A Bright n Early Start ...

Today I was on the allotment for 9am, I wanted to get the grass on the surrounding area cut down with the strimmer, the council haven't been into our section at all this year and it was getting ridiculous, every time you went to the water tap you got soaked (after it had rained), you couldn't walk around the area without getting the bottom of your trouser legs wet, and this isn't good when you have to go every morning before work to feed the chickens, as I do.  Getting to the bee hives was a joke, the grass was nearing 3-4 ft tall.  Anyhow, I decided enough was enough and strimmed it down, it took an absolute age, and was back breaking.  The stimmer is a petrol one that is used by the likes of the council, and professional gardeners, it was bought (second hand) using some of the grant money we attained last year.  It cut through the grass like a knife through hot butter.  I only managed to get one side of the area done (the side my plot is on LOL) and will finish off the other side another day as I wanted to get things done on my plot also.

So in between the strimming, I sowed some more carrots, not many of my first batch have come through, I did do them some time ago before the soil had warmed up and then we had all that rain for April and most of May so in reality most of the seeds were either waterlogged or washed away.  I've made myself a 'carrot' template, I took the idea from 'Annie's Granny' of Annie's Kitchen Garden, hope she doesn't mind.  Granny makes seed mats, but to be honest with you I don't have the time or patience to make these so I made my own version.........

 My Carrot Template

 Close Up of Sowing Holes

Carrots from 1st Batch Coming Through

The template measures just under 4ft by 3ft (if I remember rightly) and each of the holes have been drilled so they are 3" apart.  It gives you 165 sowing stations.  All I need do is place it on top of the soil and sprinkle some seeds into each hole, lift up the template and then scatter over some compost and water.  It saves (hopefully) the need to thin them out so much.  I also sowed some more broad beans and another 3 rows of peas, from my 1st lot of peas only 2 germinated, that's 2 peas from about 160, what did I do wrong?????? 

All in all a tiring day, I left just after 4 totally shattered, I've now got my feet up catching up on some blogs, watching Spain v Italy on the Euro's.  About to have some tea, and a nice hot bath.  It's back to work tomorrow, how nice! NOT...

Mixed Weekend (Weather Wise)

Yet some more digging done but still more to do. Went to the plot again on Friday afternoon/evening and got some more of the maincrop bed dug over. Saturday I mainly potted on and sowed some more seeds. A little mouse or critter of similar stature has found its way into my plastic greenhouse and chomped its way through my leeks, and has had a good dig in some of the other pots of veg in there. Upon reading the back of my seed packets leeks are best sown Jan-Apr, would I still be able to re-sow some more (it’s only a couple of days into May) to replace the ones chomped on?

Sunday me and Caleb spent most of the day at the plot, he played with the other children that were there with their parents, I worked hard. I couldn’t face another day doing the potato bed so I opted for weeding and digging over what will be the root beds for 2010. These are 2 beds which are 32ft long x 4 ft wide, broken down into 8ft x 4ft sections (on plan). When it was all dug over, I re-did the area set aside for the carrots and dug it as finely as I could possibly do, breaking up larger clods of soil by hand, then sprinkled some Growmore over the bed in anticipation of sowing various varieties over the coming weeks.

Weather was terrible on Monday, the majority of the day was lost to rain, but it brightened up a bit mid afternoon so this time was put to use building some more of the bottle house. Speaking of which I’ve finally found out how to share my photo’s with you all from my new phone, so here is an update of what’s been happening so far this year.

First Post Ready

Six Post In!

Exit Doorway & Path.

Pea Bed with Canes and String for Climbing.
The onion bed netted in the background.

Bed with 2nd Earlies planted (Yukon Gold)

The Weather Man Promises a Warm Weekend

How lovely it would be to have two complete (weekend) days uninterrupted by rain or hail or snow. Now the weather forecast has said it’s going to be dry with some good sunny spells, highs of 15 on Saturday and 11 on Sunday. It’s looking a bit overcast at the moment, but time will tell.

Plans over the weekend include first and foremost, collect the hen shed this evening! Definitely a must and a can do no matter what the weather brings for us. Next job, 3 more posts to be dug into the ground for the bottle house, fairly confident this will be a goer. Finally, dig and complete the raised bed for the 2nd earlies to be planted.

I might be able to collect some bricks and some wood from a friend, he’s not sure if he’ll have the keys for the store, but hopefully he will and I can get some 2”x2” wood off him to start making the frames for the bottle house. I’m using bricks to edge the main path on the allotment, I’ll lay some cardboard down and cover with small stones which have been taken out of the ground as I’ve been digging it over.

I’ve got a few days off work towards the back end of next week and the longer (10 day) weather forecast says it going to be nice and sunny, so hopefully I’ll be able to get some peas and beans in, possibly some carrots and the onions still need to be put in, time is running out for them.

Have a nice weekend everyone and hopefully you can all get some productive gardening done.

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.

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.