What a Lovely Weekend

I hope the weather over the weekend was as glorious for all you gardeners out there as it had been for us here in Middlesbrough. An action packed fun filled gardening weekend was had by me and I even took Caleb along on Saturday and not a whinge or moan was heard. A few of the other children on the site had come along so he had plenty of kids to run about with.

Saturday - I put in some ‘Paris Market’ carrots in the back yard bed between the rows of parsnips, as these are only little bite sized carrots, they’ll be grown and lifted before the parsnips require the space. I also sowed some Early Nantes 2 in the 4x4 carrot bed. All 6 fence posts are now in for the bottle house, time to start working on the frames to insert the canes & bottles into. I’ve now sent an e-mail to all contacts (approx 300) at work asking them to donate their 2 litre pop bottles. Hopefully it won’t take too long to get the amount that I need.

Sunday - The bed for the 2nd earlies was established and dug over; I’ll be planting a row of Yukon Gold and a row of Anya in this bed at the back end of this week. The few Yukon Gold that are left over will be potted up into patio containers. I also planted up some Red Barron sets (3 rows) and some Santero sets (3 rows) in the newly built onion bed. I’ve still got some Turbo to go in and if any of my Bedfordshire Champion seeds amount to anything, I’ll make room for them somewhere.

Lots of the seedlings are coming along, will have to do some potting-up into bigger pots over the next couple of days, as a lot of the brassica’s have now started to develop their true leaves.

TWO Posts and My Shed!

Well the holiday weekend was mixed weather wise, there was sun, rain and on occasion hail! I bought the fence posts on Thursday evening, 4 @ 3”x3” x 8ft and 2 @ 4”x4” x 8ft. The wood man asked what I was doing with them as he was loading them into my car for me, his face said it all when I tried to explain, probably thought I was another eco-warrior, environmentally friendly loony.

Friday/Saturday I managed to plant up all my 1st earlies - Pentland Javelin into patio potato tubs, the 1st earlies - Rocket which I’ve had stood in the greenhouse over the last couple of weeks are coming along very nicely. I’m hoping a couple of nice days over this coming weekend will allow me to get the 2nd earlies in the ground at the allotment, a few will have to go in the remaining tubs, this will be a good test on whether soil or tubs are better for 2nd’s. I’ve put in some parsnips and radishes in one of the back yard beds. Carrots are coming through nicely. Plenty of tomatoes, kohl rabi, cauliflower, and lettuce seedlings are geminating. Cabbages and peppers are just beginning to peek through. I’ve been given a load of strawberry plants so these will be planted up in the fruit area ASAP.

On Sunday I drove to the allotment, Caleb in tow. I’d asked him to give me a hand building the bottle house, “I like building things” he says, good I thought I’m going to need your help. First job was to cut down some growth from the bushes hanging over from the neighbouring plot, and clear away some of the leaves and overgrown grass from the ground. Caleb watched. Then I started to measure, AGAIN, just to be safe, no point in getting it wrong and being unhappy once the posts have gone in. Again, Caleb watched. When I started to measure out I changed my mind where the house was going to be sited AGAIN. I wasn’t happy with the amount of growth (from next plots bushes) at one end so now its going to run 10ft flower bed, 10ft fruit (raspberry & strawberry) bed, then the bottle house (16ft), then another 10ft fruit bed and then what’s left (approx 12ft I think) I’ll decide what to do with later, possibly plant some fruit trees (apple, plum or pear). I also changed my mind on its dimensions, its now going to be 5ft wide instead of 4ft; I don’t do things by half!

I started to dig my first hole, Caleb watched, I turned my back for one minute, Caleb had gone, I found him chatting to Sid who has the plot opposite mine “he’s ok with me” Sid said, so back to the digging, ALONE. Next thing I know Brian (from further down the lane) had come over to have a chat with Sid and so Caleb then decided he wanted to go to see Brian’s hens and ducks, so that was it Caleb was off. So back to the digging of holes, ALONE, I sawed the bottom off the posts, making sure they stood in the holes straight and were both at a level height, all done and two posts in the ground, nice and secure. What a happy chappie I was with myself. I went back to check on them last night and to my amazement they were still standing, I must have done something right! I’m hoping to get another post in tomorrow night, and maybe the rest all in by Sunday, then I can start to work on the frames and creating the sides (this is where the bottles come into play).

Yesterday I received a phone call from the DIY store saying that they had mistakenly sold my shed and that the only one they had left was the store display model, so with some haggling (another 15% off the price), and them agreeing to dismantle it for me, I’m off to collect the shed for the chicken coop on Friday night. More building, ALONE no doubt!

Rain Rain Go Away

....come back again when i'm on holiday in August so that i need not worry if my veggies are getting watered whilst i'm away, lol. Seriously though, when will this rain ease, my plot was flooded again after the heavy rain that came toward the back end of last week, luckly though it's only seems to be flooding in one area, though this will cause a problem shortly as this is where the bottle house and fruit area will be. It's not stopped raining for long either yesterday or today and it’s been really heavy at times, so probably more flooding at the allotment. Got a few bits done over the weekend, planted up the rest of the Rocket potatoes, I’ll be doing the Pentland Javelin during this week as and when. There’s no more space for them in the mini greenhouse so these will have to fair the weather. I started to weed the ‘Root’ patch; I’ll be planting some Sweetcorn - Mini Pop in the little area I got done. Try and get some more of that weeded over the weekend. My Comfrey plant is starting to grow again, the first cut will go in with the potatoes, and then I’ll start to make some Comfrey tea for the Tomatoes and Potatoes for when they need a feed later.

I’ve sown some more Leeks (Autumn Giant and Lyon), Cauliflower (AYR), Kohl Rabi, and various Lettuces. The carrots are finally starting to show under the little grow house on the 4ft x 4ft bed in the back yard. The parsnip seeds are now sprouting shoots; does this mean I can just plant them in the soil now?

I cleared away some of the area where the chicken coop and wildlife garden is going to go. I had some roof slates which I was going to use on Samson’s kennel but as I didn’t have enough I felted the roof, but lucky for me, when you lay them all together they measure 3ft x 4ft, just the right size of the chicken house (shed), so these are going to be a base for the shed to sit on, rather than it standing straight on top of the soil.

I’ve re-allocated the space down the side of the plot where the bottle house and fruit and flower beds are going to be. Hopefully if the weather gets better over the weekend I’ll be able to begin the digging for putting in the fencing posts which will be the start of the frame for the bottle house. I’m not sure if I’ll cement these posts in or just find some other way of securing them, just in case I decide to move the bottle house in the future.

We (Caleb & me) popped to Pets at Home over the weekend, and to my joy I discovered that they sell chicken bits n pieces. This will be a great benefit for us, somewhere local I’ll be able to buy food from etc. So anyway in anticipation of the little feathered friends joining us sometime soon, we bought a chicken feeder and water supply. I’m dead chuffed with them; it’s great what little things make us happy.

Oh yes, I’ve received a kind donation from a friend at work (well her father to be precise) two rhubarb plants, so I’ll have to decide where they will live. Probably somewhere within the fruit bits I think. Somebody told me that rhubarb leaves make a good fertilizer, does anybody know if this is true?

Small Steps in the Right Direction

Progress is being made, slowly but steadily, I was hampered by a day of rain on Saturday so not all that was planned happened. I managed to build the final (planned) raised bed in the back yard plot. So now I have three beds, one which measures 7ft x 4ft, one at 4ft x 4ft and one at 4ft x 3ft. These are primarily going to be for growing the carrots, parsnips and quick salad items in. I got some Anya seed potatoes planted in a potato barrel, I’m going to have to knuckle down and get the remaining Rocket and the Pentland Javlin sorted out this weekend. I managed to also recycle some pallets and made a start on the wood for the henservatory.

Over to the allotment, I’ve pre-marked the side of the plot where I’m planning to put some flowers, the bottle house and the soft fruit area; the flowers will sit directly in front of the shed (see picture), giving them a patch measuring 10ft x 5ft, I thought I’d put them there as that will give me something nice to look out onto. I’d then planned on putting the bottle house, next to that in an area I’d earmarked at 16ft long 5ft wide, and then I’d planned to have after that 2 areas of 10ft x 5ft where I had thought about putting my raspberries and strawberries, this would leave me about 15ft of space to ponder with before I got to my gate. These areas and the existing raised beds that are already built will be separated by a gravel path from stones which I’ve been collecting as I’ve dug over the plot. Each of these areas would be split by a small path. My only concern now, after marking this out is that the bottle house will be sited near some bushes/trees from next doors plot, although they won’t block out the sun as the sun moves clockwise around my plot, I will need to be able to get behind the bottle house to chop down growing branches, something I’d not really taken into consideration when allocating space. Saying that, the area where the fruit is planned to go has a bare patch behind it so I think the best thing to do is swap these two areas so that the fruit bit comes before the bottle bit.

I’ve started digging over the potato patch and started to build one end of each of the raised beds, this gives me a starting picture of where each type will be, there are three sections, one for 2nd earlies, and one for early maincrop and another for late maincrop. I can now concentrate on the patch for 2nd earlies as they need to be in the ground by mid April. I can then finish the other two areas off for the maincrops to be planted out by the end of April.

I also managed to pull out the last patch of really overgrown area of weeds (see bottom left of picture). So now all I have to contend with are the rooted weeds like dandelions and other small growing weeds and bits of grass that has decided to grow around my plot when digging over the areas to make the raised beds.

Hoping to get down over the weekend but will have to wait and see, we’re going to visit a local farm on Sunday morning, they are holding an open day to let people see the spring lambs, piglets and calves. I’ve a family commitment on Sunday afternoon, so that only leaves Saturday to play with and we have a fixed commitment every Saturday morning so lets hope Saturday afternoon can be stretched out into a full day.

Weekend of Activity

Well I’m off work tomorrow, my car is going to the garage to be repaired (it currently drives itself about) and fail its MOT, I’m expecting a few things to need replacing like its brakes (due to driving itself, I spend most of my time with my foot on the brake trying to stop it). The other day the back doors locked and now I can’t unlock them to open them and get in and out of the back seat, even when you press the button to lock and then unlock them they stay locked. Poor Samson got stuck in the back of the car after we’d been out for a walk, me and Caleb had drag him through the little gap between the two front seats to get him out, not a pretty sight!

So I thought I’d take advantage of my non-working day and do some more garden activity. I’ll not be able to go to the allotment, it’s an hours walk away so I’ll potter about in the back yard, build another raised bed, pull out all the nails in the wooden posts I’ve ‘claimed’ for the henservatory and cut down some 2x2 ready to make one of the frames for the bottle house. Mrs C has another bag of 2 litre bottles for me so I’ll need to collect them. My spare room is full of black bags which are full of pop bottles, lol

Caleb’s off to cub camp Friday night so weather permitting (its forecast scattered showers - but I can brave them) I’ll spend all Saturday and Sunday at the allotment (presuming I get my car back) as I’ll not have to think about keeping him entertained. Hopefully I’ll be digging over the potato area and making a bed ready to plant out the 2nd earlies. I’ll put some chicken pellets in the onion bed which I made last weekend ready to plant them out probably next weekend and give the other beds a weed so that I’m on top of that before they get too riddled with neglect. I’ll Lime the brassica beds then start to mark out the side of the plot which runs from the shed to the gate where the flower bed will be and the bottle house and the fruit area.

How many hours are there in a day?

Another Productive Weekend!

Yet another weekend of nice weather so plenty of progress made. On Friday night I popped to our local B&Q as they had 20% discount on all purchases over £50. I’d been there the previous weekend and had seen a little shed (4ft x 3 ft) priced at £65. Now having decided we were going to get some hens and had found some details on how to build the henservatory, I thought this little shed would make a good house for them. They could occupy the bottom and if I put up some shelves, this could be storage area for their feed and other bits. So I’ve bought one, sale price of £52, however I’ve had to leave it at the store until I can get some kind volunteer with a small van to pick it up for me. I know just the man but he’s on holiday at the moment. I’ve managed to source (or should I say recycle) three 3x3 fence posts 7ft long and a couple of 10ft lengths of 2x3 which will help create the frame of the henservatory.

On Saturday I planted a further 4 (rocket) seed potatoes in a potato tub. I’ll put Pentland Javlin into tubs over the next couple of weeks so that I get a gradual harvest. I sprinkled some bone meal over the 7ft x 4ft raised bed in the back yard ready for when I plant some parsnips in there. I’ve decided to plant carrots and parsnips at home in the back yard as a backup as the soil at the plot isn’t very good yet (improvements are being made) and I thought they would grow better in some compost where they won’t be hindered by stones etc. I’ll be pre-chitin some parsnip seeds tonight, going to try the damp paper towel trick.

It was then off to the allotment for me and Samson. When I arrived, fencing around the 4 little plots which have been created over the last year had been erected. It really makes our little bit look very smart now. I decided this weekend would be dedicated to creating the onion bed as the sets need to be planted mid-March to mid-April, so I got down to digging. The bed will be 7ft x 4ft. Lots of digging and plenty of weed and grass extraction later (over the course of Saturday and Sunday) the patch of ground was cleared, a raised bed made and then the soil was treated with some much rotted garden compost. This coming weekend I’ll scatter some chicken manure pellets to give the ground some oomph and then I’ll be looking to plant out the onion sets - Santero (the first onion set with resistance to downy mildew) and Red Barron. I’m also trying to grow Bedfordshire Champion from seed, but these sets are my back up.
Tonight I’m going to sow a couple more tomato plants, some tunip and possible a few other choices, keep you informed.

At Last - A Dry Weekend

I can’t believe it, a whole week without any rain, well nearly, it rained a bit on Friday night, but hey we’ll let it off as it was dry all week and then also dry for the rest of the weekend. My plot has nearly gone from a boggy mess to a cloggy mess. Hopefully if it keeps like this it’ll just be a mess that needs sorting.

So to update you all on the weekend’s happenings, on Saturday morning I put 8 seed potatoes (Rocket) into 2 potato containers (4 in each) and put them in the large plastic greenhouse. I’ve put them on top of some pallets just to keep them off the cold concrete floor; I thought this might help keep the chill/frost off them. I also sowed some carrots (Early Nantes 5) under the little grow house which I’ve had placed over the 4x4 raised bed in the back yard. On Saturday afternoon, Caleb, Samson and I went to Redcar beach to collect some seaweed, read somewhere that it’s good for the potatoes so I thought I’d give this a go. I’ll plant some with a seaweed bed and some without and let you know the results.

Sunday I finally managed to finish Samson’s kennel, he’s currently sleeping in the kitchen whilst I’m at work, sleeping is what he does best, but now the weather is getting better I thought it would be nice if he could spend time outside and basque in the glorious sun (when it arrives), so I started to build him a kennel but then with all the bad weather I’d not been able to finish it off, well now that’s complete and he loves it. He was even sleeping in it whilst I was nailing the roof felt onto it, nothing interrupts his sleep! Now all we’ve got to teach him not to panic when he’s outside, as he doesn’t particularly like it, it’s not the being outside that upsets him, it’s the door being closed and him not being able to get back in that he doesn’t like. So it’ll have to be a slow, confidence building exercise I think until he’s comfortable staying outside on his own.

Me and Samson also spent a couple of hours at the plot on Sunday afternoon, it was wonderful! I dug over the small brassica bed, so now they’ve all been dug; I’ll add some lime shortly. I used my new cultivator (a xmas pressie from my Mam) to rake over the muck in the legume beds. I then started to weed the area where the potato bed is going to go, the mud was still very wet, but at least the boggy bit was starting to dry up, all the puddles have gone, it was just very cloggy. Its forecast to be dry all week so hopefully we can get down at the weekend to get on with a bit more.

Oh yes, something I couldn’t resist buying, even though I didn’t really need any more seeds, some Broccoli (Calabrese) - Samson. I wonder if these will grow big heads, as big as Samson himself, we’ll see!

We've Missed the Chicks

Over the last couple of days I've been reading up about keeping the chicks and had just started to think about how I was going to make a coup for them, when I recieved a phone call to say that they had all been allocated homes. I'm rather disappointed now, just when we decided we'd say yes to having the chicks. Not to worry, it was obviously ment to be that we'd not get them and at least that gives me more time to think about the implications of having the birds and where the coup will go etc. Also having to fit in building the coup amongst all the other pressing jobs that need doing, it was probably one headache too many at this moment in time, but we will get some when the time is right.

Nothing much more to report on, a couple of peas are starting to poke their heads through the compost, i've transferred the onions out into the plastic greenhouse during the days, i'll bring them in on a night to give them a little extra protection at least for a week I would think. Over the weekend I sprinkled the 4x4 bed in the yard with a slow release food mix and it's been covered with the grow house for a couple of weeks now, so i'll sow some carrots in that little area over the weekend.

It's forcast to be quite nice so i'm definately going to spend some time at the allotment this weekend, its been fairly dry all week so far so hopefully the plot will have dried up a bit.

Why does it Rain or Snow at Weekends?

Every gardener’s conundrum, well those that have boring Monday - Friday, 9 - 5 jobs anyway. Why does it have to be lovely or at least reasonably dry during the week and then hey presto the heavens open up and we get snow, sleet, rain, frost everything that brings the gardening plans to a thundering (no pun intended) halt!

So from my list of things to do, I started off the 2nd earlies to chit (Anya and Yukon Gold). I couldn’t buy a lead for the propagator so I cobbled together some electrical parts and made one (just call me sparkie), got myself all excited about the propagator and the thought of starting off some tomatoes, chillies and melon, plugged it in, and it didn’t heat up. Not sure what it is now, it had a little fan on the side which I thought would heat it up, but it just blows cold air out and doesn’t get warm. Maybe it’s just a posh cold frame. So from that you may well gather I didn’t start off any seedlings that need that extra warmth. Sowed some leeks, again, don’t know what I’m doing wrong with these, they just keep wilting, so I’ll keep persevering. Got some loo rolls so I’m going to sow a few peas tonight. Maybe the lettuce and put them in my fancy cold frame, lol.

Saturday was fairly nice weather here in Middlesbrough, so I took advantage and started on the back yard, least said about Sunday the better (this was when I was supposed to go over to the allotment, needless to say I didn’t make it). So in the yard I’ve put down the 7ft x 4ft raised bed and filled it with compost. Cleared away all the old cages (Gromit’s hutch and a couple wire cages that we had when we had our chinchillas. Cleared away the old bits of wood (which are not really suitable for anything) and made space for another small 4ft x 4ft raised bed, Ooh got a ‘find of the month’ from down one of the back alleys near to me whilst taking Samson out for a walk, some old decking which will come in very nicely for this new raised bed. Remembered about a little pop-up grow house I had in the shed so I’ve placed this over the soil where the carrots are going to go rather than the net curtains.

I bought some 6ft garden canes for the bottle house bundle of 5 for 99p, so I got 4 bundles this time round and some 7ft garden canes for the French beans, bundle of 5 for £1.49, so I got 2 packs total bargains from Wilkinson’s. I didn’t get to Mrs ‘C’s for the bottles so I’ll try to get there one night this week.

Finally I made a start on washing out the old pots and seed trays. All in all, a quite productive weekend I didn’t manage everything I wanted to do but did make a good start.

Plans for the Weekend

I’ve got plans galore that I want to get done over the weekend, how many will come to fruition only the man in the sky knows, him and his little weather pixie anyway, but nonetheless this is what is on the agenda:
· Get the 2nd earlies chitted (this should be easy, not weather reliant).
· Sow some leeks, tomato (in heated propagator), melon, peas, lettuce, chillies (again not weather reliant)
· Cover small bed (4ft x 4ft) in back yard with fleece (well old net curtains) so soil starts to warm up for carrots/parsnips to be sown in a couple of weeks.
· Get electric lead for propagator (must do this before item 2)
· Tidy up back yard so that raised beds and greenhouse (small plastic ones) can be put into place ready for hardening off and more planting.
· Buy some garden canes and collect plastic bottles from Mrs ‘C’ (she is saving 2 litre bottles for me for my bottle house).
· Get down to the allotment, see what can be dug, and dig, dig, dig. If not possible to dig, i.e. ground frozen and waterlogged, and then it will be build, build build.
· Wash out pots and seed trays.
· Oh yeah, last but not least eat and sleep (again not weather reliant, lol)

A couple of dates for your diaries, if you don’t already know about them. Gardener’s world is back on 5th March BBC2 at 8pm and also Alys Fowler will be presenting The Edible Garden, this is due to start on Tuesday 16th March BBC2 at 8pm.