Introducing the Bees

Nothing much more to update you on since my last post, though I have sowed quite a few different pumpkin, squash and courgette plants. Thursday evening is usually my night at the allotment and then at the weekend when I get the opportunity.  As well as doing more squash etc. I've also potted on some of the tomato plants, they are getting so BIG, they must grow inches every day, this lovely weather is doing them the world of good.

I posted a video a few issues ago, giving you a tour around the plot and I am hoping to do this on a monthly basis, but you know how these things pan out, good intentions and all that, but please do keep coming back to have a look.  Hopefully the video works, I think there was a problem with it initially but I have uploaded it onto YouTube and it seems to be working better now.  Anyway, would appreciate it if you could let me know just a yes or no would suffice and then I'll be able to keep at it until it's working properly if things aren't going to plan.

I've just been looking at a video of how plants were in the greenhouse just a couple of weeks ago, wow things are moving along really nicely.  I've been hardening off a few brassica plants, so I might get them planted out at the weekend.

If you did watch the last video, I had to leave you dangling on a piece of string at the end as I had every intention of showing you the bees, but when I got there it was too cold for them and there were very few flying around the hive.  I did however take a quick video of them the other morning...

Lovely Weather

Welcome Rooko, thanks for popping by and sticking around.

Well what can we say 'Glorious'.... that's what it's been over the past week, temperatures in the 20's, great stuff.  The tomatoes, aubergine, pepper and chilli plants are all growing very nicely, I'm sure they have doubled, nearly tripled in size due to the warm temperatures, just what they needed as they were looking really sorry for themselves.

On Thursday evening and again on Sunday I finished off clearing and digging over the bottle grow-house.  I have made a start on creating the planting beds in there.  I will have 4 beds 7ft x 2ft to plant out the toms etc.., I have built 2 so far, hopefully the other two will be completed this Thursday evening.  These beds are made from scaffold boards so will be nice and deep.  I'll try to rotate as best as I can, will probably have to dig out and replace soil in a few years time.  There will be a pebble path running down the middle so I can wet it down on a morning, something that is advised in greenhouses, so I suppose it's something I should be trying to do in the grow-house.

I've got some annual leave booked in for next week, so hopefully I'll be able to make a start on the curcubiteae area.  But I'm not putting any money on that, it always rains when I'm on leave.....

Couple of picture of the inside of the bottle grow-house.  Two beds complete.

Ouch... That Had to Hurt!

So another day's leave spent on the plot yesterday, got quite a bit done and it is starting to look just about there, probably another good few weekends to go and we might be at a place where I have 6 crop family areas  (Solanaceae, Cucurbiteae, Brassica, Legumes, Alliums and Roots) and its manageability will be near possible....will the day ever come?

Hang on, snap me out of that dream.....So back to yesterday I cleared all the weeds from the salad bed, it's looking a lot nicer, don't you just get a great burst of satisfaction when an area become clear of weeds.  The only downside was something has munched on one of my iceberg lettuces that I planted out at the weekend, so now I'm one down.  I suspect a pesky pigeon so I covered the remaining ones with a metal grate, it was just the right size.  I also cleared the weeds from half the bottle grow-house, gosh don't weeds grow extremely quickly, I'd bet money that they weren't there a couple of weeks ago.  Tomorrow evening, all being well, I'll clear the other half of the grow-house.

Weeded a few other beds, these ones had been cleared over the winter and it was just a case of putting a hoe through it to clear the new growth.  When all the plot is cleared and I'm on top of things (I can see the light at the end of the tunnel) then weeding shouldn't be such a momentous task.  I also sowed some broad beans and beetroot direct into the soil.

When I arrive at the plot, (yesterday it was about 8.45am), the first job (other than putting on my boots if I'm staying) is always to feed and water the girls.  I opened the caged area and got their food tray, filled that up, got the water tub and went and filled that up.  Then the next thing I do is collect the eggs so that during the course of the day they aren't broken when the girls go and do their stuff... when I saw what was there, well it made my eyes water.  That poor girl, boy it must have hurt!

 the egg was nearly the size of my hand!

left egg (dinosaur egg), right egg (normal Hazel egg)

You can see the shear size of it, it measures approx 3.5 inches and weight and weighs 118g, that is compared to a normal Hazel egg which I've measured at just over 2 inches and 68g.

A Few Dry Days Makes a lot of Difference...

Wow, we've gone from constant rain during April and May to well I wouldn't say constant sunshine because there has been very little of that, but at least it's been mostly dry for the past week and I've taken advantage of the break in the rain and been doing a lot of catching up at the allotment.  And the weather man says we're in for a bit of a heat wave, now lets not get excited, late teens to early twenty's is not a heat wave in normal terms, but when the temperature has struggled to get into double figures 18-22 degrees is a HEAT WAVE in my books.

SO getting back to taking advantage, a couple of sneaky half days leave and a couple of good weekends and hey presto we have the 'Solanaceae' area complete, potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes and strawberries all planted.  Its a weight of my mind.  I hate catch up.

 Solanaceae Area (5 beds)

 Jerusalem Artichokes (permanent bed)

Strawberry Bed

I've also planted out some parsnips and some lettuce, weeded the bed where I am going to plant some more broad beans and cleared the area in front of the chickens laying a path and planting some more artichokes.

 Parsnips

 Jerusalem Artichokes (chicken run!)

Lettuce (salad bed)

All being well, I've got another day leave for tomorrow (subject to weather conditions; told the boss if it's raining I'll be in work).

Planned jobs; finish weeding salad bed and plant out more lettuce, sow peas and broad beans.  Start on the 'Cucurbiteae' area, hopefully it'll all be dug over and beds made before the courgette, squash and cucumber plants need to go out.  Lets hope for lots of dry weekends and I'll conjure up another magic trick.....

Come and have a look around..... don't be shy!

So it was great weather over this last weekend, got a good bit done, still some more to do but since we last talked about what i've done for this cropping year here is an update.

• Over-wintering Garlic & Shallots - doing nicely
• Early Broad Beans Planted, starting to make some good growth
• Red Onions & Brown Onions Planted, just beginning to show themselves
• 1st Earlies Planted, nothing showing yet...
• Early & Late Maincrops Planted (thank goodness), along with some Salad Spuds, just planted, wait and see for these
• Pots in tubs at home, shoots coming through... another few weeks before we can have these
• Carrots, starting to come through
• Radishes, coming through...

At home in the greenhouse we've got leeks, cabbage (summer, autumn & winter), calabrese, purple sprouting, beans, turnips, swede, sweetcorn, peppers, chillies, tomatoes, aubergine, cucs, butternut squash, courgette, sprouts, lettuce, beetroot and parsnips (lettuce & parsnips are roughing it outdoors now, ready to be moved into the plot at the weekend.

Well, here is my first video, giving you a quick walk around the plot, i'm afraid at the end I was going to take you over to meet the bees, but they were not flying around so we'll have to complete that another day.  Hope you like it

Just a bit of an update (2011 - my missing blog year)

Just to let you know a bit more about what I was up to whist I was unable to blog during 2011.  Well you might remember that when I'd last posted you back then, we had just been given the grant for the bees.  We got funding for hives, bees and suits.  Myself and another plot holder Pete both took charge of a hive each, with  spare parts to expand with another hive this year.  2011 went rather well, and the bees flourished.  We didn't take any honey off them, deciding to leave it for them to over winter on.  It looked like they had come through the winter ok, my hive was very active during the week in March that was unseasonably warm, Pete's didn't seem to be as active.  We had a visit from the BeeBase Inspector in April and he confirmed that Pete's had Nosema and wasn't likely to survive.  Nosema Apis reduces the lifespan of infected bees, increases winter mortality and reduces spring build up.  My hive on the other hand was going really well, "a lovely colony" he said.  Well what I need now is a nice warm day when I can open the hive up and do a spring check.  I will then decide if I am going to expand and create a second colony, not sure if I'm brave enough for this...

A couple of pictures here for you of the bee set up.

A Break in the Rain

Welcome to Mark N and West9, thanks for dropping by and I hope you enjoy the journey...


Hallelujah, we've actually had a break in the weather, well the rain, it's still rather chilly. Since the beginning of April, I can't remember going any longer than a day without rain, rain or even more rain. To be quite frank, if it didn't rain again until ooh maybe November I wouldn't be bothered, even though that means watering the garden with 6,7 or 8 litre watering cans, I'd quite happily suffer in silence. The rain and continuous cold spell has put the season back quite a few weeks, for me anyhow. But this bank holiday weekend we had 3 days of mostly dry conditions.


So I struck while the iron was hot so to speak with that dry weather... I spent most of Saturday at the allotment digging over the area where the potatoes are going to go (eventually), all of Sunday afternoon and evening and then went back again at 8am on Bank Holiday Monday to spend another 6 solid hours finishing off the job. Who in their right mind goes digging on an allotment at 8am on a Bank Holiday Monday! One mad plotter that's who... I was dead on my feet by the end of it, the soil was quite waterlogged and very heavy, which made digging rather hard work. But I did it, it's all cleared and raised beds are starting to appear.


Here are a few pictures of how the 'Solanace' patch has improved....

How it all started with the weeds (July 11)

The weeds chopped down...

You can see here (April 12) that I've took down part of the fence and started to dig over the potato (solanace) area, a couple of beds are in but still a bit to dig over...

Here (May 12) the whole of the potato (solanace) area has now been cleared, dug over and another bed created.

So hopefully the weather will hold off this weekend so that I can finish building the remaining beds and get the potatoes in.... please Mr Weatherman, play nicely...

Wordless Wednesday