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.

More Seeds In

I took the opportunity while my Mother In Law was here this morning playing with Little One to pop down the allotment for an hour and a bit to water the seeds I'd planted and stick some more in. It was a lovely day, I wished that I had more time than I did, hopefully the weather will stay nice and I can get some serious work done over the weekend.

The seeds I planted today were Butternut Squash, Sweet Nugget Sweetcorn, Nero di Milan Courgette, Minipak (Bush) Marrow, Spaghetti Squash, Tom Fox Pumpkin and Mars F1 Hybrid Pumpkin.

I probably planted far too many courgettes but last year I only got 2 of my own plants to grow and was lucky that another plotholder gave me some plants or we'd have had hardly any to eat. Even with the gifted plants we still could have used more so I planted the whole packet of seeds! I'm planning on using the big bed at the front of the plot near the shed (and a waterbutt unlike last year where I planted them down the other end away from water and regretted it...) so I should have room. I have some round yellow courgettes to plant yet as well for amusement and variety.

The squash and pumpkins are going at the back of the plot so that they can roam and wander about without covering any paths. Little One and I love squash and pumpkin and as they store so well as well as freezing well I decided to go all out on them this year. I still have Trombolino and Turks Turban to find space for but they both said direct sow so I'm going to do as I'm told! I got another big blue waterbutt (apparently these were given to the allotments by the jam factory and were previously used to transport fruit to the factory!) as well which is good (especially as it's free!), I put it at the end of the path at the back of the plot and emptied the front one half into it as that gets all the water off the roof of the shed and fills up quite fast when we have rain. Hopefully there will be less of DH and I lugging buckets of water from the tap which is about 50 metres away from the plot like we ended up doing last year!

I have decided that I am going to do only 3 Square Foot Gardening beds and 2 large beds with the space that's left. Looking at what I'm planting I don't have many crops that need to be planted successively and I need space for a lot more parsnips than I got last year and a lot more leeks than I planted. The 3 small SFG beds will let me have a go at it and see if it's worth pursuing but the larger bed will give me the space I need while I'm waiting for the potatoes to come out. Once the spuds are done I should be laughing for space but I loose 5 beds to them until then, and with the weather having been bad I've lost those beds for a month longer than I intended to which means it's a tight squeeze for everything else. Who'd have thought that with 12 big beds and 3 small ones I'd be pushed for space??? For a while it will be a case of taking stuff out and other stuff going right back in after it but at least the majority of the beds are dug, unlike last year, so there's only pressure to get 1 of the large ones dug immediately so that I can get the parsnips and leeks started as I will need to have them out by the end of December when I give up the plot.

So, if the weather holds this weekend I will hopefully be planting the other 3 varieties of potatoes and digging the final SFG bed and one of the big beds. I could also do with cutting back some of the grass from around the beds but I think I can leave that a fortnight or so and get the beds dug first before the weeds really take them over and they become a nightmare to do. DH has promised to help with the digging which means that while I'm doing spuds he can be making progress, that is if there isn't a small child trying to destroy everything in sight by hitting it with his kiddie rake!

Forgot to say I also planted some basil in a pot on the kitchen windowsill which I will try and put in pots outside if the weather is nice. I'm determined to get bags of the stuff in the freezer so I will be planting it for as long as I can.

All the cucumber plants came up, one was a bit odd so I pulled it out, I figure 4 plants should be enough. So far only 1 of the aubergine seeds has come up though which is worrying, hopefully the other 2 will show themselves soon.