Allotment Visit

I've not been feeling too well the past couple of days, so today was sanctioned as a duvet day. I made the call to work and stayed in bed. This afternoon, still feeling horrible, I decided to drag myself outside for some fresh air, and ended up walking over to the allotment for a quick inspection. I took a few quick photos.

This is the view from the path. It shows the two small raised beds for the kids, the top one has rocket and leeks, the bottom has strawberries. The large raised bed on the right is where most of my veg grew this year. The bed covered with black sheeting  is where the runner beans, potatoes and courgettes grew.

The plan for this year is to plant raspberries where the potatoes and runner beans were, the raised bed will have strawberries.

Then there is the shed and the two compost bins.

 

These are the brussels sprouts, with leeks, the only (edible) things growing.

 

This is a view from the other side of the shed looking towards the top of the plot. showing several beds covered in manure, and a lot of work still to be done.

 

This is a view from the top of the allotment looking down to the shed. As you can see I've still got quite a bit of ground to clear, and it's too wet to dig at the moment.

It left me feeling a bit depressed with the amount still to do, but I had a chat with a fellow allotmenteer, and that cheered me up a bit, and then I came home and looked at some photos from the last February when I took the plot on.

So progress has been made, despite 2007 being a bit of a bugger of a year personally. Looking forward to seeing how it compares this time next year.

Seed Order

This is the list of seeds and plants I have ordered:

• Broad Bean Imperial Green Longpod Seeds
• Climbing French Bean Cobra Seeds
• Beetroot Action F1 Seeds
• Broccoli Marathon F1 Seeds
• Brussels Sprouts Cascade F1 Seeds
• Cabbage Puma F1 Seeds
• Carrot Maestro F1 Seeds
• Cauliflower Nessie F1 Seeds
• Courgette Tosca F1 Seeds
• Cucumber Marketmore Seeds
• Green Manure Seeds - Mustard White
• Basil Seeds: Sweet Basil
• Chive Seeds
• Coriander Seeds
• Dill Bouquet Seeds
• Lemon Grass Seeds
• Mint Seeds
• Oregano Seeds
• Rosemary Seeds
• Sage Seeds
• Thyme Seeds
• Leek Carlton F1 Seeds
• Lettuce Little Gem Seeds
• Garlic Solent Wight Bulbs
• Onion (Spring) Guardsman Seeds
• Onion Sets Setton (400g)
• Parsnip Albion F1 Seeds
• Pea Alderman Seeds
• Pea Sugar Ann Seeds
• Potato Maris Piper - 3 kg
• Raspberry Collection
• Strawberry Twin Pack - Perfection & Malling Opal

I just hope I can fit everything in.

The New Year

A Happy New Year to everybody.

I've ordered up my seeds for the following year. I'm really looking forward to getting started.  There's not much on the allotment at the moment, just sprouts and leeks. Roll on spring.

November and December

Pressure of work and bad weather have kept me away, bar a couple of days. Dug a fourth bed, planted some onions. Picked some Brussell Sprouts. And that's about it. Roll on Spring. I'm hoping to get down for a couple of visits over Christmas. Get another bed dug.

Late September and October

A busy month for me personally, so I didn't get down to the allotment very often.  However, I managed to spend most of the day there last Saturday. I cleared out the dead courgettes, the unfortunately dead rhubarb, and covered up the bed they were on with black sheeting.

I also spread some bark on the path around the shed. And turned over compost heap number 1.

I moved some of the good quality soil from the hill of twigs etc that was and to some extent is taking over the top third of the allotment.

Then as dark fell, I had a nice bonfire, clearing out the two stacks I'd left earlier.

Looking forward to getting back next weekend.

Early September

I've only managed to get down for a few hours each of the last two weekends. I've done some badly needed weeding, finished off clearing bed 3, continued chopping down brambles and started digging them out at the top of the plot.

I've picked a few courgettes and some more runner beans. The rocket is coming on and so are the beetroot, no sign of much else though. Going to make a big effort to get down on Saturday, but I've got family visiting.

Weekend work

I managed to get about 5 hours at the allotment on Saturday, and managed to clear bed 3 of carpet and brambles. I gave it a quick dig to break it up a bit. I'll give it a proper dig next week.

I also cleared more brambles from the top of the allotment using the scythe which makes things a lot easier.

Although I've found several interesting things buried in them so far, a large bit of corrugated iron being one, a dead tree being another.

Also picked the last large marrow, and two courgettes, a large handful of french beans, and half a bucket of runner beans (not many left now), and some potatoes (which tasted lovely).

The rocket we sewed a couple of weeks ago has poked through, though no sign of the cabbages yet.

I also got back on Sunday to set up another compost heap.

So plans for next week: dig bed 3, clear bed 4, cut more brambles.

Also, need to do some weeding, I've been concentraing on the digging, but do need to make sure that the weeds aren't taking over the existing beds.