by Neil Wilkinson | Sep 14, 2010 | Allotment
We had Friday and Monday off this weekend and along with some helpers we had set about a plan to get rid of our old shed on the new plot. Predictably enough, when you take take time off work to go to the allotment it rains, both Friday and Monday lived up to expectation in that regard.
I started by removing all the glass from the roof, or what was left of it. We used some new fancy boxes from kiddy to store all the broken bits, which came in very handy. We’ve removed so much glass from the plot ourselves I really didn’t fancy adding to it. With the glass out we set out taking down the rotten half. It really only took a few hits with the hammer to remove all the wood, and even break the bigger horizontal pieces in half.
We then cleared out all the junk we had in the shed, finding lots of old tools whilst we were at it, but nothing really of any use. Sadly enough the only place to put this junk it on the land we cleared and put chippings down on recently, but it’s for the greater good and it will get moved on to the tip eventually. After removing the other long side we just had to push the ends slightly and the whole thing came crumbling down. We did have a plan to tidy up and do tip runs as we did the work but it soon became apparent that it was much more fun to knock the thing down and clear up afterwards, which took Pilla, Dad and Nic almost as long as knocking down the thing. I was mostly supervising at this point!
We spent some of Sunday clearing the area in front of the shed and adding some new chippings – it looks really neat now. We also had our first tool casuality at the allotment, I managed to snap my spade in half. All that was left on monday was to do a few tip runs, thanks to Dad again we managed a couple in the rain. There’s still a whopping big pile of wood and a fair bit of bricks and rubble but we are on the way. Thanks to everyone invovled… Dad, demolition expert/logistics, Philippa, site maintenence, Nic, head labourer, and Kiddie storage solutions!
The plot looks lots better, and also looks huge now. We did feel a bit bad for disrupting a fair bit of wildlife, including frogs, toads and hundreds of spiders. The next job is clearing the area of the mountains of bind weed roots and prepping the ground for the greenhouse and shed. Both of us are looking forward to having somewhere to keep dry and make brews in :)!
by Neil Wilkinson | Sep 5, 2010 | Allotment
I think the allotment fairies came back to help us this week (no not Pat and Nic who came down to help today, although now you mention it…) because we needed a big pile of manure to add to our freshly cleared space on plot 118 where the soil pile was and yesterday I heard loads of it being delivered from the stables next door. Job number one today then was Pilla and I grabbing lots of it which involved several trips with the wheelbarrow and ingenious use of a big rubble bag and two wheeled trolley. We got plenty enough to cover the ground and with the help of Nic and Pat we dug over all the soil, removed lots more weed roots and glass and worked in the manure.
We then decided to cover the ground with green manure, something I’ve been wanting to do for a while and finally persuaded Philippa into doing it. We planted stripes of four varieties so hopefully it shouldn’t just look like a mass of weeds and will add some much needed organic matter back in to the soil in the spring. It should also help break up some of the soil with the plant roots and I think will make the plot look better through the winter as it avoids a sort of brown desert across the plot. Pilla disagrees with me on the last point so expect lots of posts through the winter on how nice I think it looks!
I finished off the fence at the back, although it does still need a gate. We also cleared up a bit around the back of the shed and covered it up with some tarpaulin to stop the weeds from coming back. On Saturday I went to pick up a few more of the 3×2 flags from Wigan. Those things are incredibly heavy to move and taking them out of the car on your own is an absolute killer. I put a couple of them down to extend the path, I now can’t put any more down as I’ve run into where we are currently storing the greenhouse. We suddenly feel like we have done loads on this plot, so we looked through a couple of the old photo’s and we are pretty pleased at our work:
Back on the old plot we harvested quite a bit from the greenhouse including another 57 chillies! We’ve also discovered another handy thing about people coming and helping us out – we’ve managed to give away quite a lot of our courgette supply!
by Neil Wilkinson | Sep 1, 2010 | Allotment
It seems like it has been a very long time since we’ve updated the blog, which is a shame for lots of reasons, we have a whole lot of news and next year we’ll be wondering what on earth we did in August without any reminders!
The first big job was to collect a new (to us anyway, its actually 20+ years old) wooden greenhouse that we bought on eBay. We had to hire a big van and get ourselves over the Pennines with some help (Tom and my Dad-many many many thanks) we managed to dismantle the structure and bring it back to the plot without damaging it. Whilst there I cheekily asked for the flags underneath the greenhouse and managed to take 10 of those for the path. It’s got to be accepted allotment behaviour to ask for free things, and if you don’t ask you don’t get.
In the meantime the sunflowers which were blooming away so brightly a month ago quickly drooped and we rescued the heads to save the seeds for eating. They are currently drying off in the greenhouse, hopefully away from the squirrels that seem to love finding the seeds and eating them. You can’t mind too much when you see little neat piles of the carefully removed husks around the plot!
The harvesting has continued, we’ve been taking lots of everything really. We have been completely over run with courgettes but have managed to find some interesting ways to eat them. Special mention here goes to the courgette bread Pilla made and the hollowed out massive courgette stuffed with chili. Both delicious!
One of the long standing jobs (I think that should read ‘one of the many long standing jobs’) we’ve needed to do was clear the soil pile left over on plot 118. As I mentioned in the last post this was left over from the path excavations by the previous plot holders and we had since covered it with a membrane to try and kill off some of the weeds. It was a pretty big job over about three weekends but I finally managed to get rid of it all, most of it going to other places on the plot where the soil was a bit low. This has cleared a whole patch of land for us to grow on next year (with the caveat it will still have a lot of weed roots and tons of glass we will have to watch out for). As I was doing this Pilla was busy harvesting the onions and turning the chair into a handy drying rack-good job we don’t often have time to sit down!
The allotment fairies have been kind to us lately as it seems as soon as we need something it’s been magically appearing. Right after finishing the soil pile and so being able to re-use the membrane, the site got a big delivery of wood chippings. This meant we could lay the membrane over the back right corner of the plot and lay the chippings over the top. Pilla got to work in her week off (with help from Bob, thanks Bob!) and managed to move a load of chippings onto the plot ready to be put into position. We managed to move all the chippings into position this week (with help from Nic, thanks Nic!) at the same time re-fitting the fence at the back and weeding across the back path. The whole back of the plot needs a lot of attention as we’ve used it as a bit of a dumping ground whilst it’s not been in use so it’s good to finally making a start clearing it up.
Just as that job was finishing up and my thoughts were turning on how to get more flags for the path and greenhouse base, Bob shouted me over as we’d just got a big delivery. I managed to snaffle 12 3 x 2 flags, along with the few more I’ve got off eBay we easily have enough for the path now. More good timing! Pilla planted some leeks we got fromDenise on the new plot and some lettuces off Bob on the old plot, two more wintry crops that should give us something to eat in the slow months to come.
It was the annual summer show this weekend and with it the allotment veg prizes. Last year we were very happy to win a single first prize but were not as confident this year, so we were very pleased when the tent doors were opened and the prizes announced. We won first prize for our garlic (that’s two years running!) and also for our shallots along with a few third prizes for french beans, beetroot, a jalapeno in the open class and a single flower. We were really pleased for Bob who managed to scoop first, second and third prize for his tomatoes which included the cup for the best in show. Continuing our lucky streak, Pilla won a prize in the raffle which turned out to be a goody box of allotment things. The fairies at work I think 🙂
by Neil Wilkinson | Aug 2, 2010 | Allotment
… it must mean another three days at the allotment and we got tons done again. We had another big job list and managed to get quite a few of them done. Creating a list of jobs to do on the plot is easy, actually getting time to do them when your fitting in weeding, watering and harvesting is another matter.
First up was some time dedicated to planting up our crops for a late autumn harvest and clearing some of the massive soil pile. Whilst Pilla was preparing the beds on 97 for the sweet williams and wallflowers I got to work clearing the massive pile of mud we had been left on 118. The previous occupants had dug up the path one day (it was quite a comical raised grass path that was about 6″ higher than the soil either side) and piled it on one side of the plot. This had then got absolutely covered in horrible weeds and is full of glass and rubble. Which means that not only do we have to dig through it, we have to clear the weeds, glass and assorted hand tools contained within it. I think I’ve got past the half way point and must have cleared around 20 wheelbarrows of mud, putting in around the plot werever the soil looked a bit low (or was of rubbish quality). We thought about using the extra space cleared to plant things but as we had just had some fresh manure delivered from the stables next door we opted to start a manure pile instead. This will eventually rot down a bit and we’ll cover the plot in the winter with it. I can’t see it adding that many nutrients but it should make the soil a better condition and it’s probably been years since anyone put any down on this plot.
Pilla planted some late sowing turnips and some late peas on the new plot. The peas are going at the front where the new potatoes have just come up from. Having not had a crop in for years this side of the plot is on it’s second already this year! We did tons more harvesting too, comedy sized courgettes and cucumbers included. We picked some more new potatoes (probably just plain ‘potatoes’ now) and lots of beans. Having hardly had any beans last year they are one of our big successes this year. The climbing beans in particular have done really well and we are considering scrapping the dwarf variety next year. We haven’t even started on the runner beans of which there are approximately one million. I had a quick weed and managed to put down the last two flags I have on the path, which i’m very proud of as iIt has made a huge difference to how neat the plot looks.
Another exciting job was to plait the garlic we harvested last week. I found this ace link on how to properly tie it together, for begginners like us it was definitely a two person job, but the result is pretty impressive. Our garlic is huge this year, i think every head is as big as the biggest one from last year. We’ve got 27 in total form this solent wight variety, including 6 we have singled out for the show. We’ve also got a batch of smaller garlic, which we harvested this weekend, and it is currently drying in the greenhouse. We used a lot of our own grown things in the Tatton park picnic on Friday night, including lots of fruit in this raspberry jelly. MMMMmm!
by Neil Wilkinson | Jul 29, 2010 | Allotment
Phew! What a nice day Sunday was to have an allotment. We had a list of jobs as long as your arm to get done, partly because the plots were being judged this week and partly because that’s what happens when you have an allotment. Handily enough pretty much all of the jobs were quite fun to do which worked out well as my cousin and family came down to see what we’ve been up to.
First up was harvesting the shallots, the stems of which had flopped over a week or two ago. I like the way shallots grow, they spend ages plumping up, growing big and then all of a sudden they flop over like they have given up. We had a full bed of two varieties to do and we must have got two or three times the amount compared to last year. Me and Denise strung them up and I then hung them out to dry, first on the bird feeder then finally a combination of the greenhouse and shed.
Next up was the garlic, which Kieran and Aidan helped out with. The garlic had also completely flopped over during the week which is a pretty good sign it’s ready to be picked. Only one type, the Solent Wight, was ready and it looks great. We spaced them out a bit more than last year and the soil is probably in better condition, but even so we weren’t expecting such a big crop. I think every single bulb is bigger and rounder than last year, I think we have 26 bulbs in total.
We then set about some furtling around in the carrot bed. I think we managed one measley carrot last year and the bed was looking very healthy so we dug up a few ….. and….. they look amazing! We were like proud parents! Pilla even ran off down the plot to show Bob she was so proud! The boys then happily wandered around sharing a carrot whilst pulling up some of the huge turnips. They have gone epic in scale. I’ve never seen anything like them, I’ll try and take a picture next week. Pilla got on with planting some more lettuce varieties and we tidied up some of the old lettuces which has gone to seed. Pilla has been really good at successional sowing this year – we are on our third lettuce crop already!
by Philippa | Jul 21, 2010 | Allotment
Don’t panic, it’s not Neil that is getting thrown out! It’s the crops that have passed their best!
It is a strange time of year as we are harvesting lots but there are some crops that are already starting to look a bit tired. The unpredictable weather has not helped either, as the wet and warm conditions have meant that a few of the lettuces, the broccoli raab and the pak choi have gone to seed. Part of me felt bad that they had to be pulled up but they are no good once they reach that stage as the leaves taste bitter. In any event they make the way for other exciting things!
Something that we wanted to improve on from last year was making better use of our space and extending our growing season. One way we have done that is to keep on top of those crops that need to be successionally sown, such as lettuces, spring onions and various herbs. Another way to achieve this goal was to do some clever seed shopping. About 6 weeks ago we placed a further seed order specifically for those crops that can be sown later in the season. Once I had cleared the seeded crops this weekend I set about planting some of the new varieties which included beetroot (boston), carrot (nanco), mustard (red zest) and bunching onions (shimonita). Hopefully this will mean that we will be harvesting tasty crops during the September-December period which was pretty lean last year. We have some more late sowing seeds that we will sow over the coming weeks as more of our current crops reach the end of their useful life.
Neil was busy once again with the path on the new plot, which is growing as fast as the vegetables! We are almost out of flags now though so we are on the scrounge from anyone who has any spare. He also built a little raised bed that we have been talking about building for ages. We finally got round to visiting the reclaimed timber yard this weekend and so Neil dug up the top trek layer to give some extra depth for this new bed. In true recycling style he then used some of this top trek to level out the path flags and the rest to fill in some holes in the car park! To fill the new bed he sorted through a few wheelbarrows worth of soil from the ‘mud mound’ on the new plot, so it really looks like a sizeable chunk has gone already.
Exciting news to end with! Firstly, we ate our first homegrown cauliflowers this week and they were tasty! We tried to grow them last year and after weeks of anticipation watching their crowns form they all blew and went to seed before they were ready to be picked. This year we tried them on the new plot with much more success. We put this down to the slightly lower soil temperatures compared to the raised beds, but who knows! A little tip to share, once the heads are almost fully formed use some padded pegs to clip the outer leaves over the crown to protect it from the sun and hopefully prevent the head blowing.
And finally…we have a new greenhouse! After a few failed auctions we were finally successful in winning a greenhouse on eBay. It is a 10ft x 8ft wooden framed one with a louvre window which will replace the wooden ramshackle shed on the new plot. It is to be collected from its current owner in the next few weeks so wish us luck for the deconstruction/journey/reconstruction!
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