Just haven’t been bothered to update the blog. After a slow start things are starting to look good. Will be back soon with pics and rambles.
And the beat goes on …
Well, another couple of weekends digging and the old girl is starting to look her old self. About a third of the plot is now dug over, hurray. Some of it will need digging over a few more times and weeding more closely but at least we’ve made a start.
We are keeping the plot to small squares this year, rather than longer strips, as it is easier to manouevre round them and manage the plot as a whole. It also makes digging it over slightly easier cos you can leave the walkways untouched.
I was down this weekend and dug over some more, added manure to the better dug parts and also prepared the onion patch for planting by raking it smooth and adding some topsoil from our mega pile of turf.
The turf pile, like my waist, is beginning to spread out so I removed the carpets, finding a surprised frog inside and re-positioned some of it. I also used the carpets to cover the rest of the undug plot, something we ought to have done earlier to speed the weeding process.
Mum and dad were up this weekend and brought this years onion sets and also some rhubarb crowns from the neighbour across the road, Mr Marsh. No one messes with Mr Marsh when it comes to gardening, so I expect to have rhubarb coming out of our ears within minutes of planting them. In fact I think I can hear the crowns growing in the bag outside.
Into 2009
Yep, we’re still here and still digging, though we let the allotment go to seed later last year due to bad weather, bike breakages and of course, booze.
We got a good haul last year, so we hope to beat that again. However, there’s lots of digging work to be done before planting starts.
We’ve been down today and dug about a fifth of the plot over. Luckily as the plot matures under our stewardship, the soil is getting easier to work. The only bugger was the huge amount of weeds, but we’re on our way again.
No piccies yet. I took a few with a pinhole camera I got for Christmas, but it’ll be a while before I get the pictures developed and they are probably all white anyway.
Oh yeh a nice surprise was hiding under the weeds in the onion patch. Four onions, begging to be taken home and scoffed.
A days hard work didn’t hurt anyone. Except me.
Did an all dayer on Sunday. Nope not boozing, though the previous two days had been an alcoholic haze. My excuse is I’m an uncle. My sister has just had a little boy and I can’t wait till he’s old enough to hold a rake.
Arrived at the plot and it was mega overgrown, so got down to it and cleared most of it up in a mammoth weeding and strimming session. Rob was up in the Dales the lucky sod.
Dug up some turnips that we’d left for dead while weeding and had 6 courgettes and some nice lettuce to take home. There’s peas a few weeks away from a sunday roast and we now have some tomatoes. All looking good.
I’ve dug over and replanted the turnip and parsnip plot and staked the peas up better. We’re still searching for the ultimate pea frame though – for the second year we’ve got plants lolling over each other like they’d drunk as much as I did Friday.
-
- The courgette and salad plot
-
- The parsnip plot
-
- The courgette and salad patch
-
- White onions
-
- Red onions
-
- Yellow courgettes
-
- Green courgettes
-
- Our pea crop
-
- The re-seeded parsnip and turnip plot
And finally, my tea – courgette carbonara (cheers Jamie O spit spit):
My tea
Wish I hadn’t lent my camera now.
Popped down the allotment tonight to slug pellet everything. It’s thriving. Wish I had my camera to take some pics but suffice to say everything has grown a lot in the last couple of weeks.
Some strawberries will be ready to pick by the weekend and our first peas will be arriving soon. I’ve transplanted a few of my surviving courgette seedlings to new space, did a bit of weeding and checked everything else. Must put more netting down as the birds are eating all the turnip and parnsip seedlings which we planted and also get the rest of the spuds planted before it’s too late.
The biggest surprise were the mega radishes. I planted a mixture of white and red ones and they are like turnips.
Mega radishes, with my hand for scale:
Arise my pickled empire.
Had a long day on Sunday. Weeded everything, planted more peas and runners plus my backup cucumbers. A few mates came down and never one to shy away from a power tool, my mate Al strimmed the whole place.
As luck would have it Rob appeared to have missed planting over my re-seeded cucumber patches as I noticed the seedlings coming up a few inches away from his plants.
When I asked him about it he said he was only winding me up when he told me he’d dug them over. Ooops, apologies Rob for the drunken slating I gave you at a wedding reception over the weekend.
Anyway, our first crops are coming through – radishes, good old radishes – and the place is looking great.
No pics for a bit though because I’ve lent my camera to the honeymooners.
Vandals.
Never mind kids in hoodies I’ve come to the conclusion the biggest vandal of them all is Mother Nature with a little help from her wayward nephew Jack Frost. Thanks to them my dreams of a pickled gherkin empire are on the brink of being lost.
We’ve been quite busy on the allotment since March. We’ve got the spuds and sweetcorn in, planted more peas and some beans, the onion sets are doing well and we’ve got a couple of rows of tomatoes on the go. We’ve also planted lots of salady stuff. I’ve planted two rows of parsnip and turnip – the beginnings of our winter stew veg. Yum.
I got my gherkin cucumbers and courgettes planted out and I turned up a few weeks ago with my camera expecting to see a burgeoning crop and was greeted by some poorly brown and withered plants. There had been a single overnight frost which wiped them out. Gutted.
The sweetcorn didn’t look like they had enjoyed the cold either so Rob planted some more sweetcorn at home and I dug up and re-seeded the cucumber patch. Unfortunately since then the final boot in the coffin of my gherkin crop was Rob digging up and planting things where I had re-seeded. Grrrr.
We’ve both been busy with work and other things and there have been days of rain which have hampered getting up to the allotment, but we are getting on with it and things are looking good despite the setbacks. We’ve had lots of rain the last week so we need to get up again and slug pellet everything before slugs eat what’s left.
Im a bit concerned about the tomatoes I have planted so far. I had some small bush ones and some plum tomatoes. The bush plants are not even 9″ tall and they are producing flowers. I would have expected them to get a little bigger but there isn’t a picture on the seed packet to confirm this. My plum tomatoes appear to have stopped growing at about 10″ tall and I’m pretty damn sure they should be bigger, but I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.
Some pics from three weeks ago:
-
- Frost damage
-
- Onion sets
-
- Strawbs
-
- Tomatoes
Job done.
We’ve finally completed the digging, hurray. It’s rained hard for the last few days and the ground was really soggy, so this prevented us from rotivating and properly weeding the last bits, but the plot is now complete.
Rob brought some celeriac and planted it at the bottom end and I have sown some more peas. The strawberries have suffered quite badly but new growth is starting to come through and the rhubard is well on its way. So it’s looking good.
At home my flat looks like a nursery and I’ve re-potted the courgettes, cucumbers and peppers. The tomatoes are growing well but I reckon another week or so before they need re-potting.
Tomatoes:
Courgettes and cucumbers:
Almost there.
Nipped down today and dug a couple more bits. The bit with the carpet is the only ground left to dig which, weather permitting, will be done before the weekend is out.
The Lord works in mysterious ways.
I got an email at work yesterday:
Dear Phil,
I know you do not believe in me (or any other gods or goddesses either), however I have watched you and your friend Rob toil at the allotment for many months now, and with great interest.
I saw you gazing over towards Oakwood with great yearning this morning, and I have granted you the following gifts as proof that god loves ALL creatures on earth, regardless of whether they believe in him.
Gift One: A SHINING PATH OF WOOD AND BRICK
Gift Two: A CRUMBLING AND WEEDING OF SOIL
Gift Three: A BRAND NEW VEGETABLE PATCH OF HOLINESS
I hope you will accept these gifts in good faith (haha), and perhaps I might one day see you in one of my many curches on the Sabbath.Yours all powerfully,
GOD
