Allotment Update: Digging A New Bed

Started digging a new bed on the allotment on Monday, it's a biggy - 9ft x 6ft (ish). No idea what I'm ganna grow in it. It needs the rest of it turfing, then digging over, then covering, until I can get the wood to build the raised bed-ness of it. It'll probably then have manure dug into it, ready for next year. Might make it into a brassica patch because it's big enough for three or four rows of cabbages :)

Pepper Update

Not growing very much - I don't think they've changed in size since I last saw them (three weeks ago or so). The greenhouse they're in is not heated, so this may be the problem. They have plenty of water (the muddy roots of the weeds I pulled proved this). I will leave them for another week or so because the weather is supposed to be warming up, and then if there is no change I think I will dig them up, pot them up and bring them home to live in my bedroom (south facing window and all that jazz) :-)

To be honest, I'm just glad they're still growing/still there..!

Allotment Peppers

Bought as plantlings, grown in my bedroom away from slugs and then planted in the greenhouse on my second allotment when they started to flower. Doing pretty well! They are small plants, more like shrubs, but they all have loads of fruits or flowers on. Woooooo!

At least *something* is growing this year...

Pumpkin Patch!

Mom asked if we could have a pumpkin patch this year, so today I went and started to clear a patch on Plot 42 for it!! I dug it over, weeded it, dug up loads of potatoes, and then laid down some weed suppressing mulch sheet thing, before planting some french marigolds, a pattypan squash, a courgette and two butternut squashes. I still have another 8 butternuts to plant!! So I think the pumpkin patch will need extending soon :)

The potatoes I dug up are now on Plot 31, in a patch that has two rows of peas, and a row of rainbow chard. The potatoes are left over from the guy who had Plot 42 before - he grew them every year and didn't dig them all up!

L x

Allotment Blog: Plot 42

Plot 42 is my second allotment. I spent the afternoon up there yesterday, it's quite overgrown but has been very muddy & boggy so I haven't been able to do much!

I weeded, hoe'd, put an anti-weed growth sheet down and then some pine chippings on top in the greenhouse. Looks A LOT neater! Nearly ready for planting - just needs some plants! We're going to put tomatoes, basil and tagetes in the greenhouse.

I then weeded and dug an extension to the broad bean patch, and I sowed some more.

I also began to weed the plot as a whole. It's got a lot of grass, and a lot of stuff that I don't know the name of. It spreads like there's no tomorrow and it's really sticky! Easy to pull up though. I cleared away the weeds from where Chard is growing, to give the Chard a chance, and I also discovered some patches of Peppermint growing! I loooooooove mint!

Over on Plot 31, the Onions are doing really well! Just hope the amount of leaves is correlated to the size! They still have a couple of months to grow.

Quite good for an afternoon! I hope to get up there again tomorrow while the weather is nice. We're planning a pumpkin patch on Plot 42! It'll have pumpkin, pattypan, butternut squash and probably courgettes growing in it :)

L x

Rain, Rain, Go Away!!

Because you're flooding my allotment!!!

But I suppose that'll learn me to have two plots, one a slope, and both in the catchment for the local brook! (The brook is a tributary for the River Rea, and it flows about two metres away from the back of the allotment site - also where my other plot is located. The fence at the back of Plot 42 is the boundary fence and you can see the water. Granted it's a piddly little thing, only really flows when there's rain or snow melt, but still, the allotments don't half flood well..)

Aside from the flooding, which happens every year so I should be used to it by now, the Sugarsnap peas are growing a bit more.. and the slugs have found them..

The rhubarbs are growing - we have two that we put in, and three that were growing wild at the top of the plot, so we left them:

And everywhere else is just looking muddy, grotty and at the 'going-over' stage of flowering:

The majority of these pictures were taken on Plot 31 - my other plot has no 'green' to walk on - it's just a massive piece of mud, so I didn't walk over it much today!

L x

Allotment Blog, Again

Today I went back up the allotment for a good few hours. I finished digging over the larger bed I made the other day, weeded it, raked it a bit and got fed up of seeing it. Planted the strawberries up in their new blue planter, and put the leftover strawbs in the hanging planter on my shed door. I also managed to destroy my compost area, so I needed to rebuild it - I transferred some compost into the other half and turned it a little bit. Cleared up around the back of the compost; found some rhubarb coming through. Mom mowed the lawn and cleared the overgrowth on Plot 42 and found a row of parsnips that the guy (who had the plot before us) had left. Also put up a dalek compost bin on Plot 42. Mom also cleared out the greenhouse and cleaned its windows. I painted a plank of wood... No reason, but I've wanted to paint something for a while! Tidied up the decking area; weeded the roses a bit (pulled out the foxgloves) and chopped back the mint, peony & carnations. Mulched around the rhubarb and replanted the chard in the bed I've been working on. Put out some more bird food and then came home! Quite productive, but I still haven't dug out the drainage ditches, which is a Must Do Job. It can wait. Also managed to sit on a bramble and kneel on a nettle. My shoulder keeps going into spasm and my back is sore; tomorrow will not be fun.

Pictures from Plot 31:








Pictures from Plot 42





L x

More Piccies From The Allotment

*Warning!* This is a very pic-heavy post! :-)

I visited my allotment(s) today; they look super scruffy. I elongated a small, square bed into a long, rectangular bed - think I may have this as a potato bed this year. I've managed to bruise my spade leg, so I couldn't really do much more digging :( I will probably make it a few spade lengths longer, before weeding it, manuring & covering, ready for spuds.



I also used Pete the Wheelbarrow for the first time - things are SO much easier now! No more lugging huge yellow tubs about the place, wahey! Here is Pete, laden with turf I'd removed from the bed above:



I also pruned the blackcurrant, refilled the bird feeder, dumped all the turf at the top of my plot (my allotment ex-neighbour decided to take a short cut up my plot, and through the hedgerow at the back, leaving a massive hole. I've since put a pallet in to fill the gap, so today I dumped the turf there, grass side down, and sprinkled some Calendula seeds around! Hopefully they'll take, and start to grow, it'd be nice to add some colour to this part of the plot).



I also took some pics of other things; daffodils, my newest flower bed (daffs & tulips at the moment), the trench that is so overgrown it's no longer a trench..






Over at Plot 42, which I took on last September/October, the broad beans continue to get bigger:



And the shed is still white, It needs painting! Think I might commandere my arty friends to paint a mural or something on it,.



Plot 42 also came with a greenhouse. This is what it looks like on the inside - I'm not sure I want to attempt clearing it!




Back on Plot 31, the 'decking' area needs a good tidy up. The strawberries could do with being planted in a proper planter; the roses need weeding; the coldframe needs weeding and re-mudding...




But all in all, considering I'm not up there on a regular basis, it's doing alright! The grass needs mowing, there's a lot to be dug up, a lot to weed, and possibly extending more beds to be done. Plot 42 needs a good weeding, and for some more beds to be planned, weeded & dug. I'm also going to get some half-pipe guttering and put it up along the back of White Shed, and grow things in it - tumbling tomatoes, or strawbs, or herbs, or peas. Not sure yet! Maybe something of everything.

Since I got back from the plot(s), I have sown some yellow courgette seeds & rainbow chard seeds. There isn't enough room in my mothers greenhouse for anything else just yet! And as I'm not fully moved back in, I can't do it up the allotment because no one can get there everyday to tend to things. I think we may have yet another year of sowing & growing things all at the wrong time! We never learn, but it always works out. If Mother Nature wants it to grow, it will grow. I'm really glad I got that bed extended - it's been bugging me ever since I couldn't be bothered to finish digging it last year. Just wish my spade leg didn't hurt so much!

L x

Pictures From My Allotment :-)