While I was at my plot on Friday night making sure everything was in place for the weekend's rotivation and raised bed building I just happened to look at the first bed that me and my son dug over nearly three weeks ago, just after I got the allotment. Determined to plant something this year I came down to the plot in the middle of a rainstorm and planted up 15 potatoes.
The next morning when I checked the bed it had been thoroughly trashed by the family of foxes we have on site - the ridges had been flattened and several holes dug into the bed itself.
I tried to repair the damage but mentally wrote this bed off and carried on preparing the remainder of the plot.
Whilst piling bags of compost I noticed something coming through in that bed that didn't look like the other weeds and I was down on my hands and knees in a flash, carefully brushing away the loose dried soil from around it.
It was one of my potatoes that was showing, and now that I was down close to the bed I could see one or two more.
The tops are only a centimetre above ground level at the moment, but overall I found that thirteen of the fifteen I planted have made an appearance.
I was so happy that I went and found my plot neighbour who was minding his own business watering his beans and dragged him across to show him my first ever plants on my plot.
Thankfully he was very understanding towards the lunatic who was pointing out some barely showing shoots, especially when his own plot is filled with stuff doing really well.
I know that they are only potatoes, I know that I shouldn't get so excited over such a small deal, but they are my first and so will always be special.
Now I have actually got something other than weeds growing I can call myself a Proper Plot Holder.
The Generation Game
It was an early start as we had to go to the reclaimed timber yard for 9.15 so that the van could follow us to the allotment with the wood for the raised beds. The owner of the yard told us that the wood we had bought had originally been used in the construction of the new Wembley Stadium. It had been part of the roadway laid for the construction equipment to stop them getting bogged down. Although it wasn't important, it is quite nice to know a bit about where it had come from.
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| Timber Pile |
He had also put in quite a few pieces of hardwood including a lot of oak. This would normally have cost about four times as much as the wood we had originally agreed upon, but he let us have it for the same price. This seemed a good deal at the time, but later we had cause to regret taking it, if only slightly.
We travelled in convoy to the allotment, and by 10.15 the van had been unloaded and sent back to the yard. The pile of wood was about three foot high, and each piece was about 7"x3"x10', and very heavy. The oak was shorter, but nearly half as heavy again - an incredilbly dense wood. It took two of us just to lift each piece.
We borrowed a couple of saw horses from a plot neighbour and were just about ready to start trimming the timber to size when the heavens opened on us. It had been raining earlier in the morning, about 6.30, but had been dry since so this was a bit of a blow.
Fortunately for us it only lasted about 20 minutes after which Ken got on with measuring and cutting the first piece while Will and I went to collect the plot rotivator and get some basic training on how to use it.
Five minutes later I started it up on the plot and got to work.
The sun came out and we carried on with Will and me alternating on the rotivator, and either helping Ken or moving more of the manure when we weren't rotivating.
We didn't go with the original plan of rotivating the manure into the soil as we were finding it hard enough without adding extra moisture - all it would have done would have been to clog the blades more often. We would also have been enriching the soil under where the paths were going to go, which would have encouraged the weeds.
As the day went on, we discovered the downside of having the oak timbers - as they were much shorter than the other planks Ken had decided to use them as the short ends for the beds and had trimmed two of them to five foot lengths. The wood was so hard it took ages to saw off the ends, and then when we tried to drive 6" nails into them the nails actually bent rather than go through the wood.
We also discovered that the brand new saw blade I had bought had been blunted as well! Hard wood indeed.
By about two o'clock we had managed to rotivate all of the area we had chosen for the day, and given a special going-over to the section that was to hold the first few beds. The middle of my plot was now looking pretty level, or at least much more level than it had been, and the blades of the rotivator weren't clogging up at all by now - presumably the moisture from the morning's showers had now either dried off or been mixed in, and all the grass was well chopped.
It was now time to assemble the first bed.
Due to the weight of each individual piece we decided to assemble the beds in situe, so we lined the first end up on the edge of the road bordering my plot and put the first side in place and hammered the nails home. The other corners were nailed tight, and we all stood back to look at what we had worked hard all morning to create.
Now it was actually starting to look like an allotment.
I will give him some of the leaf beet, brussels, onions, lettuce, peppers and tomatoes I have already growing at home, and he can have some of my spinach and carrot seeds as well rather than buying his own. As he will only have a single bed to work with he is going to try and use the square foot gardening method which should hopefully work well for him as he won't be able to get to the plot by himself, so is only likely to be there at weekends to do his weeding and watering.
Throughout the day we had been visited by several of the other plot holders coming down to say 'hello' and to have a look at how we were getting on. We were even given a few pounds of potatoes - thanks Diane.
I am still amazed at how friendly and helpful people on the allotment are, and I am so happy that I chose to take a plot here rather than hanging on for a plot elsewhere that might have been in a bit of a better condition.
We had been lucky with the weather up to this point, but the clouds looked like they were starting to get darker so we decided to get one more bed made and in, and to clean off the rotivator before we finished off for the day.
This turned out to be a good call as the rain started again within about an hour of getting everyone home.
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| Compost pile next to manure pile |
So, the sum total of the day's work was 400' of timber delivered and stacked in a temporary pile on the roadway, about half a ton of manure moved to the holding pile, two 5' x 9' raised beds made and in place, about 80 square metres of plot turned over and well rotivated, and three very tired men.
The plan was to come back in the morning and carry on making and filling the raised beds, but it has been raining pretty much constantly since the early hours so we have decided to give it a miss today and try to do a couple more hours each evening through next week, weather permitting.
Without the help of my family this weekend I wouldn't have been able to complete half as much as we did so I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks, and I love you both loads.
Things are happening at the allotment
I will have had my plot for three weeks on Sunday, but it seems like an awful lot more.
The grass that was strimmed before my arrival is back at about 3" tall and needs doing again.
I have got about 20 square metres covered with a cardboard mulch, got a 4' square bed double dug and planted with potatoes which have been in for two weeks so far with nothing showing as yet.
My compost pile is growing and will hopefully give some decent stuff next year.
I have now got my new barrow, and the weed-suppressing fabric that I ordered ages ago was finally delivered on Wednesday.
I have had 8 tons of cow manure delivered of which about six has been moved to a holding pile on the allotment.
We are planning to rotivate the middle section of the allotment tomorrow morning, adding the remaining manure as we go to get it well mixed in.
The wood for the raised beds is also coming tomorrow morning and there will be an awful lot of it! I will have to get a staging area for the planks set up just off my plot by the orchard so it can all be stacked there.
I am going to visit ASDA tonight and get a few bags of compost ready to top off the raised beds as they are being filled, which I am hoping will allow us to start planting out the seedlings from home - some of them are really a coupe of weeks overdue for going out, but all have been hardened off and so should be ok straight away.
The soft fruit and herb area is going to be covered in weed fabric apart from a central sectrion which will have the top few inches of soil lifted and pits dug and filled with manure to hold some rhubarb. This area will be protected by another raised bed frame.
The raspberry and blackberry canes will be planted straight into pits dug on the border of the fruit section as will the gooseberries and black currants, and once the fabric has done it's job we will be planting a selection of herbs in front of the bushes. This is going to have to wait a while though, as the holding pile for the muck has extended right through one side of this part of the plot.
My two pumpkin plants are getting quite large now and so I think they will be set out directly into either end of the muck pile to give them their very own 'hot' bed. Another experiment, but one I have high hopes for.
Not much to report from the home garden right now - we have picked and eaten our second raspberries of the year - only a small handful but very, very sweet. Same for the strawberries in the hanging planter - we may have only got a few fruit so far, but there are new flowers on some of the plants.
I have used a different variety to top up the planter, these give lovely pink flowers instead of the usual white ones - we will have to wait to see how the fruit compares.
The tomatoes in the grow bag have now been staked and are setting loads of tresses, but are still less than two foot tall. I'm not sure what variety these are as I bought them as seedlings at a plant sale.
I have had my first tomato from the bush variety waiting to be planted out - it was yellow and had split, probably due to inconsistent watering on my part , but very nice so I think it must be a yellow fruiting variety. There are loads more coming, so we will soon find out.
I have harvested a couple more sticks from my rhubarb which we had stewed with sugar - lovely!
We have also had some chard, steamed, and lots of lettuce from the pot by the door.
This pot has been a great success as we have been picking and eating from it for over six weeks now, but it has finally started to bolt with the recent hot weather so it will be cleared tonight with the final leaves used in a salad for tea, then I will replant the pot with some 'All Year Round' lettuce seedlings from the blow away which should be ready for picking off in another couple of weeks.
One big failure is the melon plant, which has inexplainable curled up and died despite having been watered well. One of my plot neighbours used to lecture on horticulture, and has suggested that it could have been attacked by vine weevil - I will have to look carefully at the roots later to see if there is any evidence of that.
One of my potato bags has come down with blight - I have removed all the foliage and will be harvesting this weekend. I have already had a little furtle and come up with a decent sized potato just under the surface, which bodes well for a good harvest here.
The grass that was strimmed before my arrival is back at about 3" tall and needs doing again.
I have got about 20 square metres covered with a cardboard mulch, got a 4' square bed double dug and planted with potatoes which have been in for two weeks so far with nothing showing as yet.
My compost pile is growing and will hopefully give some decent stuff next year.
I have now got my new barrow, and the weed-suppressing fabric that I ordered ages ago was finally delivered on Wednesday.
I have had 8 tons of cow manure delivered of which about six has been moved to a holding pile on the allotment.
We are planning to rotivate the middle section of the allotment tomorrow morning, adding the remaining manure as we go to get it well mixed in.
The wood for the raised beds is also coming tomorrow morning and there will be an awful lot of it! I will have to get a staging area for the planks set up just off my plot by the orchard so it can all be stacked there.
I am going to visit ASDA tonight and get a few bags of compost ready to top off the raised beds as they are being filled, which I am hoping will allow us to start planting out the seedlings from home - some of them are really a coupe of weeks overdue for going out, but all have been hardened off and so should be ok straight away.
The soft fruit and herb area is going to be covered in weed fabric apart from a central sectrion which will have the top few inches of soil lifted and pits dug and filled with manure to hold some rhubarb. This area will be protected by another raised bed frame.
The raspberry and blackberry canes will be planted straight into pits dug on the border of the fruit section as will the gooseberries and black currants, and once the fabric has done it's job we will be planting a selection of herbs in front of the bushes. This is going to have to wait a while though, as the holding pile for the muck has extended right through one side of this part of the plot.
My two pumpkin plants are getting quite large now and so I think they will be set out directly into either end of the muck pile to give them their very own 'hot' bed. Another experiment, but one I have high hopes for.
Not much to report from the home garden right now - we have picked and eaten our second raspberries of the year - only a small handful but very, very sweet. Same for the strawberries in the hanging planter - we may have only got a few fruit so far, but there are new flowers on some of the plants.
I have used a different variety to top up the planter, these give lovely pink flowers instead of the usual white ones - we will have to wait to see how the fruit compares.
The tomatoes in the grow bag have now been staked and are setting loads of tresses, but are still less than two foot tall. I'm not sure what variety these are as I bought them as seedlings at a plant sale.
I have had my first tomato from the bush variety waiting to be planted out - it was yellow and had split, probably due to inconsistent watering on my part , but very nice so I think it must be a yellow fruiting variety. There are loads more coming, so we will soon find out.
I have harvested a couple more sticks from my rhubarb which we had stewed with sugar - lovely!
We have also had some chard, steamed, and lots of lettuce from the pot by the door.
This pot has been a great success as we have been picking and eating from it for over six weeks now, but it has finally started to bolt with the recent hot weather so it will be cleared tonight with the final leaves used in a salad for tea, then I will replant the pot with some 'All Year Round' lettuce seedlings from the blow away which should be ready for picking off in another couple of weeks.
One big failure is the melon plant, which has inexplainable curled up and died despite having been watered well. One of my plot neighbours used to lecture on horticulture, and has suggested that it could have been attacked by vine weevil - I will have to look carefully at the roots later to see if there is any evidence of that.
One of my potato bags has come down with blight - I have removed all the foliage and will be harvesting this weekend. I have already had a little furtle and come up with a decent sized potato just under the surface, which bodes well for a good harvest here.
Windowsill Update - Part 5
It's been two weeks since the last update, and the windowsill is looking distinctly bare nowadays.
I planted both the borlitti and mange tout into my garden last weekend as they were getting a bt out of control - the borlotti was over four feet tall and the mange tout was ranging all over the windowsill in search of something to climb up.
I think I should really have moved them earlier as a couple of the borlotti stems got bent while untangling ready to transplant, but they seem to have come through OK and are thriving outdoors,
I have got the borlotti growing up the trellis in my original narrow beds, and the mange tout are growing up canes in the 4' x 4' bed.
Of the plants left on the windowsill, the two 'Sweet Baby' tomatoes are now both over 6" high, both chilli 'Anaheim' are about 4" tall and showing plenty of leaf.
My two experiments, however, are not doing as well.
Of the 17 radish plants in a single tray that I separated most have withered and died. There are six whose leaves have simply dried out completely and are nothing but a stem with crispy bits attached.
A further six have some greenery left, but aren't looking happy at all, and the remaining five aren't looking too bad at all, but still have some crispy leaves attached to them. Three of the five were actually transplanted, so I'm not sure if it was the act of transplanting that disturbed the roots and caused the problem or not.
Either way, I'm not confident that any will survive much longer.
The spinach I planted in the tiny root cells that my veg plugs from Aldi came in is also having problems.
I have had to water them, even though they were sat in a water retaining gel, which has caused some kind of algae bloom in the gel itself, the gel has dried up to about half its original volume and is completely filled with an amazing root system from the spinach.
Some of the spinach seedlings haven't rooted themselved properly and are lying on the surface, and many of the ones that are standing up straight are up to three inched tall, but have already started to bolt and set seed, probably as they are under stress in the mini-cloche.
I am going to plant these out either tonight or over the weekend to see if any can be salvaged, although I am not going to be holding my breath over them. I think I will have to cut open the mini cells to plant them so I have some chance of not destroying the roots completely.
I think I will be underplanting my kale and Romanescue caulis which although they are growing well, don't need the full space as yet.
So, what have I learned from the windowsill this season?
Some successes with the tomato and chilli, I have strong plants which are nearly ready for planting on, even though they may be a little late in the season to do much.
Another success was the home-made light reflector that stopped the plants from leaning alarmingly towards the window - definitely using that again next year.
Lessons have been learnt with the beans and mange tout - next year I will plant them singly into pots and plant them out much earlier to avoid damaging the plants when doing so.
More lessons with the radish and spinach. Neither seem to be happy on the windowsill, and radish certainly don't like having their roots disturbed.
Re-using the mini cells from the Aldi plug plants seemed like a good idea at the time, but it has not gone quite to plan so I won't use them again. The mini-cloches will probably be used but with seeds planted straight into compost in the base, without the cells or gel.
I may grow spinach on the windowsill again, but into larger pots with a couple of seeds in each to avoid the problems caused by the mini cells.
I planted both the borlitti and mange tout into my garden last weekend as they were getting a bt out of control - the borlotti was over four feet tall and the mange tout was ranging all over the windowsill in search of something to climb up.
I think I should really have moved them earlier as a couple of the borlotti stems got bent while untangling ready to transplant, but they seem to have come through OK and are thriving outdoors,
I have got the borlotti growing up the trellis in my original narrow beds, and the mange tout are growing up canes in the 4' x 4' bed.
Of the plants left on the windowsill, the two 'Sweet Baby' tomatoes are now both over 6" high, both chilli 'Anaheim' are about 4" tall and showing plenty of leaf.
My two experiments, however, are not doing as well.
Of the 17 radish plants in a single tray that I separated most have withered and died. There are six whose leaves have simply dried out completely and are nothing but a stem with crispy bits attached.
A further six have some greenery left, but aren't looking happy at all, and the remaining five aren't looking too bad at all, but still have some crispy leaves attached to them. Three of the five were actually transplanted, so I'm not sure if it was the act of transplanting that disturbed the roots and caused the problem or not.
Either way, I'm not confident that any will survive much longer.
The spinach I planted in the tiny root cells that my veg plugs from Aldi came in is also having problems.
I have had to water them, even though they were sat in a water retaining gel, which has caused some kind of algae bloom in the gel itself, the gel has dried up to about half its original volume and is completely filled with an amazing root system from the spinach.
Some of the spinach seedlings haven't rooted themselved properly and are lying on the surface, and many of the ones that are standing up straight are up to three inched tall, but have already started to bolt and set seed, probably as they are under stress in the mini-cloche.
I am going to plant these out either tonight or over the weekend to see if any can be salvaged, although I am not going to be holding my breath over them. I think I will have to cut open the mini cells to plant them so I have some chance of not destroying the roots completely.
I think I will be underplanting my kale and Romanescue caulis which although they are growing well, don't need the full space as yet.
So, what have I learned from the windowsill this season?
Some successes with the tomato and chilli, I have strong plants which are nearly ready for planting on, even though they may be a little late in the season to do much.
Another success was the home-made light reflector that stopped the plants from leaning alarmingly towards the window - definitely using that again next year.
Lessons have been learnt with the beans and mange tout - next year I will plant them singly into pots and plant them out much earlier to avoid damaging the plants when doing so.
More lessons with the radish and spinach. Neither seem to be happy on the windowsill, and radish certainly don't like having their roots disturbed.
Re-using the mini cells from the Aldi plug plants seemed like a good idea at the time, but it has not gone quite to plan so I won't use them again. The mini-cloches will probably be used but with seeds planted straight into compost in the base, without the cells or gel.
I may grow spinach on the windowsill again, but into larger pots with a couple of seeds in each to avoid the problems caused by the mini cells.
Talking C**p
I had a load of rotted cow manure delivered to the allotment at the end of last week, about 8 tons in total.
The farmer had to drop it onto the roadway as there wasn't enough room to drop it straight onto the edge of the plot so I have been spending quite a lot of my time shoveling s**t over the weekend.
So far I have managed to get just over half moved with a bit of help from my son Will on Saturday, a total of 86 barrow loads.
The barrow that I inherited with the plot has turned out to be almost useless - the plastic wheel is squashed in two places and it sticks between the forks at every opportunity - once you get onto the grass friction helps it to turn, but when on the plastic tarp that the muck was dropped on it just slides and won't turn. Also, most barrows have a kind of frame surrounding the wheel that you can use to help tip out the contents - this one doesn't so you have to bodily hurl it forwards to empty it. Not good.
Help is at hand courtesy of my mum who is buying me a barrow for my birthday - thanks mum!
There is now a pile about 9 meters long and two wide running down the middle of my plot - the plan is to move about another 30 barrows to add to this pile and then move the remainder on Saturday when we are going to rotivate the middle section and add manure to the soil as we go, using the rotivator to turn it in for us.
Also on Saturday we will be getting some timber to make raised beds - when I say some, I mean absolutely loads as my step-dad has gone and bought 400 foot of 7 x 2 3/4 timber. While me and Will rotivate he is planning to cut it to size and make up the beds. Thanks Ken!
We may even be in a position to actually plant up some veg this weekend!
I really don't know what I did with my spare time before I started this allotment :)
The farmer had to drop it onto the roadway as there wasn't enough room to drop it straight onto the edge of the plot so I have been spending quite a lot of my time shoveling s**t over the weekend.
So far I have managed to get just over half moved with a bit of help from my son Will on Saturday, a total of 86 barrow loads.
The barrow that I inherited with the plot has turned out to be almost useless - the plastic wheel is squashed in two places and it sticks between the forks at every opportunity - once you get onto the grass friction helps it to turn, but when on the plastic tarp that the muck was dropped on it just slides and won't turn. Also, most barrows have a kind of frame surrounding the wheel that you can use to help tip out the contents - this one doesn't so you have to bodily hurl it forwards to empty it. Not good.
Help is at hand courtesy of my mum who is buying me a barrow for my birthday - thanks mum!
There is now a pile about 9 meters long and two wide running down the middle of my plot - the plan is to move about another 30 barrows to add to this pile and then move the remainder on Saturday when we are going to rotivate the middle section and add manure to the soil as we go, using the rotivator to turn it in for us.
Also on Saturday we will be getting some timber to make raised beds - when I say some, I mean absolutely loads as my step-dad has gone and bought 400 foot of 7 x 2 3/4 timber. While me and Will rotivate he is planning to cut it to size and make up the beds. Thanks Ken!
We may even be in a position to actually plant up some veg this weekend!
I really don't know what I did with my spare time before I started this allotment :)
End of week catch up
In the past week since I last posted things have been moving on quite a bit, both at the allotment and at home, and I have had a major catastrophe too.
On Sunday afternoon I was relaxing in my hot tub after a few hard hours at the allotment when one of our cats knocked my mobile phone into the water.
Needless to say it was a complete write off, so I haven't been able to post up any more pictures since, which has kind of put me off writing anything.
So - what has been going on this week at home?
I have harvested a few more rhubarb stems which were stewed down with some sugar and a bit of water - very nice, but it really needed a bit more sugar. All right - a lot more, to be honest.
The first few raspberries of the year have been eaten too - they didn't need any extra sweetener as they were gorgeous by themselves. There is another handful ready too, looking forwards to picking those tomorrow.
I have also harvested a few Rainbow Chard leaves and steamed them with some cabbage given to me by a very generous allotment neighbour. Not sure if I prefer them to spinach right now, but I will have plenty more opportunities to decide as the chard has really started to fill out and develop into really big plants. I'm glad I decided to give them plenty of room when I planted them out six weeks ago!
The lettuce tub by the front door has also been raided quite a lot this week, but as they are starting to show signs of bolting we will be eating them as fast as we can before they turn bitter.
I have also picked up a young melon plant and stuck it into my largest pot - you never know, we might actually get some sun over the next few weeks to allow fruit to develop. I am thinking of building up a frame for it to climb up - apparently this will encourage it to set more fruit along the length of the vine rather than just at the end as it would if I let it crawl along the floor.
The borlotti and mange tout on the windowsill desperately need planting out - the borlotti is now nearly four foot tall and looking for something to climb up, the mange tout has flopped over and is rapidly spreading along the windowsill. I have a space picked out in the front garden in front of the trellis for them, so hopefully they will be able to handle the shock of being outdoors for the first time
The two tomato seedilngs in one pot have been separated into their own pots and are coming on well. The chillis have now got four leaves each, and are slowly getting stronger.
The spinach grown in the gel is doing remarkably well, the only problem I forsee is trying to get the plants out of their cells without losing half of the root system which is now well established within the gel itself. I am going to plant these inbetween the leeks in the raised bed - they should be picked and eaten long before I need to get at the leeks.
Not too sure about the radish at the moment - the majority of the first leaves have withered and died, but only a couple of the plants have well developed true leaves as yet. It may be that I am going to lose a lot of these plants. The plan is to plant them out below the brassicas in the bed in front of the trellis once they have all got good true leaves showing.
In the blow away it is like looking through a jungle, the plants are doing so well.
I am considering bringing some of the trays out and leaving them on some greenhouse staging just to give a bit of room to the others left behind.
I am very pleased with the pumpkins - both are getting quite big now, so I will have to look at potting them up into bigger containers as they really don't like being cramped.
One disappointment so far has been the onions. They have been pricked out into individual modules for some time now, but there is virtually no signs of growth from any of them as yet.
With the weather having been so bad this week I haven't had much time to get down to the allotment, but I have had 8 tonnes of cow manure delivered in anticipation of some nice weather that will allow me to rotivate part of the plot and get it all mixed in.
I have spent an hour tonight moving the first of it off the path where it was dumped - 11 barrows-full and I have hardly dinted the pile! I reckon there is about another 150-200 barrows-full to go, so at my curent speed it will take me 10-15 more hours! I just hope that I will speed up as I get more used to the work.
Windowsill Update - Part 4
It's been a few days since I last posted an update about the plants I have growing on my windowsill.
I am pleased to say that after my first poor impressions, the home-made light reflector is working well and I no longer have plants stretching towards the window in search of light, they are all now growing relatively straight.
The borlotti beans are still growing well, and have now reached the dizzy height of 36 inches!
They are starting to intertwine so I need to get a bed prepared and get them planted out at the allotmant as soon as I can.
The mange tout are also still growing well, although nowhere near as good as the borlotti, and have shoots up to 13 inches long. These have now stopped growing upwards but have started to creep in search of something to climb up for support. Again, these will need planting out soon.
The radish that I thinned out and transplanted look to be doing well (on the right in the picture), as do the seedlings left behind.
Several are starting to get their first true leaves and the base of the stem is turning the pinky radish colour you expect to see.
This is the most successful plant in terms of germination, with a count of 17 out of 18.
The seeds were sown on the 25th of June, so these plants are now 18 days old. I was hoping to be able to pick them after 3 weeks, but I shall have to be more patient I guess.
The two chillis are being slow to grow, but the seedlings are looking strong.
Still no sign of the third, nor of the pumpkin I planted as insurance against the one in the blow away not germinating (which is actually doing great).
Also going strong are the two seedlings of tomato 'Sweet Baby'.
Both now have true leaves, but I am going to wait until they both have a second set before pricking them out into separate pots to grow on.
I think I will leave these inside along with the chillis to get the best chance of a crop from them this year.
My experiment with re-using the module and water retaining gel that the Aldi plug plants came in is looking good - of the 30 spinach 'Matador' seeds sown into 15 cells I now have 25 seedlings, and each cell has at least one plant.
With there being so little compost in each plug I have found that it dries out incredibly quickly, so I have had to resort to gentle watering which I was going to try and avoid to see if the gel would be sufficient.
Having said that, the cells where the roots have managed to get into the gel are doing really well.
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Some of the plants have pushed themselved up and out of the compost causing them to flop about and lie on the top rather than rooting in well.
Overall I am pleased with the results of my experiment so far.
I am pleased to say that after my first poor impressions, the home-made light reflector is working well and I no longer have plants stretching towards the window in search of light, they are all now growing relatively straight.
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| Rampant Borlotti |
The borlotti beans are still growing well, and have now reached the dizzy height of 36 inches!
They are starting to intertwine so I need to get a bed prepared and get them planted out at the allotmant as soon as I can.
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| Oregon Sugar Pod |
The mange tout are also still growing well, although nowhere near as good as the borlotti, and have shoots up to 13 inches long. These have now stopped growing upwards but have started to creep in search of something to climb up for support. Again, these will need planting out soon.
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| Radish |
Several are starting to get their first true leaves and the base of the stem is turning the pinky radish colour you expect to see.
This is the most successful plant in terms of germination, with a count of 17 out of 18.
The seeds were sown on the 25th of June, so these plants are now 18 days old. I was hoping to be able to pick them after 3 weeks, but I shall have to be more patient I guess.
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| Chilli 'Anaheim' |
The two chillis are being slow to grow, but the seedlings are looking strong.
Still no sign of the third, nor of the pumpkin I planted as insurance against the one in the blow away not germinating (which is actually doing great).
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| Tomato 'Sweet Baby' |
Both now have true leaves, but I am going to wait until they both have a second set before pricking them out into separate pots to grow on.
I think I will leave these inside along with the chillis to get the best chance of a crop from them this year.
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| Spinach 'Matador' |
My experiment with re-using the module and water retaining gel that the Aldi plug plants came in is looking good - of the 30 spinach 'Matador' seeds sown into 15 cells I now have 25 seedlings, and each cell has at least one plant.
With there being so little compost in each plug I have found that it dries out incredibly quickly, so I have had to resort to gentle watering which I was going to try and avoid to see if the gel would be sufficient.
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| Roots in the gel |
Having said that, the cells where the roots have managed to get into the gel are doing really well.
Some of the plants have pushed themselved up and out of the compost causing them to flop about and lie on the top rather than rooting in well.
Overall I am pleased with the results of my experiment so far.
At Last! Mine, All Mine!
Well, all the worrying I did about last minute hitches was a waste of time.
I got a message from the secretary to meet her at the allotment on Sunday morning to sign up, which I did.
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| The plot just after strimming (blackcurrant twig bottom left) |
The plot was unrecognisable from when we had first seen it. The waist high weeds and grass had been strimmed off and what remianed looked quite nice.
I have inherited a blackcurrant twig (too weedy to call a bush) another unidentified tree and a large patch of Iris.
The plot is a bit waterlogged towards the back, but the pond is going to be a nice place to sit by and relax once we have got everything sorted out.
I wasn't able to do anything other than look on Sunday as I had promised my wife that I would go to a Jazz afternoon that was being put on by our local WI group and show support, so when I should have been digging I was sat listening to a rather good jazz trio while eating cucumber sandwiches and strawberries and cream.
I know, it's a dirty job but someone's got to do it.
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| The patch of Iris mark one border of my plot |
The weather was against me this morning too as heavy showers hit, but after I had dropped my wife off at work I picked up my son Will and we set off for the allotment, hoping to be able to do something at least.
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| You can see the standing water to the left |
By the time we reached the plot the rain had stopped and it was starting to look like becoming a nice afternoon.
I was hoping that some of the water that had been lying on the surface had drained away, but it was just as bad as it had been on Sunday
The first point of call was the pond, which was completely covered in duckweed and filled with rotting 'ornamental' logs. The first job of the day was to try and scoop out as much duckweed as we could to try and get some light into the depths.
Will was totally amazed when a little newt wriggled out of some of the water weeds.
In total we saw about half a dozen newts in the pond, or maybe it was the same one each time? The water was do murky we could have had Nessie in there and would never have known.
We spent a nice hour or so chatting to one of the other plotholders who was telling us all about the bee hive that had just been installed at the top of the plot, and also a bit about the history of the plot and the surrounding area, but we eventually had to face what we had come to do - to dig.
The first problem was where to start - the ground was so uneven with strange pits and beds dug out that we decided to start in the more cultivated area at the front left corner.
I had previously decided to use the double digging method so we measured out a 4' x 8' strip and got to it.
First problem - the space left by the first spade's worth of soil removed wasn't wide enough to get the fork in properly, so I removed a second strip to the barrow which helped.
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| Lizard or Newt? |
About this time Will suddenly dived at my feet and came up with what looked like a small lizard. Over the next hour we saw four or five of these, but I am not 100% convinced that they weren't just more newts, but they were about 30 foot away from the pond. Will is doing research tonight to try and find out.
Second problem - I had let Will mark out the width, and when I stepped back for a break it just didn't look right, so I re-measured. The width was only 3', so I had then to take out another 12 inches of soil to make it the right width.
It was then that we decided to mark the digging area with twine - in hindsight we should have done that from the start.
Neither of us have ever done any digging like this before, the soil was very heavy and we are both also totally unfit. The net result of around an hour and a half's digging?
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| 2 hours of digging |
A 4' x 4' bed.
Not quite as much as I had hoped for, but it was looking fairly passable by the time we left. Plenty of couch grass around, but no real signs of anything much more malign as yet.
I am planning to spend an hour tomorrow morning picking over the top few inches to remove as much couch grass root as I can before finishing the rest of the bed.
I think I will be planting potatoes in this one first - to help break up the ground and also block out any weeds with their foliage - at least that's the plan anyway.
Windowsill Update Part 3
Before I get pulled away to spend all my spare time preparing the new allotment I thought I would go round the plants on the windowsill and report on their progress.
I made myself a light reflector from some cardboard covered with tin foil. The idea of this was to reflect the light coming through the window and try to stop the plants bending towards the sunlight outside.
All the radish and spinach were still leaning quite markedly towards the window, but the tomato and both sets of beans are pretty straight. The spinach was right at the end of the reflector, which may have been a factor.
Now for a quick spin around the windowsill.
2 out of 4 seeds have germinated, so quite a poor showing so far.
Finally some movement from the chillis!
I noticed one sedling showing through in one pot yesterday, and a second has shown today in a different pot.
Nothing from the third as yet, so that makes a disappointing 2 out of 6 germination rate so far.
I am now a bit concenrned that I may damage these root systems when I plant the seedlings on, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it.
I planted two spinach into each of 15 modules and have got a total of 20 germinations, with only three modules yet to show. Not too bad for an experiment.
I made myself a light reflector from some cardboard covered with tin foil. The idea of this was to reflect the light coming through the window and try to stop the plants bending towards the sunlight outside.
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| Light Reflector |
It has only been in place for one day so far, but my first impression is that there isn't much difference.
All the radish and spinach were still leaning quite markedly towards the window, but the tomato and both sets of beans are pretty straight. The spinach was right at the end of the reflector, which may have been a factor.
I will try it for a bit longer, and have moved the spinach to a more central location.
Now for a quick spin around the windowsill.
Everything was planted on Monday 25th of June so is 13 days old today. The only exception is the spinach which was planted on Saturday 30th June and so is 8 days in.
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| Radish French Breakfast |
The radish 'French Breakfast' are doing well, and are about three inches tall. 17 out of 18 seeds germinated.
I think I will have to transplant them as soon as the second set of leaves appear as quite a few seem to be very shallow rooted and are flopping about all over the place.
As I sowed two seeds at each station they will definitely need separating if I want decent bulbs to form.
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Borlotti
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The borlotti are the star of the windowsill. 100% germination.
Their height ranges between 9 and 18 inches with lovely big, well defined leaves.
Once I get some room in the blow away I will have to get these hardened off ready for planting on the allotment.
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| Mange Tout 'Oregon Sugar Snap' |
The mange tout are also doing well, with lots of leaf and plenty of tendrils starting to look for support to climb.
They are all around 9 inches tall and I had 100% germination.
Another candidate for hardening off and planting out as soon as possible.
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| Tomato 'Sweet Baby' |
The tomato is finally starting to show the first set of true leaves, but at only just under 2 inches tall is going to be on the windowsill for some time to come.
2 out of 4 seeds have germinated, so quite a poor showing so far.
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| Chilli 'Anaheim' |
Finally some movement from the chillis!
I noticed one sedling showing through in one pot yesterday, and a second has shown today in a different pot.
Nothing from the third as yet, so that makes a disappointing 2 out of 6 germination rate so far.
Considering that the spinach has only been in for eight days I am quite pleased with the results.
The plants are an inch tall already, and look nice and healthy.
This was an experiment where I planted them in modules that I have sat in a water retaining gel to see how they would do without further watering.
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| Spinach 'Matador' |
I did drip a little water on them yesterday as the compost they were sitting in was bone dry, but looking at the gel this morning I can see that the roots have already started to come down into it, in some cases very strongly.
I am now a bit concenrned that I may damage these root systems when I plant the seedlings on, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it.
I planted two spinach into each of 15 modules and have got a total of 20 germinations, with only three modules yet to show. Not too bad for an experiment.
The one big disappointment on the windowill is the single pumpkin 'Mammoth' which has not yet shown at all.
The seed I planted outside in a pot in the blow away germinated after 12 days so I expected this one to be faster indoors.
I had a careful root around to check on the seed, and it is just starting to sprout so it may well catch up - time will tell.
So Close
After waiting all Saturday for an email from the Allotment Secretary to tell me to come down and sign up, I eventually got one at just before 5pm to tell me that I would have to sign on Sunday morning instead as 'things didn't go quite as planned'.
Not sure what she means - all will become clear tomorrow I am sure.
The cordless strimmer that I have borrowed from a friend is charging overnight, my rake, spade and fork are all cleaned and I have 100 square meters of weed suppressing fabric on order that should be here on Tuesday so I am hopefully ready for anything.
Not sure what she means - all will become clear tomorrow I am sure.
The cordless strimmer that I have borrowed from a friend is charging overnight, my rake, spade and fork are all cleaned and I have 100 square meters of weed suppressing fabric on order that should be here on Tuesday so I am hopefully ready for anything.
D-Day
Today is the day I get my allotment!
Had lots of emails back and forth with the allotment secretary last night.
I have now been offered the full plot instead of the three quarters I was going to take - apparently the lady who was going to have the other quarter has been offered space on another plot.
I had a chat with my stepdad (who is my allotment partner) and my wife (who is having a quarter for soft fruit) and they both said to go for it, so this afternoon I will be signing up for the full plot.
I just hope that I am not taking on more than I can handle here.
The secretary also told me that the plot has been recently strimmed - I am not sure if that is good or bad right now as I would have liked to have walked the plot first just in case there were any plants mixed in with the weeds that could be saved as I had been told by a neighbouring plotholder that there was some rhubarb in there somewhere. It would also have shown me where the nasty perennial weeds were.
Had lots of emails back and forth with the allotment secretary last night.
I have now been offered the full plot instead of the three quarters I was going to take - apparently the lady who was going to have the other quarter has been offered space on another plot.
I had a chat with my stepdad (who is my allotment partner) and my wife (who is having a quarter for soft fruit) and they both said to go for it, so this afternoon I will be signing up for the full plot.
I just hope that I am not taking on more than I can handle here.
The secretary also told me that the plot has been recently strimmed - I am not sure if that is good or bad right now as I would have liked to have walked the plot first just in case there were any plants mixed in with the weeds that could be saved as I had been told by a neighbouring plotholder that there was some rhubarb in there somewhere. It would also have shown me where the nasty perennial weeds were.
On the other hand, it has saved me a day's work, and I can get straight on with creating my first couple of beds, depending upon what the ground is like. It has rained so much here recently that I am concerned that the soil will be so wet that I really can't dig it. or if there is a lot of clay in the ground as my stepdad thinks, there will be standing water all over the plot.
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| Seedlings ready for planting |
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| More seedlings! |
Last night I totally emptied the blow away to do a thorough check for slugs and snails hiding on the underside of the various pots and planting trays in there.
It was only when I laid all the trays out on the hot tub lid I realised just how many seedlings I actually have ready for planting out - and remember, I also have more on the table in the front garden.
The haul in the blow away that is ready to plant out is:
67 onions - not sure if these are ready as they are only tiny as yet.
15 Winter Cauliflowers
15 Winter Cabbage
15 Purple Curly Kale
15 Brussel Sprouts
15 Purple Sprouting Broccoli
1 Tomato
6 Peas
1 Capsicum Pepper
2 Pumpkins
4 Courgettes
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| Even more seedlings! |
Left over from planting the front garden
1 Swiss Chard
3 Leeks
2 Cavolo Nero
2 Curly Kale
1 Romanesco Broccoli
Not big enough to plant out yet are
9 Lettuce
3 Kohn Rabi
11 Courgettes
I have also got loads and loads of seeds ready to go in.
I just hope I can keep everything under control!
Allotment Countdown T-1
Just heard from the Allotment Secretary.
She is hoping to be able to sign me up tomorrow afternoon, and either have a key ready for me then, or get one cut later that day.
I know I have been very lucky to get an allotment in five weeks compared to some other folk who have had to wait for years and fight bureaurocracy all the way.
It still seems like it has been ages since I first went down to have a look.
I have made so many plans over the past few weeks, re-made them, scrapped them all and started again over and over. I'm still not sure which quarter the other new plot holder is going to take, but to be honest I don't really care any more.
I just want to get down there and get started clearing so I can see what I have let myself in for
I have come around to the idea of having a pond after having so much trouble with snails and slugs at home, so the idea of a few friendly frogs and toads patrolling the allotment while I'm not there kind of appeals to me
I am hoping that this terrible weather will clear just a bit to allow me to start strimming on Sunday - is it OK to strim when it is wet? I know that digging wet ground is a big no-no, but it should be OK to strim, surely?
I have booked two days off work on Monday and Tuesday (which just happens to coincide with my birthday as well - bit of fortuitous planning there) so I have a three day long window in which to get it done.
Wish me luck - I think I'm going to need it!
She is hoping to be able to sign me up tomorrow afternoon, and either have a key ready for me then, or get one cut later that day.
I know I have been very lucky to get an allotment in five weeks compared to some other folk who have had to wait for years and fight bureaurocracy all the way.
It still seems like it has been ages since I first went down to have a look.
I have made so many plans over the past few weeks, re-made them, scrapped them all and started again over and over. I'm still not sure which quarter the other new plot holder is going to take, but to be honest I don't really care any more.
I just want to get down there and get started clearing so I can see what I have let myself in for
I have come around to the idea of having a pond after having so much trouble with snails and slugs at home, so the idea of a few friendly frogs and toads patrolling the allotment while I'm not there kind of appeals to me
I am hoping that this terrible weather will clear just a bit to allow me to start strimming on Sunday - is it OK to strim when it is wet? I know that digging wet ground is a big no-no, but it should be OK to strim, surely?
I have booked two days off work on Monday and Tuesday (which just happens to coincide with my birthday as well - bit of fortuitous planning there) so I have a three day long window in which to get it done.
Wish me luck - I think I'm going to need it!
Windowsill Update Part 2
After posting yesterday morning about the fourth borlotti not looking too healthy, this morning it is three inches tall and looking good - it just shows how much I have to learn here.http://vegpatchkid.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/windowsill-update.html
Not sure if this is down to the gel that came with the 'mini-cloche' or not - I will have to plant some more in normal planters with just compost as a comparison.
I have several more of the modules that the ALDI plugs came in so I will try one of those on its own.
Still no movement from either the chillis or pumpkin, but the radish are now nearly three inches high, but none of them look like they are even attempting to form a second set of leaves yet.
The sugar snap peas are doing well, one looks almost ready to pot on as it is six inches tall already but I will wait until weekend.
I will have to do some more research on Google.
As I am running out of growing space here at home I am going to take a couple of pots into work and try to germinate a couple more courgettes as a backup in case something happens to my original seedlings.
Allotment Countdown T-3
Only three more sleeps until I find out if I have got my allotment.
Step 4. Stick a load of potatoes into the ground that is not covered by plastic. Hopefully this will help to break up the ground a bit and also provide som e foliage cover to keep the weeds down a bit. If I get any crop from them then that will be a bonus, seeing as I wil be using a couple of bags of ASDA whites that have started to sprout in the veg drawer at home.
All my spare time is now spent in either reading my books on allotment gardening or searching the web, specifically for advice on how to tackle an overgrown allotment.
The plan has developed a little over the past few days.
Step 1. Strim the entire plot and pile all the cuttings at the back intermingled with cardboard and shredded paper to try and stop the pile going slimy and horrible. I have been offered the loan of a battery powered strimmer, and there is a petrol one I can hire at the allotment for £10 per day. My son Will has promised to give me a hand with it, so we should hopefully be able to get it all done in a single day, weather permitting.
Having said that, the long range forecast is for some showers on Sunday, but not too bad on Monday with a chance of rain around midday, so we may leave the main work for Monday.
Step 2. Dig two 4' x 8' beds - where these are sited will depend upon the condition of the ground as we uncover it, and also if we uncover any plants in situe - apparently there is some rhubarb in there somewhere.
Step 3. Cover the majority of the rest of the plot with black polythene - I will visit our local builder's merchant and purchase a couple of big rolls that I can use until I can get hold of some proper weed suppressing fabric, I'm not going to order anything until I am sure that I have got the plot.
Step 4. Stick a load of potatoes into the ground that is not covered by plastic. Hopefully this will help to break up the ground a bit and also provide som e foliage cover to keep the weeds down a bit. If I get any crop from them then that will be a bonus, seeing as I wil be using a couple of bags of ASDA whites that have started to sprout in the veg drawer at home.
Step 5. Plant up the newly dug beds with a mixture of young plants from the blow away at home and seeds planted straight into the ground. I am going to use the square foot gardening method on at least one of these beds, but I am not planning on using wooden framing to start as I think that will give the slugs and snails a place to hide through the day.
I know that things are unlikely to work out quite like this, but at least the plan is there.
Wish me luck - I think I am going to need it!
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