at one with the land

MrUrban said yesterday "thanks for making us get the allotment" and I realised how much we have both been enjoying it.

In a way it doesn't matter if we even get any vegetables out of it (although we have already had salad and, of course, the rhubarb) - we are feeling fit and healthy; it is an excuse to be outside, and have barbeques; and it is just hugely pleasant to sit there noticing small things growing and watching our resident robin noseying at what we are doing (I'm going to try and get a pic of him but he flys off every time I reach for my camera).

It is also great to have people to say hello to, and somewhere to go. I work at home and have made a decision to try and get to the allotment every day. I really think it has helped me on a day to day basis, I feel a lot happier having that little patch of outdoors that I can go and visit.

Here's to cups of tea and plant watching.

Growth

Plot 60 is starting to burst with life. Strawberries showing flowers. Gooseberries starting to swell.



The rhubarb continues rampant.



The peas are sending out tendrils.



And the early potatoes (Arran Pilots) are on their way.

Sauerkraut

Well, in a few months time anyway.

Today the cabbages and cauliflowers from Gert went in. We thoroughly weeded the bed (bottom left) which means there are probably only a million tiny pieces of whatever evil pervasive root seems to populate out plot. We then heeled the bed down as brassicas prefer well firmed ground. Next we dug holes - we did this a bit closer than the reccomended spacings as we want to harvest them small and young. We also alternated rows of the earlier maturing cabbages with the slightly longer cauliflowers which means alternate rows will come up, leaving more room for the cauliflowers later. Or that is the theory.

Also watching Gardener's World on Friday night finally got us to get round to taking out copper pipe and fixings down to the plot. We had some left over from doing the bathroom and now it is around the cabbage bed to try and keep the slugs off. We need to get some nemotodes too, to try and kill off the ones that are no doubt hiding in there.

We 'puddled in' the cabbages. Once the hole was dug for each plant some compost went in the bottom and then the plants went in. Then the hole was filled up with water and allowed to soak away, and then filled again and allowed to soak away again, before the hole was backfilled and firmed around the plant. I'm assuming this is to send the water down below the cabbage to encourage it to send roots long roots down, but I don't really know.

They now have fleece over them to protect them a little.

Rain, rain, go away . . .

. . . until we have another water butt.

Our new guttering system is now so efficient that both water butts are full to overflowing. We now need several overflow butts, and a nifty selection of overflows, so that we can stock up while these April showers are around. I think I may have to hit freecycle with a 'wanted' request.

Garden Action

I've been enjoying this website recently Garden Action. They have excellent herb, veg and fruit guides. Also good is that fact you can put your location in (in UK) and it modifies the advice to take into account your average last and first frost dates, and average local temperatures etc.

The advice is clear and simple too, really easy to understand. It says they are hoping to expand the number of plant articles they have soon, I'm looking forward to it.

Earlies

The Arran Pilots are showing their faces. I had started to get worried about them, but here they are.



Also new on the plot this week is our all new singing dancing 2 compartment compost bin. Constructed from 'Chep' pallets. MrUrban must have moved a tonne of compost (1m x 1m x 1m) from the old heap to the new one. He aches now.



New guttering on the shed too - just in time for the rain.

sunflowers!

The blackberry is now in and while I was there I potted the rapidly growing sunflower seeds into medium-ish pots from the propagator.

We have 3 kinds Evening Sun, Teddy Bear (lovely fuzzy ones) and Sun Spot. I'm looking forward to them.

Seeds at home and seeds afar

I bought a tiny little 79p propagator from Pound Saver yesterday to try some chilli, tomato and huckleberry seeds at home, see if they do any better with a bit more of a constant temperature.

I also got a blackberry bush so that is another one for the fruit cage. I am off now to try and fit it in somewhere. This allotment seems to be turning into mostly fruit.

I did buy purple sprouting broccoli to get going for next spring as the stuff on the plot has been so good, and cos lettuce as I realised we didn't have any actual lettuce. They are in another small propogator in the greenhouse.

The normal broccoli, and the sprouts are germinating, and so are the squash and sunflowers.

Ministry of Agriculture

A little help from our friends at the Ministry of Agriculture 1940s style.

I found these magazines online. You can see the jpgs of the original 40s publications, or the website owner has typed the out as well.

Earthly Pursuits - Allotment Guides

Lovely!



I think I'm going to print the jpgs out and then paper my shed with them.

Back after Easter

Wayhay! Things are still alive!

A little view of the plot before we went away - must take another one soon as it has changed already:



Compare and contrast from those few short weeks ago (from a different angle) here.

And here is the plan so you know what is what. The photo is taken with back to shed.

The bonus of going away to demolish your Mum's shed is also that she ends up throwing stuff away so we now have some biggish terracotta pots, abig piece of wood that will make a good potting bench, and the old shed window for another cold frame.

Easter egg-replacement gifts from Mum, aunt, and in-laws include a small watering can with a delicate rose for watering seeds and seedlings in the greenhouse, a pot of 6 raspberry canes and a tayberry cane,, garlic bulbs, some sunflower seeds, and a b&q voucher. I also got given a lovely old red tilley lamp by my granddad (which hasn't been used for 30+ years but seems in working order) and we bought citronella candles; a wasp jar; a smaller parafin lamp; some fruit netting; some watercress, cress, mustard and garden huckleberry seeds; and another little chilli plant and a 'burpless' cucumber plant. The garden centres in Lancashire/Yorkshire seem much more satisfying than our local ones - I don't know if that is just beacuse I kow where the good family-owned ones are down there.

So we have potted up the chilli and cucumber, planted the garlic, and sowed the hukleberry seeds and sunflower seeds.

And then went round so see what had been growing in our absence.

The radish has come up and the seedling as quite big. The beetroot is just peeping tiny leaves through the soil. the rocket is well on it's way and the perpetual spinach looks like it is sending up the start of some leaves. The spicy salad has several good leaves and I think will be ready for the first cut soon. The carrots have gained some true leaves.

One close inspection (nose to the ground) some broad beans are starting to germinate (must get the chickenwire out) as are some peas. The onions have sent up some green. The starwberries has formed some new leaves since planting, and I have harvested yet more rhubarb for the freezer. All the fruit bushes have new leaves.

In the greenhouse some more aubergine seeds have germinated, and three of the tomatoes have too - the 3 vintage wine seeds I think. Still only 1 chilli one. All the bought tomato/chilli/aubergine plants have grown. Gert's brassicas had not died.

And the previously sad looking broccoli had flourished! Loads of lovely long purple sprouts. So it was stilton and broccoli soup for dinner.

March Update

It has been a while since I got my act together and posted information here, but I have been keeping a diary, so here is what happened in March.

We have got a host of seeds going. Sweet peas and little round parmex carrots were first - both are now out in the plot after a spell in the cold frame (if you can call a window frame leant up against a shed that). Next the potatoes went into the top left bed - pink fir and arran pilot. The potatoes went in the first bed we laid out in the top left corner of the plot.



We built another bed below that - left middle. Then the beans and onion sets went in - we have broad beans, red onions and shollots. We put a brick path between these two as we uncovered another pile of brick.



Radish seeds, beetroot seeds and carrot seedlings went in the top middle bed. This one is a raised one with a brick wall at the front and also, we discovered as we started to dig in it, a wall in the middle under the soil. We took that one out with the help of a sledge hammer.



By this time a rhubarb plant that had been hiding in the grass under where we had put the windows as a cold frame had responded to its nice new warn envirnment and shot up. We now have a freezer full of rhubarb - good job I like it.



Our spicy salad seedlings came out and into the bath we have set into the ground in front of the shed, along with some more of the carrot seedlings and some dill and parsely seeds.



The only thing that seems to have survived from the previous plot holder is some purple sprouting broccoli (apart form the rhubarb and I don't think that counts - rhubarb just exists). It was looking a bit sad, falling over and with yellowing leaves, so we put supporting canes in, weeded round them and pinched out the growing tips to see if it would do anything.

Aubergine, tomato and chilli seeds went into the greenhouse, along with lobelia, aquilegia, marogold, chive and basil seeds.

They all started to germinate (apart from the tomoatoes), although there was only one chilli and one aubergine.

We went crazy in the garden centre and bought strawberries, 3 different tomato plants, a chilli plant, and an aubergine plant. I'm not convinced I'll get anywhere with the tom and chilli seeds so I have relegated them to the staus of an extra bonus on top of the bought plants.

Gert, the longest serving plot holder (40+ years), collared us and gave us some of his cabbage seedlings, he had done well with them and didn't want to discard the thinnings so is sharing the wealth with anyone who wants some. He is 80odd years old and has 4 plots all joined together and about 5 sizable greenhouses, I'm sure we will be able to pick his brains when needed. So we now have: late, early, and red cabbages, and some cauliflowers too.

Michael the allotment secretary had been growing on some gooseberry bushes for someone who no longer needed them, so he gave us one of those. We could have had all 6 but we didn't really have the room. He tried to give us red currants too, but again no space. Shame really. The fruit cage is quite full now.

After all that we left for a week to go and demolish my Mum's shed over Easter and build the new one she has bought. We didn't know what to expect on our return - hopefully not a wilted dead plot. We fashioned makeshift drip watering systems for greehouse stuff, and sat the tomatoes in trays of water. We had some shade fabric from a project we had done, so that went on the greenhouse windows in the hope that things wouldn't wilt in the promised hot weather.

Below is a plan of what we have so far, the big bed on the right was there, so was the compost heap and shed. Most other stuff we have done ourselves. If you clcik on it you get a big version where you can see the text: