by Philippa | Jul 12, 2014 | Allotment
We have had notice that the judge will be visiting the plots on 22nd July and we had a few things we wanted to do beforehand to try and get as many extra points as possible compared to last year’s results.
The weather has been lovely lately and really quite dry so a water butt was the last thing on our mind but it is one of the things you can get extra points for and we have always had butts on plot 97, we just hadn’t got round to it on 118. When Neil was doing a run to B&Q (reasons for that below!) he came back with a slimline water butt perfect for the space we had by the greenhouse. With some guttering and some crafty joins it looks a treat!
Neil’s big project that required plenty of wood was a double compost bay. Again it was something we hadn’t got points for in the 2013 judging for plot 118 as we compost all our things on plot 97 and just bring manure over by the barrow without storing it on the plot first. The space at the back of the plot wasn’t used to its best and so it was the perfect spot for a compost bay and what a beauty! Although when you then start filling it up you realise just how big they are!
The sunny weather has meant we have had our first ripe tomatoes, just a few rather than enough for a meal just yet, our first climbing beans and a lot of the flowers are really coming into bloom.
We finally got round to planting some lettuces, a combination of loose leaves and headed varieties. I’m hoping that the heat is not too much to prevent them germinating or thriving. I’ve planted lollo rosso and lollo biondi, radicchio (palla rossa) rocket, little gem, endive (pancalieri) and Paris White. Fingers crossed! I also planted some viola (symphonia) and antirrhinum (snap happy mixed) which a bit like the wallflowers get started now for flowering next year.
Our cherry tree had a paltry year last year and looked like it was dying off so we weren’t expecting any cherries this time around. Now it only produced in single figures so it’s nothing to get giddy about but they were pretty perfect looking and the tree in general looks really healthy which should mean better years to come.
There will still be more weeding and tidying before the judge’s visit but we made real progress today and the plots look great.
by Neil Wilkinson | Apr 16, 2011 | Allotment
We’ve been slack taking the camera to the allotment lately – hence the lack of updates really. However i’ve just got a nice shiny new one from Pilla, so I went to take some picture mid-week (I had to water too, that season has come around quickly). I’m going to change how I upload pictures too – i used to have them really small for storage reasons on my server, but i’m going to try and use Flickr for them which should allow much bigger images 🙂
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So, what’s new? Well whilst Pilla was busy working this week I managed to plant our early potatoes. I’m planning on doing the rest this week, but it’s pretty hard work digging them in (last year we used Bob’s technique of just using a bulb planter, which is rapid, but our soil is quite compacted and planting them by digging a trench and putting the soil back really breaks it up) . The potatoes are going in the land where the soil pile was, so this is really brand new growing space for us.
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The garlic we planting is shooting up and we have quite a bit growing in the greenhouse, although the squash seeds don’t seem to be doing much yet. The plots are both looking fairly decent now – the cherry tree is in blossom and quite a few of the flowers we planted are starting to bloom.
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We also have our first strawberry flower of the year and the figs are slowly starting to plump up!
I was just looking through the pictures of the new plot when we got it, we’re very proud of how much we’ve done in the last year or so. Since we put the greenhouse up the plot certainly looks ‘done’ (I do need to find some glass to finish it off…)
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by Neil Wilkinson | Mar 8, 2009 | Allotment
Last week we ticked a few major jobs off our list, so this week we were faced with just a few admin tasks – things we’ve had to do for ages but have had much more interesting things to get on with.
I started the day off by making a waterproof lid for the compost bin – I’m not 100% sure this is necessary for a compost bin but we had a spare pallet and some plastic sheeting so I put one together.
It took me a while as I had to keep running in the greenhouse for some protection from the rain. Whilst I was doing this Pilla was cleaning out the greenhouse. The glass is still very sparkly from the cleaning job Pilla had done on it over Christmas but the frame had all sorts of mud, grass and bugs in it. With the aid of an Ikea kitchen scrubber and a spoon(!) it has cleaned up nicely. It must be a sign of far too much mud in the frame when you find it housing a worm!
It’s days like this you realise the importance of a greenhouse – it’s great for hiding from the weather in. We had lots of rain in between bouts of sunshine and at one point a thunderstorm came our way… complete with a LOT of hail stones.
Still, all the rain had one advantage – it filled one of our water butts enough to give it a good clean. This was a former bin from Oaklands Drive – it still has a way to go to be a ‘proper’ water butt – I want to raise it up a foot and add a tap on the bottom so we can fill a watering can underneath. I did add a lid and put a hole in it for the down pipe to go through. In between bouts of rain I cleaned up the far corner of the plot – it was full of some old floor boards, which I have de-nailed and hidden behind the shed along with the carpet. We are not sure what we are going to do with this bit of the plot, it was going to be a pond, but we might utilise it for growing. It currently has a woodpile and the fruit trees.
After that we were pretty much done, so we went on the hunt for some signs of spring. The rhubarb we planted last week seems to be shooting up – you shouldn’t really take any the first year after planting, but at this rate we’ll be overrun with it! The cherry tree & raspberry canes that we are training along the fence seem to have come to life this week too.
Hopefully next week we should get the seeds we have ordered – let the planting begin!
by Philippa | Feb 22, 2009 | Allotment
Well this weekend (plus the bonus afternoon on Friday) has been jam packed and full of generous gestures. After moving the soil on Friday we wanted to make a start on a few little jobs that have been on the list of things to do for quite a while.
First on the list was planting the trees that were such a bargain from Aldi. Yesterday we realised that we were still in need of a few containers for our trees and also some to use as water butts. For some time we have been asking around friends and family and it just kept getting pushed further down the list. But having bought a plum and a cherry tree which needed planting asap this suddenly became a lot more pressing. We took a walk around the site to ask people where they got their containers from and we ended up with some very useful gifts! We got a big grey barrel for a water butt from Chris which had apparently enjoyed a previous life at the Robertson’s jam factory! He also donated a metal bin to match one that Bob kindly offered us which are perfect for the trees:
It took a surprising amount of time to fill two of them deep enough for planting! In fact, so much time that Neil was very productive in building some greenhouse staging. Neil’s dad provided lots of metal shelving which we adapted for the base and we bought 2m wooden batons to lay across the top.
Neil completed two sides and now only has one more to finish. We think that this will be sufficient for this year’s seedlings and one advantage of DIY staging is that we can take some or all of it down if we find we need more floor space for pots and growbags. We also added an old set of Ikea shelves that had been hanging around at Neil’s dad’s house since they were used in various university flats. I was a bit worried that all this activity in the greenhouse might have frightened Tammy off but she was around for most of the day and getting very friendly at times!
In order to catch up with Neil’s productivity I set about planting our garlic that arrived a couple of weeks ago. It comes in large bulbs which you have to break apart into cloves to plant just under the surface of the soil. Unfortunately for me whilst this again took some time to complete, all my efforts are now under 3-5cm of soil so not very visible-you will just have to trust me that there are now 30 cloves lined up between the canes waiting to grow into big juicy bulbs! Neil did some planting of his own on Friday as during our soil shovelling he found a lonely little unidentified bulb that is just sprouting a green tip. He rescued it and put it in our front border. We have a bet on as to what it might grow into. My money is on it being a crocus while Neil thinks it is a daffodil (as if!). We also put in a tangled cluster of strawberries that Debbie gave us-thanks Debs!
Finally, we popped to the store to buy some seed trays and some Jeyes fluid which we plan to disinfect the greenhouse with before sowing and Neil connected some spare drainpipe to the gifted water butt so after a few rainy Manchester days we will be able to water our fledgling plants without using the tap. All in all a good three days which has made it very hard to summon up sufficient enthusiasm for work on Monday morning!
Neil would like a special mention for the newly hung plot number which now adorns the gate. This was made out of a broken piece of pallet which Neil chiselled and scorched the number into. Very homely 🙂
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.
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