Plot c81

Thank you and Goodnight

2006-11-21T13:38:00.000Z

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

2006-10-01T09:40:00.000Z

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

2006-08-14T09:40:00.000Z

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

2006-08-01T09:29:00.000Z

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

2006-06-25T20:27:00.000Z

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

2006-06-17T16:30:00.000Z

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

2006-06-12T10:54:00.000Z

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

2006-05-09T11:19:00.000Z

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

2006-04-16T19:38:00.000Z

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

2006-04-10T12:01:00.000Z

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

2006-04-04T19:41:00.000Z

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.

Overdrive

2006-03-30T16:38:00.000Z

I finally felt like working on the plot, it's been a while since I've had the urge to get digging and do things there so I was a bit worried that my enthusiasm had worn off, but today the weather wasn't bad, it had dried off enough to consider planting things outside and the temperature seemed warm enough to start the indoor planting too, so off I trogged for a few hours to potter about.

The onions are coming along well, I hoed between them again and then planted some Red Baron that my Mother gave me (she didn't need a whole bag for her garden vegetable plot) and 3 cloves of elephant garlic that my Dad got me from Homebase in the empty end of that bed, as so:

The nicely dug over bed in front of the onions in the photo now has Aran Pilot potatoes in it. We really liked these last year so I'm looking forward to them coming up.

Even though I was expecting it I still found it slightly depressing that as I dug just under the surface waiting to launch itself back into the world was the horrible marestail. The stuff is everywhere and I spent so much time pulling it up and hoeing it down last year that it's not nice to realise that I'm going to be doing that again all this year too, horrible stuff... Besides that the underground weeds didn't seem so bad. I came across very few couch grass roots so hopefully I've battled that back a bit.

I discovered that the Rhubarb Chard from last year has come back up for another go so next to it (in the bed with the rhubarb that still has leeks in it too) I planted the Bright Lights Rainbow Chard from Thompson and Morgan. At the end of that bed I stuck in the first row of Spinach which is Matador from the Organic Catalogue, I will be putting 2 more rows of that in at the end of the next 2 months.

The cabbages are coming along well now and I think that in a fortnight I will probably cut the first one. I can't remember for the life of me at the moment what they varieties are though, I'm sure I must have blogged it when I planted them so I will have to go back and have a look!

Can anyone tell me what to do with the cabbages in the picture that don't seem to be forming hearts? Do I take them out and use them as cabbage greens or give them a bit longer to have a go at making a fully formed cabbage? About a third of them are like the ones in the photo, I don't know if it is the weather or something I've done that's made them this way....

The Kale is still coming along great guns, and I really like it which is good news as I couldn't ever remember eating it when I bought it!

I got these plants from Robinsons while we were at the Tatton Park show last year. You strip the crown of the plant of most of the leaves and then a fortnight later they look like that again, magic! Apparently I can go on picking until May/June at which point the plants will have to come out as the runner beans will need that space!

I went around and filled in the end of 2 beds with Pastiche Sunflowers from Thompson and Morgan for a combination of cut flowers, some colour on the plot, the fun of growing sunflowers and for their seeds, not bad that you can get that much from a free packet of seeds!

The empty end of the cabbage bed now contains Marner Early Red cabbage from the Organic Catalogue.

The bed in front of the rhubarb bed in the big photo now has Yukon Gold potatoes in it. I use a lot of American recipe books and loads of them call specifically for Yukon Gold so I thought I'd see what the fuss was about. I still have 3 more lots of spuds to put in, I started getting them in the ground today purely because I need them grown and out of the ground so I can use it for other things later on! It's going to be cramped this year with everything I have planned so things will end up being all over the place I'm sure, but as long as it grows it doesn't really matter!

In the shed I now have trays of Black Beauty Aubergine (hopefully it will do better than last year now I've put it in earlier), Calbrese Pacifica from the Organic Catalogue and Gypsy F1 Hybrid Cauliflower from Thompson and Morgan, the first of 2 kinds of cauli I want to try.

So, all in all a pretty productive time at the plot, still a lot to sort out and more to go in when I figure out where to put it (parsnips mainly as I want them done before I leave the plot, found one from last year today, it grew a new top!). Still got the beds to dig as well but the husband has said he'll help as there's an end in sight and he knows that once these are done there's no more digging to be done!

At home things are coming along well, no sign of the aubergines yet but the Burpless (love that word!) Cucumbers came out of the soil literally overnight and now look like this

And see here?

You have to look close, but that's my mixed salad leaves making an appearance, wonder if there's any more snow coming??

And We're Off!

2006-03-20T10:54:00.000Z

I finally did some planting and tidying up this weekend, and I feel much better for it!

Friday I went to B&Q, Homebase and our local independent Garden Centre which is called Taskers and was amazed to see that black bins cost £8.99 each... Forsomethingg that I'm going to leave behind when I go I'm not prepared to pay that much so I'm going to ask the Secretary if he can find me another water butt off an empty plot like he did my last one, there is one on the plot behind mine that is all full of weed as it's obviously been sitting there full for so long so maybe they can empty that and I can have it. I was going to get some flower seeds from B&Q but the service was so terrible that Little One and I left and I didn't find any seeds I wanted in the other 2 places. I did get a bargain £2.99 dirty washing basket from Taskers to put the compost stuff in. I'd not been to the plot in 3 weeks due to being away, being ill and then snow so we had rather an avalanche of stuff out the back and I was worrying about rats so now we have a nice container to put it in rather than having it in an open bucket.

I started of on Saturday by cleaning up the potting bench in the back garden and emptying all the pots out into the wheelie bin, I hope to god they actually empty it today as it weighs a ton and a half, I was merrily working away quite forgetting that we would have to move the bin full of wet soil, DH seems to have managed it though so that's ok! I put away pots under the bench and stacked the others up nicely and who'd of thunk it, I can now actually *use* the bench rather than it being covered in crap and having to lean over 72 pots to get to it!

I did my first planting as well, outside in the old washing basket I planted Cottage Herbery's Own Salad Leaf Mix. I got these seeds at Tatton Park RHS Show, the stall was wonderful and I'm hoping that they will be at the Southport Flower Show (my Mum and I agreed that we actually preferred this show to Tatton Park so we're going there again this year for our outing) so I can get some more herbs. The seed packet says that the mix included Green cress, Parsley curled and French, trespinachch, Chervil, Cornsalad, Verte de Cambrai, American cress, wild rocket, salad rocket, mustarspinachch, red mustard, bulls blood beet, red salad bowl lettuce and red orach. I saw it growing and it looked fab! I put the whole packet in as the basket was so big and I'm determined to get my little boy eating salad this year (he's almost 3) so I want to make having a bowl of salad on the table a regular thing in our house so he will get used to it. I've got 2 more packets of mixed leaves that I will put in when the previous lot look worse for wear and hopefully it should see us through until winter.

I also planted Thompson and Morgan Baby Rosanna F1 Hybrid Aubergine which are suitable for pots so I'm growing them in the back yard, I planted 3 of those as I had split the packet with my sister. Then I planted 5 (again split the packet) Thompson and Morgan Burpless Tasty Green F1 Hybrid Cucumber which I'm also intending to grow in pots out the back (so I can go out and pick the whole salad in one go!). They are currently living on my kitchen windowsil with attractive plastic bags over the pots. I planted just 1 ceramic pot of each variety rather than individual little pots as I didn't have any to hand. I have a few more things to get going next month for the back yard but those 2 were the only ones calling for a March planting on the packet.

Yesterday we went down to the plot to take the compost, check things out and pick anything that was ready. I was a happy to see that everything seems to have done well despite the rain, rain and more rain we've had followed by snow and then more rain. My cabbages have actual cabbages in the centre now, some of them are about 4 inches across which is exciting! I pulled the largest leek, which actually wasn't that large when it was out of the ground, and got a huge bag full of Kale which I'd not had until I grew it but am really enjoying. I cooked some shop bought Kale at my Aunt and Uncles house when we went a few weeks back and it was nowhere near as nice as my own stuff which made me happy!

The shed is nice and tidy, the beds I'd weeded look fine, the onions are growing well and the rhubarb is coming up really well too. I am planning on going next week to dig another 2 square foot gardening beds and weed another bed ready for potatoes but I don't think I will be planting them for a few weeks yet as the ground is so wet. Anyone else in this area got an idea when they are going to put their spuds in? I've got 5 varieties to go in and I was intending to stick them in all at the same time as they should cover the whole season (early, main crop x 2, lates and salad).

I'm also itching to get stuff in the trays in the shed but it's still so cold that I don't think it will survive. I'm going to start checking the weatheforecastst and as soon as it looks like there's a turn I'll be covering the space again to get things ready to go in the ground! I'm excited about how little digging I need to do this year after last year's almost constant digging. I should be able to finish digging the plot in 4 sessions and that's amazing to me! I imagine that I'll still be doing it at the last minute though but that's just the way it goes with me!

2006-03-20T10:16:00.000Z

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Just so you know this is so I can actually respond to comments sent and see what your blogs look like. I've had some great comments in the past and it's so frustrating to not be able to reply or see what the person who made those comments is up to!

Nothing Planted

2006-03-12T12:40:00.000Z

I was lying in bed this morning trying to work out what I would plant in trays in the shed today as I'm behind on getting stuff going and due to bad weather and a horrible cold I've not been to the allotment in a while and I want to catch up.

Unfortunately I hadn't planned for this:

The roads aren't clear enough to be driving anywhere and the snow is still coming down (lightly now but it's still there), plus the temperature in the shed won't be that good for encouraging growth....

The basket on top of the plant stand is my old wicker washing basket which has seen better days so is going to have mixed salad leaves planted in it. I put the soil from one of last year's grobags in it and am going to top it up with some new compost and then stick in some seeds. I had intended to do it yesterday but after I'd trimmed all the herbs back and thrown out the dead ones I was cold enough so I came in and never made it back out again.

So, I've nothing planted at all and no idea when I will get anything planted. I think that unless we have a warm totally dry fortnight the soil is just going to be too wet to put the potatoes in.

I'm desperately wishing that I'd gotten around to buying 2 cheap rubbish bins to use as water butts now as well, mine will have overflowed quite dramatically and I will need a couple more to get me through the summer with the courgettes and squash I intend to plant. I will put the bins (plus a bin with a locking lid for the compost to go down the plot instead of the open bucket we use) on my shopping list and try and get it sorted next week.

Organic Catalogue Order

2006-02-20T14:03:00.000Z

Gave in last night and stuck the order on the credit card as I want to get stuff planted soon so I'm not always behind like I was last year.

This isn't a full list of everything I'm growing as I've got seeds for a lot of things, I'll post the names of the others soon.

1 x CALABRESE Pacifica

1 x GAILLARDIA Large Flowered (fancied some colour on the plot and cut flowers!)

1 x CHRYSANTHEMUM Tricolour

1 x CUCUMBER Stimora Mix F1 (Gherkins)

1 x CLIMBING BEAN Neckargold (to be grown in the back yard)

1 x SWEETCORN Sweet Nugget F1

1 x TURNIP Golden Ball

1 x SWEDE Willemsburger

1 x SPINACH Matador

1 x SQUASH Turks Turban

1 x SQUASH Trombolino

1 x SQUASH Butternut

1 x PUMPKIN Vegetable Spaghetti (you can tell we like squash in this house!)

1 x PUMPKIN Tom Fox

1 x PARSNIP Tender and True (this is the variety I grew last year, they were fab)

1 x MARROW Minipak

1 x COURGETTE Nero di Milan

1 x CABBAGE Marner Early Red

I'm not growing anything that overwinters because as I've said I won't be renewing my lease in January, thus we have early cabbage and suchlike, hopefully we will be harvesting in December still if I've done my planning right.

I went to the plot for an hour or so yesterday, I need to get into the routine again now that the weather is picking up. I finally weeded the onions and I also hoed a few beds. I'm hoping in a fortnight to get all the spuds in so those beds are where they'll go, when is everyone else planning on spud planting? I tidied the shed ready for seeds to be sown, I'm raring to go now, need to finish my list of what needs to be planted when and also finish reading the Square Foot Gardening book so I can use my beds properly (also need to dig those beds but DH has said he'll attend with me to help put in the spuds so I may get him to dig a couple more while he's there!). I want the final beds (4 more 4x4 foot Square Foot beds and 1 large bed for squash) finished by April at the latest so I'm not in the position I was last year of not having enough beds for my plants.

My little boy is supposed to start mornings at Nursery in May (if we get him potty trained in time, we've only just started!) so I will hopefully be able to grab an hour or so at the plot while he's there which will be great and mean that we aren't harvesting just a couple of times a week and not watering enough.

Note to self must ask if there's another water butt going as 1 wasn't enough last year.

Someone had taken it upon themselves to cut the very tall hedge between my plot and the newly vacant one before it down to about 4 foot (from about 14 foot). I wouldn't have minded but they left the branches all over the place and also trimmed my side hedge leaving branches everywhere and knocking down part of my fence. Plus they left a pile of branches on my end bed where they'd cut something down near my compost bins... Had I asked for it to be done or even known it was happening I wouldn't have minded but I'm not keen on someone tromping around my plot when they've not told me about it....

Spuds

2006-02-15T20:30:00.000Z

My potatoes arrived today from Thompson and Morgan, nicely timed for me to give my Mother her part of the order when I see her soon! My seeds arrived at the end of last week so I'm happy with their delivery times.

Now I just have to figure out where the hell I'm going to chit 100 potatoes... Guess I will stick them somewhere out of the way and hope that by the first weekend in March (if it's not raining of course!) they are ready to go in the ground as that's when I plan to plant them.

I've still not ordered my seeds from the Organic Catalogue, I really must do it soon or else I won't get stuff started. Mind you, it's still so cold at the moment that I don't think things will do that well in the shed anyway, and we have a plant eating cat and no space here anyway to do it so I don't think I'm that far behind.

I am going to try and make it to the plot this weekend for sure, didn't go Sunday due to very heavy rain, but I need to get into the routine again or else I'll fall behind and I want to make the most of this year to try out Square Foot Gardening and see how much of our food we can provide. I'll post a lit of what I'm intending to grow as soon as I've placed the order.

Forgot to say that I cooked my 3 small pumpkins the other week as they were starting to go off, just halved them, scooped out the seeds and baked them for about 45 minutes. I made 2 lovely loaves of pumpkin bread and still have a little bit in the freezer when I figure out what to do with it. I soaked the seeds in salted water for about 36 hours and then baked them for a short while and they're wonderful, and keeping really well in a little tupperware container. Can't wait for more pumpkin this year, I'm growing big ones and little'uns for a bit of variety!

Potatoes and Prizes

2006-02-03T14:50:00.000Z

I have just placed my potato order from Thompson and Morgan. They sell them in bags of 20 which is the perfect amount for my size of bed. This year I am using the middle 5 beds down the left for potatoes which should hopefully provide us with a harvest that will last a good long while. The varieties I'll be growing are Aran Pilot, Aran Victory, Cara, Yukon Gold and Pink Fur Apple.

I am just about to ring them again now and place a seed order from their Rewarding Gardens From Seed catalogue. They very kindly sent me a Â£5 voucher and you can also get 2 packets of seed for free from them at the same time. If you order stuff less than £5 it's free and you just pay the 99p postage so don't go chucking the catalogue out if you get one! I am ordering outdoor cucumbers, mini aubergines and Gardener's Delight tomatoes all to be grown in the back yard in tubs and then Gypsy summer Cauliflower and Bright Lights Rainbow Chard for the plot. All of that is setting me back just £1.51, you can't argue with that!

I still need to do my Organic Seed Catalogue and Robinsons Catalogue later on, my Mother and I will be swapping half packets here and there as neither of us need 80 of anything really! I am also going to have to do some kind of chart to show me when I need to be planting stuff, especially with the Square Food Gardening that needs to be worked out, but I have cut my list by quite a lot not having overwintering stuff this year and also deciding not to do garlic or onions as I'd rather use the space for courgettes and squash which cost a lot more in the supermarket than onion and garlic do.

I was asked how big my plot was and to tell you the truth I have no idea, I never measured it! It doesn't say on my receipt either. I don't know why our rents are so high, I can only assume it's because we have so many vacant plots on our site (high water table and a lot are unusable as they flood and apparently some have very deep old wells on them, eeek) and Liverpool City Council are trying to get some money from the place. When you look at the cost of the plot, all the money I put into getting it going and all the money spent on seeds and suchlike it is quite clear that I've really not saved much money, but saving money is only part of the reason I do it, what I learn now will save me money in the future when I get my own garden and make my way towards being self-sufficient when it comes to vegetables. Anyway, from a quick calculation on how many 4 foot beds, 2 foot paths, 6 foot beds and how much ground the shed stands on I'd say it's about 50ft end to end, I use about 40ft of that as beds and paths with the compost in the back corner.

I went to the AGM of the allotment society last weekend and was pretty put off by what I saw. It seemed to be a small group of older men who would not let anything go, even if it happened years ago. I asked a question about whether we could do anything about the cars parked on the road (double yellow lines, they're people attending martial arts lessons) and almost ended up with a huge row going on between everyone at it appears that I wasn't aware of 15 years of history over the car park and suchlike... Had someone told me calmly the situation and left it at that we all could have gone home 15 minutes earlier. I also asked a question about how the rents were worked out, just out of interest as to whether there was a price for the whole site divided by active plots or whether it was just charged on a plot by plot basis and ended up with the Treasurer being quite off thinking I was having a go at him because apparently I paid a service charge that those who'd had their plots longer hadn't. Had he actually listened to me rather than just assumed that I was having a go at him (I have no idea how much people pay, you don't go up to other plotholders and ask what their rent is really do you?) things would have been a lot nicer. And they wonder why they don't have anyone volunteering for the committee...

Anyway, Plot C81 was awarded an Honorary Mention (basically 3rd prize) for 'Most mproved Plot' which was nice. We didn't get any money (second place got a fiver!) but we did get a certificate.

I'm undecided whether to frame it and hang it in the shed!

Slow, Slowly, Slower

2006-01-23T12:20:00.000Z

The weather has been kinder recently so I've actually managed to get down the plot the last 2 weeks in a row on the Sunday. I will admit that yesterday I was there for less than an hour though and all I managed to do was pay my rent (£41.25) for the year and hoe 2 beds over, but I'm still glad I did at least that!

We took some photos last week and after looking back at the photos of the plot when I first took it over I'm really proud of how far I've come. The photos of what the plot looked like can be found here and here and these are from a week ago

I'm actually really proud of myself and the progress I've made. Now I need to get it together and plan this year's planting and then get on with it! I will only have the plot for one more year as we have decided to move in 2007, I don't know when in 2007 that will be I don't want to get stuck into the plot and then abandon it part way through so I will just not renew my lease for another year. I'm kind of sad about that but hopefully when I move I will get a garden of my own to work on instead!

We will be doing Square Foot Gardening this year alongside big beds for the potatoes, squash and courgettes etc that need lots of room. My husband helped me dig out the first of 6 square foot beds, the final bed behind these just in front of the compost area will be another big bed, hopefully the remainder of the beds will be dug by February.

As I know there is a time limit on how long we'll be using the plot (I use the we loosely, sometimes hubby helps and sometimes he doesn't!) I've decided not to invest any more money on edging and bark etc, we'll just leave grass paths and chop them down now and again as needed.

So, I've got a list of plants I want to grow made up and this week I will go through and figure out exactly which type I want, when they need to be started and where I want to order them from, I'll post a list here when I'm finished.

Late In Posting!

2005-12-17T15:26:00.000Z

I went down the plot last week (the car just had a flat battery luckily and is all better now) and it wasn't awful. I expected it to be bad and for a lot of stuff to be dead and it pretty much lived up to expectations. The fact that it didn't exceed expectations was a nice surprise, I kind of like this 'grow slow' winter thing rather than the heart wrenching 'but I just weeded that bloody bed' that you get during the spring and summer! Add to that the fact that I actually felt quite motivated and it was a gorgeous winters day not requiring me to wear a coat and I had a really good couple of hours down there.

One of the butternut squashes had grown to a pretty reasonable size and could have been cooked had I not missed harvesting it by about 2 weeks and had it not been half eaten by some hungry beastie and then gone all squishy and rotten. The courgette plants were dead but there was nothing rotted on them which made me feel better. I harvested the Charlotte potatoes which were supposed to be for Christmas. I had a feeling that as the fortnight of constant rain had killed off the tops of the plants totally that there would be very little to find under the soil and I was right, I got a handful of very tiny spuds that will get chucked into a stew at some point.

So, I set about weeding and smartening up some beds and got 4 of them looking really good, so now I just have another 6 to go... I was surprised to see that 2 of my cauliflowers had formed little heads and that those heads seem to have gone rotten, not quite sure what's going on there as they aren't supposed to be ready for ages yet, I presume that I shall be pulling those 2 out at some point but I've left them in for now.

I harvested some kale as well while I was there. My book said that you could start after the first frost so I did. I was a tad worried about what I would think of kale as I'd never eaten in as an adult and couldn't remember if I liked it or not, but it was really nice which is a huge relief as I have about 12 plants! I have since found 2 recipes for ways to cook it so I'm looking forward to some more.

The cabbages are coming along well from what I can see and the onions are growing amazingly compared to how badly the last lot I tried grew, I guess the back bed isn't suited for onion growing.

So, fortnightly visits will resume and I will keep tidying up and start making plans for what to plant next. If weather allows I may start clearing for the Square Foot beds, that will be my next bedtime reading as I kind of got halfway through the book and then got distracted!

Not Abandoned!

2005-11-26T10:31:00.000Z

I haven't abandoned my plot, promise! I've not been for 3 weeks now, sure, but through no fault of my own. I was going by my fortnightly visits plan when I was struck down by a horrible bug last weekend and my car also went kaput which means that unless I get on a bus looking like a muddy creature from the deep I can't get to my plot at the moment.

When I do get there I will need to do general tidying and some weeding and that's about it really until the weather brightens as I hate Broad Beans so won't be planting any! I never did plant any garlic, am I too late now that it's frosty or can I still bung it in? Must read books!

Planning will begin soon for next year with the catalogues and books and I figure I will keep up the fortnightly visits until it's warm enough to do anything major, promise I'll keep you up to date when I do make it back!

I'm a tad annoyed that I didn't make it back before the first frost as my butternut squash are sure to be gonners now, I was hoping to at least get the small ones off the plants and see if they were edible... Oh well, next year!

Backdated Photos

2005-11-04T12:16:00.000Z

These pictures were taken almost 2 weeks ago now. Since then I've not visited the plot as it's been so wet and horrible and there really wouldn't be that much I could do with the soggy soil.

I seem to be winding down for the winter and only visiting the site every fortnight now, but with the growth slowing right down this hasn't seemed to bad.

This picture is from beside my shed towards the back of the plot. After I took this I dug up the potatoes in the front bed. There weren't too many of them but they have lasted us about 2 weeks which at least saved a bit of money, and as always they tasted better than the shop bought ones! When I'd dug them up I threw all the soil from the tubs I emptied in the shed onto that bed and a tub of calcified seaweed as well and raked it all in. Won't do anything with that bed until Spring now.

This is the back of the left side. You can see the courgettes are slowly starting to die off and the kale at the back is going insane! There's also cauliflower in there and in the middle bed there are turnips which I'm only getting half of as I have a very hungry mouse who is eating them all before I can pick them!

These butternut squash decided to make a late appearance. I doubt it they're still there after 2 weeks of almost solid rain. I'm chuffed that I got them to grow though and will be working on getting them out earlier next year.

These are 2 of the 3 beds on the other side of the plot, the first one is empty and will take the garlic when it's not so muddy (Tescos garlic as I can't find any to buy that won't cost me a fortune so we'll see how it goes!). The middle bed has Charlotte potatoes which are doing really well. I earthed up around them a bit and uncovered a few close to the surface by mistake but at least I know that they're growing! These should be ready in December and all 10 of them came up.

The farthest bed is onions which are doing well but need weeding now that I can see them. Again the rain has kept me from doing this properly and it will be one of the first jobs I do when I get down there next.

And finally the bounty! Big courgettes from all the water they've had, potatoes, half eaten turnips, last of the runner beans and parsnips which are really really lovely and smell wonderful when you dig them up!

I am hoping to get down the plot this weekend and do the weeding and some more tidying up such as taking down the pea netting and throwing the bean plants on the compost heap. The weeds to the quarter of the plot that's not been dug over are horrible but I'm ignoring them until Spring when they will be weedkilled, no point in doing it now really when I've no intention of doing any major digging for a while.

Once A Week

2005-10-03T00:36:00.000Z

Seems that I'm down to being able to visit the plot once a week at the moment, the weather is just awful and I can't drag a toddler down there in the rain, especially as he's decided that if we're out in the afternoon he no longer needs to fall asleep wherever we are, he just gets grouchy and irritable instead which doesn't help with the hoeing.

The plot is looking ok, still too many weeds but there's enough intended growth that I'm not unhappy with it. I still find it irritating that the bit that was rotovated is now all covered with weeds again, I was hoping to weedkill it yesterday but Frank wasn't there and the shop wasn't open. I managed to hoe and remove all the weeds from the bed intended for my garlic (when I find some to buy) and that was relatively easy, definitely easier than the digging involved to the unrotovated bits, so hopefully it won't get too compacted over the winter and when I'm ready to prepare it for the Square Foot beds it will be less time consuming.

In the greenhouse the peppers are still growing

I'm not sure that I'll actually see many of these grow to full size and change colour as the weather is turning chilly now, especially in the evenings. I will plant them earlier next year and hope that I get to eat some!

I'm still getting a good lot of runner beans, my freezer seems to be chock full of them! This is what I came home with yesterday

A few more courgettes as well, I need to make some courgette loaves for the freezer to clear the fridge of them. We're having Mung Beans with Courgettes as well this week so that should get me up to date with using them! I didn't really want to pick the turnips that small but something has been eating small round holes into them so I pulled the damaged ones and now have to find something to make with them. I see some vegetable and barley soup coming up for the freezer too, must clear out some blackberries and make that jelly and jam so I have more room!

The rhubarb is dying back, I picked one of the three pumpkins last week, there will be another ready next week I think, just a few small green patches on it. The Charlotte potatoes have come up really well and the onions are growing well too, need to hand weed those next week now I can see where they are. The other potatoes I'm not sure what is going on with them. The tops are dying back but the potatoes aren't ready under the ground. I dug the worst row up to see if I could tell what was causing the damage and I can't... I think those few baby potatoes I got will go in the soup! My cabbages are growing well, as are the cauliflowers that are left (I think I have 7) and the Kale is taking over the back of the plot, it's huge. I have never used Kale before so I hope to god we like it! The leeks are also finally having a growth spurt and the tops of the parsnips are starting to die down which apparently means that they're almost ready, yum!

So overall there's still plenty going on and although a lot is coming to an end I will have quite a bit in the ground over winter which is what I wanted. Now I just need to wait for the Organic Catalogue which is due this month and I can dream up and plan what I want to do next year.

Beans, beans and more beans

2005-09-14T10:47:00.000Z

Things at Plot C81 have slowed down somewhat now that there's not a lot of planting to be done. The rotovated side of the plot remains one third cultivated two thirds weeds making a comeback. I am trying not to let it depress me but it's hard not to feel horrible as I see what hard work it will still be as I just didn't have time to take care of it properly as soon as it was done. I have decided to put some weedkiller on it in the next few weeks and then ignore it until I need to plant it, when I will weedkill it again and then just deal with a small bit at a time rather than putting pressure on myself like I did with the other side!

Things are growing well, I didn't make it down to the plot for a week and ended up with a huge marrow on the courgette plant! We're getting a steady run of courgettes as well which is helpful.

My major excitement at the moment is that my 3 pumpkins are changing colour to orange and I also have about 5 orange peppers growing in the shed! I was convinced that I was going to just have pepper plants that didn't do anything (like the aubergine plants which are a waste of space really) but all of a sudden little peppers started to appear!

I am freezing bag after bag of runner beans which is lovely but a bit dull with the chopping and blanching! So now I know that 2 tee pees of beans will be plenty for us and I will be planting the same variety next year (Painted Lady) as they are very tasty.

All the stuff that's still in like parsnips, leeks, cabbages, cauliflowers, kale etc are coming along nicely as are the P' potatoes. Two weeks ago when my Mum was here she helped me put in 100 overwintering onions (50 red and 50 white) from Jane Lane, some Charlotte Potatoes to be dug up for Christmas and we filled in the spaces with some french bean plants which probably won't do anything but will at least give me something to hoe around!

I'm still intending on planting garlic next month so I need to buy some and prepare the bed for it. It needs digging over as it's weed covered but if I can get the weedkiller on in the next fortnight it should make it easier.

I gave up on the blackberry picking I admit, I just ran out of time. But I have enough in the freezer to make some blackberry jelly and apple and blackberry jelly so I will get around to that sometime soon!

Hopefully I will get up to the plot today or tomorrow and do some hoeing and picking and general tidying, I'm still trying for the twice a week which seems to be about right for this time of year, things have a chance to grow enough to be picked and hoeing is keeping the weeds down on the planted beds. I can up the visits during the planting season. Still thinking about the Square Foot Gardening and working on my list of things to grow. The Organic Catalogue doesn't come out until next month so no concrete plans until I see what's available. My Mum will be splitting a lot of seeds with me so we can save some money and my sister might come in on some potatoes. I have about 6 varieties I want to grow (early, early main, main, late main, salad, lates). The 2 beds I planted have lasted us about 3 months so 6 should just about do us for the year I think if I spread them out properly.

So, that's me for now, I will try and take some pictures if I remember to take the camera. I'm still enjoying the allotment, my only wish is that it was my back garden rather than a short drive away, I could get so much more done if I could pop out for half an hour here half an hour there rather than having to cram it all into 2 visits of a couple of hours each. Next house will definitely have a garden, but as that won't be for at least a year to eighteen months I will have to make do with the plot until then!

Forgot to add that my tomatoes are finally growing and some are turning red, I literally didn't have a red tomato until last week which made it annoying to read about everyone else harvesting them! They are mainly plum tomatoes which I don't think I'll bother with again, they don't seem to have many on them and are taking an age to ripen, but we'll see if they pick up now before making a final decision.

It's Raining It's Pouring

2005-08-29T00:00:00.000Z

I've been down to the plot twice in the last week and have managed to say about an hour in total! I've been picking runner beans in the rain and harvesting courgettes and the occasional bit of Rhubarb Chard (there's lots of it there but you don't want to eat it every day!) and that's about it. Today I hoed four of the beds to try and keep the weeds down a bit and then retired home.

I am hoping that it's just the rain making me feel plot depression again. The weeds are coming back on the rotovated bit quite vehemently at the moment which is horrid, especially as it's so wet and the soil is so loose there that to try and even walk on it would be stupid. The plastic bag covered bed hasn't worked and the weed suppressing fabric at the back has come up as it was just blowing everywhere and doing no good.

I really need it to stop raining so I can mark the final beds and get them covered and then get something into the already dug and marked beds so I can just work them the way I am the others, ie keeping them as weed free as I can and watering when needed. I have my eye on some more potatoes (for Christmas) and also some overwintering onions and the final new bed will get the garlic in it in a few months time just leaving the smaller Square Foot beds covered.

I should, all being well, only have about 2 empty beds on the other side over the winter waiting for the first lots of potatoes, I must find a better way to cover them to keep the weeds down though, it's just depressing as hell when all your hard work disappears under unwanted greenery.

I am hoping that once the beds are in and I have my plan all ready to go that the plot won't seem so big. I think it's just because it's empty open space that needs digging that it's feeling that way at the moment, once it's planted and I have something to look at and work around it should feel a bit more under control, afterall it only took me about 20 minutes to hoe the beds on one side of the plot.

My parents are here this weekend so I may have to drag them out there on Saturday (if there's no rain) and put them to work, this unmarked side of the plot has been bugging me for too long! I also want to finish off my list and plan this week so I can discuss seed sharing with my Mum (ie half a packet each to spread the cost!), still no sign of a 2005 Organic Seed Catalogue though, I requested it ages ago...

Still Going

2005-08-22T11:24:00.000Z

I made it down to the plot twice last week, the first trip was on Thursday evening when I went down after DH got in from work leaving him to sort dinner for himself and the small one. It was nice to be there when it was quiet and neither of my neighbours were burning things. To both ends of my plot I have neighbours who seem to delight in ruining my allotment experience by starting a bonfire whenever they're there which means that no matter what the wind does I always seem to have smoke over my plot which is really really irritating. So it was nice to have fresh air and also that the temperature was lower.

I worked away like a bit of a mad woman trying to get everything done so that I felt like I was finally 'caught up'. There always seem to be jobs to do that stop me from making progress and I wanted to get them out of the way. I did all the weeding, picked everything that could be picked and hoed everything I could. I also covered the empty quarter of the plot with the weed suppressing fabric so that I didn't feel like the weeds were taking over again, however it doesn't seem to do much good as I don't have enough heavy things to hold it down so it had blown all over the place when I got back.

Yesterday I dug over the second of the three beds I'd marked out on the second side, I found that it was actually easier to dig it than to rake it, and although I've definitely not gotten all the roots out I think I've done enough for now. I covered the bed with more of the weed suppressing fabric held down with a few bricks so I'm hoping that will work, we'll see I guess. I don't want to be in the situation of having to re-dig everything next year so I'm looking for a way to keep the weeds down to a minimum. I did the hoeing and a little weeding yesterday as well to keep the place tidy. I also did a bit of watering as it was awfully dry. We got rain in the early hours which was really needed, we're apparently in for more this week as well which will be nice as lugging water from the tap to the plot is hard work!

I took quite a few shots of the plot but the camera is playing up and only 2 came out. Here are the potatoes that we planted a few weeks back, doing quite well I think:

And these I'm really excited about, they are 2 of the 3 pumpkins I have on my plants!

Aren't they cute? :o) My butternut squash (she whispers in case it all goes wrong) are also still flowering and the plants are spreading so that could be good, but it might be a bit late for them to fruit now I think...

I have been working on my plans for next year as well. I made a list of everything that I want to grow and where I wanted to buy the seed. I started making a list of seed numbers from the Organic Catalogue and then realised that mine was from 2004 so I requested a new one and I will make the list once I get it! I'll obviously post here my plans as well!

So, next visit I have that 3rd bed to dig over and cover and then I want to mark out the square foot beds and get those dug and covered as well, hopefully before the weeds come back too much. It will be easier to do those 1 at a time though as they're so small, which is part of the point of trying it, it's supposed to cut down on your work a lot which would be nice!

I think next trip I will pull up the onions, I've no idea if they're ready yet or not, the tops have died off half of them and not the other half, but they're an ok size to use. I have no idea how I'll hang them though as a lot of them don't have leaves at all anymore... That bit of the bed is very very weedy (the only really weedy bit of my whole plot so I guess it's not that bad) so it's probably time to give up and get 'em out and use them as best I can!

Finally The Cabbage

2005-08-15T08:45:00.000Z

My cabbage were getting to be one of those things where, should I have ended up on my death bed in the last few weeks, my last words would have been 'but I've not spaced out the cabbages'! Each time I left the plot I'd think 'damn, I didn't do that cabbage bed again', and this went on for far too long. So, yesterday I made sure that I got it done, and I now have a bed with more cabbage plants than I thought I'd grown which is nice, hopefully they will keep going now they have more room to spread out!

I raked out the second of the new beds and covered it with plastic rubbish bags held down with various bits of wood etc that I could find about the place (I think may have made a mistake letting my cheapskate nature pick the rubbish bags and they may be a bit thin, I will reassess in a few weeks and if that's the case replace with more expensive bags!). Only about another 6 or so to go! I have decided that in the middle of the newly dug side of the plot I will do 6 4 foot x 4 foot beds to try out my square foot gardening, along with a couple of pit beds as outlined in the book for growing things vertically (I want to try a lot more squash etc next year and maybe some cucumbers as well!). Beyond those I may have room for 1 more regular bed, we'll see. My basic plan in my head is to grow potatoes (early, salad, regular and lates), onions, courgettes and garlic in the regular beds and try the rest of the veg in the Square Foot beds to see if it works. If I find I'm not getting anywhere with that I will still have enough room to get stuff into the bigger beds. The Square Foot Gardening book is really interesting reading. Obviously his growing season and weather is very different from ours, but the ideas are worth trying I think and I'm looking forward to getting my seeds and a bit of a plan together and having a go with it!

As for food off the plot at the moment, we're still getting courgettes, we're not over run though as I didn't get that many plants going. I'm actually disappointed about the courgette situation and will definitely be trying harder to get more plants next year as courgettes are used a lot in this house and can be expensive so they're a real way to save money, I wanted to get some in the freezer, we'll see if that happens. The potatoes are going down well and we had some smashing roast potatoes yesterday. We're also eating the Rhubarb Chard, or rather I'm putting it on all the plates but am apparently the only one partaking! I've got a few more peas, about enough for a serving for my 2 year old! It's very funny blanching a dozen pods worth of peas but I'm collecting them in the freezer until there's enough for us all to have some! We're also carrying on with the blackberry picking, we've got 7lbs in the freezer so far, my goal is 14 lbs for all the jam and jelly I want to do and then if we get a few lbs more on top of that I can use them for baking etc, seems silly not to be picking them as they'd just go to waste if we didn't.

On the growing front I have 2 pumpkins which is very exciting! They're about 3 inches across each at the moment, hopefully nothing will eat them and they'll carry on growing. A few of the turnip thinnings took and the turnip seeds and swede seeds have come up (either that or my weeds are growing in rows to confuse me!). The parsnips and leeks are growing well still and I have a few butternut squash plants growing well and flowering but no sign of squash yet. Funnily enough the Spaghetti Squash which were the ones that grew the fastest and strongest inside have all died when planted outside, I will be trying again with those though. The potatoes we stuck in are also growing well, there's a lot of them up already. The runner beans are flowering their hearts out, so there should be a good crop of those coming in soon, I may let 1 courgette grow huge so I can treat myself to 'marrow' and beans, I might put 1 marrow plant in next year as well and try and get DS going on marrow, DH doesn't like it and it's not worth growing them for 1 really. I think I will pull up the onions in the next dry spell we have, they're not huge but they'll do for this year, I will cover that bit of bed once they're up.

So, I still have a lot of work ahead of me this year getting the plot ready for next year and finishing off getting actual beds in the plot. Then there's the exciting bit of planning and buying all my seeds etc. I have a master list I made before I got the plot of what I'd like to grow and what month they're supposed to be ready in but ran out of time and beds this year. With all the beds ready I will be able to grow much more and try and plan it through the whole season, especially with the Square Foot thing if it works. The vertical growing is also exciting, I will be pricing up copper pipes during the winter and building frames with them as soon as the ground is soft enough to take them!

Wishing For More Time

2005-08-10T08:42:00.000Z

I really want more time to get down the plot, there is so much that needs to be done that I feel like I'm rushing from one job to another and not actually enjoying it very much at all. I had intended to go down at least one afternoon this week but as DS isn't well I'm not sure we'll make that.

Saying all that, Sunday was lovely, and I do feel like I got a lot done, but the fact that there's still so much more to be done kind of takes the shine off!

First I dug up all the potatoes. There weren't as many as I thought there would be which was a bit disappointing, but at least I know that I need to grow more next year! Then about a third of them have centipede damage, little holes all in them... I have taken out all those and put them to be used first as we can cut off the eaten bits and then hung the remainder up to dry out a bit in my net bag from the back of the kitchen door. I got a paper potato sack from my local fruit and veg shop so as soon as I figure out where to store the bag so that the dog doesn't eat through it and play with the potatoes like she enjoys doing I will take them down and put them away. There's enough there for at least a few months for us which is great!

I can't remember if I said that we planted the front bed with more potatoes? I can't find the slip of paper that had the name on it, they begin with a P. I was given them by another allotment holder and they had chitted well in a box in my shed so I figured as I had the space I may as well throw them in and see what happens!

I also got a few more courgettes on Sunday which is nice, we've not eaten them yet as we are a house of sick really and none of us feel like proper food, but I will get around to using them soon I'm sure! I had more of the Rhubarb Chard as well and have nailed how to cook it so it's lovely. Take a little olive oil and gently fry a chopped or squashed clove of garlic, add the roughly chopped chard and stir fry for a few minutes until wilted and then throw in some coarse sea salt. Yummy!

On an earlier visit I planted out the Cauliflower and Kale plants that I got at Tatton Park. I've lost a few of the cauli plants to something slimy, hopefully the rest will stay, but the Kale is still hanging in there and appears to be a bit bigger.

I finally hoed out the carrot bed as well and found that I have about 6 carrots growing in there! Now that it's weed free I threw in the rest of the seeds that I had open and will see if anything comes of it. I used B&Q Early Nantes 5, Morrisons Chantenay Red Cored 2 and Mr Fothergill's Autumn King 2. If they don't grow I will try another bed and something else next year.

In the newly empty (and thus newly dug over!) potato bed I planted some turnip seedlings given to my by my plot neighbour as he happened to be thinning his that day! I figured what the hey and threw in a packet of turnip seeds as well to see if I could get any, they were Thompson and Morgan Oasis, which very oddly say on them 'Unique - Tastes Like Melon'... Whether melon is a taste that will go well in a winter stew I don't know... As I had half the bed empty still I also threw in a packet of Swede seeds, B&Q Best Of All.

Next I weeded the courgette and squash bed again, I seem to have 1 little tiny pumpkin and 1 other pumpkin plant doing well. The Spaghetti Squash are giving up the ghost one at a time and the Butternuts aren't faring much better, but I tried. I have a few different varieties I want to try next year that I learnt about at the talk at Tatton and if they grow well down the road in Preston they should grow well here!

After that I got half the pea and bean bed weeded. I should have peas ready this week, they were still a bit too small in the pod when I opened one. I think that with what's on there I will have enough for one portion! :o) The runner beans are flowering all over the place so we should get a good crop of those I hope. The second planting isn't doing so well, looks like I left it a bit late.

My purple sprouting broccoli and regular broccoli seem to have died. I put them outside to get hardened a bit before going in the bed and lack of time getting to the plot meant that they didn't get watered during a dry spell... I think that I will be preparing and covering the beds rather than planting them (except for some spring cabbage and then garlic) as I'm a bit late for much to grow. I thought about the green manure idea but I think that as the major weeds I'm fighting are Mares Tail and Bindweed it would take a pretty major manure to outgrow them, so I'm best covering and trying to kill them that way.

I've been picking blackberries up the plots as well, I now have 3lbs in the freezer and will get another punnet each visit until I have enough for blackberry and apple jam and blackberry jelly, yum, nothing like free food you didn't even have to weed!

My Square Foot Gardening book is now on the way to me after an ordering mistake on my part (ordered an older version which of course they couldn't get hold of instead of the 'dispatches in 24 hours' new version) so I need to spend some quality time with that, my seed catalogue and a pen and paper planning my attack for next year. I would like to have something growing at all times if possible and that will take some organisation!

So, plans for next visit are more weeding and to get some of the new beds raked out before the weeds start growing back and it was a waste of money! I also need to buy more edging so I can mark the rest of the beds out but that may have to wait until after payday I think!

Whoops!

2005-07-31T14:50:00.000Z

Sorry for the long silence! Not sure where the last few weeks have gone to be honest, I haven't really done that much with the plot either, need to get my skates on (or wellies depending on the weather) and knuckle down, my back is still playing up though which is annoying and makes me very slow. I am seeing a physiotherapist on Tuesday about my hand problems so I will mention my back and see what she says.

I have had more potatoes from the plot, I need to correct myself and say that the first lot I dug up weren't the Maris Baird, they were Arran Pilot, the Maris Barid's seem to be being eaten by something which is annoying but they're still not bad spuds, I roasted some yesterday and we all enjoyed them! We've also eaten the first few courgettes which were fabulous and I tried some of the Rhubarb Chard finally as well and enjoyed it, I just wilted it in some oil with some garlic and it turned out really well!

Last Sunday my Mother and I went to the RHS Tatton Park Flower Show and had a really good time. We saw on the board as we walked in that there was a talk on growing vegetables so we made sure we went and were both really really pleased that we had! The talk was given by a lady from W Robinson and Son, I can't remember her name but I believe that she's 3rd or 4th generation in this vegetable growing family. She was incredibly interesting and we rushed over to their stall after the talk to have a look at the seeds and vegetables, they are the company responsible for a lot of mammoth vegetables! I bought a small pack of cauliflower seedlings, some red curly Kale and a packet of salad mix seeds. My Mother and I will be placing an order and splitting the packets next season though, they have some wonderful things that we both want to try growing! They're actually not that far from here so I may wander over when I'm preparing for the next lot of planting and save myself a bit of cash on their mail order prices (they offer a 25% discount if you got to see them!).

I also visited the stall for the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners and got 2 issues of the Journal and a few leaflets. I have to say I was a bit disappointed in the men on the stall though. I made a comment to one of them about a picture they had comparing it to my plot and instead of starting a conversation about allotments and 'oh, you've got a plot, where are you located?' or anything he simply made a short comment about the photo and turned away... Not sure they'll be getting my money from that display, but I will read the Journals before I make up my mind for sure!

Other purchases included more salad mix seeds (I *will* find some lettuce besides Iceburg that I like and can grow myself), a Grapefruit Mint, a Ginger Mint and some gardening magazines. We also walked away with a few packets of free seeds for bits and bobs and I bought some turnip seeds from the Thompson and Morgan stall (they were as uninterested as when we saw them at the Southport Flower Show last year..). I found a potting tray holder that I want to buy as well, it was reduced in price at the show but I didn't have enough money and didn't feel like carrying it either so I didn't get it there, hopefully they will have low prices when I look at their website, it will save me so much room in the shed!

All in all a great day out and well worth the £18 admission, I love it when at 4pm on the dot they start pulling the plants out of all the displays and selling them, you see people wandering about carrying all sorts!

So, I went down the plot the other day and had a short potter about and the man was starting to rotovate my plot for me! I didn't know whether he'd finish or not as the weather wasn't great and he was having throttle problems but this is what we saw when we got to the plot today:

Lots and lots of bare soil and roots! Hubby got to work on the first bed raking out the roots and I began the edging, when we left this is what we had done:

Hubby is off work tomorrow and Tuesday so we will be down there again, I have lots of seeds ready and stuff to go in and as we rake out each bed we will be planting. Some seeds are too late according to the packet but I want to get stuff in and see how it does, we've still got enough time before Autumn I think to get some growth.

So, I shall keep you up to date as we get on with this, the intention is that if we don't have anything to plant we will cover the bed with black plastic until we do and hope that keeps them clear.

I'm also starting to think about next year's planting, I think I'm going to start placing an order a month with the Organic Seed Catalogue so that I don't have to fork out all the cash at the same time. Still waiting for my bloody Square Foot Gardening book to arrive from Amazon though and as I want to try their methods I need to book to know how much to try and buy!

Anyway, I will shut up now and try and post more regularly so I don't have so much to say!

25 Quid

2005-07-18T14:24:00.000Z

That's what it's going to cost me to have half my allotment rotovated. I think it's a bargain, especially considering these facts:

- hire of a rotovator is over £100 for a weekend
- I would then have to do the rotovating myself, very hard work
- the plot needs weed whacking first
- I don't have a weed whacker which would mean more rental charges or me pulling stuff up or cutting it down manually
- weed whacking is included in the £25 quote

So, I'm one happy gardener, within the next fortnight I will double the number of beds on my plot and be able to plant up some more stuff which is exciting. I will also have to rake out each bed to get rid of whatever roots I can but that's much better than having to dig it by hand and pull all the roots out by hand. Considering how much regrowth I had of weeds after digging by hand I can't see how rotovating can make that number much worse, and without digging new beds to be done I can work on a rotsystemtm weeding each bed and keeping it under control. I need to invest in some black plastic for any beds I'm not going to use but I should be able to fill a few of them quickly.

We finally had some rain today which was a blessing, not nearly enough but it's a start! I must have been one of the very few people in the country saying 'yay, rain!' this morning! :o) I lost all my cauliflower seedlings to the heat along with a few pumpkin plants. I planted out 5 butternut squash in the place of the cauli and hopefully now that they've had some rain they won't die of heat exposure. Besides those casualties everything seems to be growing well, I dug more potatoes (Maris Baird are lovely, I will be growing them again!) and have some courgettes in mini form coming along nicely!

This week is going to be a busy one and my parents are coming to stay this weekend so I will probably only make it up the plot for a few hours on Saturday with my Mother and I don't expect to be able to visit in the week unless things suddenly fall into place with our decorating of the room my parents are to sleep in and we finish it off early rather than the expected hour before they arrive ala' Changing Rooms!

Here's hoping for more rain!

Better

2005-07-10T20:38:00.000Z

For those of you filled with fear that you can never make your plot look organised and clear(ish) of weeds take heart! Check the photos in the last post and then have a gander at these, this is what a few visits of hard work can achieve:

View from the back:

Next bed after the potatoes

This bed has courgettes (5 plants, mine didn't come up except for 2 of them), Rhubarb Chard at the front of the bed and at the back we now have Pumpkins attempting to grow up some netting. So far I've lost 2 out of the 9 I planted out to slugs or snails, I filled the gap left by one of those with a Spaghetti Squash plant and I'll keep doing that with the Spaghetti or Butternut plants if I loose more and until I get beds dug for those plants.

Next:

Peas to the front of the picture, I planted the other side on Friday afternoon so hopefully those will come up soon. To the back there are 4 tee pees of runner beans, the 3rd and 4th tee pees were put up and planted on Friday with Suttons Scarlet Emperor so we'll see how those do!

And on:

Who knew there were that many parsnips hiding amongst the weeds?? I spaced them out which is why some are sagging in that 'you moved me, I'm going to die now' sort of way, we'll see if they recover or not. The far end of the bed there are a whole 11 leeks! I think I need to plant more leeks and more parsnips next year, those won't get us far! Down the side of the bed is the rhubarb which is finally starting to grow, I picked a few bits on Friday but have yet to do anything with it. The middle of the bed has a few short rows of Rhubarb Chard in it now and I think I will stick in a few rows of carrots as well when I get a chance.

Finally:

The half and half bed! The back is all nice and clear and now houses 12 cauliflower plants (again I will need to grow more next year, although I lost a lot in the shed whilst waiting for somewhere to plant them), the front is full of weeds and has lettuce in it, I picked 2 today so I shall give them a try tomorrow. The middle of the bed is sort of half full of weeds and half full of cabbage seedlings. I planted these a while back but as the seed packets are on the computer table I don't think I've documented them! I put in Unwins January King 3 and Unwins Kitchen Garden Resolution F1 Hybrid which is a Savoy and purply in colour. I have to say that the Hybrid seeds were disappointing in that they cost £2.99 and there were very very few in the packet. Unless they all grow really really well I don't think I'll be buying them again. The seedlings are doing well, once I've weeded the bed out and eaten the lettuce I will space them out.

Here's a nice view from the other end of the plot:

I have to admit that clearing, putting the sting back out and sticking the fork in the ground was as far as I got with that new bed, but I shall do some digging this week amongst the weeding! The new bed will be for the Spaghetti Squash which are flowering in the shed...

Talking of the shed I didn't get a picture but the peppers are growing really really fast. The aubergine seedlings have come up and the last remaining mini plant from Jane Lane is doing well. I have 2 trays of purple sprouting broccoli (no bed!), the butternut squash plants (no bed!) and a few trays or regular broccoli (guess what? no bed!).

So, I'm happy with it now, I still have a long way to go but things are growing, I can see soil instead of weeds and I'm hoping that it won't ever get as bad as it has been recently, but I'm sure it probably will. Seeing how few of each type of vegetable I'm going to actually have I've realised how much space I will need if I grow veg 'conventionally' so I've ordered the Square Foot Gardening book and will give that a go once I've got all this lot in. I have some bean seeds I can experiment with!

I started working on the carrot bed today as well, I found 5 tiny Purple Dragon carrots and not very many of any others. Not sure if it's the position, the seeds or the weather so I will hoe it all out and try to plant a few more rows and see what happens, even if I only get small ones it's better than nothing!

What has made me happiest this weekend with the plot though is this:

My husband was probably more excited than me, he kept shouting 'there's one' whenever I unearthed a spud! I have had a few plants with various things wrong with them (which is why I dug so many up, those will last ages!) and a couple of rotten spuds but nothing to worry about I don't think. I am amazed at how big the spuds are though, I expected lot of new potatoes and instead we're getting really good sized ones. Not a huge amount per plant, all that lot probably came from 6 plants, but I have about 15 plants left of the Maris Baird and then a whole bed of the second lot! Once I've dug all these I'm going to shove in the freebie potatoes I got from a fellow plotter, may as well see if it works, I will make sure I plant them elsewhere next year though!

Long Time No Post

2005-07-03T08:58:00.000Z

Clare over at Pumpkin Soup posted a bit back about how to fit in working on the plot and to feel like you're doing it justice. I've been feeling a lot like this recently, especially when the unworked site of my plot greets me each time I visit looking like this:

Then you have this kind of thing going on in the shed:

And no sign of a bed to put them in....

After a fortnight or so of struggling with what to do and feeling guilty I have come to the conclusion that, despite swearing I never would, I fell into the beginners trap of thinking that I could do it all the first year. What I am going to endeavor to do now is to plant what I have in as few beds as possible and then work slowly on getting the rest of the site under control and find stuff that I can plant later in the season in them.

I am also trying to look at what I have done, which includes growing my first potatoes:

Some pepper plants:

Almost managed to get 1 side of the plot under control (it's better than this now, these photos are from the 25th June):

Recently I have been doing a lot of weeding, you can see why from this picture of a half weeded onion bed:

And finally, a picture of my bean and pea bed with the courgette bed in the foreground, and the reason why I decided (and have now) that bark paths were the way to go!

I had a flash last night, after spending yesterday morning weeding the courgette bed, that there is an awful lot of space in that bed not being used due to the fact that I only had 3 plants come up and 3 given to my by a friendly fellow plot holder, so I am going to risk moving 1 or 2 of the plants so that I can use the them empty end of the bed for the cauliflower seedlings I have ready.

Hubby almost finished digging the cabbage bed, I will hopefully finish that off in a short while and then I can get going on the next bed where the spaghetti squash will live. I am also thinking that if I can find carrots in the carrot bed the first 6 rows or so can come out and I will stick in some of the pumpkin plants with some sort of structure for them to grow up, no point wasting the space.

I also ordered myself a copy of Square Foot Gardening as I have decided that I'd like to give it a go next year. My aim is to have a year round plot providing most of our veg and not having the time or space for a huge garden square foot sounds a good way to go.

Anyway, must go and pull on the old clothes and get down the plot again. Now that I've decided that I was being unreasonable and there's nothing wrong with only going twice a week as long as I work hard while I'm there I feel so much better about it all. Plus getting rid of the weeds so I can actually see what I've done makes a huge difference. Obviously everyone is fighting the weeds and has lots of jobs to do as the car park was totally full yesterday!

Slacker

2005-06-14T13:33:00.000Z

I have to admit that I seem to have run out of steam when it comes to the allotment. I really want to get work done on it and make progress but my enthusiasm for the hard work, especially the digging, has come to a complete stop it seems.

Last week I only went down on Thursday to water as it had been really hot all week, I think half the lettuces are dead but we will see as this week so far it's all rain... Sunday I went down for about 2 hours, I managed to dig about 3 widths of the bed, do some hoeing, some weeding and plant up the peppers into bigger pots. Asda have pots big enough for tomato plants for 59p each, I'm off up there again soon for more as I used up all the ones I'd bought and I will have to move the peppers up again (I have 3 in a pot at the moment, I have no idea how big pepper plants grow but judging by the size of peppers I would say I will end up with 2 to a pot maximum), I have some basil plants wanting a tub and hopefully the aubergine seeds will come up. I think I may have to find some shelving for the shed as with all that I'll run out of floor space soon!

The good news of the plot is that everything appears to be growing which is nice, although not as much of it as I hoped, I guess I need to plant more next year to allow for the seeds that don't come up etc. I only have about 3 courgette plants up so far which is worrying, I am hoping for more soon, if I don't see any in the next week or so I will plant some seeds in pots and hope I can get them out and into the ground in time for them to be worthwhile, we eat a lot of courgettes and they're expensive so this was a crop intended to save us money.

Something I have been thinking about is how much room I will need in a garden when we eventually move to grow almost all our own veg. Even thinking about planting things a couple of times a year (onions, cauliflower, cabbage etc) I will need a lot more space than I ever thought. I am going to buy a book on Square Foot gardening soon and I will try it out on the plot next year and maybe over the winter and see what the results are.

We have the Council doing their inspection of the site on Friday and from what I've read my plot doesn't meet standards at all... It's supposed to be 75% cultivated, I am about up to half now, I should be 2 beds further on but there you are... Rubbish is supposed to have been moved off the plot, well Frank said there would be a skip at some point so not to worry about the rubbish so mine is still there waiting. I'm supposed to burn what I can, but my short trips with a toddler in tow and a fear of setting the whole place on fire have prevented that. Finally, my hedge is supposed to be 4 foot high and cut back so that the path to the side of it is clear. I can manage to trim the side but the hedge is probably about 7 foot tall, you can't tell me it grew 3 foot in 1 year surely??? It's the same species as we have in front of our house which is in need of a trim, but until it's dry for a couple of days there's no way I'm out there with the battery powered hedge trimmer, safety first! I am hoping for no rain tomorrow so I can go down and see if anyone else has cut their hedge, it's getting really hard to get down to my plot at the moment as things are so overgrown so it's not just me with the large hedge, I will also see if there's anyone about to ask about whether I should be worried about not meeting regulations, I don't want to be blase about it and get chucked off the site after all my hard work!

Busy Busy Busy

2005-06-06T00:57:00.000Z

Yesterday was the first day I made it down to the plot after a week of rain and apathy! For some reason I seemed to be very popular yesterday with the other plot holders as well! The man who has the plot next to mine gave me all his old leeks (solid on the inside but I've enough in the freezer now for 2 stews from the outside leaves so not bad) along with some cabbage seedlings and some lettuce seedlings and some seed potatoes he found in his shed! Then the lady who runs the plot shop came along with a tray of large lettuce seedlings for me and promises to hunt down a water butt from one of the empty plots as the rubbish bin I'm using seems to have a hole in it! I couldn't bear to tell her that I had no plans for lettuce on the plot and that I had just planted mine in tubs outside my back door (come and come again plants) so I now have lettuce in the bed that is supposed to have cabbage in it but I'm still digging!

Frank also popped by and was very useful in pointing out what were actually plants rather than weeds! I'd just about given up on the parsnips but he showed me which they are and I have a good few short rows of them growing, I could finally clear up the weeds around them to give them some space which was nice. I also have some leeks coming up, not many but they'll do, and apparently amongst the huge weed patch there are carrots growing!

So, after handling all the visitors and new plants I did manage to get some work done, I dug about another 2 foot of the cabbage bed which is now about 1/3 done. I finally potted up the pumpkin plants into the empty margarine tubs I'd been collecting and planted some aubergine seeds in a tray (Suttons Black Beauty) as I am now down to 1 plant and it's looking a bit ropey. I watered everything in the shed, it's all coming along really well, which panics me a bit as I need to spend more time digging so I can plant it outside!

Outside I planted another 2 rows of carrots (Early Nantes and Purple Dragon), earthed up the second lot of potatoes, edged the pea and bean bed, hoed the beds where I could to clear some weeds out, planted 2 tee pees of runner beans and one side of peas. I'm going to need more runner bean seeds, I'm using Painted Lady by Unwins and I'm only going to have enough for half of 1 more tee pee so I think I will hunt down a different variety. My peas are Unwins Organic Rondo.

I was really enjoying myself but it was after lunchtime and I was starving so I left the plot and came home. Today it looks like rain and I've learnt not to try and do too many heavy days in a row digging as it's counter productive so I will hope that there's no rain tomorrow and we'll head down there and try and get on with the digging. When I've done a few more feet I'm going to plant another 2 rows of the Chard and then plant the cabbage seeds as they will need to grow for a bit and then be transplanted and hopefully by the time they're ready for that the lettuce will be eaten and the chard will form a nice border between the 2 varieties I'm growing.

Really have to get on digging as this month I'm supposed to be getting the Cauliflower and Broccoli in a bed, the pumpkins in and 1 lot of the squash (or both squash depending on how the seedlings are doing) and I'm still working on a bed that should have been dug last month!

I finally got the spring onions in their tub in the back yard yesterday as well, so I think I had a pretty good day! :o)

Lovely Afternoon

2005-05-31T11:21:00.000Z

I got to the plot just before 2 yesterday and the first time I looked at my watch it was 4.30! I had a really enjoyable time, even though it was a busy one, I went from one job to another and enjoyed the time there. I have discovered that borrowing my husbands MP3 player makes my time at the plot more focused, I do enjoy the silence at times (well the road noise and on a school day the small children screaming and whistles blowing at the school nearby!) but at other times I need something to keep me going, especially when digging, and if I can have a sing along with a good tune whilst turning over this:

then all the better!

You can just about see, if you put your nose almost on the screen, the amount of roots in that bit of turned soil. I'm removing a bucketful of crap per 2 foot row I dig, it's very hard going, especially as the soil was so dry yesterday. I did manage to dig about 2 foot of the cabbage bed though so I'm on my way, although it's supposed to be finished today, started off the month so well with the digging plants and then it all went awry!

I did my shopping trip to B&Q, I really need to learn to think things through though, I bought 4 thingies to hold my canes in tee pees, they require 6 canes each, I also knew I needed about 7 canes for the pea netting... So, I'm sure you're all intelligent readers, why did I only buy 20 canes??? Good job I only intended to plant 2 tee pees now and the other 2 in a few weeks to extend the runner bean crop a bit 'eh? I will nip back and pick up some more canes soon, I'm using 6 foot canes as it would have been impossible to get them in the car and also I'm not hugely tall so erecting stuff with 8 foot canes would have been a nightmare on my own!

So I put up the 2 tee pees and the pea netting but ran out of time to plant anything there. I also carried a few watering cans of water up from the tap, earthed up the first bed of potatoes and hoed (and managed to hoe up a row of carrots by mistake, opps). Still got quite a few bits on my list to do, but I'm hoping that I can make it down to the plot again today as DH is still off work so he can watch crap tv while little 'un sleeps!

Here's a view of the cultivated side of the plot before I put up the tee pees and pea netting:

From the back to the front we have potatoes, more potatoes, courgettes, runner beans and peas, rhubarb with parsnip and leeks, the bed I've just started digging (for cabbage) and the front bed which will be for broccoli or cauliflower, can't remember!

Hope everyone got lots of work done in the nice weather!

10 out of 10 for planning, 2 out of 10 for execution!

2005-05-27T16:24:00.000Z

Today was the first day I've managed to get down to the plot all week, the weather kept fooling me, looked like it was going to pour down and then cleared up as soon as the small boy was asleep.

So, shall we revisit the list and see if I've accomplished anything?

1. Plant up 2 tubs of lettuce in the back yard (red and green salad bowl lettuce).

Check!

2. Plant up 1 tub of spring onions in the back yard.

Nope, realised I am running short on containers and need to buy a trough to plant these in.

3. Buy canes for runner bean tee pees and pea net, small bottle of weedkiller for spraying close range on paths and more 4" pots for pumpkins.

Not bought canes yet, am making shopping list for shopping tomorrow, however I discovered I have enough empty margarine containers that I can use for the pumpkin.

4. Finish off bed and edge.

Finished the bed today, will edge next visit.

5. Start digging next bed.

I pulled up all the big weeds and raked over the first bit of the bed that I plan to dig, so preparation work has been done, digging will commence next trip.

6. Erect runner bean tee pees and plant 1st runner beans.

I've decided that I am going to makes 1 long bit of netting over canes instead of tee pees and separate pea netting, canes are on shopping list, netting I have.

7. Erect pea netting and plant first lot of peas.

See number 6.

8. Plant up cauliflower and broccoli.

Check!

9. Plant up pumpkins.

Saving this for a digging break next visit, I also need more compost.

10. Start taking pots for peppers to the plot (can only take 1 at a time when I have DS with me).

Have taken the 1 I can spare, more pots are on the shopping list.

11. Close range weedkilling on paths to see if I want to carry on with bark or have bare paths.

On the list! Still can't decide on more bark or just leaving the paths. However, the bark does look nicer and needs less maintenance, but it's expensive to cover the amount I need to cover... Am still pondering.

12. Read books and decide whether or not I need to earth up the potatoes yet and if so get on with it!

Still need to do the reading and the digging if necessary. The second lot of potatoes are up and doing really well now!

So, actually I didn't do as badly as I thought I had, 1 shopping trip, more digging and some potting up and I will have done everything. Not sure I'll get the bed done by the end of the month but at least I will be working on it.

I still can't see any carrots, parsnips or leeks coming through. Not sure what to do really... The carrots I will plant another few rows next visit and hope those come through, but I don't know how long to give the leeks and parsnips before hoeing them up and trying again.

The weeks are a real pain at the moment, they just keep coming no matter what I do, I hoe each time I'm there and the next visit there are more to contend with... It's only natural after how long the land has been unused but still irritating, although I've found I don't mind using the hoe which is good news!

Hopefully I will get down the plot twice more this long weekend, depending on the weather of course!

More Plodding

2005-05-23T09:16:00.000Z

I only managed 2 trips to the plot this week, the first trip I got a bit of digging done, some hoeing, a bit of water carrying and some general pottering in before little boy decided it was time to go home.

Yesterday I went down on my own for about two and a half hours and dug more of the second of this month's beds (not sure how I'm going to finish this one and dig another one before the month ends but I will keep trying!) and while there was a rain shower I planted up 10 Spaghetti Squash and 10 Butternut Squash into 4 inch pots. I have no idea where I would plant 10 of each, I think I will probably have room for 5 of each plant in the beds I'm planning for them, but I just can't bear to throw away healthy plants, especially when I've grown them!

The broccoli I planted into the compartment trays is still alive so I will plant the other tray out as well and then do the cauliflower as well as that's a bit crowded. I have also planted 3 trays of purple sprouting broccoli (B&Q seeds) for planting out in June or July in one of the last beds. Also bought seeds for French Beans for another of the final beds, I have some Blue Lake Bush Bean seeds but wanted to try another variety as well.

So, plans for this week are as follows:

1. Plant up 2 tubs of lettuce in the back yard (red and green salad bowl lettuce).

2. Plant up 1 tub of spring onions in the back yard.

3. Buy canes for runner bean tee pees and pea net, small bottle of weedkiller for spraying close range on paths and more 4" pots for pumpkins.

4. Finish off bed and edge.

5. Start digging next bed.

6. Erect runner bean tee pees and plant 1st runner beans.

7. Erect pea netting and plant first lot of peas.

8. Plant up cauliflower and broccoli.

9. Plant up pumpkins.

10. Start taking pots for peppers to the plot (can only take 1 at a time when I have DS with me).

11. Close range weedkilling on paths to see if I want to carry on with bark or have bare paths.

12. Read books and decide whether or not I need to earth up the potatoes yet and if so get on with it!

I think that's probably enough to be getting on with for now, watch it pour with rain all week now! :o)

Courgettes Away!

2005-05-16T11:30:00.000Z

I went down the plot yesterday morning, got there at 9.30 and was the first car in the car park, although there were a few people there who had arrived on cycle or foot so I wasn't actually the first (still felt good though)!

I finished off the bed I was working on, put in the edging and planted 2 rows of Leaf Beet Rhubarb Chard from Suttons and my courgette seeds which were Unwins Tristar (yellow, light green and dark green fruit) and Unwins Organic Black Beauty. I probably should have planted 2 beds of them, I have room for 10 plants in 1 bed (12 without the chard but I wanted to try it). I may try putting a couple of the thinned plants in the middle of the bed to see if that works and it's not too crowded. I'm realising that to grow all your own food you need a lot of room! I only planted 2 lots of onions which will last maybe 3 months, I could probably do with another bed of potatoes to last a whole year and a whole bed of most vegetables really, but I will stick in as much as I can as something is better than nothing!

I remembered to dig a hole and plant the Chamomile yesterday as well which is Suffolk Herbs Wild German Chamomile. I also finally figured out where the mint smell is coming from, obviously a previous owner planted some near the shed and it's now gone wild and is everywhere around there so when you walk in and out of the shed you get a lovely mint smell! I'd been trying to narrow it down to 1 plant and couldn't find it and that's why!

My ratty enemy seems to have not dug another hole, at least not out the top of the compost heap anyway, so I did a half hearted turning of the heap. To turn it properly I will need to stand in the container and I'm not quite brave enough for that yet, perhaps if there's no sign of rodents for a few weeks more I will get up the nerve! It's nice to see that it is rotting though, I was worried that I was just making a rather large rubbish heap!

I also made a small start on the next bed which is runner beans and peas. I have decided to plant as I go with this bed, so when I get to the halfway point I will be wrestling with canes to put together some teepees for my beans! I think I can get 4 teepees in there so I will plant up 2 of them right away and the other 2 at the start of next month. Same with the peas, I will assemble the netting but only plant half of it right away. I seem to have found my digging stride and a method that works for me. I dig across the bed widthways in 4 to 5 forkfuls and then get down on my knees and pull out the roots and sift the soil before digging the next row, emptying the bucket and starting to root about in the ground again. It's moving much faster and seems to be working much better than digging 1 bit and then kneeling over and over again and is much easier on the back. The courgette bed has very few weeds coming up in it whereas the previous beds dug by the old method are rife with weeds. Anything to make it quicker, easier and more effective!

When this bed is done I will have a run of 5 beds in a row and the plot will start to look a lot better to me I think. I'm excited that by the end of next month half of the plot will be done and I will hopefully have made a start on the other side!

Plans for this week are more digging (surprise surprise!) and planting the broccoli into bigger trays and the squash and pumpkin into individual small pots which I will go and buy after payday along with a few more bags of bark.

The weather was lovely all weekend but today we have rain which we actually could use as the beds are very very dry (at least on the top, they're still moist when you dig down which is good news). My back needs a break anyway so I will be looking at Wednesday for my first trip down to the plot this week.

lol, have been trying to figure out why the spell checker doesn't like the word 'courgette' and has no repalcements for it, but of course they're called zucchini in America and Blogger is a US system!

Uninvited Guest

2005-05-12T11:23:00.000Z

I have something living in my compost heap that digs holes bigger than a mouse would need. This is worrying, and also very scary, I have no idea how I will get up the nerve to try and make it move out, I have visions of a rat throwing itself at my face trying to defend it's new home with plentiful vegan leftovers to eat, plus coffee grounds to make it strung out and caffeine hyperactive... My composting book says that I need to turn the heap and wet it, this should hopefully make said rat think it's not such a nice neighbourhood, and I know that this is what I need to do, I need to turn the heap anyway, but the fact that there could be a rat in there, and perhaps rat babies, or several rats, scares the bejeezus out of me. I must get it sorted though before they start having loud parties and bringing down the tone in the neighbourhood and the neigbours start talking, I don't want to be the one bringing the vermin in... I will try and get up the nerve by the weekend when I can go on my own and I won't scare the little boy by screaming at anything that moves and leaping away from the heap over and over until the job is done... Ick.

I discovered on Sunday that going to plot each and every moment that I can is actually not such a good idea. When I got there Sunday I hadn't been for a few days and I managed to get a ton of digging done as I wasn't worn out from previous days digging. I have decided that my aim will be 3 times a week, perhaps 4 if the weather is great and things are cropping. I have managed in 2 trips to almost finish the chard 1 and courgette bed, the seeds are in my bag ready to go down, and the bed will be finished on my next visit. Then it's onto runner beans and peas, followed by cabbages 1 at the end of the month.

Things are doing well in the shed. I have all my pepper varieties up, both types of squash and my pumpkins. I am thinking of moving the broccoli into bigger trays so that it can stay growing indoors later, the bed for it isn't due to be dug until next month so there's nowhere for it to go! Same with the squash, I am going to go and buy some small pots and grow it on for as long as I can in the shed to give me time to dig a space for it!

I planted another 2 rows of carrots yesterday, although I can't see any carrots coming up yet from the previous 4 rows which is a bit worrying. I planted a row of Chantenay Red Cored from Morrisons and a row of Autumn King 2 by Mr Fothergill. I have room next to that for another 2 rows and I'm thinking I will stick a few more rows in here and there whenever I have a little bit of space, you can't have enough carrots in this house, we seem to go through them at a rate of knots!

I need to dig a small patch and throw in my chamomile seeds, keep forgetting to do that. I intend to just keep trimming it and drying it for herbal teas. I also had a look at the list of herbs I made that I wanted to grow and it appears that I'm still a couple short, I need Chives and Marjoram, so I will have a look about for some and get it in pots. The herbs from Jane Lane are doing really well, I used the Thyme last night and it was lovely! I've lost 1 Roma tomato plant, so I will move 1 from a pot into the grobag to fill the space. I've also definitely lost 1 of the aubergine plants (the other 2 are growing slowly) so I can use that empty space for a pepper plant or 2 when they're ready.

Just had a look at my master plan (moved the squash and pumpkin beds to the front when they're ready to be dug as they will need water and it's silly to carry it further than I need to) and have decided that I will plant Sprouting Broccoli and French Beans in June. Anything else I can plant that time of year besides lettuce? I prefer to grow lettuce in the yard as I can water it each day, at the plot there are more things to eat it and less chance of it getting watered at all considering that my plot is 3rd back from the tap and I can't afford a hose that long! I could also have a bed in July for something (the last bed, yippeee!) but my list for July is all harvesting except for the sprouting broccoli and french beans and I don't think I'll need more than 1 bed of each of those! Maybe I could put some fruit in that final bed? Suggestions appreciated!

So, I feel a bit better about my progress and am relieved that I can actually dig the beds to schedule, I just need to make sure I don't wear myself out, which is what I was doing, and then I can make good progress each visit instead of feeling like I'm getting nowhere. I looked into the rotovator and we just can't afford the rental fees for one so it looks like the trusty old fork will just have to keep working, it's earnt it's purchase price several times over considering I bought it in the sale for £4.99!

Whose Idea Was This Anyway?

2005-05-04T15:54:00.000Z

I admit I am quickly loosing my will to live when it comes to digging. The weeds seem to be getting worse rather than easier to deal with (you think after the practice I'd be getting faster but I seem to be slower...) and seeing the weeds on the other side of the plot growing more and more each time I visit but not having time to do anything about them is starting to depress me majorly... Add to that the fact that my son seems to have decided that yelling rather than sleeping is the order of the day while we're at the plot and you have a very frustrated person who dug about 1 and a half foot of a four foot wide bed today during the hour that she was allowed to spend there before the yelling had to be stopped (he's fast asleep now in his bed, I'm considering taking the travel cot to the plot and sticking it in the shed!). Plus the fact that I'm doing this all totally on my own, I think it's too much work for 1 person with all these time restraints to handle.

I am almost totally convinced that I will be trying to rent a rotovator soon. I figure that it will be easier to rake and pull out roots than to have to turn all the soil as well, and even though the roots of he weeds will be shredded the bits that I have basically double dug sprout new weeds within 2 days of me finishing so what difference is it really going to make besides improving my state of mind a bit?

I am also thinking that as I only intend to work this plot 2 years tops (when we intend to leave the area and hopefully get a garden so I don't have to drive to my veg) I am wondering why I am working so hard at getting it absolutely perfect. I figure that as long as I have the weeds somewhat under control (ie I can see what's veg and what's not and the weeds aren't strangling the plants) that I would much rather be hoeing than digging any day of the week. Plus I will be able to plant more than I have in my plan which will mean that we get more veg out of the plot as well, which would be a bonus.

So, does anyone know of a national company that rents these things cheaply and how long do I need to rent one for and how hard will it be? I will be asking around at the plot to see if anyone knows anywhere too, I'm sure I saw one in the store so I'm hoping that there will be an offer of free usage!

Here are some long awaited (not!) photos of the plot.

First the inside of my shed where you can see sort of the seed trays, I now have 3 spaghetti squash up and doing well (another need for the rotovator, things are growing much faster than anticipated and I can't dig fast enough to have beds to plant them in ready when they will be needed). On the floor under the straw is the grobag with the aubergines in it, some ugly horrible slimy thing ate one of the plants thus the straw, I'm hoping it will recover. The hanging basket thingy has my basil in it. What you can't see is that to the left is a high workbench (I pot under my chin!) and a small old bedside drawer cabinet with my hand tools in it.

This is a general overview of the plot from the currently un-dug side. The un-dug side will be a mirror image of the dug side when it's done, same number of paths and beds etc.

Another long view of the plot, you can sort of see how things will hopefully shape up by the beds and paths that are already there

This is the back bed which has potatoes coming up in it at one end, carrots in the middle (just starting to poke through) between the brick markers and my onions in the camera end. The bed to the left is the bed I just finished off the other day which now has potatoes in it as well.

This is the bed I'm working on at the moment (minus the foot and a half I dug today) looking towards the rhubarb bed. Between the two is another bed waiting to be dug.

and this is the same thing but from the other direction.

I guess what I'm feeling now is that I just want to be growing things. I do understand that the digging is important and necessary etc etc etc, but as I said I'm feeling that this is a lot of effort for something that isn't long term, if this were my own garden I'd be out there sieving the soil and digging deeper to get the roots out fully, but as it's not and it's cost me money I want to get the most out of it as soon as I can and I think it will be far more enjoyable to be growing plants rather than always coming home looking like I've been rolling in the soil, I'm sure the other plot holders wonder what I've been doing to get that dirty!

Bed 3 Finito!

2005-04-29T17:35:00.000Z

I finally finished off digging the 3rd bed on the plot, this one is for the second lot of potatoes which are looking very sad in my spare room at the moment. I hope they actually grow after all this!

The weather was fab here today, the car park at the allotments was almost full! My son had a good run around the plot and got thoroughly dirty, and of course ran across most of the stuff I'd planted, but I don't think he did much harm! He also had a play with the child's rake which was one of the 3 kids tools left in the shed by the previous occupiers, I thought it was the least dangerous for a 2 year old to run about with!

The broccoli has gone mad, it looks like a tray of cress now. I will wait a little bit before thinning it (I hate thinning, I always feel awful that I grew something and then killed it). I also have cauliflower up and the basil is starting to poke through so all good news there.

We didn't stay too long as I was supposed to have a tetanus shot this afternoon, I thought it best to top it up due to all the junk I'm pulling out of the ground at the plot. However by the time I got out of the shower little boy had crashed out in bed and I didn't have the heart to wake him so I will have to make another appointment.

So, as long as the weather holds the second lot of spuds will be in the ground this weekend and the next bed begun (a day or so ahead of schedule no less!). That is if I can get the bloody edging to stay in the ground, I actually had a rage today at it as it just won't stay put, I will try again tomorrow at the start rather than at the end when I'm tired, I think I will have to dig it in a bit. Once that's done the path can go down and I will have to save my pennies to buy more bark as that will be the end of what I have in the shed.

Hope everyone is having nice productive sunshine! I promise I will try and remember to take the camera over the weekend!

Back Yard Gardening

2005-04-27T16:08:00.000Z

I've not made it down to the plot so far this week, I am hoping to tomorrow if the rain holds off, we'll see!

I have been working away in the back yard though, we have a small walled area as wide as the house and about 10 foot deep and for ages it's just had a few sad looking plants in it! Normally around this time of year I would hit the garden centre with a list of how many empty pots I had and buy some flowering plants and brighten the place up, but the year after I had my son I didn't do anything with the yard (I had bought the plants before I had him, 2 years ago yesterday(!) but once they'd died that was it!) and then last year I was overtaken by courgette and tomato plants and very little else.

On Monday I replanted all of my larger trees and plants that were screaming for more room and did a general tidy up and throwing away of bits and bobs. Yesterday morning my box of plants arrived from Jane Lane so when all the Birthday celebrations were over I planted up the herbs and they now look like this

We still have a coriander to come which will go on the second row, and more Basil which will go down to the plot.

Today I planted up the tomato plants, 10 Roma and 3 Red Alert

and

In the background in front of our purple wheelie bin (Liverpool CC's colour is purple) are my 3 pots of garlic, and before you ask I do know that garlic doesn't grow up canes, but I have 2 cats who like to use my tubs for other things, thus the canes to keep them out and stop them digging things up (but not eating the top of all the plants...).

I also planted up 2 tubs with Unwins Organic Moneymaker tomato seeds and 3 hanging baskets and 3 small wall baskets with Unwins Patio Garden Pearl tomato seeds, so we will see how they all do. Lord knows where I'll be putting them all if I do get a good batch of plants, last year we had tomato plants 3 deep in places!

The strawberry plants that Frank gave me are planted up and next to the grow bag stand so we will see how those do. I am also wondering where the hell I am going to grow lettuce, I think it will be in pots again rather than grow bags as they take up less space, but where I'll put them I don't know. I could really do with another stand, I will have to look about for one as the 3 I have were all presents!

Anyway, it's all progress and after the short break from the plot I feel more ready to go and do a bit more digging, even with these days 'off' I'm still on schedule, I have until the end of the month to finish the 3rd of the bed that's left.

Plod Plod Plod

2005-04-24T18:41:00.000Z

I spent some nice sunny hours down the plot this afternoon, but didn't really make much progress in terms of digging, I still have a third of the bed left to do and it feels like it's taking forever to do the one bed, more and more buckets of weeds coming out but very few feet of nice cleared beds appearing.

I filled up the water butt by walking back and forth with a big watering can I found in the rubbish heap on the plot. I am using a black rubbish bin as my water butt as it was there and I can't afford another one! I figure that the weather will only get warmer so it was best to get water onto the plot while I felt like it, I can't afford a hose long enough yet.

I watered the leeks, parsnips and all the bits in the shed today. The broccoli has gone mad, there's tons of it up now, not sure what I'm going to do with it for a month as the bed for it isn't due to be dug for another month!

Frank did leave the strawberries and I did bring them home, I will put them in some pots where I can see them so I remember to give them water. I also need to plant my tomato seeds and sort out pots for the plants that should be arriving soon from Jane Lane.

So, besides a small bit of digging, water carrying and some general pottering that was it for today. I hope I get another burst of enthusiasm and get more beds dug soon!

Slowly Making Progress

2005-04-23T16:31:00.000Z

I managed a few hours on my own down the plot today, the weather wasn't bad, not too hot but not cold enough that I needed a jumper on.

I have finally completed the rhubarb bed and planted the Leeks. They are Carentan 2 from the Unwins Organic range. I put down the edging and then did the second path so that bit looks all neat and tidy. I have to admit that I didn't dig up any of the weeds under the weed control fabric, just slapped it down and put the bark on top of it, hopefully it will be ok.

I then did the end of the second potato bed, I'm just under halfway with that bed, but the next bit involves clearing big clumps of grass away, I will tackle that next time.

There are actually tiny little broccoli plants coming up in the seed tray in the shed, I was really shocked that they came up so fast!

Frank, the Site Secretary, popped by as well to see how I was getting on. Apparently the weeds from hell that I have been digging up are Mares Tail which is annoying but not much I can do but keep digging it up. He has offered me some strawberry plants which is very nice of him, although I have no idea where I'll put them as I don't have a bed planned for them or time to dig another one! I wonder if he'd think it rude if I took the plants home and put them in the back yard, that way I can water them and pick them more regularly. He also offered some broccoli and something else but I politely declined as I have mine already. He seemed quite impressed by what I had already planted, I guess I'm not doing too badly but I just hope that I can keep the weeds down and at least some of it grows! He said that I should be sieving the soil and getting the roots out to burn rather than dumping the whole lot into a big pile. It's a great premise and would no doubt be the right thing to do, but considering there is only 1 of me and I want more than 3 beds on the plot this year I really don't have the time. Over the winter I will work my way through the pile and reclaim the soil and burn what I can, but for now it's all dig dig dig.

Hopefully I can get a few more hours up there tomorrow and finish that potato bed, that way I can start May's beds early, only 2 more months of digging to schedule and then I can just take my time and finish the rest as I feel like it!

I will try and take the camera on my next trip and get some shots of what I've done, hopefully comparing new shots to the original shots will make me feel better, at the moment all I can see is how much more I have to do, I finish one job and then get right on with the next one (after a 10 minute tea break of course!), so it's more a case of hard graft rather than pure enjoyment at the moment, hopefully the enjoyment will increase as the number of beds left to be dug decreases!

Hard Graft

2005-04-22T14:01:00.000Z

I made it down the plot for anther hour and a half yesterday (again no nap from the little fella) and worked some more on the rhubarb bed. I hope to god that this bed isn't an indication of how bad the rest of the plot is as it's incredibly hard work. For each square foot I dug over I was removing a bucket and a half of roots and weeds... I still have about a quarter of it to go as well, I can't believe how long this one patch it taking, especially considering that half of it was already dug over earlier.

Why is it when you dig and believe you'd done it well and not missed anything that if you stick your fork in anywhere in the patch you've just done you will uncover *HUGE* big roots of some plant or another that you somehow missed? And why when you have dug one bit do the roots in the next bit always lead back the way you came? How do you miss them when you've literally just dug that bit?? I was a tad frustrated... I think what also frustrates me is that I know that although I'm doing a not bad job and am pulling out everything I can without digging down to Hades to find the end of the roots that the buggers will grow again and next year I will be doing the same thing, just on a slightly smaller scale as I won't have to remove the top layer of turf as well...

Anyway, I got the parsnips in, a whole packet of them, although of course they'll need thinning out when/if they come up. I used Tender and True which came from B&Q so we'll see how they do.

I also ordered 10 Roma tomato plants from Jane Lane along with 3 bush tomato plants and about 3/4 of the herbs that I want to grow in the back yard in pots. The prices were a little lower than I have seen herbs around here and I was impressed with the quality of the aubergine plants I got so I figured I would go ahead. Even with postage it was a very reasonable figure of around £17 for 13 tomato plants and 10 herbs.

No digging today for a couple of reasons. 1. I am hoping that the weather will be good over the weekend and I can get down the plot for longer periods each day than I have managed this week. As I'm knackered I want to rest today so I can use that time better rather than wearing myself out totally and wasting the time. 2. I went to the Drs this morning and he injected my wrist with a steroid to try and help with the carpel tunnel which is getting worse. At the moment my wrist and hand ache so I'd rather not use it at least today to give it time to start working. It can take up to a fortnight to make any difference he said and if it doesn't then I could be off to the Wrist Surgeon, I'm tired not having full use of my hands....

Here's hoping for a nice rain free weekend!

Little Bit of Progress

2005-04-20T15:22:00.000Z

I did make it down this afternoon but only for an hour and a half as young sir decided that no nap was needed this afternoon and he'd just sit and yell at me after the first hour instead...

I did make progress though which is nice and I feel better now and can see a difference which is always good! I got the onions in, I have Unwins Red Baron and Setton by Prins. I also planted the 3 aubergine plants that came in the post this morning (lovely looking plants actually, was impressed) and that variety is Baby Belle from Jane Lane Nursery.

I have finished the parsnip end of the rhubarb bed so I just need to give it a good rake over and wait for it to dry a bit. I also need to dig the rest of the bed so I can get the leeks, but that shouldn't take too long I don't think, just another couple of hours.

Looking at my plan I'm actually on schedule still to get everything in that I wanted to by the end of the month which is nice! I have a third of the second potato bed dug so after I'm done with the rhubarb bed and the paths around it I will get that dug and then lay some more paths. However, it appears that I have 3 beds that need digging in May and then minimum another 3 in June (depending how many squash and pumpkin seedlings I get!)so I hope we get some good weather!

I'm on an Italian kick at the moment, coming from reading a book called Extra Virgin about 2 sisters who go and live in Italy. I wouldn't like to go without water and other basic necessities (they had a well) for as long as they did but the idea of a lovely terraced garden, my own little olive orchard and fresh tomatoes and basil just sounds lovely, especially when our weather is like this. Add to that the fact I'm also reading my way through a new Italian cookbook I bought and I am off to look for some plum tomatoes that might grow in my back yard, and I'm taking a big tub down to the plot to plant more basil in the shed!

Pray for more nice weather tomorrow please!

Bloody Weather

2005-04-20T11:10:00.000Z

Wednesday already and I've not been down to the plot yet, and looking at the sky now (it's rained all morning but stopped for a bit) I'm not sure I'll make it down this afternoon...

So no progress at all and I really need to get the onions, leeks and parsnips in as well as finish the bed off for the second lot of potatoes which I want to put in next week. If the sky is clear after lunch I may give it a go, although I've got a teething toddler screaming away, but perhaps the fresh air will calm him down!

The aubergine plants arrived this morning so I want to get those in too, I also need to plant my tomato seeds, lord knows where I'm going to put those as we have a plant eating cat (the tops off all the garlic in the tubs in the back yard are only half the height they should be and very chewed) and no windowsill wide enough to hold any trays. Looks like my sewing room might continue to double as an indoor greenhouse (sowing room, lol), not that there's much space in their either.

I'm feeling very frustrated...

And Yet More Rain

2005-04-16T20:57:00.000Z

Sorry for the lack of posting on here, there were only 2 afternoons suitable this week for going down the plot and of course both of those I couldn't make it, the rest of the time it's been raining and raining and raining and raining...

Today was much the same in the morning, but I had most of the day free from husband and son so I was determined to make the most of it. I started off by going to Homebase to pick up a few bits and bobs. Note to self, next time you need compost don't think 'oh I'll go and buy it while it's raining and I can't get on the plot' because it weighs a freaking ton.... I got some plastic lawn edging as well, will look for cheaper sources of that though as 1 roll for £5.99 isn't long enough to go around 1 of my beds and I have 6 down just the one side of the plot... I also bought myself some wellies finally, I wanted the pink polka dot ones but at the end of the day they were £24.99 and the plain green ones were only £9.99. I did buy the pink polka dot gardening gloves for using in the back yard when I do the herbs and tomatoes (which I must start this week really) as my other gloves are now at the allotment.

So, after lugging everything down to the plot I got to work on the list and plan that I worked on for ages last night after having a look about to see if it would actually work. The rain was still falling so I had a tidy of the shed/greenhouse/shack first and moved stuff about. I think having a shed is a bit like moving house. You put stuff where you think it will work best and then realise a few days later that if you leave it there you will trip over it all the time and kill yourself. Of course it took moving everything twice before I got it right (for now), I mainly needed to move the chairs out from where they would get wet when I do watering, although 1 of them will still suffer but as I'm normally there alone and only have 1 bottom that won't matter!

I now have a hanging thingy on the wall of the shed with basil in it (Suffolk Herbs Organic seeds). The package says not to grow it outside up North and last year I got 1 inch plants outside (not one to follow directions blindly!) so I'm hoping that inside I will have more luck. Over the course of the afternoon I planted up 6 small seed trays with the following (as and when it was raining or I needed a break)

Waltham Butternut Squash - seedfest.co.uk
Spaghetti Squash - seedfest.co.uk
Small Sugar Pumpkin - Unwins Centenery
Scarlet Red Bell Pepper - seedfest.co.uk
Orange Bell Pepper - seedfest.co.uk
Roguelands Yellow Bell Pepper - seedfest.co.uk
Sprouting Calabrese Broccoli - Alan Titchmarsh Organic (2 trays)
All The Year Round Cauliflower - B&Q (2 trays)

The peppers will stay in the shed but the rest will hopefully get planted out. Most of it could have been planted direct but as I don't have the beds ready for it, starting it off in the shed will give me time to do the digging while they get growing. I've also got a growbag in there ready for the 3 Aubergine plants I ordered off Ebay today, figured if I've got the space I may as well use it!

I also got four rows of carrots in beside the potatoes. I decided not to use all the back bed for spuds as then I will have to fill about 3 beds with them next year, this way I can move one lot to the other end next year. I have 1 row of each of

Scarlet Nantes - seedfest.co.uk
Early Nantes - B&Q
Sugarsnax - Thompson and Morgan
Purple Dragon - Thompson and Morgan (yes, they are purple!)

I used up all I had of 2 lots of those so I can pick another 2 varieties to try out when I plant another 4 rows in about a month's time. I don't have any room for more than 8 rows at the moment so I figure planting them a month apart will give me the longest crop I can hope for until I, you guessed it, dig more beds (see a theme here?).

Between the planting in the shed I worked a bit on the rhubarb bed which is a third done and I want to put the leeks and the parsnips in there asap. I put the edging around one side and the end of the bed and then I did the path up one side of the bed just to see what it would look like. I admit I'm not weeding the paths properly, I'm just churning up the soil and pulling out any big bits and then putting the weed suppressant fabric down with the wood chips on top. The path looks really nice, of course it's taking more bark than I thought it would. I've also churned up and leveled most of the middle path, I hope to finish that up tomorrow and perhaps start putting the fabric and the bark on it.

I've decided that I won't put a path up the side of the plot, I can access the beds well enough from between them and the side path will take up a lot of time, effort and fabric and bark, so I am extending the beds and paths right to the edge of the plot.

So, tomorrow besides the path I would like to finish off the Rhubarb bed and plant the seeds and then plant the onions which are going in the other side of the back bed. After that there are another 5 beds that need digging, so not much left! I'm so tired now though, so I don't know if I will get anything done! :o)

Rain Slows Progress

2005-04-10T21:30:00.000Z

This week has been quite wet, which wouldn't be too much of a problem if my main job at the plot wasn't digging, and digging ain't no fun when the soil is wet and heavy so I've not had many trips to the plot this week.

I did make it up the plot on Friday for 3 hours in the afternoon, has to rate as one of the oddest afternoons of my life. There I was planting my first lot of potatoes and listening to the commentary on the loudspeakers at Aintree Racecourse which is very close to the plots, and then it started to snow.... Hopefully they will still be ok, I have planted 1 bag of Arran Pilot (I think, too tired to get up and look), they're labeled as earlies that are good for boiling, roasting and mashing, an all rounder.

After the potatoes I worked a bit on the next bed down and the paths as I was bored of working on the back bed. I did about a quarter of it and it was hard work. I am onto the ground that wasn't covered which means that the weeds are much thicker and there is a lot more root clearing to be done, bucket after bucket of rubbish onto the big heap that keeps getting bigger.

Yesterday we went and bought 5 bags of bark for the path, they were £15 in Wyvale Garden centre which I didn't think was too bad. I also picked up some pea netting and a packet of seeds for some purple carrots. I have decided to cover the paths with weed suppressing fabric and then with bark so that they're more even and safer for a toddler to run about on, now I just have to do it!

Today I was the first car in the car park at 9.45am! I wanted to get up there early as I thought it might rain in the afternoon. Seems I'm no good at reading the weather as I got it the wrong way around. I started working on the other end of the back bed and was so into it that I didn't actually notice how hard it was raining until one of my friendly neighbours shouted over asking if I was mad! I took a 10 minute break and had my coffee in the shed and the rain had slowed down enough to work again. By the time I left at 12.30 I had finished the back bed off, found and laid bricks to mark the edge of it, raked in a tub of seaweed into the newly turned earth and stirred some straw into my compost heap which was almost all greens and in dire need of some browns to get it going.

I am happy that the bed is done and that something is in the ground but I have to keep reminding myself to look back at how far I've come rather than looking around at what is left to be done.

So, plans for next week are to clear and dig over 2 beds plus the half of the rhubarb bed that's left, maybe plant some onions and decide what else to plant in the second bed that will be cleared. I also want to do the paths around those beds and down the middle of the plot. That's far too much and I'll never get it all done but I need to keep myself aiming high as there's still so much to be done!

Marking Out

2005-04-05T20:06:00.000Z

Sunday I managed to drag my husband to the allotment to help me out removing the covering that had been down forever and a day. I had pulled a lot of it up but I couldn't manage much more it as it was very heavy with weeds growing through it and as I couldn't cut or rip it the piece was just getting bigger and bigger. It took less than an hour to finish removing the back and find a few other pieces here and there and remove them. It turns out that the previous owner covered a path right down the middle of the plot which is where I want one so that is now pretty clear, although I will turn it over with a fork and remove the roots from it before covering it again somehow to make my final path.

Today I spent about three hours at the plot, my son was kind enough to have his afternoon nap in his pushchair so I worked away. I was actually glad when he did wake up as my back was starting to hurt! I have turned over two thirds of the back bed now and put some seaweed into half of it. I just need to keep my motivation up and finish it off now!

I also marked out the beds down one side of the plot. It took a lot of sticks and just over 2 balls of string! I now have a nice neat layout of 6 beds 4 foot wide with 2 foot wide paths between them, plus the 7 foot deep bed the width of the plot at the back. The rhubarb bed is actually in the right place as well, I was expecting the plants to end up in the middle of a path, it would've been just my luck! I am happier now that I can see where things will go, and also surprised at how many beds fit in, it makes me think that perhaps I won't get around to the other side of the plot this year.

I'm still undecided about what to do with the paths, I need a cheap option that will keep the weeds down, I'm still thinking bark over some sort of covering, I need to go to B&Q and Homebase to see if either of them have a deal on any, price will be the deciding factor (that and weight, I can't carry bags of stone to the plot and can't afford a wheelbarrow just yet). I have found some free weed stopping fabric on Freecycle which I am going to organise collecting soon so I will see how much is there and decide whether to cut it for paths or use it to cover the side of the plot not in use. I want something that gives my beds a definite edge though and I worry that bark won't give me that, but I can't afford paving stones, bricks or wood. More thinking and reading required.

I'm a little worried about the corner of the plot which I'm using as a rubbish tip, I don't know whether I'm allowed to do it and whether I'm encouraging vermin etc to the site by having it there. I guess if it is a problem I can move it a bit at a time, that can be my winter job! At the moment I can't take stuff off site or have a fire on site due to having my son there, I never know how long I'll get to stay on the plot and I can't leave him while I go back and forth to the car.

Next time I'm at the plot I will dig the rows for the potatoes and carry on with the digging of the back bed. I also want to plant the basil and take that down to the greenhouse/shed to get going and check the sowing dates for the peppers which I also want to grow in there. It looks like I will have half the width of the rhubarb bed free as well, that will be the next bed I finish as half of it is already done. I am thinking perhaps the peas can go in there as they require upwards space rather than ground space, I need to read up in my new Joy Larkcom book about growing them to check though and re-read the potato section so that I feel more confident about planting.

Dreaming

2005-04-02T15:35:00.000Z

How sad is it to have a dream about your allotment? Last night I dreamt that I was digging my allotment and the weeds had all died away totally and it was covered in bright green grass. That wasn't the case when I got there today though unfortunately. The weeds have died quite a bit but it's still uneven and rough and hard as hell to work over.

I managed to do more clearing of the back bed and I now have a 7ft by 12 and a half foot bed dug over and ready to sow. It's hard work doing it on my own though, I need a bit of help removing the covering that's been down for years and years. Basically the weeds have grown on top of and through the covering which makes it very hard to pull it back and also very heavy, add to that that the covering won't rip and I also can't seem to cut it and you have an extremely large and heavy bit of fabric that needs to be pulled back over another 12 foot of ground....

I think that I will get 1 lot of my potatoes into the bit that's dug and then the second variety in after I've dug over the rest. I am not sure if I will have enough room for the onions in with the potatoes, we'll just have to wait and see.

I don't mind the hard work or the slowness (of course I'd like it to go faster but I knew it would take forever!) what gets to me is the uncertainty. I seem to race ahead and get lots done and then have a terrible lack of confidence and wonder if I'm doing it right or not, will it work, should I be doing something else that I've not thought of etc??? Maybe I will feel better when I actually have something in the ground, who knows.

The other thing I've been wondering is whether I should cut the paths next rather than just doing another bed. It's very uneven ground and it would be easier to walk about the place if I actually had paths to walk on. I am not sure what to use to make the paths though once I've dug up all the weeds and leveled it off a bit. I was thinking cardboard covered with bark chippings but I'm not sure about that and not positive that I can afford it either. I can't really have grass paths because of the couch grass... Guess I will think on it a bit longer.

Only spent about 2 hours down there today and I'm shattered, think I lost any fitness I may have gained in the first week while I've been away!

Pack Rat

2005-03-25T21:59:00.000Z

I seem to have become a total pack rat when it comes to anything that can be composted. I have been taking a bucket full of scraps each visit and our wheelie bin is showing this by being only a quarter full after a week!

I remember reading in an awful book called 'Urban Dreams Rural Realities', please don't go to the effort to track it down and read it, if you've ever been on holiday in the countryside you know more than they did and the woman was particularly annoying. Anyway, I remember reading in it that the man had a habit of checking out people's bins whenever they went round to see if they had anything he could add to his compost bin! I have to admit I have been wondering if I can bring home a bag of vegetable scraps from my parents house or if that's taking it too far!

Am feeling exhausted today, yesterday really took it out of me, hopefully my stamina will build up soon! I know this is some of the hardest work I'll ever do on the plot, if the enthusiasm lasts I'll be fine!

Well, I Tried...

2005-03-24T17:17:00.000Z

We were at the allotment from just before 1pm until 4pm today, little boy slept for about an hour and a half of that and cried for about another half hour of it and the rest sat and watched. He's not to impressed with dirt and uneven ground yet, plus he fell down the same hole about five times...

So, out of what I'd planned to do what did I actually achieve?

1. Take excess peelings etc from wormery and put on compost heap. Check!

2. Buy padlock for gate and put on gate. Nope, forgot to buy one again...

3. Dig around rhubarb plants (4 of them) so I stop treading on them and don't accidentally weed kill them. Check! There are actually 6 rhubarb plants in the bed that I did today. It required a ton of digging around them to make a bed shape and then pulling the grass out from right amongst the plants. I did loose quite a few rhubarb leaves but I think that they will survive! I gave them a good water with 'worm juice' (what my Mum and I call the liquid fertiliser from a wormery) so hopefully that will help them recover from the ordeal!

4. Dig more of the back bed. Nope, none at all. I did put bricks across the front of the bed to form a border, but I don't have any more bricks so I may have to remove those and find something else for an edging.

5. Spray weed killer (bought for £3 from the site shop, bargain!). Check! This took about an hour to do, I wasn't sure whether I was going too fast or too slow or what. It was funny because I kept thinking how nice it smelt and then I remembered that Frank had put washing up liquid in the spray thing as he said it made it stick better! lol I decided that as we're away for a week I would spray even the back covered bits weeds and hope that they loosen a bit before I get back and start digging there again.

So, all was good, until halfway home, about 20 minutes tops after I finished spraying, when we had a huge downpour... It's stopped now, it was like a torrential summer shower, only lasted about 10 minutes but soaked everything (including the washing line full of almost dry cloth nappies, very annoying) so the weed killer might not work very well, we will have to wait and see...

Annie, thanks for your comment, could you leave another one with your email address in it please as Blogger doesn't give me the addresses so I can't send you a reply! Your allotment looks grand, well done!

Today's words of wisdom from other allotment diggers on my site (this time my neighbour) 'it's not a job it's a hobby, so take your time and enjoy it'. My favourite comment so far was when I was asked if I had a fork, because I'd need one! I felt like acting dumb and saying I had actually intended to dig with my bare hands! Mind you, the same man admired my new spade the next day (stainless steel with a very nice wooden handle), it's still not been used though, carry it in each time I go and carry it out again as clean as it arrived! :o)

I'm shattered, but still enjoying it, as long as I can see a new patch that doesn't have weeds on it each time I leave I'll be fine!

We Have Soil

2005-03-22T15:16:00.000Z

I actually managed to do some digging today. Got off to a later start as I was waiting for my Mother In Law to make her weekly visit and look after my son so I could sneak off down the allotment! I got there at about 11.15 and my car was the 6th in the car park, when I left just before 1 there were 8 cars in the car park which I think is pretty good, lots of people about and lots of work being done all over the place!

I was right in thinking that the back of the plot had been covered at some point in the past. Lord knows how long ago this was as the weeks and grass had grown through the covering in a lot of places but I began to pull it up and see what I had underneath. It would pull easily for about a foot and then I would have to dig up something to be able to pull a bit more. When it got really hard going pulling it up I decided to dig what I'd uncovered and then when that was dug I would pull up a bit more (next visit!).

I now have 1.5 bin bags full of couch grass and roots, 1 bag full of old falling apart plastic and some other type of covering and a 6x4 foot patch of lovely dug soil! In each fork full there was at least 1, in most cases 2, large worms which was nice to see. The soil seems really good (to my inexperienced eyes anyway!), not sandy and not clay, and it's quite easy to work with as well. Some fork fulls would have a ton of couch grass roots in them that I had to stop and pull out and others had none, but it was pretty slow going, or at least it felt that way. I was really aware that I needed to be back in time for lunch so kept checking my watch at what I thought was about half hour intervals and several times it was only 10 minutes later which was lovely as I wanted to finish off that patch so I felt I was getting somewhere.

I won't be doing down there tomorrow, I think my legs and back need a day off and I have other jobs that need to be done before we go away (tidying, packing, chitting potatoes etc).

So, jobs for Thursday are:

1. Take excess peelings etc from wormery and put on compost heap.

2. Buy padlock for gate and put on gate.

3. Dig around rhubarb plants (4 of them) so I stop treading on them and don't accidentally weed kill them.

4. Dig more of the back bed.

5. Spray weed killer (bought for £3 from the site shop, bargain!).

I will have to put my son in his pushchair in the shed thingy while I spray but I'm hoping that if we go up after lunch which is when he normally has his nap that he will fall asleep and I can work for a few hours rather than under 2 hours like I have the past 2 days.

So, I'm sore and shattered but also very excited and pleased with my progress. I'm sure it looks like very little to the other plot holders but the fact that in 2 days I already have a bed that I would consider planting into (ok, a tiny bed, but still a bed!) is great. Add to that a working compost heap, lots less brambles and a clean and tidy shed and I think I've made some good progress, hopefully I can keep up the pace!

Day 1 - Where to start?

2005-03-21T15:13:00.000Z

For introductions sake my name is Anna, I'm 32, married with 1 young son and live in Liverpool with 2 cats and a mad collie cross RSPCA rescued mongrel. I decided to take an allotment as I want to grow our own veg and we only have a small concrete back yard. I also want my little boy to have somewhere to play and experience the outdoors so an allotment seemed like the ideal project for our vegan/vegetarian household. Prior to taking on this allotment my gardening experience is limited to houseplants and growing courgettes, tomatoes and a few other bits and bobs in pots in the aforementioned back yard plus reading some John Seymour and a container gardening book or two.

I went and handed over the money this morning, for £41 for the year (£30 rent, rest for water etc) plus a £20 key deposit this is what I got

note: I took the small child with me, he didn't come with the plot!

The area to the left hand side of the shed/structure has a lot of rubbish in it and I decided today that I'm not intending at any point in the near future to tidy that up so as I cut back the brambles and found bits of rubbish that couldn't be burnt or easily taken off site I threw them in there. Who knows if I will ever get around to clearing it out but for now it's a handy area to stow stuff.

I cut back an awful lot of brambles today but unfortunately it looks like there are tons and tons of the things growing up all over the plot so I think I will be taking some sort of chemical to them at some point. I am still wavering as to whether to use weedkiller on the whole site or not. I would like to be as organic as I can but I know that this first year I won't be, and maybe I will never ever be as the compost I will be using will have things in it that weren't grown organically and I might not be able to get/afford organic seed etc. However, I will have a vegan site and will not be using manure, blood, fish, bone etc on my plot.

Other jobs accomplished today in the hour and forty five minutes I was there were tidying out and sweeping out the shed so it's all neat and tidy and ready for action. It's pretty dry in there which I take as a good sign. However, the site Secretary told me that there are a lot of mice so I will be chitting my potatoes at home and planting seeds at home and just ferrying them over to the site when they're ready for planting (it's a 10 minute drive), this will also mean that I can get jobs accomplished at home with my son plays rather than having to spend every waking moment down the allotment during busy periods.

I also dug out all the rubbish from the compost bins at the back of the allotment (the photo I tool in that direction didn't come out). I will be taking over my household bits and bobs for composting and whatever my wormery can't handle so it's nice to have a bin ready to put them all into.

So, brambles, shed and compost bin aside I didn't really do much else! I will be back down there tomorrow morning and I am hoping to pull aside the covering at the back (after picking up what is left of the fence off the ground :o)) to see what it's like. If that soil is workable I think I will weed kill the rest of the site and work on that and clearing more rubbish etc for the few weeks until the weed killer has done it's work and I will still have time to get in plenty of other veg. I am aiming for 3-4 beds over the summer and to see the layout of the plot developed (laying out paths etc). Once I know where my paths will be and beds will be I can cover the beds that I'm not ready to clear and leave them until later, but I'd like to at least have an idea where they are going.

So, today I'm a little poorer, a lot more tired even after that short time on the plot, but very excited to get back there and get going and see what I can do. I need to put my potatoes and onion sets out today as well, that should give me more incentive to get the plot going!