Loads going on!

Where to start?! It’s been an absolute age since I last blogged and so much has happened! Let me cast my mind back….

Okay, first none allotment stuff…
I’ve entered a 10k fun run in Blackpool with my friend in the hope that I might get a bit fitter! My friend wanted to start running, and I’ve done a bit in the past but never really keep it going for that long so having a running buddy should spur me on to carry on with it. Anyway, the 10k is in two weeks, on the 13th May. So fingers crossed for good weather! Hopefully the training for this will stand me in good stead for the Moonlight Walk I’m doing in June with my mum.

I’ve started with French lessons too, in an evening class at Preston college. I’ve just had my second lesson – hobbies and past times. J’aime faire le jardin!

Last weekend, there was a Farmer’s Market in Preston – the first one they’ve had. So I went along with my mum to have a look at what they had to offer. As it was the first one they had a couple of displays and things to look at as well as the food stalls. There were shire horses from Thwaites brewery, pulling an old fashioned drey – that was good to watch, they were enormous! There was also a cooking demonstration by some guy that had been on Masterchef, Lee Somebody, didn’t recognise him I’m afraid! My favourite stall was the one with owls on – it belonged to a guy who runs a sort of owl sanctuary and he brought some owls to show to the public and to try and raise a bit of money to fund the sanctuary. One of the owls was a European Eagle owl, and I held her on my arm! She was huge! If anyone watched the TV programme Animal Addicts the other night, the guy was on there - Barn Owl Bill his name is.

Okay, on with allotment stuff. So much has happened!

To give you an idea, here is an updated picture of my plot. As you can see, I have a shed! Well, it’s actually a summer house with a glass front (home for my melons and okra?) and it looks fab! And it didn’t cost me anything as I got it from my friend at work, who didn’t need it in the garden of her new house. Even better! So now I can stash all my tools and bits and pieces in there, rather than carting it around in my car all the time! Yey – I can have my boot back!

So, what’s growing? In my mini greenhouse at home I have about fifteen types of tomato, three types of chilli, two types of sweet pepper, four types of aubergine, three okra plantlets, five types of melon, two types of sweetcorn, some flowers, and on the windowsill I have ten courgette plantlets of different kinds. Plenty going on there then! I hope I will have made enough space to plant them out when summer comes!

At the allotment I have my salad bed which currently has carrot, beetroot, lettuce, baby kohl rabi, baby turnip, and spinach in. Another bed has parsnips, which have germinated and are looking great (small, but great!). My onions and shallots are going great guns and I’m sowing spring onions in between every couple of weeks. My potatoes have sprouted, both Home Guard and Kestrel. I only have one small bed of potatoes as I don’t really eat that many of them and didn’t want to devote that much space to them. But I had to grow at least a couple of plants because everyone had said how nice they taste when they are home grown! My broad beans are doing really well, they have just started to flower and are about 18 inches tall. My peas started to germinate but then they have been nibbled away (apart from one) so I will have to sow more. I’ll probably start them off at home so they have more of a chance of surviving! The rhubarb crown that I was given is looking a bit sad for itself, there will definitely be no harvest from that this year! Fortunately, just about everyone grown rhubarb so I don’t think I’ll go short! So far my Jerusalem Artichokes have not sprouted, but then Bill said his sprouted only the other day and I think I planted mine a bit later than he did, so I’ll give it another week before I start to wonder if they are coming at all! Other than that I have my strawberry plants which are growing well and have started to flower (as have the ones in my strawberry bed at home) and the red- and whitecurrant plants are starting to look more healthy now too.

More seeds are sown...

27th March 2007.

I decided that I could wait no longer and so I have sown some more seeds...

So far I have done:-
2 x Pea, Hurst Green Shaft
2 x Pea, Sugar Snap
4 x Pepper, Big Banana
2 x Tomato, Aviro
2 x Tomato, Alicante
2 x Tomato, Costoluto Fiorentino
2 x Tomato, Gold Nugget
2 x Tomato, Tigerella
2 x Tomato, Tumbling Tom
2 x Tomato, Moneymaker.

They are in a mini "propagator" (a.k.a. seed tray with a lid!) in my mini greenhouse. Now I'm impatient and want them to germinate NOW!!

Great weather - great progress!

Friday 23rd March.

I have had the day off today as I need to use up some annual leave from work, got down to the lottie at about 2pm so got a few bits and pieces done, just more digging really, and I raked up more of the dead stuff that is getting more and more yellow – great! It’s starting to look better and better each time I go (to me it is, anyway!) and I’ve set my laptop desktop to show the picture I took on the very first day to remind me how far I’ve got, it’s great inspiration for if I feel like I’m getting nowhere.

Sunday 25th March.

What a glorious day it has been today. Lovely and warm, sunshine peeping through and not a drop of rain to be had! I forked over one of the beds that I had rough-dug the other week and pulled out most of the couch that was lurking. I think that this way round has been more work and I think in future I will do more weeding as I do the first dig, as it seems to have taken me just as long the second time around and I could have done it all the first time. Does that make sense?! I’ve now got two rows of beds running across the width of the plot and on the left hand side there are four, so according to my wonderful Excel plan, the herb circle needs to be put in – so that’s what I did! Although I think I got my measurements wrong as I measured out a circle of 1m radius, therefore 2m diameter and I think it was supposed to be 1m diameter! It does look pretty big! Ooops, never mind, I’ll just have to grow lots of herbs!
I’d been chatting to Eamon earlier on in the day and I have lent him two books that we had been talking about – Andi Clevely’s “Allotment Handbook”, and Sarah Raven’s “The Great Vegetable Plot”. Later on he came over with an armful of little broad bean plantlets in pots for me to have! After I’d finished my digging in the herb circle I was supposed to be going home, but ended up staying and planting them out, and making a chicken wire cover for them so was there for about another hour! This extra hour in the evening is great. So I now have 10 baby broad bean plants and the little injection of green looks great!

Oh yeah, and I’ve been given two compost bins by Jonathon and another guy has given me some rhubarb crowns – great stuff!

Monday 26th March.

Another day off work! And another lovely day! I could get used to this… Had quite a productive day today, I managed to dig over another bed and pulled out most of the couch grass and other weeds. The weed pile is getting pretty impressive now! I then started on the beds where I had sown the carrots and parsnips. The problem with the polytunnels is that although they create a nice environment for the veg I want to grow, it also suits the weeds pretty well too! And I don’t want to grow those! I also decided that the carrots and parsnips I had sown at the beginning of March had not taken so I just weeded the whole thing over, and in doing so found that they had in fact germinated and if I’d left them another couple of days they would probably have poked through the surface. Oh well, you live and learn. So I have sowed some more seeds anyway – spinach (Tetona), Beetroot (Boltardy and Pronto), Lettuce (mixed), and Carrot (Ideal). This is now my “Speedy Seed” bed! In the other I re-sowed the parsnips, three rows of them. I felt pretty good after having sown these as things are finally getting going and I might start to have a bit more green (of the non-weed variety!) in the allotment.

My herb circle...


My broadies!

March update!

Thursday 1st March 2007.

I had the day off work today so popped into town to spend the £20 Nan had given me. I went to Lidl first and bought two 5mx1m polytunnels for £2.99 each, and two rolls of black seed bed protection for £2.99 each also. Then I went to Wilko’s and bought a sprayer bottle for my seedlings in the mini greenhouse, a bag of 10 seed spuds (Kestrel) and a metal arch which I will grow sweet peas up at the “entrance” to the plot! That came to £7 so the twenty quid was spent well, I think! I popped down to the plot in the afternoon as it had brightened up and the wind had dropped quite a bit. I managed to put up the arch, which fitted perfectly in the space between the compost heap and the front area. In this area I finally managed to plant the strawberries that Ken gave to me, well most of them. A few that are left I am going to pot up and give to friends. I managed to fit about eight plants in so I think that will do me okay! As I was putting these in, Eamon and Paddy wandered over to say hello and see how I was getting on. I ended up chatting with Eamon and he offered me some autumn raspberry canes (Autumn Bliss) that he had dug up and were surplus to his needs. I gratefully accepted and he showed me how to heel them in until I had space to plant them properly. Whilst he was over at my plot he was looking at the weeds and saying how much work there was to do and that it could do with a blitz of weedkiller when he mentioned that there was a gentleman further down the site that was “in charge of weedkilling”. We took a walk down and I met Arthur who was at the time planting a peach tree in his humungous greenhouse! We all walked back down for him to have a look at my plot and he agreed that it could definitely do with a dose of Roundup and also diagnosed couch grass and hogweed, along with the bindweed – boohoo! They said that the Roundup would sort most of that out and would give me a huge helping hand and get me off to a flying start. They told me that I should pull back the sheeting that I had down and clear the bricks and bits of rubbish and they would come and spray it as soon as an appropriate day came along. So off I went and did as they said, pulling back the sheets. I was surprised to see that the grass was starting to go yellow and die off after only four weeks of being covered over. After that it was an early finish for me as I was going to cook tea for Nan.

Oh yeah, that daffodils are starting to open!



Friday 2nd March 2007.

I just happened to pop down to the plot today, with Kelly and Rebecca just to show them the plot in real life really. Eamon was there again and he told me that Arthur had sprayed the plot this morning! How wonderful! It’s so lovely that everyone is so nice and willing to offer help and advice. I asked how much I owed and he said they’d done it as a favour so didn’t need to pay anything! I couldn’t believe it! I will, of course offer something by means of saying thank you because I can’t imagine that it was cheap. I will pop down to Arthur’s plot tomorrow and say thank you, or leave a note for him. So now I have to wait a week and let the weedkiller do its thing and then I can dig it all in and make headway with getting my beds ready! I think I’m going to be busy!

I watched the Gardeners World allotment special with Monty and there were quite a few beginners on there with plots weedier than mine! It had some quite good tips and plenty of inspiration – it made me want to go back out and dig! It also said that there is going to be an allotment film later this year – yey! Think that might be one I go to on my own though!

Saturday 3rd March 2007.

What a gorgeous day it has been. I had to go into town in the morning to pick up a few bits and pieces but got down to the plot for about 1pm ish. I took my new polytunnels to see if I could build them up to put over the two beds that I have prepared. It was a bit windy and there was a distinct lack of instructions in the pack, but I managed to get them both up and I sowed some seeds under there too! I must say I was quite pleased with my successful constructions! There is a row of parsnips under one and a row each of Parmex and Early Nantes under the other. I have worked out a successional sowing plan to hopefully avoid a glut of carrots and get a good supply over the season. I will be sowing one row of each carrot and parsnip every two weeks. I know that parsnips can be left in the ground to store and so a glut of those wouldn’t be so bad, but I’d like to harvest some young parsnips every couple of weeks to roast in the oven – yum! I have until the end of the month now to get other beds ready to start sowing other seeds, so full steam ahead once the weedkiller has done it’s job.



I didn’t see Arthur so will have to look out for him in the week, but I did see Eamon and told him that I’d ordered the book he had recommended and I offered to lend him my Allotment Handbook as he said he’d like to read it.

The weather for tomorrow has forecast rain so I think it will be an indoor day. Also I am off to a wedding party so maybe the hangover wouldn’t allow a trip down to the plot!


Saturday 10th March.
Been down today hoping to dig the dead grass and weeds in but it didn't really look dead enough and Eamon wasn't there for me to check with so decided to leave it and just weed over the patch that I have rough dug - WELL! It took me ages! I definately won't do it like that again. I had left all the bind weed roots and everything in the soil and had rough dug it over just to get the earth turned really, but it was quite disheartening to be going over it again and for it to take so long!

I checked on the carrot and parsnip seeds but no signs of germination yet. Perhaps it was a bit early?

Sunday 11th March.
Another day down the plot! I decided that I would dig the weedy patch anyway, even though some bits are still a bit green. Managed to get a bed-sized area dug and pretty well weeded, and also raked up some of the dry dead yellow weedy stuff. Looks like it will be much easier to dig.

Seedlings are sprouting!

Okay, so now all the seedlings have sprouted, with the exception of the parsnips which I know I need to be a bit more patient for. But I can cope with that as I have the other ones to look at every 2 minutes to check for progress! Will post a pic soon. Also, I had a catalogue from T&M sent to me in January with a £5 off voucher and also an offer of 2 free packets of seeds of my choice. As I obviously need MORE seeds, I ordered some. Was good though, I got £20 pounds worth of seeds for just £3 something! The two free packets were £4.99 each so thats £10 saved straight away! Brill!
Anyway, I have a day off tomorrow, so hopefully the weather will be okay for me to go and do some more grass clearing, but it is wild at the moment with wind and rain, so it's not looking good. Oh well, we shall see what tomorrow brings...