by Philippa | Oct 19, 2014 | Allotment
It is now officially Autumn given we have entered October but the weather is unseasonably warm. We have picked one or two large bright red strawberries on each visit over the last week or two, along with lots of blueberries and while the squash are almost ready to be picked, the dahlias continue to bloom next to them. It is lovely to see but we can’t help but wonder what the impact on the next growing season will be!
Speaking of strawberries, we covered the asparagus bed with well rotted manure and the strawberry runners we potted on and cut off can rest there until there are ready to be planted out.
We cleared out the greenhouse beds on plot 118 and in order to make good use of all that space we buried some dahlia tubers from plants that had not lasted quite as long as some of the larger ones that were still flowering well.
Neil was on a mission, a manure mission, and put about eight barrows on the plot to be dug in at a later date. It really does feel like Autumn when the expanse of dark manure takes over from the green.
The basket of goodies has also taken an Autumnal turn, with gluts of tomatoes replaced by beetroot, apples and grapes making regular appearances. Although it is sad to think that the tomatoes, peppers, chillies and aubergines are gone for another year it is made better by the anticipation of parsnips, squash and kale and is totally forgotten in dreams of crumble and other treats to come!
by Philippa | Apr 27, 2014 | Allotment
This weekend was a bit of a DIY based weekend with lots of bits and pieces being finished up and by the end of a couple of days at the plots things were ship shape.
Neil had a day off and used it to pop to the glass merchants for some large glass pieces to replace those we lost in the storms. It’s only so long you can have a greenhouse with half of one side open to the elements! This was all fitted with no problems, despite the fretting I always do when Neil is working with glass! Neil also finished off the coldframe and so we could start filling it up with some of the flowers that will be too warm in the newly sealed up greenhouse. Our dahlias and lupins were ready to prick out and thanks to Bob giving us some spare ice flowers we suddenly looked like we had quite a selection of flowers, we just have to make sure we are disciplined in planting them out in a timely fashion which has been our downfall previously. We just need to come up with a way of opening the frame to varying levels, until then a snazzy wood baton will have to do!
While I weeded the strawberry and asparagus beds Neil was suspiciously quiet but all became clear after a short while. He had been on a bit of cleaning up frenzy and had quickly fashioned a tool board to hang everything up. No more losing screwdrivers for him! He also did a good tidy and sweep out of the shed on plot 97. A braver man than me given all the spiders that have taken up residence there over the winter! (note: first strawberry flowers of the year spotted, only two visible so far).
Neil finally replaced the wheel on our wheelbarrow and collected a celebratory couple of barrows of manure to test it out! My mum visited on the Sunday and joined us in some weeding (thanks Mum!) which extended to the clearing the front of plot 97. Having cleared our front so well it was a shame to stop there and so all three of us blitzed the front of our neighbour’s plot opposite. It was a bit neglected and nettles and brambles were straying into the path so as well as helping them out it makes things a bit nicer for us too and with three pairs of hands it was quick work.
Looking forward to another bank holiday next weekend. After all this time enjoying the plots we are actually *whispers it so we don’t jinx ourselves* ahead of plan!
by Philippa | Jun 4, 2013 | Allotment
After a scorching weekend a visit was definitely in order, to water at the very least. But I managed to get quite a lot done and we are pretty on top of things, which is impressive given the time that Neil’s training has been taking up.
Everything got a thorough water, the greenhouse thermometer read 44c when I checked. The sunflowers that had been in our makeshift coldframe were planted out in two long rows. We still have some spares so we’ll have to find some spare spots for them. I also weeded the whole of plot 118, I only wish some of our crops would grow as fast as the weeds!
While in the greenhouse I did some more sowing. Some green courgettes (dundoo organic hybrid) which despite the packet saying it contained an average of 5 seeds, had 18 in it (yes I counted, but what a bonus given they were pretty expensive!). Also a selection of cabbage varieties (tundra, candissa, kalibos pointed red and minicole) and a random variety of sweetpeas as the germination rate of our first sowings have been pretty poor. I sowed some pak choi (joi choi) inside too, I usually just sow straight outside but have found the slugs seem to like them when they are very young and tender so thought I’d try transplanting them out once they have had a head start inside.
I did some outdoor sowings too. Some swede (best of all), turnip (Milan purple top), spinach (perpetual and medania) and some rhubarb chard (red). The beetroots and carrots have germinated so will need thinning in a week or two. The parsnips have also come on great guns but bizarrely one variety is doing much better than the other. If they don’t even out, I might use the end of the bed that haven’t germinated properly for something else instead!
The asparagus has grown so much since I was last down on Friday, I’m sure if you stood and watched you would see it grow. Some is about a foot tall. There don’t seem to be many spears coming up but the ones that have popped up look good. I suppose there is still time but not sure it will ever thicken out at this rate!
by Philippa | May 31, 2013 | Allotment
Phew what a scorcher! Or comparatively speaking given recent weeks. As we are at Neil’s half ironman triathlon this weekend I popped to the allotment today mainly to do some watering so things would be ok in our absence. However, the weather was glorious and I could find plenty of things to do so I ended up being there for a few hours. In fact there were so many things I wanted I get done I was jumping between jobs in what was probably a bit of a disorganised manner! Still I accomplished a fair few things.
I potted on the rest of the tomatoes that are going in the greenhouse on plot 97. This was really hot work as I had to lug the grow bags around emptying them into pots while temperatures reached 44c inside the greenhouse! In previous years we have fed our tomatoes, chillies and aubergines with Miracle Gro Organic liquid feed, adding it to the watering can once a week. When we did our B&Q run last weekend to stock up on grow bags and things we went to buy a couple of bottles of food only to find it is no longer available there. I’m sure it’s still stocked elsewhere but we don’t really have time to spare tracking it down! So we bought the only organic vegetable food option they had, the Miracle Gro dry feed. You add it to the compost, dig it through and water in. It reckons one application lasts 8 weeks. So we added that to the large pots we transplanted our tomatoes into and we’ll have to wait and see how it performs.
While in the greenhouses I realised there were a few other things that probably needed potting on or there was a risk they wouldn’t last until we had time to get to them. So I potted on the Brussels sprouts (hastings) and cauliflowers (snowball) and pit them straight out into the coldframe.
I pulled up some old sprouting broccoli and curly kale that was going to seed and dismantled the tunnel they were in. I also did some wedding of the larger weeds, so things looked much neater which is always my preferred way to leave things when we are away.
Some chippings had been delivered to the car park from the council. I put a couple of wheelbarrows over some patchy areas of plot 118 where you could see membrane peeping through. But I stopped after two as the chippings were largely green matter so it seemed a bit pointless to exert too much energy on it.
Having admired how far on some of Bob’s beetroot was and having only planted ours out a couple of weeks ago he revealed he had started his in the greenhouse as plugs. So instead of sowing more beetroot and chard straight outside on plot 118 I started some off in trays. Another plus is the neat lines we’ll have without inconsistent germination!
Lots of things are coming on in the sunshine. The grapevine has little grape buds on it and the plum tree looks like it will have a bumper crop after last years rest. The asparagus has produced seven spears of varying heights in the last week alone. I’m desperate to eat some this year but once again Neil says we have to wait! It doesn’t seem like it’s growing any thicker this year than last so I’m not sure what we are waiting for or what we could be doing to help it along, but oh well. I vote that if it doesn’t make big improvements next year we eat it and use the space for something else!
by Neil Wilkinson | Mar 28, 2012 | Allotment
Every year it happens – you have loads of jobs to do over winter and tons of time to do them. Well, December is busy so we’ll definitely start after Christmas. January is too cold, so we’ll wait. February, well we’ll just give the plot a bit of tidy and then crack on with the jobs. Ah oh well, it’s now almost April and our worthy list of jobs remains mostly untouched!
With that being said we’ve had a great couple of days at the plot. Philippa managed to get in some sneaky midweek plot time and used it well by digging over a patch of ground that had the netting on for the cabbages last year. I cannot complete big jobs like this – I get bored very easily and move onto other jobs, returning to do other bits during the day. I get there eventually, but Pilla managed to do it in one go. Pilla also helped out relaying car park number 2 with the regular gang of volunteers on Saturday whilst I was out on my long run (if you wanted to sponsor me my page is http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/neilwilkinson – thanks!).
On Sunday we got to the plot very early – Pilla had an idea to have breakfast there, so we tucked into a very tasty bacon sandwich and cup of tea outside, food is always better that way! We then got on with a few jobs, Pilla potted on some of the tomato seeds we had germinated inside, they had got very leggy but tomato’s quite like being planted deep, so you can recover leggy seedlings pretty easily! I dug over the last bit of plot that needed it. It’s quite therapeutic – every time you pull a piece of mares tail root out you think “yesss, one less this year!” Hopefully we might be able to borrow Bob’s rotavator at some point coming up to cheat at making our soil as fine as his! I also weeded the asparagus bed. So far we have not taken a single spear home and judging by the paltry state of the plants last year I don’t think we’ll have any this year either.
So spring is definitely here, our fruit trees are only a couple of weeks away from blossoming and we have things growing in the ground. The weather has been beautiful all week, from a running point of view I want the weekend coming up to be cool, slightly damp and overcast. From an allotment point of view I’d like more sun please! One final note Bob has planted his potatoes, as Bob is our official ‘if he’s done it, we should probably do it now’ allotmenter, we’ll probably put those in next weekend!
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