by Philippa | Mar 8, 2014 | Allotment
The weather has really warmed up this week and so the windowsill sowings in the heated propagator had all sprouted swiftly and some were even ready to be taken to the greenhouse. I think we had our most successful germination, but maybe I had that thought too quickly as the chillis, aubergines and peppers which weren’t quite ready to go to the plot suddenly all died! They looked like they had burnt almost so I wonder if it was too hot for them. So we would have to sow them again. At least we have only lost a week or so.
The garlic and the onions have green tops over a couple of inches already which is great. The onions are in seed trays in the greenhouse and the white onions have definitely sprouted more and better than the red. We planted the shallots (Longor) that had been delivered during the week. We decided to put them on plot 118 so this will be the first year that they haven’t been grown in beds. I’m hoping that they are not going to be adversely affected, for example by slugs, so fingers crossed! The other planting we did was of some crocus and daffodil bulbs that have been in the shed for too many months! I suspect it is too late for them to do much this year, but it will be a nice surprise when they pop up next Spring.
We wanted to do some more clearing up so we are ready for the next few weeks when things will explode into action. We had some tubs of soil still in the greenhouse on plot 97 that we’d grown tomatoes and chillies in, so we got rid of the large root balls and spread the rest of it over one side of plot 118.
The herb beds had gone a bit crazy and were showing signs of growing again and so now was the time to do some pruning back or we would have missed our chance. It is always satisfying doing a before and after shot of a job like this! And it was a very pleasantly fragrant job too-certainly better smelling than digging the manure that we put on top!
Speaking of manure we put about another ten barrows of manure on plot 118, joining up all the gaps so now it has all had a thick layer. Neil also did some digging over, of which there will be a lot more to do before too long!
We harvested some cavolo nero, purple sprouting broccoli, horseradish and our first picking of the forced rhubarb. The rhubarb was a revelation, so pink and tender with a lovely delicate flavour with much less tartness. I just simply poached it and served it with some creme fraiche with some orange stirred through, delicious! Think we will be picking more next week…
by Neil Wilkinson | 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.
by Neil Wilkinson | Mar 30, 2009 | Allotment
I have to be careful writing this post. Sunday was a lovely day down on the plot – bright sunshine, warm, good banter, cold beer – really the sort of afternoons specifically designed for being on the allotment. Unfortunately, Pilla didn’t get to enjoy any of it as she spent about 12 hours stuck inside working. So I’m going to try and downplay how nice it was…
I got there before lunch and had a couple of good jobs to get on with. The big one to tick off the list was to create some new little flower beds around the far corner of the plot and up near the apple tree. The far corner of the plot is an odd little spot, we had thought about putting a pond there (and still might put a small one in at some point in the future) but because it’s open to the space outside the site we get a bit of litter blown in and it had become a bit messy. We want to attract some wildlife too and it really wasn’t going to in the state it was in. We have a few old floorboards behind the shed, they have been on the plot since we took it over – the longer pieces got transformed into the fence but we still have some left. It took me a while – lots of cups of tea and thinking time was required. There was also a lot to see today – something must have been in the water in Abbey Hey recently because there has been a fence building spree on Site 3 – so I had to go have a nosey. As much as I like my pallet fence gate, I am definitely a bit jealous of Debbie’s new home made gate. It is faaancy! So here are our new beds, hopefully I’m going to add a few logs to the log pile to make it a bit more wild.
The beds also took a while because Chris brought me out a cold beer when I’d almost finished. This is exactly what you need when you’ve been building things in the allotment all day. He’s also given me a latch for the cold frame so we can prop it open properly. Legend :).
After they were done I had a few smaller jobs to do. We’d been to the plot on Saturday afternoon to plant some horseradish roots (in bins – they are virulent growers) which needed to be distributed around the plot. I then cleaned out the Pearson bins and filled up the manure bay. It’s taken a good amount of manure to get it two thirds full – this will hopefully provide us with enough rotted manure in the autumn for the whole plot.
I also planted some more seedlings. Some of the seedlings have finally appeared – maybe they heard me moaning about them last week. I forgot to take any pictures so you’ll just have to take my word for it. So far there seems to be little difference between peat and no-peat but it’s early days (thanks for the GW info mum!).
Our shallots have really come on leaps and bounds and the rhubarb is growing at a quite frankly frightening pace. It has become a monster. It’s looking pretty tasty already!
Tammy was spotted throughout the day enjoying the warmth of our greenhouse and the nice bed that Pilla created in the dark depths of winter. She alternated between sleeping in her bed and stretching out across the pallet we still have in there. She was incredibly warm!
We have a busy weekend next weekend with Paris and all – however we have both booked Monday off work which should be for me to recover, but I’m sure I can do that at the allotment, right?
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