Thank you and Goodnight

These are the last photos that I took of the plot and they're from a few weeks back now, if not over a month ago.



I got 3 nice small pumpkins from the plot, the first Tom Fox I have cooked and I got about 6lbs of flesh from it and have been using it in muffins and bread and it's been lovely. I've not cooked the other 2 yet, need more space in the freezer first!





I still have this huge marrow in the larder as well, since I've made jam and chutney from marrows I'm not sure what to do with it, I'm sure I'll think of something sooner or later.



I also have 3 Turks Turban squash waiting to be used, none of the other varieties produced anything which was disappointing but going with the general standard of crops on the plot this year.



We went on Saturday to collect my bits and pieces and handed back the keys so I am no longer in charge of an allotment. In a way it's a relief as I didn't get a chance to make the most of it this year, but that lack of time was also a blessing as the weather and conditions meant that crops were very few and far between, we didn't even make back the price of the seeds this year.

I will still garden in the future, when we get out next house I will definitely have a garden of my own and grow veg again. I have learnt though that trying to get a toddler and yourself out of the house and being productive when said toddler is yelling that they want to go home or trying to escape out the gate is not the best way to try and work a plot. If I have things right outside my back door I can pop out for 10 minutes here and there rather than having to find a block of time.

I will probably leave the blog up for a little while and then delete it. Thanks for all the comments and support over my 2 years of allotmenteering, even with all the annoyances and hard work it's been enjoyable.

Photos From Weeks Ago

We took these photos at the end of August. I've now not been to the plot for almost a month, I had a minor operation on my big toe to remove a mole which meant that until this week I've not been able to wear shoes for more than half an hour or so at a time which kind of made gardening not easy.


Turks Turban Squash


General plot view


Me working. No, I don't normally bend over like that to weed, I must have seen 'just one more' and bent over to pull it before emptying my bucket!


Pumpkin with DH's hand for scale


Courgette turned marrow, I made this into marrow and ginger jam and it's prepared weight was 3.5lbs, amazing what can happen when you leave things to grow a little too long!

We're off down the plot today to dig all the spuds up before we get the first frost, it's getting pretty nippy around here at night now. We will also see if there is anything else to pull up and bring home, hopefully some squash will be ready and maybe some pumpkins. Could be another marrow or two as DH didn't find any courgettes to pick when he went a fortnight ago. I'm excited to see what's grown and what hasn't but also worried that it's all gone totally to pot and we've lost it all by not going down there but I really didn't have much choice in the matter. They know that I'm leaving at the end of the year so I am off the list of plots needing to be brought up to scratch. I imagine I will only visit a few more times now before I give the keys back which is sad but also a bit of a relief, I think I've reached the end of the road with allotments, I still want to garden and grow my own veg but I really need a garden outside my door, I've learn that if I have to travel out of my way to get there the excitement wears off pretty fast.

Will try and remember to take the camera today to get some shots!

Tidier And Tidier

One of the nice older men at the site informed me that the committee had sent out 13 failure notices this time, so I don't feel quite so bad! He also told me that you get 3 notices from the committee and then 3 from the Council before anything bad can happen to you, so I'm taking a bit more time cleaning up the plot than I would have done and feeling more serene about it all rather than freaked out and panicked!

Last weekend I went down alone and cleared up 3 beds, dug up some potatoes and picked my first courgette which was lovely. I put weed suppressing fabric over the 2 front beds as I have nothing to go in them and no desire to keep weeding the things. Should I pick up anything at the Southport Flower Show next weekend it can go in those beds after just a little weeding.

This weekend DH went with me down to the plot and hacked away at the hedges for an hour or so. I weeded 2 more beds and chopped down the grass path from the gate to the shed. The squash and pumpkins are doing brilliantly, a couple of the plants are huge and have lots of buds coming out. If all goes well we should have Turks Turban, Spaghetti Squash, Butternut Squash and Trombolino along with 2 types of pumpkin, yummy lots of soup! The sweetcorn is about a foot and a half tall, not sure if it will catch up and give us anything but it's nice to see it there. No runner beans at all came up, so I guess I don't have to worry about having no marrow plants (my family eats runner beans with marrow and white sauce, yum). I do have Necker Gold beans up so I will see if I get any of those. Still lots of potatoes to harvest over the next month or so, half a bed of pink fir apple, Cara and some Aran something or others. I made roast potatoes from the Aran Pilots last night and they were as yummy as last year, didn't get such a good crop this time though but plenty to keep us going for at least a month or two. My elephant garlic is doing well and I have 1 cauliflower plant which is growing brilliantly and some chard which is taking it's time. I watered everything that needed it and added some 'worm juice' from my wormery. I've never used any of the compost they've made (it's about half full now) and I keep forgetting to feed the poor things now that it's hidden away in the outside shack (was the toilet for our Edwardian house originally), I will probably hand over all the compost to my Mother and let her use it as I can't see my having much use for it, perhaps she'll help me clear it out when they visit this weekend.

My plan is to get it all weeded and then keep the beds I'm using weed free. The back of the plot I will chop down but not hoe or clear as I won't use it again. If I can find some cheap black plastic I will cover the unused beds with it so that if someone takes over my plot they don't have to start all over again clearing it. If I can't find any I will try and hoe the beds every couple of weeks until I leave.

Blackberries are now ripening all over the site as well, the carpark is particularly good picking and I got a punnet from the brambles in my hedge as well. I now have just over 5 lbs of blackberries in the freezer and will carry on picking and make some blackberry jelly which Little One and I adored last year. The blackberry and apple wasn't so nice so I'm not making that again, I have most of the jars still left, will send my Mother home with more of it I think!

Will try and remember the camera next time!

Failed

I got an official letter this morning saying that my plot failed it's inspection, apparently it's too weedy (tell me about it) and the hedges are too high.

The weeds I agree with, it does need a good weed, but also I've been putting off hunting around for things to hold down the weed resistant fabric I'm going to put over the beds I'm not using so if I actually do that and weed the beds that are in use it will look a lot better and not take too much hard work.

The hedges I'm actually quite angry about, they better have failed everyone who has a plot down the 'alley' that my plot is on for that as my hedge isn't as tall as several there. I can't reach to cut the hedge and I don't have the funds to pay someone there to do it so I guess DH will have to pack the kitchen stool and come down and do it for me.

I am really almost done mentally with the plot, which is sad in a way but a bad habit of mine, I mentally pack up and move on before I'm fully done with something. There is still things that will hopefully grow and be harvested, we may get a good crop of different squashes and pumpkin if the weather plays nice, but beyond that and potatoes and perhaps some swede and chard there isn't really that much growing there and I don't see myself planting anything else as it would all be stuff that was for overwintering which won't work for me as I will give up the plot at the end of December.

This year has been pretty depressing at the plot anyway, the weather and soil have conspired to kill almost half of what I've planted which hasn't inspired me to be more productive there. Out of about 8 courgette plants I put out I have 1 left, and that was grown by someone else. Two attempts at marrows failed, no parsnips at all, no turnips came up, pumpkin plants have died off several times, no runner beans have come up (french beans have but are still short), first attempt at chard failed, broccoli died, 1 cauliflower plant left, I could go on and on..... I had a great crop of onions which will keep me going for several months so that is a good thing to come out of it, and my potatoes are doing really well which is great, must try and see the good stuff and not just all the bad.

So I will go down there when the rain finishes and have a good weed and cover up the empty spaces and try to keep on top of it. Things may actually get worse with the plot due to a health issue which will stop me from going down there for a while but hopefully I will get the food that I've planted off the plot and walk away in December not feeling quite so disappointed with what has gone on there this year, although I know I will definitely not have made back the rent in food which I did last year.

Getting It Under Control

I thought to myself when I got to the plot this morning that if this were my first year I would have given up right then and gone home and only returned to dig up the potatoes and harvest the onions. Everything seems to be dying or just not bothering to show up. Out of all the plants I put in last week only a couple of courgettes survive and there's not much of them left, it was like the rest never even existed, no sign of them at all... My diagram of the beds has more scribbles than writing on it as I keep replanting the same beds with different things hoping that something will remain alive until my next visit.

I am waiting for some seeds to come up, I planted some Trombolino Squash, runner beans, french climbing beans and a couple of Tom Fox pumpkin seeds (to replace the seedlings that vanished) so fingers crossed some plants will appear at some point. I also put out 2 of my butternut squash seedlings and 2 of my Mars pumpkin seedlings to see how they do, I put plastic collars around them to see if I can keep the slugs off, if they are what are removing the plants. I also stuck in some of the broccoli seedlings but I'm not expecting them to be there despite their plastic collars because they're tiny.

Things are looking tidier than they did a few weeks back though, this is the view to the left



and this to the right



I just have half a potato bed to finish weeding (it started to rain today so I left it) and then I can get going on the back bed, it just needs a hoe over and some light digging and then it can be used again finally.

We did have some new potatoes for dinner tonight (Aran Pilot) and they were lovely, as tasty as last years, they are such nice potatoes. Hopefully I will get more than potatoes and these from the plot though, or the rent really wasn't worth it!

Slog

I spent a couple of productive hours alone down at the plot this afternoon, I really needed to just get on with it and start catching up before things got so out of hand that I just gave up on it all!

I cleared the front bed except for the 4 large potato plants that are from last years leftovers and planted 5 courgette plants, 3 round yellow courgette plants, 2 marrow plants and 1 Tom Fox pumpkin plant (all the other Tom Fox's died in the shed...).

I then cut down some huge weeds so I can actually walk to the back of the plot and the cleared the second bed that was supposed to have parsnips and cabbage in it, but as I planted them at the end of March and neither of them have come up at all I figured I may as well use the space. In that bed I planted the 4 spaghetti squash plants, 4 Turks Turban squash seeds and 3 rows of spinach. I only had 3 spinach plants come up from my previous sowings and they had grown to 3 inches tall and then gone to seed, this bizarre weather is really messing things up.

I cleared the end of the rhubarb bed as well where the spinach had been planted and planted what I had left of the sweetcorn to see if any of it comes up.

I still have an awful lot to do but the shed looks less full of plants and I have planned out the beds again for where things will go, this seems to change weekly though. I need to clear out 2 more beds sharpish so that I can get in the rest of my squash (butternut and Trombolino), my Mars pumpkins and my beans (climbing french and runner) soon as I can. This week is supposed to be in the 60's with rain on Wednesday according to the forecast so I figure I will go down for a short spell on Monday to water everything and try and clear a bit more. I'll have to take Little One though so I will only manage an hour and have to work fast while trying to keep him from destroying anything, but it's better than nothing. I think I will have to make do with an hour here and an hour there with him this summerjust to try and keep on top of things, it was easier last year when he'd sleep in the pushchair for me.

I just really hope that the weather starts to be sane now. Nothing has grown like it should because it's been so screwy and I hate reading about allotments in the South that seem so far ahead of my plot, I have to keep reminding myself that they're 2 weeks ahead even without bizarre weather.

It'll get there, I'll at least have a ton of spuds (unless something horrific happens to them) and some onions, hopefully there will be more to come though!

Weeds weeds everywhere

I swear that the weeds are worse this year than they were last year, either that or I just haven't got to grips with them yet. I had grass up to my waist on the undug back section of the allotment and in a fit of desperation I simply knocked it all over flat and covered it with weed suppressing fabric held down with every brick I could get my hands on. I made the executive decision that we will not be digging that section of the allotment, we'll just finish the bed that's half done and make do with what we've got.

Yesterday evening after dinner (it was too hot for the rest of the weekend) we weeded 3 of the 5 potato beds and watered them. Of course I was woken up at 4am this morning by the sound of rain but at least the ground got something, I was throwing up dust clouds into the air using the hoe yesterday.

This week is supposed to be more mild than last so I'm thinking that I will try and start getting the seedlings planted out, they are all doing quite well in the shed except for the sweetcorn which all died off (my Mother's from the same seed packet did the same, I am going to try and direct sew a square and see what happens). I would like to get the courgettes in and prepare the pumpkin and broccoli beds, the broccoli and cauliflower seedlings don't look so hot, not sure what's wrong with them...

None of my rainbow chard came up and there is no sign of any parsnips or the radish that I put in with it that was supposed to mark the rows. The parsnips too forever to germinate last year so I'm leaving that bed alone but I need to get in more spinach as I've only got about 3 plants of that up too.

The weather has been so unhelpful this year, we had 2 solid weeks of heavy rain and then 2 weeks of blazing sun. My rhubarb chard came up well and then went to seed within a week, I haven't picked any of it at all. I will pull that up and stick in a whole packet of rainbow chard if I can find another packet to buy. Another crop that was destroyed by the weather was the basket of lettuce I planted. It came up half an inch and then was drenched and now that the weather is hot it's growing straight up and flowering, no leaves at all to be picked. The second lot I planted is coming along much better so I'm going to pull out the old lot, plant another new lot in a medium pot and fill the basket with spinach instead I think. The final crop to die off was the cucumbers, the rain just did them in totally. Luckily I have my Stimora Mix gherkins/cucumbers which are doing well so I will just let some of them grow bigger. I have only had 2 spring onions come up, I must stick some more of those in, and my tomato seedlings are literally only half an inch tall, I want to go and see if we can find any plants anywhere as I don't think I'm going to get much with mine.

So, the general round-up is that I've been a bit lazy and not achieved much and what I have achieved has been thwarted by odd weather. The spuds are doing well though, the onions are almost ready and hopefully the seedlings will do better for us, but it was disheartening yesterday to see what a mess the plot looks, I'm trying to focus on the beds and keeping them cleared but it's hard to blinker yourself all the time, it was much nicer over winter when things neater!

What's Been Going On

Last weekend DH dug half of the next bed, I must get him back out and digging the rest of it soon! I planted another row of spinach and did some hoeing, I've also picked most of the kale (should get 1 more picking and then it will be done) and some rhubarb and leeks, it's nice to be taking things home from the plot again!

This past weekend I went back alone and basically spent just over an hour tidying up as the weather had been hot and wet so the weeds were amazing.

These are this month's photos, left side:



Right side:



And see if you can see what I spent an hour doing:



Annoyingly I can't see much difference either!

I will be going back one morning this week to do some serious hoeing now that the marestail has started to appear, most of the potatoes are up now so I can see where I can hoe, the only bed I will have to leave for a bit longer is the parsnip one but I planted radish with the parsnip so they should be up quite soon I hope.

It looks like the onions are almost ready and I have another bed to dig over a bit to get ready for the broccoli or cauliflower. Then I need to work over the far back bed to get it ready for the pumpkin and squash.

Things in the shed are going well so we'd better make sure that we have soil to plant them in!

Chugging Along

I spent a couple of hours at the plot today, good job I didn't believe the weather report when they said we should expect showers, the sky was lovely and blue and I ended up working in a short sleeved t-shirt!

Nothing else has come up yet in the shed besides the cauliflower and broccoli, these are the pots on the window shelf in the shed:



Last year I had a similar shelf and it broke halfway through the summer due it getting wet (it's cheap pressboard stuff that was in the shed when I got the plot) so I must remember to keep checking it for signs of wear so I don't loose anything, I was lucky last year that all the plants survived the fall.

This is about half of my collection of margarine tubs that I have saved all potted up with seeds:



They're such a great size for seedlings, you can start off with 3 in each tub and then plant 1 per tub when they're bigger, and they're free as you've already paid for the marg so you can't beat that!

I planted some more courgettes inside today, these are round yellow ones and so are aptly named F1 One Ball, they're from Suttons.

I had another look at the cabbage today and realised that not one of them has a heart even though they looked like they did. So, I wrote them off as a bad investment (I don't think the soil was good enough for them) and pulled them all out which left me with 3/4 of a bed to plant parsnips in, Tender and True again but this year they're organic from the Organic Catalogue. I have actually done them properly and planted them the right distance apart and planted Scarlet Globe radish from Thompson and Morgan with them so I know where the rows are. I don't actually like radish but I shall try some of these and see if they will grow on me, it was a free packet of seed so it's no loss if I give them away when they're grown! Last year I chucked the seed in willy nilly and didn't think that any had come up at all but I got about 15 of them and they were lovely, thus I have planted loads and loads this year in the hopes I get a good crop of them. They'll probably fail horribly as I've done what the book says!

I finished digging the Square Foot Gardening beds into 1 long bed, I basically hoed the top layer of weeds out and then broke up the soil a bit, I'm hoping that the roots haven't had much time to really settle in since it's been rotovated but judging by the mares tail that is in there I am probably wrong. I decided that to try and help clear the bed a bit more I'd use the spuds in it so the last lot are now in, these are Cara, hopefully they will beat the weeds back and not vice versa. Two beds left to go now.

I wanted to plant some more cabbage and some leeks but I didn't have time to clear that bed to get them in so I will have to do it next time. Depending on how many leeks I decide to plant I may have room for a few rows of turnip in there as well or perhaps some more chrysanthemums, we'll see.

Just to keep track of how things grow and how the look of the plot changes through the year I have taken a photo of each side and will try and remember to do so at least once a month, with my back to the shed this is the left hand side



And the right with the newly finished bed and the next bed marked out at the back:



I actually feel like I'm on top of things this year, I'm having to wait for the right time to plant stuff rather than being behind on it all and if I make myself keep chugging along with the digging I will actually have enough beds for the seedlings I've grown rather than them dying in the shed before they can go in the ground like some did last year! I am behind at home though, I have flowers, tomatoes and my gherkins that need to be planted. B&Q seem to be having supply issues with the organic peat free compost which is the only vegan compost I can find, they had small bags but not the huge big ones I normally buy but it's gotten so late now with waiting that I shall have to bite the bullet and buy loads of little bags instead, we may check another B&Q in the area first though to see if they have any in but I really want to get the tomatoes going asap.

The cucumber seedlings are about 3 inches tall now on the kitchen windowsill and seem to be doing well despite the calico cat that keeps trying to eat them, she won't confirm or deny whether they are indeed a burpless variety. I have definitely only grown 1 out of the 3 aubergine seeds I planted into anything which is a bit pants, hopefully it will carry on growing and I'll get something off it though. The basil on the windowsill is starting to show as well which is great and the mixed salad outside is almost an inch tall now, lots of nice green things to look forward to!

Saturday

Good job I didn't believe the weather forecast that Saturday was going to be the day with showers and Sunday the clear day as we had hail on and off all day Sunday along with rain and only 1 shower on Saturday which occurred whilst I was in the shower after having returned from the plot!

I got in another 2 lots of potatoes, these were Aran Victory and the Pink Fir Apples, I still have the Cara left but my back was getting sore from the digging and pulling weeds out of the second bed especially so I left those for next time.

I also planted 2 troughs of basil in the shed and hopefully will get a good crop from those. I propped them up so they're in full sunlight most of the time. Half a packet of chrysamthemum's went in at the end of the Pink Fir Bed as well, so hopefully there will be some nice colour to look at over the summer, I will plant the other half of the packet when I have another bit of leftover space.

I have some broccoli and cauliflower seedlings up already, really must get the bed ready for those, didn't I say that last year? I've decided that with what I need to get in now Square Foot Gardening will have to wait until I am actually short of space, when I have an allotment with a ton of beds in it there's no real point trying to do something that focuses on a small amount of space. I will keep reading the book and start doing some plans of what I will do when I do need to use the technique but the plot will have all big beds, that means 2 and a third left to dig before the whole plot is in use, just wish I could get up the enthusiasm to dig again, it's such a dull hard job but I must get on with it next time I'm there or else I'll have seedlings with no homes yet again.