I’m Back to Let you Know …

I know it’s a long time since my last posting and a big thanks to Mangocheeks, you’ve motivated me into sorting myself out and let you all know how things have been progressing since my last entry. So non allotment related news, promise its short and sweet, I’ve had my summer holiday, a glorious fortnight chasing lions and elephants and giraffe’s around safari parks in Kenya with a little bit of sunbathing thrown in. Three years of dreaming, saving and waiting, it was definitely worth it! But back to reality….

So allotment wise, I left you with news that the orchard had been approved, and we’d had an application for a grant to establish some bee hives approved. Moving on, we’ve (the community group) been on a course to learn about the good and bad ways of planting your fruit trees and an order has been placed for some Apple, Pear and Plum trees, 14 in all, which should be arriving sometime in November, Yipee can’t wait, 14 large holes to dig, ouch, but it has to be done! There is another course to go on sometime next month regarding the pruning and upkeep of the trees. In terms of the bees, it’s still very early days yet, until some training can be sorted it’d be irresponsible to get a colony etc, but I’ll keep you informed as things progress.

The Plot! Well it was rather overgrown when I got back off my holiday, sweetcorn had appeared from nowhere, not a bean in site when I left, a great jungle of them on my return, I had courgettes ‘eight ball’ which were the size of footballs, onions, marrows, broad beans, cabbages, caulis and leeks had all grown and a mass of potato foliage. So since getting back, I’ve pulled up the onions and put them to dry for over-winter use. The beans have been cut down, and I’ve put some to dry for storage, again for casseroles etc over the winter months. I’ve been slowly digging up the potatoes, and should get the rest of these all lifted this coming weekend, again more winter storage and I’ll have to sort out the sweetcorn. Leeks and cabbages will be left in the ground for now.

I’ve started re-arranging the raised beds for the new rotation system, taking into account the little area next to my patch which I will integrate this next coming season, and I’ve been winter digging areas as they have become empty. Plans for the coming weeks, at some point I’ve got 4 fruit trees arriving (expected sometime before the end of October), these will be planted in my plot (separate from the community orchard), I’d already ordered these trees before the funding was approved for the community orchard, so I’ll have to sort out where I want them to go and start to prepare the ground for them. I have a vague idea but at the moment the area I’m thinking of is used for storing my wood pallets and bricks etc, so I’ll need to move all of these before I can start to dig the holes. No shortage of hard work ahead, at least it keeps me off the streets!

Hope you are all doing well on your plots and the harvesting is going well.

A Whole New Ball Game

Gosh is it really that long since my last posting! Things are progressing well on the plot, potatoes are flowering, broad beans, runners and French are all coming along nicely, sweetcorn is growing really well and the courgettes and squash are planted out, so it’s a waiting game. But the good news is I’ve been given permission to take over the little plot which joins mine. It’s been passed from pillar to post and has really only had a smidge of care and commitment over the last couple of years.

So ‘Plot 2’ is approximately 40ft by 40ft, tapering off to about 25ft on one side. It is very overgrown with weeds and needs a lot of looking after and sorting out, but hey I like a challenge. Actually it’s more realistic to say I love a challenge. Plans have been drawn, and the thought process has gone into overdrive. With this extra space I’ve decided to break down my crop rotation into more defined areas. There will be areas for ‘Brassicas’, ‘Legumes’, ‘Solanaceae’ - (Potatoes), ‘Alliums’, ‘Cucurbitaceae’ and ‘Umbelliferae’ - (Roots).

I’ve posted a couple of pics to show you ‘Plot 2’ at the beginning. I’m off work on leave for a couple of days so it’ll be all systems go to get things moving.

Plot '2' - View One

Plot '2' - View Two

Plot '2' - View Three

Catch Up

Thought I’d give you a catch up as I haven’t posted anything this last week, it’s been hectic at work and with one thing and another at home I haven’t had the time to post an update, so here goes.

My gate and fence at the plot have been moved/re-built, it really looks good, in a previous life the fence had been knocked over by a manure truck so it stood a bit lop-sided, but with the new fence standing nice and straight and running up to the container it really tidies up my plot. The second end frame of the bottle-house has been built and also one of the doors, I’ll be taking them down to the plot to attach to the posts over the weekend. Still plenty of bottles coming in.

I was caught by the frost, again, but after reading a lot of other blogs, I’m not the only one, still it is annoying. Not too much damage, a bit of blackening of the leaves on the 1st earlies, the 2nd earlies haven’t started to come through yet so they escaped damage and I’ve not got round to planting out the maincrop yet! Most tomato plants in the little greenhouse escaped without too much damage, a few were looking sorry for themselves.

I’d sown a lot of different types of bean in pots last weekend and during the week and have kept these in the little greenhouses at home ready until next month when hopefully it will be safe to plant them out - Borlotti (Firetounge) Broad, Flangelot, Runner, and French. I’ve sown some sweetcorn ‘minipop’ and will sow a batch of ‘applause’ this weekend. More lettuce, some beetroot and some sprouts done. I’ve got some Turnips (Purple Top and Snowball) which I have been hardening off over the last couple of weeks and some Kohl Rabi and Celeriac ready to plant out over the weekend. Some broad beans and peas also ready to put in, I’m going to chance direct sowing of the rest of the peas (mangetout and sugar snap) as I’m never going to be able to gather enough toilet rolls to sow them in. All roll donations will now be put into storage for next year. I’ve also started to sow my courgette and squash seeds, which will be planted out later next month along with the new batch of leeks after that pesky mouse ate most of the first ones.

I’ll finally be able to plant out my early maincrop this weekend, the bed is just about finished and baring a thunderous typhoon IT WILL be sorted, then it’s just the late maincrop to get sorted. I’ve put in a few days holiday next week, then that weekend and then with the weekend after this should see me get them all planted and sorted with very little time to spare, it’s definitely going to be a tight deadline to have them all in the ground by the end of May which is the time limit I have set myself to give a sufficient growing time of 20-22 weeks before the first frosts are expected.

Lots of hard work for the weekend ahead I suspect.

Is It Monday Again Already!

Sorry there haven’t been any posts lately, where did the week go, I can’t believe its Monday again already. Ah that’ll be it, the days have passed me by whilst I’ve been in my tranquil world on the allotment, yes folks I’ve been very productive. Monday and Tuesday were spent as normal, at work, boo boo. Wednesday my car went in for its MOT, remember a few weeks ago it was supposed to be done; well they wouldn’t or couldn’t do it as the doors had jammed, and they aren’t allowed to carry out an MOT if all the doors don’t open and close! So it had to be booked in again. As I was without transport, I started on the frames for the bottle house. Things were going well, I sowed some flower seeds, broad beans, peas and borlotti beans. Weather was lovely, then came the phone call - “you’re car has failed its MOT”, these were words I had already prepared myself for, what I hadn’t been prepared for was the cost to get it fixed £1000. Well after I’d picked myself up off the floor, I told the garage it was a no goer, the car wasn’t worth £1000 for one thing and secondly I don’t have a spare £1000 to throw away. So off to the scrap yard it went and I’ve got myself a little run around until I can save up for a new-ish car.

With the nice weather, I spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday down on the allotment. 2nd earlies (Yukon Gold & Anya) were planted up; I finished planting up the onion bed with 4 rows of Turbo. I weeded and dug over one of the ‘root’ beds; hope to get some Carrot and Parsnip seeds in here shortly, along with Sweetcorn, Lettuce, Celeriac, Beetroot, Radicchio and Spinach. I dug over part of the ‘legume’ bed and put out some canes and string for the Peas to grow against. First ‘doorway’ frame was attached to the end posts for the bottle house and the small path built for the exit. Plenty of volunteers are now saving plastic bottles for me, I should hopefully get all 2000+ needed in no time, she says lol. I started on the early maincrop potato bed and also the first fruit bed as I’ve got strawberries and raspberries which need to be planted out ASAP.

We’ve a new lady on our community patch at the allotment, she’s got a young family so should fit in very nicely. There are 8 of us in the community patch, 4 of us have children between the ages 10 and 18mths and one elderly gentleman brings his grandkids along sometimes, so it’s nice for the kids when we’re all there to be able to play with each other. There is a small amount of ground that isn’t fenced into a plot at the moment, as we have some spare wood we’ve decided that we are going to build a flower garden for the kids to potter about and plant and dig here to their hearts content, and there is a little old lady who likes to come along to help out.

So plans for the forthcoming week, second ‘doorway’ frame to be built and lots of sowing and potting on to be done. Promise some photos soon, I’ve taken them, just have to figure out how to download them onto the computer.

No Further Forward at the Plot

Well I’m no further forward in getting the plot prepared for the spring, I now have the added headache of having to make two lots of (rotational) raised beds seen as though I went mad and ordered loads of potatoes and there isn’t going to be room for them in the proposed ‘root’ section. I sat down and looked at my plan of the allotment and looked where I could squeeze in another section. I’d taken Friday and today off as holiday in the hope of being able to get started on these along with some winter digging but the weather is not helping at all, it has rained, and even snowed today so things are getting further and further behind.

I bought some lime for the Brassica patch; I’d managed to get two of the three beds in this area dug over in November, so I’ll get the third done and then add lime ready for when I plant out. I’d read in one of the magazines that this is an ideal time for the lime to be added so I’ll try and get that done fairly soon. I’d also managed to get the Legume section dug over and a load of compost and manure spread, so hopefully this will be ready to go when the beans are germinated.

I’ve sown a few more veggies. I tried again with some seed onions (Bedfordshire Champion) and this time I used brand new compost, I’ve bought B&Qs cutting and sowing compost, this was the best performer in the Which magazine trials with an 83% success rate and huge seedlings so I thought that I’d give it a go. I’ve sown some more leeks (Musselburgh), some cabbage (Greyhound), cucumber (Marketmore), celeriac (Monarch) and some aubergine (mixed).

Working it all Out

Well it’s official, with all these potatoes I’m going to have to build (or should I say squeeze) another section/rotation area into the plot. I sat last night and worked out what will realistically fit into the ‘Root’ patch. Its official, potatoes, potatoes and you guessed it potatoes. I’ll even have to put my 1st earlies into those little patio planters I have as not all my potatoes will fit into the space for roots. So that’s my Root (Potato) section worked out. It’s a good job I like potatoes, and so does Samson, in fact he loves quite a few veggies so he can help devour the harvest.

I also worked out where I’m going to plant my beans and peas in the Legume section. I’m growing Broad beans, Peas (normal, mangetout and sugar snap) some French beans and Runner beans and I’ve ordered some Borlotto and Flangelot beans to leave to dry for winter casseroles etc.

Tonight I’m going to look at the Onion section, here I plan on growing my onions (you’d never have guessed that would you), Courgettes, Garlic, Leeks, Marrow, Spring Onion and Squash.

If I have time I’ll look at the Brassica Section, planned crops for there include Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Calabrese, Cauliflower, Kale, Kohl Rabi, Radish, Swede and Turnip.

I’ll then have to fit into the rotation plan those left over ‘Roots’ which I’d pencilled in as Beetroot, Carrots, Celeriac, Lettuce, Parsnips, Radicchio, Spinach, and Sweetcorn. Reading up on the 6 year/5 bed policies they will have to follow the ‘Onion’ section and come before the ‘Potato’ section. I know that some of these can be put into ‘any’ area but if I can keep them together I’ll know where I am for the coming years rather than pop them here or there. Isn’t it all confusing?