not both. The fleece having been purchased, we then covered the broad beans to protect them from the frost. And went home and lunch was very late! All in all, a very disappointing Easter weekend as I was expecting to have reasonable weather and to get quite a lot done. Never mind - the school holidays are in a fortnight's time so hopefully the weather will have improved by then.

2008-03-10T11:57:00.000-07:00

I wasn't sure we would be able to fit in a trip to the allotment this weekend, but by some careful juggling of time we did manage it. In fact, the weather was quite pleasant and the sun even came out for a short while.
I spent the time weeding. It is surprising how many weeds there seem to be when you look closely. The Tame photographer took apart some estate agent boards (3 of them) which we had collected during the week. The plastic signs make a very good, and virtually indestructable, lining for the compost heaps. The long 2"x2" poles will have many applications in the future, I am sure. We now need at least three more to complete the last heap.There was still a bit of time after this so the Tame Photographer tidied up the odd bits of wood we had inherited from the previous owner and took that stuff that even we thought was beyond being useful up to the tip. I sowed two rows of leeks in my nursery bed. The onions are begining to sprout but there is no sign of the broad beans or corn salad yet - maybe next week.
We are now experiencing the "worst storm this winter". I can only say that this winter must be been very short on bad storms. It is indeed windy, but I'm sure we have had worse. I can only hope the plot is surviving this onslaught.

The Tame Photographer had to work yesterday afternoon, so the photos of this weekend's visit are yet to arrive. I will post them soonest.

2008-03-03T15:24:00.001-08:00

We visited the allotment twice this weekend. The Saturday visit was the normal one, the weather forecast being better for Saturday than Sunday and Sunday being Mothers’ Day meant that most of the morning would be spent at church.

There really wasn’t a lot to do this weekend. No planting, or digging so we decided to “turn the compost”. Monty Don was doing this on Gardeners’ World last Friday and if it was good enough for him, it was definitely good enough for us. First we emptied the last of the old compost onto one of the beds while it waited for the potatoes to be planted.

Then we turned the compost into the container we had just emptied. It certainly looked good, and with a couple more months maturing should be totally delicious. We also added the leaves from our leaf mold containers to add that essential ‘brown’ element to the compost.

As a special treat, on Mothers’ Day I got an additional trip to the allotment to deliver my present – a large plastic watering can. My daughter knows the way to her mother’s heart.

2008-02-25T14:53:00.001-08:00

Another glorious weekend - well Sunday was, anyway. So nice even, that we took our flasks of tea with us. During the week I had remembered an old sieve we had bought years ago for the compost, and after a search of the garden it was unearthed. Unfortunately, it would have weathered the years better if it had been kept indoors, but nevertheless we pressed it into service to create a 'fine tilth' for our new seedbed. The Tame Photographer undertook this task and has now developed a new obsession - stones, or rather the complete removal of them from our plot. This task will undoubtedly keep him away from less savoury pastimes as there are plenty of stones needing removal.I then sowed some corn salad seeds in the new seedbed - just a few for the time being as I think it may be too cold for them just yet, but the weather was so lovely I couldn't resist it. I also sowed some broad beans - two types - Witkiem Manita in a single row and Masterpiece Longpod in a staggered double row. I also have some broad beans growing indoors which I can transplant in a week or two.
They don't look very exciting at the moment - but the picture does record the event.

This took most of our time - during which we had a visit from John from several plots down. He was a friend of the previous owner of our plot and he came to introduce himself and see how we were doing. He told us that the strawberries we had inherited were the best on the whole site and how to freeze runner beans - all useful information indeed. I think however, in my usual conspiracy theory mode, that he was checking out the competition for the next allotment show. I suspect Ted was a winner in many categories and that his retirement has given hope to many other aspiring showmen and they are all keen to check that we will not thwart their progress.

On looking back at previous posts - I am slightly embarrassed to notice that I have only one set of clothes! However, they are comfortable and serviceable, if not exactly the height of fashion.

And finally as I wasn't working today, I popped along to check the seeds were okay, and to take along a watering can with a fine rose. I watered the seeds, which I didn't do yesterday, met two new chums (also new allotmenteers) and found a cyclamen someone had thrown away. It was still in fine condition in full bloom - a beautiful red colour so I planted it near the rhubarb.

Newsflash: The parsley seeds have germinated! They look pretty feeble, but I'm hoping for the best.

2008-02-21T13:46:00.000-08:00

Well, it's wall-to-wall carpeting for our allotment! Nothing but the best for it. No carpets at home, the floorboards are much more to our taste, but in the allotment it's carpets all the way.During our wanderings around the site we have noticed that all the best allotments are carpeted, some wall-to-wall and others merely have the odd rug scattered here and there, so when school was throwing out two rugs, it seemed a chance too good to miss. I rescued them, transported them and cut them to fit the compost bins, so now our compost is the best carpeted compost around. Hopefully, apart from looking grand, they will keep the compost warm and cosy.

As well as this, the other interesting bit of news is that we met another three neighbours this week. One announced he was a reluctant gardener, and judging by the state of his plot, that is no exaggeration! He didn't look completely at home gardening. Another one we only met briefly, but he keeps a fine plot, and the third turned out to know one of my colleagues, but more importantly was able to help on the subject on the raspberry canes. He said that they were autumn fruiting and that we should be pruning them down the ground, and putting a mulch around them. This was just the sort of advice I have been looking for, so without further ado, I did just that and the photo below shows the result. My Valentine's Day gifts were, as you can imagine, allotment based - two sheets of black polythene, some garden twine and the most beautiful, custom-made, hand-crafted measuring stick. The Tame Photographer has many, many talents. This stick should prove very useful when planting out and sowing seeds, as I find it quite hard to judge distances. It is 12 inches long and divided into inches - gardeners have yet to go metric, on the whole. I used the black polythene to cover a seed bed so that it is nice and warm for the seedlings when I am ready to plant them out.
That was more or less it for the allotment last weekend but two photos follow just because they are nice - one of the friendly robin and one of some ice.At home, in the nursery, all is going fine. The potatoes are chitting nicely, the cabbages are beginning to grow their second leaves, the broad beans, brussels sprouts and lettuces are have all germinated and are growing well. All that hasn't germinated yet is the parsley, but that is notorious for taking a very long time, so I haven't lost heart yet.

Real gardening has started

2008-02-10T12:55:00.000-08:00

It's two weeks since I last posted, not because we didn't go to the allotment last week, because we did, but first, and most importantly, the photos didn't get to me and secondly I was very busy all week - so I will do a double dose this week. The picture above is a general view of the allotment as at last weekend.

On Sunday last week the trading post on the site opened for the new season and with it came my seed order, potatoes for chitting and onion and shallot sets. It looks like an awful lot of seeds, but bearing in mind we started with absolutely nothing, I guess it's not too bad. Also I hope there might be a little left over for next year. Possibly not beans and peas, but I seem to have enough lettuce seed to feed several warrens of rabbits. I had a quick peek and the rhubarb we are trying to force and it seems to be coming along.
Some of the other allotments have rhubarb that seems further along, but ours is rather in the shade compared to some so maybe that makes a difference. The rest of the week was spent deciding what and where to sow seeds. For several nights now I have spent the evening surrounded by packets of seeds deciding whether to plant straight into the soil (thereby risking inclement weather and predation by rodents/slugs) or to sow indoors and then plant out later (which takes extra effort and requires the use of eldest son's bedroom as a nursery).

So to this weekend - and off we went today full of enthusiasm - the weather glorious - quite outstanding for February. We didn't take any seeds with us as I had decided to start with a bit of indoor sowing, but we did take the onion and shallot sets. I cleared off the woodchipping/manure mulch and planted one row of shallots (9" apart) and two rows of onion (Sturon, I think) at 4" apart. The soil was great under the mulch - no weeds and much drier than the uncovered areas. I can see the point of spreading it now. It's quite backbreaking planting the sets - worse, I think, than digging. You can just see the onions we planted in October behind my boots. By some miracle I avoided trampling them down.

I had another quick look at the rhubarb and some of the leaves seem to be rotting. I think it must be too damp inside the bucket for them, so I peeled off some of the tape to let some air in. I hope that helps.

While I was preparing the soil, the tame photographer (TP) got busy repairing the wheelbarrow. The wheel on our barrow was slowly rusting off so we recycled a wheel from a barrow that had been thrown away and and replaced ours with it. It wasn't quite as easy as it looked but it is done. If you require a lengthy description of the task, please ask and I am sure TP will oblige!.
This picture shows the buds appearing on our gooseberry bush! Given that it has looked rather like a dead twig ever since we planted it - this is great news and obviously we have done something right. Here's looking forward to gooseberry crumble!

When we got home we put out the potatoes for chitting. I had not collected any egg boxes, so had to improvise with rolled up newspaper to stop the potates from rolling around and it looks like it might work. These here are the second earliers (Maris Peer). There are sitting in the some very useful trays that were being thrown away at school.

These are the earlies (Accent). We also got Isle of Jura (maincrop) but there are no photos of them.

I sowed Greyhound cabbage , which is a pointed cabbage that says it grows quickly. Next, I cut loo rolls in half and used them to sow broad beans. Next week I shall plant some directly into the ground (broad beans that is, not loo rolls), but I thought I would try some indoors as well and see which does better. Using old loo rolls appeals to me as they always seem too useful to throw away. That's about all for today - oh yes, I sowed some cress as well just because it grows quickly and I can harvest something very soon.

2008-01-28T14:32:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, on the way back from church, I discovered in a skip a whole roll of chickenwire! What luck! So - assuming that its previous owner had no further use for it - I rehomed it before anyone else could. Chickenwire is expensive, and very useful so on Saturday we took it, along with the compost and one or two other items, to its new home. The weather was lovely, more April than January, so we occupied ourselves with a little housekeeping. Having been told by several near neighbours that our plot's previous owner kept an almost weed-free allotment, we feel we have standards to maintain so we weeded a bit and tidied up the edge of the path. I sneaked a peek at our rhubard that we are forcing, and it does seem to be working. That was all really. Next weekend we get our seeds - with any luck - and can truly get going on sowing.

2008-01-20T14:37:00.000-08:00

It's a very quiet time of the year, gardening-wise. We did go to the allotment this weekend, but just to empty the compost and check that all was well - which it was. It still all looked neat and tidy - the onions are making progress - slowly, as is the rhubarb. What we did do, which I think will be useful, was to measure up the plot with a view to making a planting plan. When I got back, I transfered the measurements to squared paper and tried to create a plan - but I did get a bit stuck. I shall continue during the week. Other than that - not much going on. The Trading Post opens in a couple of weeks' time and I think things will hot up then - hopefully I will get the seeds I ordered and the potatoes and onion sets.

2008-01-15T11:51:00.001-08:00

We missed the opportunity to visit the allotment on what was a beautiful Saturday, as some urgent shopping was required - so we went to Croydon instead (and I don't want to go there again!). However, on a more cheerful note we did manage a visit to our plot between rain showers on Sunday. It seems to have been raining on and off for weeks, and the whole plot is very wet - not exactly waterlogged, but too damp to to be doing much to apart from hammering in posts. There wasn't much to do apart from empty the compost from home, thus creating this splendid photo.It's extraordinary how picturesque waste can look - but it does rather look like a painting in my opinion. We also mended an old hoe (no photo), continued tidying the strawberries and did a bit of weeding. The rhubarb continues to grow, as do the onions. As you can see, they have three leaves now! With as little growing as we have at the moment, you have to get excited about everything.

The weather brought out lots of allotmenteers this weekend and we met two new neighbours - so lots of chatting and not quite as much gardening.

According to the the books, we should have been planting garlic - but we aren't quite sure where to get garlic from at this time of year. So we didn't plant any.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2008-01-06T09:55:00.000-08:00

Today was our first visit to the allotment in 2008 - and we are full of anticipation for the coming year - and as excited as ever about the allotment. To be honest, there is not much to do at the moment, but the weather was glorious this afternoon and having just seen eldest son off to university we thought we would trundle along to see what was going on there.The tame photographer made a sort of edging for the rhubarb as its position that close to the compost heap and shed means that it is often trampled at this time of year when the crowns (note the technical jargon appearing here) hardly show above ground. Hopefully this will ensure they keep safe.
Making the edging wasn't quite as easy as we thought it might be, as the wood kept splitting, but after a short walk to examine how others were making their edging, this seemed to be the most efficient method, and more importantly, did not need any nails. It looks quite impressive, I think.
Also, we thought we would try to force one the the plants and get some early rhubarb. We found this natty little bin in amongst the mounds of 'useful' stuff in our garden shed, and it looks like it might be just the answer- apart from the fact that at some stage in the last 15 years or so we decided to drill holes into it - quite why is lost in the mists of time, but we had to seal up the holes (black plastic and mad max tape (duck tape to normal folk) worked beautifully) and the bucket is now covering one plant. It looks a bit daft in just in front of the compost, but we know why its there, and that, really, is all that matters.
This is the rhubarb, as at 3.00pm this afternoon - definitely looking a little less alien-like than it did last week. And finally, I can report that there is one fewer rat in London today! We found a dead one on the path next to our plot. Not a pretty sight, to be sure, but encouraging to know there are not as many today!

2007-12-30T09:42:00.000-08:00

Christmas is over for another year and we can, at last, return to the allotment. It has been sadly ignored over the past week, apart from two very short visits to empty the overflowing compost bin. My haul this Christmas was allotment based, to say the least and I am very pleased for it all - the marvellous hoe, the large green bucket, gloves, book, magazine and hand cream. The weather today was very clement and we set off somewhat late in the afternoon - the Christmas festivities having taken their toll and we were both in need of a serious lie-in this morning. The plot looked good and nothing dreadful had occured in our absence. The onions are growing (slowly) and the rhubard is beginning to sprout and it looks good and healthy. I'm going to search out a bin that I can place over one of the plants so I can force one to get an early crop (hopefully). We then spent a little time tidying up the strawberries - removing the dead leaves and runners and so on.
When viewed as closely as this, the rhubard has a strangely alien appearance, but it should improve in a couple of days' time.

Most interesting, though, was that we met two of our allotment neighbours - a horticulturist and a gardener (talk about making one feel a trifle inadequate!) The gardener has just acquired a second plot and came to inspect it today. The horticulturist has a large stand of raspberries herself so I asked her what to do with them and she thinks they are summer fruiting - so I will read up the summer fruiting pruning and set to as soon as possible.

2007-12-18T14:25:00.000-08:00

An unusual departure from the normal today as I went to the allotment during the week. Two separate events occasioned this venture - firstly my work was throwing out some very useful looking metal racking/shelving systems which seemed just to good to miss and secondly my son, who has just returned from university, wanted to see the allotment and simply couldn't wait until daylight tomorrow. He appears to be completely nocturnal so a night time visit didn't seem to phase him. So between us we loaded up our poor car and set off, armed with torches. I have the admit there really wasn't much to see in the pitch dark, but at least the shelves are not taking up space at home. Goodness only knows what the lady watching from across the road made of us - me in my work clothes, high heels and all and my scruffy side-kick manhandling a set of shelves into the allotment in the dead of night. I should be grateful the police didn't arrive to join in the fun! Also - no photos - the tame photographer was still at work and it was far too dark even for a D3 with its 6400 ISO.

"Live Plants" - Handle With Care

2007-12-16T10:40:00.000-08:00

Christmas now reigns supreme - and leaves very little time for the allotment. However, this week I received in the post one gooseberry bush (invicta). Being dry rooted (as opposed to in a container) it needed dealing with as soon as possible so we did take time out of our busy festive schedule for a trip to the allotment to plant said bush.
It was freezing cold today but bright and sunny. Even so, by 3.00 this afternoon there was still a thickish layer of ice on all the water tanks. Its odd, but ice does tend to bring out the child in me and I enjoyed playing with the ice and even lifting one complete sheet out of a tank. It was a good thing it was too cold for any but the most foolhardly to be out and about this afternoon, so I wasn't spotted and banned from the the site for good!
After a brisk walk around the site, mostly to keep warm we attended to the gooseberry which was planted with due solemnity, and according the the instructions. It had a hole filled with a beautiful mixture of compost, topsoil and growmore so it should be fine. We then went swiftly home as it was far too cold to hang around.Our robin was obviously missing human companionship because the moment we arrived he appeared to say hello. There was also another LBB (Little brown bird) which sounded pretty much like a skylark but he would not sit still long enough to have his likeness taken.

2007-12-11T13:08:00.001-08:00

It's a couple of days since we were last at the allotment, but I thought I had better post this week's installment. Christmas is rather overtaking my thoughts at the moment so Saturday was devoted to trying to knock the Christmas shopping on the head. We did managed to get a lot done, but rather at the expense of time to devote to gardening activities. Work has also been more than hectic recently so I have been too exhausted even to think of planning my planting - maybe there will be more time over the forthcoming holiday break (wishful thinking, I suspect). To top it all the weather has been horrendous - as it has all over the country.

On Sunday we treated ourselves to a quick visit - during a break in the weather, but there really wasn't much to do, added to which the ground was so wet we didn't really want to work it. We talked to someone at the manure heap about the best thing to do with stable manure - which is mixed up with wood chippings - and he said what he tried to do was to spread the manure over his beds at this time of year, rather like a mulch in order to keep the weeds at bay as much as possible, and then in spring he would scrape it all off plus a small amount of soil and pile it all up and let it rot down for a couple of years. I can see the sense in this but I can also visualise an allotment comprising mostly of heaps of manure at various stages of decomposition! I suspect we will have to compromise, as in most walks of life.

I then looked more closely at the raspberries. There are two rows of them and they have been well tended and I wondered what I should be doing. The books are less than helpful in that there are very different instructions for summer fruiting and autumn fruiting canes and I have no idea which sort I have - I guess the best plan is just to leave them this year and see when they fruit. I also noticed on close inspection that there was a lot of dead bindweed amongst the canes - not such good news. I did ask our neighbour her views on the raspberries but she said she wasn't an expert and suggested I look it up on the internet - not really much help.

The best news is that our onions are starting to grow! Our first produce is on its way. They are not exactly large yet, in fact you could miss them if you weren't looking closely, but if you have a tame photographer with a very good camera, you can make them seem quite impressive!
Also, with time on his hands, the tame photographer decided to use the last piece of chicken wire to fashion a very useful radar type device. He has a theory that possibly we could receive communications from extraterrestrial allotmenteers.

2007-12-02T15:57:00.000-08:00

Its been a busy weekend, but we did manage to get to the allotment on Saturday. There wasn't much to do as I had finished all the digging there was to do and we've got about as much manure as we can deal with. However, when we got there we discovered that the Council had been during the week to clear the ditch that runs along the site border just behind our shed. They had done a pretty good job, but left an enormous pile of clippings in a heap beside our shed. We had no idea if they planned to move this themselves, but we decided it would be more efficient if we did it ourselves. So we hauled several barrow-loads to the communal tip and returned with the barrow full of manure. This occupied us for most of the time we were there. We harvested the rest of the carrots and did a bit of tidying, had a cup of tea and came home.

Nils did try to buy some chicken wire to make a bigger leaf mould container, but we were horrified by the price so have decided to see what we have lurking in the back of our garden that might make a suitable container. We had planned to go to the allotment today (Sunday) but the weather was so awful we decided against it. There really wasn't much we could do in the torrential rain and howling gale.

Some time this week I intend to start planning our planting. It's a bit daunting at the moment because there is so much to think about, but if we plan our beds, then I hope the rest will follow! Also, I am trying to persuade Nils that raised beds would be a good idea. I like the idea of having contained areas to plant in that you don't walk on and I feel it would be easier to weed, dig and generally look after beds. Nils is not convinced and thinks that the construction of them would be too time consuming. Watch this space. I have suggested we start with just one or two to see how it goes.

There are no pictures so far this week - but they will come - the photographer in chief has been very busy, not least because he has a brand new Nikon D3 to play with. It's now Tuesday and the pictures have arrived. The following is a view of the allotment site and below is a very Christmassy view of our friendly robin.

2007-11-25T08:05:00.001-08:00

Over the past couple of weeks Nils has been investigating allotment architecture and construction techniques. We have been encouraged by the 'make do' attitude and the recycling of all sorts of materials. Nils has always been a skiphunter and hoarder and now all the years of collecting are being put to good use. On Saturday - early (and given the weather, not very bright!) we filled the car with old bits of wood of all shapes and sizes, more chicken wire and the leaves we collected in our garden last weekend, scarves, gloves, hats and flasks of tea, and set off for the allotment. Needless to say we forgot the keys so had to return for them, but we did get there eventually.

I set to continuing with the digging and spreading - and noticed that many of the neighbouring allotments had been attended to during the week - possibly indicating that they are maintained by retired people. We have never seen anyone at the weekends when we can get there. The people next door have laid a type of sheeting over one bed which they had previously manured - I don't know why, but maybe I'll ask someone who looks knowledgeable. I can only guess that it is to warm the ground for some early spring planting, but it does seem a bit early.

While we were there we met with a friend who had taken our scythe off to sharpen it. It could cut butter now - and its lethal. I'm sure we will have fewer fingers between us should we decide to use it. Fortunately, our plot doesn't seem to need this kind of tool, but our friend's does. The rake has also been mended as you can see in the following picture. It should last a while, and it has improved the task of muck spreading.

Nils used some of the boards he brought from his cache at home to create an enclosure for the stable manure. He used the new technique he had been admiring of hammering in a metal post and using it to hold up the boards - no nails, no screws, no metposts and it seems to work beautifully. Below is the top of one such post.

The other main task this weekend included handing in our seed order. All we need now is Spring so we can get busy planting. Nils couldn't get to the allotment on Sunday so I persuaded my daughter to come along - which she did and helped me move some manure. Unfortunately, she was accosted by someone at the manure heap telling her she was 'doing it wrong' ! I can't help feeling that might be the last time she offers to help. I did manage to appease her with a flask of hot chocolate and peace returned to our small corner of London.

2007-11-18T08:21:00.000-08:00

We've just returned from a busy morning at the allotment. A fresh load of stable manure had been delivered this week - huge excitement! So I continued the digging and muck spreading for a while. Nils collected barrowloads of steaming manure for me and made several new chums at the muck heap! There were differing views on the state of the manure from "This is a good load this week" to "Not much good, this stuff" so we really don't know what to believe, but it was full of droppings and not too much straw/hay and steaming most beautifully so we collected and spread. We have also started a manure pile of our own so it can rot away and be perfect for next year.

Other jobs we did were to cut down some of the comfrey and put it on the compost heap because I read somewhere that it makes very good compost - also we wanted to put the new muck pile where some of the comfrey was growing. I weeded a bit and Nils tidied up the edges of the beds and path. Nils started mending the rake, but needed more tools for the job so it will have to wait for next week now. We began tidying up the strawberries - cutting off runners and dead leaves. We took quite a few plantlets home to pot up to make new strawberries. I have no idea what variety they are but they look very healthy.

Another task was to create a container for leaf mold (mould?). We have several large trees in and around our small garden at home and they produce the most amazing quantity of leaves in every autumn - so we thought we could bag them up and make use of them. Nils has fashioned this nifty little chickenwire container - which might hold about a tenth of what we have collected! I think he will have to make a couple more, at least.

And finally, last week Nils made friends with a fox and this week it was a very friendly robin who came to join us in the plot.

2007-11-11T10:53:00.000-08:00

This weekend's main task was spreading muck on the unused beds in preparation for spring planting. We are not sure if this is what we should do or not, but loads of other people seem to be doing just that, so there must be something in it. One result of this was that I now know where the previous owner had his potatoes this year, so I can avoid planting them in the same place next year. The weather this morning was cold and miserable, but by this afternoon it had cheered up a bit and following the digging we were able to enjoy a cup of tea sitting outside our shed! Next week, I guess we will continue with the weeding, digging and spreading. Oh - and we planted another row of onions.

The view below is today's work finished.

2007-11-06T15:15:00.001-08:00

It's Tuesday, and I'm itching to get back to the allotment, but its simply not possible during the week - by the time I get home from work its dark and there are a hundred other things to do - however I have been to the library and taken out a book on vegetable growing so I can get my eye in from the comfort of my armchair. Also I have to order my seeds and at least I can have some idea what varieties/cultivars might be good ones. I love the names of the veg and would enjoy naming them myself. This outdoor loo affair is our shed and what is lacks in looks it more than makes up for in usefulness. It's watertight, lockable well equiped with plenty of shelves and masses of hooks and has a corrugated tin roof - perfect!

2007-11-04T05:43:00.000-08:00

First day of work on the allotment. The first thing was to inspect the trading hut and its facilities, get hold of the toilet key and pay our annual subscription - all went swimmingly and we were encouraged to plant onion sets. Plenty of advice is available from all quarters. We took our rake (which broke after two minutes' use), spade, fork, trowel, hand fork, secateurs, kneeler, garden knife and wellies, as well as two folding stools and set up shop. The first task was to take down the old runner beans and put them on the compost. Then we weeded the patch we set aside for onions, and in they went. After that it was a case of clearing a few weeds, harvesting some parsnips and carrots that were already there and finally taking stock and admiring our hard work. And them home for lunch.

2007-11-03T16:47:00.000-07:00

We went to the allotment this morning for our first inspection - and it was great. It has been well looked after - so no major clearance work to be done, it has established strawberries, raspberries, and rhubarb as well as two large compost bins and a very nice shed. It is very nicely situated, quite near the entrance to the site, but away from the main central path. We couldn't have asked for anything better. Accordingly, we went off the the bookshop and bought our first allotment book (probably the first of many) and I have been musing over it for the remainder of the day. Tomorrow we start work for real. Also, the previous owner left his crop of carrots, so we have even managed our first harvest!

The picture shows our shed, a healthy crop of comfrey, presumably for the compost and the rhubarb.

This shows most the the allotment - all 5 rods of it. The runner beans can just be seen in the distance, although they need to be taken out now - possibly our first task for tomorrow. But, as you can see it has all been cultivated and just needs looking after.

2007-11-01T14:38:00.000-07:00

At last - an allotment! When I got home today a letter from the council was waiting with the news that I had reached to the top of the waiting list and an allotment was mine! I can't believe it. As soon as the key arrives I'll be down there to investigate what its like - and I can't wait. My mind is spinning with ideas, carrots, potatoes, beans, wheelbarrows, digging, weeds, slugs, compost, water pipes, communal compost heaps and the rest. How I'm going to manage a whole day at work tomorrow is a mystery. Roll on Saturday - and hopefully a new post with some photos.

Sheds

2007-09-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

In the continued lack of news about an allotment, today's subject for discussion has been sheds. Friends of ours have a wonderful shed on their allotment and Nils (my partner in crime and allotments) has said that should they no longer want it, he would like it, and has offered to dismantle it, and help them erect a new shed. Never has such generosity been heard of round our set of gasworks! Anyway, what follows is a picture of said shed.

It does admittedly, look a little rough and ready, and it has no roof to speak of, but we feel it would add a certain charm to our future plot.

2007-09-11T12:16:00.000-07:00

September news

Still no allotment - and I'm getting very impatient. Every time I peel a potato, wash spinach or slice a tomato it reminds me that there has been no call from the council. I would really like to get moving this autumn to prepare the ground for Spring. To ease the pain, I have been to book shops to look for useful books on allotment gardening and created a lengthy birthday present list of items for the allotment. Nils has been contemplating compost heaps, sheds and hard landscaping (wooden edges to the beds) and here is a photo that we took on our allotment tour.

This compost heap took Nils' fancy, and I suspect that is what we aspire to - although this one looks like it took many years to get it to quite this state of perfection!

First pics

2007-08-26T15:09:00.000-07:00

The first picture from our allotment adventure.

No Allotment yet

2007-08-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

I have decided, and persuaded the rest of the family, that we want an allotment. Friends have given us fresh veg from their allotment this year, and we spent time at my brother's house, where he has a substantial vegetable plot and all this has fuelled my enthusiasm.

Accordingly, I rang the council and put my name down for several sites within striking distance from home and then went to visit them all. The lady at the council was very nice but did say there was a waiting list at all the sites. I was disappointed but undeterred.

My husband, son and I spent a morning visiting local allotments and this only made us more excited about the prospect of having our own plot, but so far nothing has happened.