Harvest Monday

Well I had to do it, the suspense was killing me, I pulled the first tub of Rocket potatoes at the weekend and was thankful to see some lovely sized spuds weighing in at 2lb 3oz. This is my first harvest of the year. As you can see from the picture there were a few decent sized ones and some little ones.

Went to the allotment of Friday evening and started to weed and dig over the overgrown area where the ‘Onion’ group of beds are going to go. Here is where I’ll put in the Squash, Courgette, Leeks and Marrow; the Onions are already in a bed which I built a few months back. Saturday was glorious; I was at the plot from 9.30 am right through till about 5 pm, clearing more of the area, weeding other beds and laying some more paving around various beds. Sunday was awful, it rained non-stop, but I got some planting (Lettuce, Celeriac and Celery) done on the afternoon during the lighter spells.

Brian, an elderly plotter on the main allotment area has some ducks and hens on his plot, one of the hens had become broody so he put a few duck eggs in for her to sit on, well the other day she hatched them, so me and Caleb went to see them, they were so cute, all yellow and fluffy and only a couple of days old.

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?

Another Great Find!

I had a half hour to kill last night whilst waiting to pick Caleb up from Cubs, so I thought to myself, I’ll just pop over to that trusty dumping area I’ve found where I’ve picked up a few scraps of wood from, just to see if anything useful is there. Well would you believe it, what a wonderful find there was! An open slat crate (see picture of a similar one below), it measures approx 2.5 ft wide and about 5 ft long and stands about 1.5 ft high. I thought to myself that would look really nice with some pots of flowers in and would sit alongside my shed at the lottie.

The next task in hand was to somehow get it in the car and back home. I put it down behind the car, to measure if it would fit on the back seat, it seemed a ok, so I pushed it in only to find that about a foot stuck out and I couldn’t close the door. Dang I thought, I’m going to have to put the back seat down and put it in the boot (good job I have a hatchback), so here I am, getting everything out of the boot, the chicken pellets, the dog food, and the plastic crate I’d picked up a few days earlier. Out they all came, I lifted up the wooden crate put it in the boot, well dang, it didn’t fit, it stuck out about 6 inches. Sod it I thought, I’m getting this home one way or another, so I threw everything back in the car, well into the new crate in the car to be precise, lowered the boot as far as it would go and drove off down the road to collect Caleb. It was dark and not so windy so I thought that if I drove fairly slowly it should stay closed over, which thankfully it did. The only problem is I’m going to have to do it all again, well the driving with the boot half open part of it when I take it over to the plot.

Progress on the seeds, onions are coming through, broad beans are getting nice and big, will have to pot on over the weekend or I might chance putting them in the ground if the weather remains dry and cover with a fleece or something, whether this may or may not be a good idea thoughts welcomed. I’ve sown some peas in toilet rolls and think I’ll do a few lettuces tonight.

Sadly it's the last of My Dream Farm tonight, I must say that I have enjoyed these and will wait with baited breathe for the next series.

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.