Catching the weather.

In a season of very short days, late mornings after Christmas festivities, and general cold, snowy or wet weather, it was good to snatch a few hours over the weekend to continue the dig.

Apart from disposing of the piles of dock roots and couch grass turfs, the surface clearance is now complete, and the double digging to clear the potato area has begun, prior to preparing the trenches.

Yesterday it was great to see rainbow as the sleet started to fall.


Today as we were digging, a fox strolled right up to us without bothering about us. We didn't get its photo, but found evidence it has been raiding sheds!





Meanwhile back at home, the parsnips from the original patch that started all this off are now being consumed.

Happy Christmas to all the diggers!

Greetings from a cold and foggy allotment, Christmas Eve 2009.





(Seeds arrived today. Sowing will soon arrive, once I have finished clearing and preparing the ground!)

December dig.

Despite the forecast, Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon were great days, if a little cold at times. I spent two hours on Saturday, and between us we spent another hour on Sunday continuing to surface clear the plot. We can actually see the end to the clearing soon, then onto the proper preparing of the ground.

Last weekend of November.

After a couple of weeks of no work due to the rain, I managed a two of hours of digging between showers this weekend.

It's amazing how much everything has died down over the last two weeks. It seems a different place.

The broad beans are showing now, as are all the weeds, and I'm piling up the couch grass roots ready for dumping.

Slow work, but we're getting there.







The quality of the photos from my phone on a dark day isn't too good!

The seed potatoes were ordered: 7lb or earlies and 2x3 lb of different main-crop varieties.

Planning Ahead.

I've been doing a bit of searching to decide what to plant where. The one I like the best so far I found on http://www.gardenaction.co.uk .

This is the plan as it is one the site:

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Year 7

Year 8

C

A potatoes

B

None

C

A potatoes

B

A others

A others

None

B

None

C

A potatoes

B

A others

C

A potatoes

A others

None

Fixed

Fixed

Fixed

Fixed

Fixed

Fixed

Fixed

Fixed

A potatoes

C

None

B

A potatoes

C

A others

B

A others

None

None

B

A potatoes

C

A others

B

A potatoes

C

A others

None

Each year, treat each of the plots A, B and C as described below.

PLOT A POTATOES	PLOT A OTHER	PLOT B	PLOT C
Cultivate Double dig adding manure or well-rotted compost. Add two good handfuls of blood, fish and bone meal per sq. metre (yard). Crops Potatoes	Cultivate Double dig adding manure. Add one good handful of blood, fish and bone meal per sq. metre (yard). Crops Aubergines, beetroot, carrots, courgettes, celeriac, celery, cucumber, garlic, leek, onion, marrow, onions, parsnips, peppers, pumpkins, tomatoes	Cultivate Single dig. Add two good handfuls of blood, fish and bone meal per sq. metre (yard). Crops Broad beans, cress, French beans, globe artichokes, lettuce, Lima beans, okra, peas, soya beans, runner beans, spinach, sweetcorn, Swiss chard	Cultivate As plot B. In addition bring the pH level up to 6.5 - 7.0. Crops Brussels sprouts, cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli, calabrese, kale, kohl-rabi, radishes, swedes, turnips

So how does this look for us?

1. Plot A Potatoes will be section one moving from the west end (road end)
2. Plot A other will be next
3. Plot C will be next
4. Plot B next
5. last will be any soft fruit and salads

I may split plot 5 and have a section between section 3 and 4, or 2 and 3.

In reality, I will probably not stick to this at all, but it does mean I know where the digging priority is!

Bit by bit.

Another hour this afternoon, two of us. We've started tackling all the couch grass and docks in the middle of the plot.

Checking on the babies.

It has been such bad night and day for the weather, with very high winds and torrential rain, that it has not been possible to spend time on the allotment today. It's now 4.00pm and getting dark.

I was worried that the wind would have blown the plastic sheeting around, so we went for a quick walk round to check all was OK. It was, and the broad beans have grown a bit more. Compared with a few other plots, they seem small, but we were quite late getting them in. I'm sure they'll be OK.

Signs of Life

I only had time for a quick dig on Saturday, and started double digging another patch, probably clearing a 10 x8 foot area.

The broad beans are just showing, but so are lots of new weed seedlings. Until the beans and onions are more clearly through, it will be a bit risk weeding again.

There is still a long way to go.

A week later

We've just had a very good week away, but as a result haven't been to the allotment. I've just had a quick visit to put some onion sets in (one row of Senshyu Yellow and one row of Electric (red)).

During the week the exposed areas we have dug are all covered with seedlings of something! I understand why there is extensive use of black plastic.

Whilst away we visited RHS Rosemoor where there were excellent pottager and allotment gardens, and we also saw some great vegie areas at Knighthayes (NT).

Going Back to My Roots

All four of us have been at the allotment this weekend: Both Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

The plan was to get rid of the remaining brambles, and keep on the clearing. By the end of Sunday the old rhubarb area had been dug over twice, and half of it was double dug. We then covered it over with black plastic.


Which way are we going?


A sackful of roots off to the "tip".





David dealing with the roots of brambles.


Here we have dug a small trench to mark our boundary. You can see the stumps from out neigbours hedge on the left.



This is the first time we've been able to see all our plot from the Western boundary. This is all ours!


Silver wedding presents!!

Not much to show.

A few hard hours grafting this afternoon, removing rhubarb roots and bramble roots. It's not too easily to see the impact, but I'm sure it will show at some point.

Dan and family (on the other part of the plot) were there today,and made a good attack on the hedge.

No photos today.

We've bean digging!

Today we've done a lot of digging. There was a pile of growth that contained many roots, weeds and rhubarb. Barbara worked hard to clear this.


I continued double digging a 25x6 foot strip, raking and leveling, then sowing broad beans.

Digging

Today was a digging day.

On a sunny autumn day after work, I managed to double dig quite a large patch. There were a lot of roots in it, so after a frost it will need another dig ready for the broad beans.



And now the Movie!

Hard Labour

Today Andrew and I spent four and a half hours hard physical graft on the allotment.

The first task was to clear the area along the fence. We uncovered loads of half disintegrating plastic bin liners, and yet more metal poles and tubes, which I'm sure will be useful next year. The old panel was put down to make a piece of decking, but as our feet went through it we decided to use it against the steel fence instead. Oh, and we spotted some trains as well.



As you can see, the chairs we discovered earlier in the week became useful today.




Here you can see down the plot looking west. The bushes mark the end of our half.
I guess we have cleared the top growth from about one third of the area now, but non has been properly dug yet.

The really hard bits today were:

• removing the brambles I cut on Thursday
• digging out the roots from one of the trees and a few of the brambles
• drinking tea.

I'd like to get a few seeds in next week, but there is a lot of digging to do before that is possible.

Finally, here am I, bitten by insects but pleased with a good week's progress.

Thrashing the brambles!

Only an hour on the allotment this evening, but I wanted to attack the brambles. It's a big job, so I was quite pleased to have cut away most of the top growth.


Here we are (above) only half way through the slashing. Below shows the change once I've done the whole "hedge".


Part way through, I realised that something had made a den inside the brambles, probably a fox. Then all of sudden a vixen appeared, and cool as a cat (fox) strolled round and sprayed the rhubarb! By the time a had got my phone out again to take a photo she had got bored and disappeared through to the railway. Here you can see her tail going through the fence next to the compost heap.



Back soon.

Quick after work clear up!

Well, it was nearly dark and was taken on a mobile phone, but here is a view in the opposite direction to yesterday.

Today's archeological finds were a bread tray and a large tarpaulin (old car or bike cover?). Both were valuable in moving huge piles of cut brambles and debris. Oh yes, and another tree has gone. Not bad for an hour's labour!

The Agony and Ecstacy.

Today the hard work started. The first task was to see where the plot really was, and where the boundaries were. It was so overgrown it is not an easy task.

The session started to feel more like archeology as the more we dug the more plastic, corrugated iron and pipe work we found... and a chair. The guys who have taken over the other half of the plot said they thought you only got an allotment by filling dead mens' shoes. They then found a pair of boots buried.

Anyway, we soon cleared a corner and using the scrap iron sheet we created a compost, and attacked the surrounding area. Down came most of a tree, and we discovered rhubarb, horseradish, and a few potatoes.

Almost three hours later, there is some evidence of progress... and a lot of stiff muscles.


The compost area. This was completely covered in brambles and bindweed when we started.


All this area was overgrown. There was a tree wrapped in bindweed next what is now the compost. You can just see the trunk still left. We hope it's an apple tree, but we'll wait to see if it grows again.


Having cleared this area, we've covered most of it over again.


Finally, we reaped what we didn't sow. Rhubarb for tea? Pity we're not having any roast beef to go with the horseradish!

The New Allotment

It seemed like a good idea at the time to put our names on a waiting list for an allotment. A year on and a phone call out of the blue said we could have one.

Well, here it is:


Rather a lot of work to do, and it's only half a plot!

Produce.

A little late in posting, but here is a photo of some produce!

The Rite of Spring (Onions)

Hello I'm David, here with another post of the very best in beans, roots and aromatic gardening.

We start tonight's post with news that peas in pots are flowering, soon to produce peas in pods in pots.Other news from the Western End:

• let it beans
  
• thymes they are a-changing
  
• with a little help from my worms
  
• house still standing, after all this time
  

Moving on downhill to the Eastern Frontier, the vegetable beds continue to produce new material. I was privileged enough to catch up with them on their latest tour of the lawn:
On a more serious note, the beans have launched an assault on the perimeter fence. There have been suggestions that it was an inside job.

That's all for now, thank you for reading. I'll be back next time with more news. It will probably mention that the various plants have grown some more, and that we've eaten them to save them from themselves.

2009 in the vegetable patch (and elsewhere...)

As promised, here is the round up of what is being grown this year:

In the original vegetable patch there are parsnips and spring onions (which are being sown successionally). In the new vegetable patch, which will have its own separate post at some point, there are 3 courgettes and lots of spinach. I have planted a few runner beans against the fence in the border, lots of peas in pots, also being sown successionally, and of course the radishes!

I am also experimenting a little by planting some leftover runner beans and a courgette in some odd bits of ground in between other plants in the garden.

First harvest

A guerilla post by David:

News just in - the radishes seem to have survived an earlier gastropod massacre to give this viciously colourful first harvest.

More peppery roots to follow before the week is out.

A quick review of last year

Seeing as 2008 received no blog coverage, I thought it would be good to quickly cover what was grown and with how much success:

In the patch there were carrots and nothing else as I never got round to planting anything in between the carrot rows! The resulting carrots were bizarrely shaped but extremely flavoursome. 

I also had grew some leeks, tomatoes and sweet peppers in pots. The leeks were small but tasty, tomatoes stayed green and so gave us several jars of green tomato chutney, and the peppers were a failure!

Some valuable lessons were learnt from the various successes and failures:

1. Don't plant the whole pack of seeds - its just too much!
2. Don't leave tasks like for later (like pinching out the tips of the tomato plants - this may have been why the tomatoes all stayed green) 

Thats all for now; 2009 update coming soon!

It's another two years on: doesn't time fly!

We ate all the produce from last year's small plot, so this year Andrew has taken charge of the expanded operation.

He has a mini- greenhouse, a lot of pots, and has dug up more of the lawn to make another small raised bed.

As I look out of the window and write this, I can see peas at various stages, courgettes, which were potted on yesterday and quite few bedding plants. I think there is a lot more in trays. There are also some radishes but these haven't done too well so far.