by Neil Wilkinson | Feb 20, 2009 | Allotment
Some days at the allotment your jobs are well defined. Like today. Today was all about:
Soil. 4 Tonnes of it. We had to move it from here:
The entrance (this is 4 tonnes. It’s a fun game to imagine how big a pile the first 15 tonnes was). To here:
The plot. It was hard work, but we had Bob (allotment hero – no picture!) helping. After a couple hours we had it done, and felt like this:
Delighted. We still had to make it even and neaten up the plot, which now looks like:
Pretty. I’m sure you’ll agree. So we now have 13 raised beds and one little square bit for an apple tree. It was a much better way to spend an afternoon than being sat at my desk! We had a bit of a bonus on the way home too, in the form of:
Aldi. They had fruit trees on special offer – we picked up one cherry tree and one plum tree for the princely sum of £4 each. Bargain!
In other news Philippa wonders if we are allotmenters or allotmenteers. I think I’m leaning towards the latter.
by Neil Wilkinson | Feb 18, 2009 | Allotment
It’s not often we get to do anything at the allotment mid-week, so this week is quite exciting. We’ve got a fresh delivery of top-soil due on Friday lunch time (4 tonnes – which means in total we’ll have shifted 19 tonnes of soil onto the plot along with a huge amount of manure) which means I’ve taken a half day and Pilla has the whole day off. It’s probably not a good sign that we are more than happy to shelve work to go and move soil but there you go.
In other news we’ve got our garlic which we may plant on Friday and I managed to pilfer a shower door to make a cold frame.
by Neil Wilkinson | Feb 15, 2009 | Allotment
Some days at the allotment you can toil for hours and leave with the site looking much the same as when you started (see the greenhouse days) and others you can leave feeling like you have made some real progress. Today was definitely the latter. After a week off for a trip to London we returned with a spring in our step (and a fancy new watering can in our hand) to try and finish some jobs off.
First up we had to dig the front of the plot over- this was the bit we liberated from beneath the gravel last week. Pilla was digging away pulling all sorts of rubbish out of the ground and now it’s looking ready to plant some flowers in. Whilst doing this I carried on digging the top trek out of the last three beds. It’s a long & slow process, but it’s finally done. We just need some soil to fill them in and they will be ready. I also dug through the membrane in the corner spot where the apple tree will be and dug over the soil underneath. This was also filled with a bucket full of things you wouldn’t expect to find in the soil.
We took a break from digging to stroke Tammy and then go and see Bob at the allotment store. This is in a spot at the other side of the site so we don’t get over there very much, pretty much just for allotment meetings and when we need something from the society. This was the first time we’d been in the store, and it’s a little haven of all things allotmenty. From compost & grow bags, to seed trays (which is what we were after), bee & ladybird houses, cleaning fluid, fleece, organic seaweed solution, if you need it on the site it seems that Bob will sell it, all at very reasonable prices. We are going back next week with cash in hand to get some goodies.
I then put up some very simple shelves in the greenhouse and finished the compost box. I’ve made it so all the front panels can be lifted out, hopefully this will make it easier to get to the good stuff at the bottom once it’s getting filled up which Pilla started with some horse manure at the bottom. We also got given some more raspberry canes and a solitary rhubarb crown from Debbie – we had some raspberry canes already, so the new ones are going to fashion a kind of raspberry hedge against the fence at one side. The rhubarb was one which she freely admitted may not take but it’s worth a go. It doesn’t really matter if it doesn’t survive as Bob has already promised us some of his rhubarb plants.
Once we’d planted that lot we had a bit of a tidy up – we have a big pile of wood at one end of the plot some of which had paint on it which is gradually flaking off, it was all getting very messy. I tidied about a third of it up and put it out of site behind the shed. I don’t know if we’ll ever need this wood, but once you have something on the site you are loathe to get rid of it.
We’ll maybe get some soil sorted this week, next week we have plans for building staging in the greenhouse and buying some goodies from the store to start growing in the greenhouse – it’s all getting quite exciting – in an allotment sort of way!
On a further note, my running is taking me past lots of houses being renovated which have skips. The slow speed I go at means I can have a good nosey so I’m always on the lookout for allotment things. I think I have finally found something useful – an old curved shower door. With a bit of a wooden frame and some hinges, it’ll make a really good cold frame. I tried to go and get it today but the owners weren’t in and I felt a bit weird taking it without asking so it’ll have to wait for now, but it will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine 🙂
by Philippa | Feb 3, 2009 | Allotment
For the novice allotmenter there is a wealth of advice to help you along your way. This comes in many different forms, whether it be the internet, fellow plot holders (particularly those of advancing years it would seem!) or good old fashioned books. We have been making use of all of these sources of information but I thought I would share with you those books that we have purchased and found to be helpful so far.
1. Grow Your Own Veg by Carol Klein
For those of you who are avid viewers of ‘Gardeners’ World’ on BBC 2 you will already be familiar with Carol with her magical green fingers and voice of a navvy. This book immediately won points with me for the lovely feeling cover. I have a particular, some may say weird, penchant for those slightly matt and smooth book covers you occasionally get on a hardback and this one fits the bill. But for those of you who are more interested in reading the contents of a book than fondling the cover, let me tell you that this book comes highly recommended. As the title suggests it is all about growing veg, whether in a small garden or a full size allotment. It comes with a very useful preparation section which advises how to make the most of the space available, prepare the area and deal with common problems.
The book then moves on to chapters on the vegetables you may want to grow. Each vegetable is dealt with over a page or double page spread with plenty of colourful photographs showing seedlings right the way through to the harvested product. The text addresses the best times to sow and harvest each vegetable, how to sow and cultivate your crop and most importantly how to harvest it. There is also useful advice on pests and diseases. What I found particularly interesting was the information on recommended varieties of each vegetable. When choosing your seeds it is amazing how many varieties are available and for a novice it can feel almost impossible to differentiate between them, so sections like these can identify those that will suit your individual growing space or indeed your tastes.
2. Cook Your Own Veg by Carol Klein
The sister book of the one above and again the title is pretty self explanatory. There is a degree of duplication in these two texts regarding planting and cultivating but not so much that I would only advise buying one of them. This book is organised into seasonal chapters for ease of use in finding recipes for those crops you find yourself with a glut of. There are at least two recipes for each vegetable which include delicious offerings such as roast pumpkin gratin, caramelised onion jam and tandoori celeriac. Certainly one for those who get weary of the same old vegetable side dishes as this will definitely inject some imagination into tea time.
3. Your Organic Allotment by Ian Spence and Pauline Pears
Points are awarded for Pauline’s amusingly appropriate surname! This one caught our eye as we were keen for a book about growing organically. Not having grown anything aside from some mould on our granary loaf we don’t yet know whether we are being realistic in our organic aspirations. We do know that Val who has a plot on the other side of the site grows organically and she seems to do very well out of it but she is quite experienced and has an established plot so it is difficult to compare to ours. This book is really all you need to get started as it has a wealth of information on planning and preparing your plot. It includes a practical section which demystifies crop rotation, with the help of drawings, which is a topic that can cause much confusion to the novice.
This book covers both fruit and vegetables which takes it beyond the two books mentioned thus far, but does devote slightly less space to each one. However, it has great information on green manures, attracting beneficial wildlife and a troubleshooting section on pests and diseases which are all crucial for those trying to be as organic as possible. A handy sized reference book for all areas.
4. Grow Your Own, Eat Your Own by Bob Flowerdew
It must be a requirement for gardening authors to have a flora or fauna related surname and the cynic in me wondered whether this was Bob’s genuine name. But one look at his plaited hair made me realise he could never tell a lie. This book is firmly focused on dealing with your crops once harvested and is accompanied by some truly inspirational photographs of Bob at work in his beautiful but haphazard garden. I have to admit that it was a real eye opener for me to discover the number of varied ways in which to store and preserve your crops, such as smoking, leathering, crystallising and brining. There is even a small piece on making love potions for the hippy in you. It does contain the more usual advice on varieties and harvesting as well as suggesting the best methods of preserving each crop. Alongside there are recipes for classics such as summer pudding and carrot cake and more unusual offerings like walnut liqueur or broad bean pate. A real gem that makes a lovely coffee table read.
The downside to all of this research is that it does have the tendency of making us feel quite anxious about what lies ahead. Will we know what to do and when to do it? What if we do it wrong or forget to do it in the first place? Only time will tell I suppose!
by Neil Wilkinson | Feb 1, 2009 | Allotment
We had a few jobs to finish off or get started with this weekend. The main task was to neaten the front of the plot on the outside of the fence. The top trek layer came right up to the edge of the path but didn’t have a straight edge and in some places was wearing thin. Given the time we have spent making the plot itself look lovely we thought this part needed some TLC. We hope to put some flowers and pots there once the time is right for planting. Neil bought some thin batons of wood to make a defined edge but first we had to scrape up the top trek and then cut away the membrane. This was quite a good job for us after the seemingly never ending greenhouse saga as it didn’t take long at all and it makes a big difference.
The next pressing task was planting. Exciting! We have had a good week for deliveries and some of our parcels contained bushes that we had to leave in tubs of water until today. We went via the garden centre as the blueberry bush needs an ericaceous compost (an acidic soil) and we also picked up some multipurpose compost for some of our other tubs and a couple of healthy looking rosemary plants. We have ordered rosemary seeds but some of our research seemed to indicate that growing from seed can be quite difficult and therefore using cuttings or an established plant is more successful. So we planted the rosemary, blueberry and blackberry bushes and the raspberry canes (which incidentally look far too dead and withered to ever bear fruit, but I’m told that’s what they are supposed to look like!)
A really good allotment find came in the form of the black tubs you can see above. In their previous life they were wastepaper baskets at Neil’s work. In a bid to become more green they were all replaced by large recycling bins. And they have sat in a darkened storeroom ever since. That is until Neil liberated them after a bit of tough negotiating! He brought about 20 home and there are plenty more should we need them, which at this rate we most certainly will.
In case you are thinking that this is all we did today, we also attended the monthly allotment society meeting ( nothing much to report there) and started digging the last two beds. Unfortunately, our progress was halted at about 3pm with a flurry of snow! It had been snowing on and off a couple of times this afternoon but it didn’t really come to much and after a brief respite in the greenhouse we were back out again. However, this downpour looked set to last and so we decided to call it a day. Lets hope the plants we put in today are hardy enough to survive the cold snap.
by Neil Wilkinson | Jan 29, 2009 | Allotment
Until very recently I thought that getting sent packages through the post was always exciting. Now things have changed. First of all, the receptionist at my work thinks I’m weird. This began about 2 years ago when we started getting sent meat through the post, so getting sent things to work always feels like a game of ‘how much can Neil annoy the receptionist’. I think I’m going to hit new heights when the fig and apple trees turn up. Anyway, back to the packages. This week we started getting allotment goodies – blackcurrants, raspberries and blueberries, followed by shallots and spring onion seeds. The initial excitement is fast replaced by ‘did we buy the right variety of (plant x)?!’ and then ‘wow (plant x) is surprisingly heavy, how am I going to get it home?!’ before ‘(plant x) needs to be kept dark/dry/wet/cool/warm how can we do that in the flat?’ and then ‘how on earth are we going to grow this, I know nothing about (plant x)?!’ before being finally replaced by ‘what if NOTHING grows?!’
So here are our shallots. Not being kept dark or cool.
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