Huge photo update

by | Apr 26, 2009 | Allotment

 First, a warning – after forgetting the camera last week I think I got a bit carried away today.  I could have put about 50 pictures up here today.

  

We had another two-day allotment weekend.  Although we only have a small plot there is always a hundred things to do and not enough time to do half of them. We are seriously considering writing a to-do list and then prioritising our jobs but perhaps this might be taking things a step too far!  April is a very very busy allotment month – I very much doubt we can ever go away anywhere in April again!

  

We only spent an hour or two at the site on Saturday.  After doing our now traditional reccy of the site to see what new has grown (this week we have leaf beet, thyme, the horseradish has lots of green on it, some of our green manure has grown and we have our first potato leaves) we set about some serious planting.  We planted out quite a bit of coriander and a couple of lines of radishes in our herb bed.  Yes, I know radish is not a herb but we have bumped quite a few things around as we figure out how to best use our space.  We seem to have a slight issue with our garlic and shallots – after a great start to their lives they are now going a bit yellow on the tips of their leaves.  A quick google search suggested this might be a lack of nitrogen, a quick conversation with Bob suggested it could be one of a few things.  We’ve tried putting on a few handfuls of some organic fertiliser and plenty of water and we will see what happens.

We got off to a slow start on Sunday, partly down to me watching the marathon, partly because we had to go photocopy some chicken articles from GYO and partly because Pilla is fighting off a cold.  We arrived down on the site at about 12 noon, just as the communal chickens were arriving.  We are now proud co-parents of 6 hens (we think they are Warrens which are supposed to be great layers and super friendly).  One quick meeting later and we have secured contact visits & feedings on weekends.  For now they are safely in their coop for a day or two while they get used to their surroundings.

 

High up on our list of priorities today was planting out the broad beans and sweet peas we have had in the cold frame for the last week.  The broad beans were fairly straightforward but the sweet peas need a frame to grow up.  After much cutting of cane and tying of string we had built a frame across two beds.

 

We also planted some dhalia tubers in the front bed and spent a huge amount of time potting and and thinning down our seedlings in the greenhouse.  It’s pretty amazing one tiny plant (I’m looking at you parsley and you too sweet marjoram, mizuna you’re not too far behind) can have such a long, deep and intertwined root system.  Next year we should learn a lesson from this and plant thinner in seed trays perhaps.

 

And despite all of that, we still had to leave before we had completed our ‘things to do list’. So it looks like it will be another busy weekend next time.

Sowing the seeds, the birds and the bees.

by | Apr 12, 2009 | Allotment

We didn’t really have any major jobs to do this weekend (and last Monday too) but it started to dawn on us during the week that we had set a lot of our seeds aside to be planted in April and now we are almost halfway through the month.  This prompted a burst of planting activity today.  On Friday we delicately transported the batch of seeds we’d started in the flat over the last few weeks and already today they seemed to be much happier in the greenhouse, they definitely get more light there than on our windowsill.

We are still really just guessing when to plant things and we like to get caught up in the slight panic that seems to sweep over the plots at this time of year (“oh, they have potatoes in, should we put ours in?”). So today we have sown, in no particular order:

  • Parsnips
  • Leaf beet
  • Sugarsnap peas
  • French dwarf beans
  • Runner beans
  • Dill
  • Sage
  • Basil
  • Thyme
  • Sunflowers
  • Fuschia
  • Tomatoes

We’ve had limited success starting off peppers & chillies indoors at home so we are trying some more in the greenhouse.  Over the last week we have also put our potatoes in.  We are experimenting with them, we have some in the beds and some in tubs.

 

We probably would have got more done but we had to buy some supplies from Bob at the store which entailed a walk across the site.  This is not a fast process at the best of times as you tend to have a bit of a chat (and I’ll be honest here, a bit of a nosey at what everyone else is doing with their plots) but when Philippa is with you AND she is giving out shortbread then the 5 minute walk turns into an hour long meander.  This is not an exaggeration.

We took the opportunity to plant some bee attracting plants that Mum gave me (thanks Mum) although one of them is looking a little bit lonely at the moment:

  

 The rest of the plot is getting slightly more colourful everytime we go, although I have cheated slightly by taking super close up’s of these: 

 

Garlic and shallots: