1st May 21014

Ive been lucky enough to have two spare mornings this week so I took myself of to the allotment.
On Monday I took down some more broad beans and more peas to plant out, I've sown them a couple of weeks apart so they aren't all ready at once. I'm pleased I left blue pellet food out for the slugs and snails, I had caught a few that thought it was ok to just help themselves to my crops, well it isn't ok slimy trail creatures!! I do think this year will be a bad year for them in fact all pests due to the mild winter ... slugs and snails aren't the only things ready to eat anything I plant ...I noticed semi circle marks all over the edges of the pea and broad bean plants ...the pea and bean weevil  have been busy too they don't normally do any damage to the plant just the edge of the leaves .
After that I covered up the potatoes as best I could but they are too high now luckily I didn't plant the whole lot at once so I only have 3 rows to worry about as the temperature dips tomorrow night .... I was lucky enough to bump into another plot holder last week who is also head gardener for the council he was dropping of grass cuttings at his plot and kindly gave me a couple of bags I'm going to use the clippings to cover up the potatoes tomorrow.
Tuesday morning was another nice day I edged my plot a bit as the grass path was creeping and trying to take over ...... I took down some beetroot which I squashed between the salsify and my strawberries I will regret doing this when it comes to picking my strawberries they are under a mini ploy tunnel until this cold snap goes.
Before I planted them I had to do some major weeding around the parsnip and salsify seedlings ..it was hand weeding too as there so may tiny seedlings being swamped by lots of tiny weeds I must remember to take the salsify seeds down I have some gaps in the row where they haven't germinated
It took me ages i picked some more purple sprouting broccoli and decided to head home.
Tomorrow will be a flying visit just to cover up the potatoes and fleece the pine berries as some are in flower.

2nd January 2014

Here I am at the beginning of my 3rd growing year at the allotment telling myself how I must keep this blog up to date .... I said the same last year ;)
Its useful to look back at the previous year on here month by month see how the weather was and what I had sown and harvested I keep a written diary too but that seems to fizzle out around the summer time too ...I must try harder!!

I finally made it to my plot today and made a good start with my son digging it over he did one end the digging whilst I tackled lots of chickweed at the other it was fairly easy going my sandy soil is easier to dig and weed when its wet

I cleared some space by digging up the last of the swedes and carrots , I still have half a row of parsnips and about 4 leeks left and at the end of the plot a few spring cabbages that look really good and seem to be growing well

I dug up one of my blackcurrant bushes I had far too many last year, I had two that another plot holder gave me and two I bought I kept the largest of the ones he gave me and removed the other as it wasn't doing as well. The ones I had bought should fruit this year as they had just started to produce fruit last year , I did notice they all need a good prune to sort out the shape and I need to move the redcurrant bushes too to give them more room

We spent almost 2 hours there but half an hour of that was used up as two other plot holders came down and across to see us which was nice :)  we did experience frozen toes though and decided to pack up and come home for some warm soup

17th July 2013

Not a fan of heat at all so I'm popping down quick to the allotment to water and harvest and heading home its far too hot at the plot.
Thought id do a quick catch up blog as I haven't been posting on facebook recently my cat went missing during Sunday night so I spent all Monday searching and contacting people ...thankfully she came back during the early hours of Tuesday morning ...what a relief!!

I did manage to spend some time at the plot on Monday morning gave the plot a weed and a good water I noticed I had about 6 blackberries ready but I left them there I was very shocked today ( Wednesday) to find lots ready
I have pulled the pea plants up they had finished and started to turn yellow and I'm very happy I am a bit fed up picking them!!

The strawberries are still going strong the problem is they just don't keep well in this warm weather too many to pick!!

The only disaster is the turnips they have bolted I'm not that bothered by this it just made space for some calabrese a plot neighbour gave me so I planted them in the space.

I went to the allotment when my son finished school he was in charge of watering.... I was picking strawberries and the sweat was just pouring off me at one point stinging my eyes!! I dug some charlotte potatoes and picked some blackberries and decided to go home!! I did notice there are many many blackcurrants ready which means I need to spend a very long time picking them!!

17th June 2013.... *note to self* check for thistles before sitting down!!

I have been to the allotment 2 days in a row I am doing well :)

I took my son callum with me yesterday all he did was sneeze (man flu) I took down my butternut squash and patty pan squash I've been trying to get down to plant them for a few days but they are finally in the ground now and covered with a mini poly tunnel until they flower I also planted some celery plants in my blue tubs as the plot is now full and I had nowhere to put them.
I also dragged the netting out of the shed to cover the strawberries they are green at the moment but they are sure to turn red when I'm not there and I don't want the birds to get their greedy beaks on them!!

Today I was on my own I thought I would get lots done I noticed yesterday in some of the netted cages where the cabbages are there were a few weeds I was hoping to give everything a good weed....but it didn't happen as there was lots of interest in my new mini poly tunnel lots of chatting and not much work done not that I mind too much :)
The weather was a bit strange it was a cloudy a little muggy and couldn't make up it's mind if it was going to rain or not!!
I was given some tiny calabrese plants that I've brought home to pot up I'm hoping some of the potatoes will be out of the way before they get too big.
Yesterday I had a feel for first earlies there were some good size ones so this morning I decided to dig up 3 plants they were a good size and tasted so nice :)
I did manage to get a little weeding done and was careful today where I sat as yesterday I parked my bottom on a large thistle....OUCH!!
I gave everything a good watering after throwing a tantrum  with the hose ......my sandy soil dries out very quickly  and then decided to head home for lunch
 maybe ill get a chance to pop down tomorrow to do some weeding   

1st June 2013

My allotment is filling up now and Ive still got lots to plant!!

I went down yesterday to plant some cauliflowers, cabbage runner beans and my brit pop popcorn.

The runner beans have been really bad for germination this year i need 10 plants and i have only managed to take down 5... i have another 6 in the greenhouse but they are being grown for someone else ..... i just hope i get some more through soon!!

We didn't have enough time yesterday to get that much done so we went down again today when i say we i mean myself and my 14 yr old son

Today the main task was to get rid of all the tiny weed seedlings that have appeared everywhere, this was easy enough in empty areas but going between onions beetroot and parsnips was a nightmare ...stupid weeds!!

I had hoped to build a tall brassica cage today for a couple of brussel sprouts and a couple of broccoli plants i don't grow many...this will be the 3rd year trying to grow sprouts they just get clubroot and refuse to grow sprouts big enough to eat so this will be the last time i try and grow them besides they take up too much room for too long. I am growing a couple of purple sprouting broccoli plants but they will be grown elsewhere so they are out of the way when i need to put in the potatoes next spring.

i have lots of swede plants at home waiting for bigger pots id love to just plant them at the allotment to get them out of the way but they need to have a big strong root system before planting on my allotment because of the clubroot ,i have some kohl rabi which i may take down earlier as they aren't in the ground as long so don't get affected as much.

I keep watching allotment you tube videos and reading other peoples blogs and facebook pages and all are saying it will be a good year for fruit ...i agree the blackcurrants are full of berries and the blackberry which seems to have doubled in size since last week!! the raspberries at home are doing very well too.

We left the allotment looking all neat and tidy after two hours,hopefully i'll get a chance on monday to return and plant some more things,tomorrow i'll be in the greenhouse sorting out the bedding plants :)

01/05/2013 quick update from todays visit

Ive been a bit worried the past few nights with the frosts just incase my potatoes had come through so thought i would go down and check on them, good job i did as one tiny sprout and broken the surface the leaves were black so it has been caught by the frost I'm so relieved it was the only one!!!

After mounding them all up i went around to have a look ,i now have two elephant garlic through and a visitor had been near them too **shakes fist**

 

i couldn't believe how much the fruit bushes had changed since my last visit they have tiny buds all over them

 

                                   Blackcurrants there are lots and lots of tiny berries like this

 

 

I'm hoping these are redcurrants they look a bit different to the blackcurrants another plot holder gave me three one turned out to be a blackcurrant and I'm hoping the other two will be red ....ill soon find out.

 

  

Here are my parsnip seedlings :) a whole row of them have germinated ill take the fleece off them tomorrow.

 

I'm going again in the morning as i want to plant out my onions grown from seed  

 

 



2013 an ever expanding list of things im growing this year!!

LETTUCE- little gem,   iceberg,   webbs wonderful,  balmoral,  lobjoits (cos)
ONIONS-  bedfordshire champion (from seed) ,  welsh onions (permanent at the allotment) 
 silverskin (for pickling)
LEEKS   autumn giant,  musselburgh
CABBAGE  savoy,  golden acre,  january king,  winter king, april, a red variety i forgot the name
CAULIFLOWER all year round,  amazing,  snowball
CUCUMBER   marketmore
SWEET BELL PEPPER
CELERIAC    giant prague
CHILI PEPPER
TOMATO  red cherry,  gardeners delight,  alicante,  minibel,  marmande
GHERKIN
CELERY
AUBERGINE  moneymaker
MELON  hearts of gold
ALPINE STRAWBERRY   from seed red and white mix
SWEETCORN  britpop
SQUASH   vegetable spaghetti,  winter butternut, courgette,  winter sweet dumpling,
SWEET POTATO  grown from my own slips
SHALLOTS  golden gourmet
HERBS   basil,  sweet basil,  lemon basil,  parsley,  thyme,  chives,  rosemary, 
BROCCOLI  early sprouting purple,  autumn green calabrese,  rudolph
PEAS   hurst greenshaft
RUNNER BEAN  prizewinner stringless
ELEPHANT GARLIC
POTATOES first earlies foremost,   second earlies charlotte,  carlingford,  maris peer
                       maincrop red rooster
BEETROOT  boltardy
BROAD BEANS  bunyards exhibition
CRESS
TURNIPS   purple top milan
SWEDE  invitation
KOHL RABI  superscmelz
CHARD
KALE
SPINACH
SPINACH BEET
SPRING ONION
RADISH

FRUIT BUSHES   redcurrant,  blackcurrant, raspberry, strawberry,  pineberry,  blueberry , cranberry ,  blackberry
a dwarf apple tree and an orange and lemon patio tree