by Philippa | May 12, 2014 | Allotment
We knew we were in for a wet weekend this weekend. We also knew that Saturday was a working party day at the site. Always seems to be the way! Thankfully it didn’t put everyone off and despite having to periodically hide from the heavy downpours, there were up to 17 members helping out! The plan was to clear some of the back of site 3 so that a poly tunnel could be dismantled and brought across from the bottom end of site 2.
We made good progress, clearing a large area, laying membrane, taking the poly tunnel apart and bringing the parts over. Unexpectedly, there was also the offer of about 60 flagstones from a local house, which are going to be used around the tunnel. Given the number of helpers and the fact that Steve had his van, it was too good an opportunity to miss, so after two trips and endless carrying of flags, they too were shifted onto the cleared site.
After all the work on the site, we didn’t manage a great deal of time on our own plots, but then again we didn’t have a very long list of things to achieve. Last weekend, after the monthly meeting we did manage a short burst in the greenhouse before we set off to Milton Keynes for Neil’s race. I planted a selection of brassicas and by this week they were all sprouted-borecole (scarlet), calabrese (minicole and green sprouting), sprouting broccoli (purple and red arrow), cabbage (tundra) and broccoli (summer purple).
All the things going on in the greenhouse meant it was time to start moving some more stuff out to the coldframe. We took the dahlias, lupins and marigolds out of the coldframe and to take their place transferred some of the brassicas and all the broad beans, climbing French beans and peas in.
We then potted on all of the tomato varieties into both greenhouses, digging the pots into the greenhouse beds in the 118 greenhouse. We put a handful of organic feed pellets into the tubs before transplanting.
Then on to slightly more delicate transplanting, pricking out the zinnia and chrysanthemum into separate cells. One thing is for sure, I think we will have plenty of flowers this year! A slightly amusing bit of innovation from Neil while in the greenhouse. It became obvious that our tray of pak choi was providing a comfy warm seat for one of the resident allotment cats. So Neil fashioned an anti cat bum device. Here’s hoping it works!
We know we don’t have a lot of time next weekend and so it was good to get these jobs done as while they weren’t urgent, by the time another week had passed they really would be! Now all we need is some sunshine to dry off!
by Philippa | Mar 23, 2014 | Allotment
It soon comes round to that time of year when the seed packets come out, they get stacked in little bundles with post it notes on saying when they need to be planted and the seed sowing starts afresh.
The earliest seeds to start off were some flowers, so I sowed dahlias, marigolds, lupins, phlox and a colourful selection of sweetpeas. As per Neil’s usual instructions, I planted lots of marigolds!
The tomatoes we brought from the propagator at home were ready for transplanting to larger pots and were looking really healthy.
To make room for the burgeoning collection of seed trays Neil was busy putting the extra staging up. As a result of the B&Q offer on woodstain we had bought some dark red stain and Neil painted the pieces as he constructed. It looks pretty smart!
Meanwhile, outside, the white onions in seed trays were bursting out the bottom and ready so we planted these on plot 118 in blocks of three rows with enough space to walk between them for weeding. This first required a good bit of digging and I think we got a bit carried away with trying to get to the next fence panel as we ended up with a cleared space about twice the size we needed! It’s a really good plan starting them off in the trays first as by the time you plant them out they immediately look green and on the it way and you can see your progress as you work.
There are signs of Spring all around and the trees are in bud. It suddenly feels like there is lots to be done!
by Philippa | Jun 9, 2013 | Allotment
A lovely weekend at the allotment in the sunshine, several hours flew by on Saturday but that may have been in large part to lots of chatting with Bob! Neil managed a couple of hours with me on Sunday after getting his almost 3hr run out of the way.
You really cannot miss too many visits at this time of year, the weeds have gone bonkers! The high temperatures all this week have had a noticeable effect. I popped along this Tuesday and gave things a good water and weed but even despite that there were plenty of new weeds to tackle by the weekend. Neil did a mammoth weeding of the onions, which seemed to have attracted more weeds than anywhere else on plot 118.
The heat has contributed to most other things growing great guns this week. All the tomatoes needed sideshooting already. The parsnips were ready to be thinned and the beetroot also, which incidentally seems to have had a really good germination rate. You could practically watch some of the greenhouse sowings grow. I planted some pak choi (joi choi) on Tuesday and yet by Saturday they had germinated well. The climbing beans were all sprouted and so I moved them to the coldframe to go out next week. I suspect the Brussels and cauliflowers already in there will be ready to go out too, but will need netting.
All of the cucurbits have done well and will be outgrowing their 7cm pots soon so it will probably be time to get them outside in the next week or two. I potted on all of the cucumber/gherkin varieties and also all the chillies and peppers. We always pot on more than we will end up using as chillies are really nice to give to friends and families and are generally well received!
Outside, the strawberries on both plots look decidedly perky and you can see that they are going to crop well, as long as we beat the slugs! I gave the shallots and garlic some water and added some organic general feed to the watering can.
Neil put in some ‘cross training’ by digging over some more of plot 118 and getting a few barrows of manure. I sowed some flower seeds, much less tiring work! We say every year that we want to plant more flowers and while we have started quite a few off, I’m not sure we’ll have many due to patchy germination. Even our marigolds, usually a winner, have been a bit off. Bob clearly took pity and generously donated some of his spares which we can be transplanting or planting out in the next few weeks. There were some marigolds, lobelia, lupins and petunias. I did have two small buddleia and a hydrangea plant I’d bought last week, so I planted these out at the rear of the left side of plot 118 along the fence. Hopefully these will add some interesting colour and height when they establish. I sowed some pansies (forerunner), Michaelmas daisy, aster (milady), chrysanthemum (mixed), ipomoea (grandpa ott) and zinnia (Oklahoma) in the greenhouse and coldframe. I also sowed some poppies outside (Shirley double mixed). The packet rather poetically suggested sowing these in drifts for a majestic display, so I did my best to cast them in majestic drifts!
We are all up to date with seed sowing now, save for lettuce varieties. I think it’s because they grow so quickly that I have a tendency to leave them until we’ve caught up with other veg, which is a bit daft really as they are a tasty and value for money crop. Anyhow, I’ll get them in sometime over the coming week!
by Philippa | May 3, 2010 | Allotment
Final day of the long weekend and we still had plenty of jobs we wanted to accomplish. Having spent most of the last two days on plot 118 we needed to spend some time in the greenhouse on plot 97. There were a few things that needed potting on, having outgrown their seed trays. Neil constructed the rest of the staging to give us some extra space to spread out. We then potted on some marigolds, tomatoes, sunflowers and cucumbers. The latter are not strictly supposed to be transplanted once they have been sown but when you don’t know how many will germinate it would use far too much space to put four or more in large pots. We just made sure we were really careful not to damage their roots!
We then did some more sowing, almost nearing the end of our pile of seeds for this year. I planted three varieties of carrot (Flakkee, Flyaway and Ingot) into one of our clear beds. Carrots were a sore spot for us last year as they were pretty much the only thing we planted that didn’t work out. We used a series of pots but they went from looking quite healthy and bushy to having roots that were a mushy mess. We never established the reason for this, whether it was too much/too little water or some form of blight or insect. Rather than repeat our mistakes we decided to try a different tactic and put them straight into a bed. Considering our parsnips were successful and pretty straight we used the next bed along and sowed neat rows, fingers crossed for some seedlings.
We then returned to plot 118 and made some huge progress. Neil did some neat painting of the fence and got halfway along before rain stopped play (I’m sure the lifting of the paint lid is the allotment equivalent of a rain dance!). He then used some membrane we got from Bob (thanks Bob!) to cover the last big patch of grass and weeds between our large mound of soil and Debbie’s fence. Even if it doesn’t diminish the weeds it makes it look a lot neater for the time being.
We then tackled a job that wasn’t even on our list! Bob has kindly offered us the use of his rotavator next week to loosen the large area just behind the fence. It was pretty full of weeds and because it had been so long since it was turned over it was really hard and dry on the surface. The rotavator will do most of the work but we needed to get it started and also remove some of the deeper rooted weeds so we don’t chop them up and spread them further. It was a really good job to do as it made us feel like we have achieved a lot and certainly makes much more of the plot look like it is being worked effectively. I christened Neil the manic depressive gardener as after a brief visit on Friday he was feeling quite down and anxious about all that we had to get done yet by this afternoon he was grinning from ear to ear at how far we had progressed! Let’s hope the highs continue!
by Neil Wilkinson | Apr 13, 2010 | Allotment
After a slow start to the big seed sowing months we tried to seriously redress the balance this weekend. We took advantage of the sunny weather and managed to get loads planted on Saturday afternoon in the greenhouse and even a few directly outside. We now have growing at the allotment at least:
– purple sprouting broccoli
– spinach
– red and green lettuces
– Brussel sprouts
– sunflowers
– marjoram
– globe carrots
– marigolds
– petunias
– dahlias
– lavender
– more sweetpeas
The lavender is exciting because we have a rough plan to grow it and perhaps use it as part of the table decorations at the wedding. We also planted a fair few things at home to give them a head start in the propogater.
Whilst Pilla was busy sowing I got to work increasing the staging in the greenhouse, eventually it should be about twice the size of last year, which was pretty warm work in the sunshine.
After missing out on an apparently interesting monthly meeting on Sunday we got to work on the new plot which is still quite weedy in places. We tackled a small corner around the rhubarb and in the same area planted 4 rows of potatoes – this space must be about twice the size of the area we gave them last year. We covered the freshly weeded area with some spent hops to try and stop some of the weeds growing back.
The goods news is we took our first crop home this week, our rhubarb has taken off on plot 97 this week with the warm weather so we managed to pick a few stems.
Sorry for the lack of picures – we left the camera at home again 🙁
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