February Update

The end of last year and the start of this year has been very wet. My original 1/2 plot is fairly waterlogged as the soil has a lot of clay.
I didn’t have any brassicas in last year as the 1/2 plot didn’t have enough room.  So the main bed is pretty empty apart from some garlic I put in. It’s pretty waterlogged at the bottom though. Hopefully the garlic won’t just rot.
I’ve had the new plot mostly covered with plastic to inhibit the weeds, but I’ve started digging it over during the past couple of weeks, it’s been pretty heavy going.
I’ve got my seed potatoes chitting, 3 varieties:

• Rocket – 1st Earlies
• Desiree – Main Crop
• Albert Bartlett – Main Crop.

Looking forward to a good year, hoping the weather starts brightening up soon.

Big News

After years of waiting, I finally got offered an additional full plot to go with my existing half plot. It was terribly overgrown, full of weeds and brambles.

But a few hours with the scythe soon sorted that out.

With a bit of work it was soon like this

 

And after a hard day with a cultivator yesterday:

Lots of work still to do of course.

Harvest Update

Well, it has been a pretty good year at the allotment. We've had a good harvest of most of the veg planted.

The runner beans have been exceptional and are still going strong. Two courgette plants have produced a glut which we are slowly working through with ever more ingenuous recipes, last nights was courgette fritters.

The carrots weren't great, but were tasty.

A good crop of onions, but disappointing crop of garlic with most of it failing to 'bulb'.

There was a good crop of strawberries early on, and the raspberries are continuing to produce, but are starting to mould.

Still here, still digging.

Well it’s been over 2 years since my last allotment blog post. However, the allotment is still going.

2014 is going well, the weather has been good and everything is growing well. I did get off to a bit of a late start with the sowing and planting. I was holding back because of the threatened late frost, which never appeared.

The soft fruit is doing well, we’ve had around 4 kilos of raspberries and probably the same of strawberries, which have been very tasty and my wife has also made lots of jam.

I picked about a kilo of gooseberries but unfortunately they burned during the jam making.

Early March

Whilst rain stopped play last weekend, the weather on Sunday was glorious. I took the kids down, and we were there for most of the day.

I finished weeding one of the raspberry beds of couch grass and started on another.

I prepared my onion bed and added some blood, fish and bone to the ground.

I dug over the path between the top two beds as I need the growing room more than I need the path.

By the end of the day, my arms ached and my head was burned red. My hat appears to have disappeared from the shed.

First buds are out

Late February

After the snow in early February, the ground was too wet to work last week. So I spent a bit of time on sorting out the compost heaps.

This week I tidied out the strawberry patch and started on the raspberry patches. There is lots of couch grass and it's pretty tough getting it out without damaging the raspberry cane roots.

Seeds

Left over seeds

1. Basil
2. Rocket
3. Radish – French Breakfast
4. Cucumber – La Diva
5. Lettuce – Little Gem
6. Beetroot – Cardeal
7. Pumpkin – Racer
8. Spring Onion – White Lisbon
9. Courgette – All Green Bush
10. Coriander
11. Runner Beans – Scarlet Emperor
12. Sugar Snap Peas – Delicta
13. Baby Leaf Salad
14. Brussels Sprout – Clodius
15. Ghrerkin – Bimbostar
16. Leek – Musselburgh
17. Broccoli - Samson
18. Cauliflower

Gifted Seeds

1. Brussels Sprouts – Wellington F1
2. Broccoli – Green Sprouting
3. Broccoli – White Sprouting Early
4. Broccoli – Romanesco
5. Cauliflower – All year round
6. Brussels Sprout – F1 Revenge
7. Cabbage – Christmas Drumhead
8. Cabbage – Candissa F1
9. Cabbage – F1 Celtic
10. Carrot – Early Nantes
11. Carrot – Autumn King 2
12. Carrot – Amsterdam Forcing
13. Tomato – Marmande

Not a lot to do

Mid January

Popped over for a couple of hours this afternoon. Borrowed Oliver's rotavator and dig over the top bed.

Need to make a definitive plan of action for the coming weeks.

Early January

Todo list

1. Fix post for raspberries


2. Weed strawberry and raspberry patches


3. Fix gutter on shed


4. Dig over top bed


5. Sieve compost

Rhubarb Rhubarb

Popped over today, cleared up a bit of minor wind damage.

Also planted my new gooseberry bushes and rhubarb plants.

Early December

Just general tidying up today, and dug over a bed and covered it with black sheets.

The garlic I planted has started to put shoots up. Not sure if this is too early, or whether I should cover them with fleece.

November

Been a little lax with my posts, so a bit of a catchup.

• Cleared a bed ready for more gooseberry bushes.


• Transplanted strawberry runners to a new bed.


• Cut Down raspberry canes.


• Took down bean supports.


• Dug over two more beds.


• Gave the grass the last cut of the year.


• Planted out the garlic.


• Built a new compost heap with pallets.

Weekend update

I managed to get to the allotment yesterday for around an hour. Just enough time to shake some compost from the heap, and pot out some strawberry runners. I also sowed some rocket and radishes into the old onion bed.

Today I managed a couple of hours, and took my mum for a visit. I dug up around 30lb of potatoes  (didn’t get the chance to weigh them before they were raided for the dinner), around 2lb of raspberries, a few stalks of rhubarb, salad leaves, a small fennel bulb, some runner beans and French beans.

I did a bit of weeding, and cut down some of the old summer raspberry canes.

Update

Didn’t get down at all at the weekend due to horrendous rain. But made it down for the whole of the bank holiday Monday. Collected another couple of pounds of raspberries, some salad leaves, courgettes, dug some potatoes. One of our neighbours also let me have a few apples.

I also weeded, dug over and raked a lot of the now empty beds, and mowed some lawn.

Hoping to get down tomorrow, for an hour in the morning, to pot out the strawberry runners, and sow some more rocket and radishes.

Potatoes

Today I picked 33lb/15kg of potatoes, I reckon that is about just under half, so back tomorrow to get the rest.

It also included this contender for odd veg of the week.

At the weekend I lifted 19lb/9kg of onions (although that is with stalks), a pound or so of raspberries, several very large courgettes, and a few normal sized ones too.

We also picked 7kg/15lb of apples from local trees.

Sitting in the shed

At the allotment, I've picked the onions and some courgettes. Done some weeding. Now hiding in shed from rain, having a cup of tea.

Rain

Rain rain go away.

Despite the weeks and weeks of dry weather leading towards drought, a few days of rain and I've had enough. Hoping for some dry weather so I can get down to the plot.

More berries

Another 1.5lb of raspberries and 2lb of strawberries.
Put a net over another bed, did some weeding and watering.