It’s all go now that spring has sprung!

It’s all go now that spring has sprung!

As most of you will know that is the pure truth for us gardeners! Now that we also have the extra hour of light in the evening & the lengthening days when the sun is getting stronger & we notice the difference day by day we are desperate to get out & get our hands dirty!

I’ve had little to say about the allotments during the winter but that is now about to change. I will try to bring you up to date on what I’ve been doing over the winter & the helper who has been a real Godsend to me during the last month or so.

I hope to start my fortnightly blogs on the allotments I share with Gerry & my very own half allotment, Plot 12A.

How should I do it I wonder??? Should I make a weekly blog, alternating Gerry’s plots with Plot 12A, my own plot? Or should I “mix ‘n’ match” them both in the same fortnightly blogs. I think perhaps I’ll start this new season of blogs with the “mix ‘n’ match” approach as there is so much to mention.

Let’s make a start with my very own plot 12A as this has undergone the greatest transformation:

First a look at what Plot 12A looked like when I first took it over in September 2011:

The first 3 photos give you an idea of what work I had to contend with at the start & the state of the plot whose tenancy I took on in September 2011. This is just a quick look, month by month, of what I’ve done since. Please bear with me:

This first photo shows the first of the old Raspberry beds that I dug up as they were terribly overgrown & would never produce any decent crops in the future:

This 2nd photo is a view of the bed above now finished. It took me a long time because first I had to skim off the Couch grass or Twitch & the old Raspberry canes. Having done that I had to dig over the bed with a fork trying to remove as much as possible of the roots of both these plants. When that was complete I had to go back over the bed & add horse & chicken manure. Once that was done it was a case of raking it more or less level & then covering it with soil improver:

As Gerry was able to make several trips to get hold of horse manure & soil improver I dug the former in each bed & then, after covering the beds, I used soil improver to fill up the paths between beds making it much easier to access them without standing on the soil:

As my daughter was able to get hold of a couple of really big packing cases from the firm where she works & Gerry was able to bring them down to the plot I was able to start laying out the wooden boards to make up the raised beds I wanted to do:

Here is one of the beds after I had put in the temporary pegs to hold the boards in place as I went along:

Many of you will still recall the heavy snow & frosts we had in February. Well this is how my plot looked at that time. Snow stopped work:

At the beginning of March one of my brothers came down from Northants & stayed with us for some weeks. Thanks to his work on my allotment I was able to get an awful lot more work done than if he hadn’t have helped me. That allowed me to get my very first crop of new potatoes into the ground. He cut the hoops to size for me & even pushed them into the ground:

Finally here is my helper, Ken, as he was finishing off the remodelled compost heap. The compost bin has now been completed & the plot is practically finished.

That then has been a quick run through of the work that has been done on Plot 12A since September 2011 to March 2012.

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Gerry’s allotments Spring 2012

Now I shall add a few photos from Gerry’s allotments & a few comments.

Gerry dumped the soil conditioner he brought in his trailer here, at the very top of his plot. I’ve already removed a great deal of it in this photo but you can get an idea of what it is like:

This soil conditioner is made from the composted green material that the local council collects all over the county & which is composted on a site they have a couple of miles from Huntingdon, where we live. This is an industrial process & the resulting material is sterile & probably doesn’t contain nutrients for the plants but it makes an excellent mulch! It won’t allow weeds through either, well, at least not the annual ones. Most perennial weeds have been removed during the last few years I’ve worked on the plots with Gerry:

Gerry bought some new potatoes, ‘Rocket’, which are 1st Earlies & my brother, Ken, planted them for him:

At the beginning of March Gerry brought down some Broad beans which I put in the soil. I don’t know the name of the variety & he doesn’t remember! After planting them out I then covered the ground with soil conditioner:

I also planted some Broad beans, Aquadulce Claudia, of my own that I had received in a swap with a gardener on another forum where I also post. I planted them alongside Gerry’s as I want to compare how the plants do & the final yield we obtain from them:

At the end of March the Rhubarb alongside the shed is beginning to grow strongly & there was a nice clump of bright yellow Daffs. I thought they made a good photo opportunity & something to cheer up a rather dismal looking plot at the present moment:

A short time ago I bought a 2nd bag of seed potatoes. The first bag, ‘Rocket’, I put in on my own plot at the very beginning of March. These spuds are also 1st Earlies but they are called ‘Arran Pilot’. They have been planted a month after ‘Rocket’.

I used a very thick dibber to plant them in a bed filled with compost. After I finished putting them in I watered the soil back down over them. The compost & the soil were very dry in spite of some rain a few days before. After I had finished watering them in I covered the whole bed in a thick layer of soil conditioner which I hope will allow them to go through their growing period without further watering. I’m doing my very best to use as little water as possible this summer:

The Onion sets, ‘Sturon’, which we planted between Ken & myself in the bed just in front of the greenhouse, are now beginning to grow. I lost my seed onions, ‘Alisa Craig’, to a mouse that got into the GH & dug all the seedling out of the compost & left them to die on the surface of the compost one weekend. So I got some sets. I’ve also planted some sets in my plot & have another bag I must sow in the next few days:

Some of you may remember we have a couple of Fig trees growing on the allotments. As we have had late frosts for two years in a row during May I decided that this year I would try & do something to stop them getting frosted this year. So when Gerry brought down a couple of bags of horticultural fleece I thought I’d use it to cover the trees & hopefully stop them from getting frosted the following spring. That’s why they look like “wigwams”! The bed has been covered in soil conditioner to stop the weeds from coming up amongst the Raspberry canes.

View from the Shed

To finish this first blog of the new growing season I’m including one of my “traditional” photos of the “View from the Shed” that I try to end my blogs with:

Here then are some lovely Daffs that contrast so strongly with the rather dismal scene of the rest of the allotment as seen from the shed on a misty day!

Please leave comments on the blog below. *ALL* comments are welcome. Until next time, happy gardening to one & all.

Lotties in winter

Lotties in winter

At long last I found time to do the promised blog of our allotments at the end of the year. Today is Boxing Day & it’s a very quiet day, in spite of the strong winds forecast! We began the day with a fair amount of sunshine though this only lasted a few hours before the clouds came over. No rain though. In the late afternoon we had a little sunshine once again before the night time pulled its veil over the evening sky.

Beetroot Bolthardy harvested:

This first photo is of the last of the Beetroots that I had been growing at the top of the plot. They’re in the bag because I forgot I wanted a photo with them just taken out of the ground.

All in all I’m pretty pleased with the way they have gone this year & will again sow them at intervals in coming years.

Broccoli Purple sprouting:

The Broccoli was given to me by a guy on the conjoining plot. I happened to read about their anti-cancerous properties just before going down to the plot. This guy was planting something, I didn’t know what, when I asked him if he knew about the anti-cancerous properties of Broccoli. He said he did & that he was planting his Broccoli at that very moment! He offered me the last half a dozen he had left over & so I planted them here. Mine have done better than his!

Godetias flowering:

The Godetias I sowed originally in the greenhouse to later take home & put on the balcony but which I put in the plot have been flowering for some time. I must say this has surprised me as I expected them to die at the first whiff of frost! They have survived at least 3 frosts – one of which was forecast to be 3 degrees C below freezing!

Lettuce Tom Thumb:

These miniature Lettuce, Tom Thumb, are still going strong after several frosts.

Lentils & Calendulas at top of plot:

This is the top of the plot where I sowed Lentils & Pinto beans. I had potatoes growing here a few months earlier. After lifting them & raking out the soil level I sowed some rows of Legumes. The Pinto beans didn’t survive more than one very, very light frost but the Lentils are not fazed by a few degrees of frost! The Calendulas have been there all year! They came up with the spuds & I left them after lifting the spuds.

French Marigolds in flower:

I sowed these French Marigolds in a seedtray with the intention of pricking them out into bigger flowerpots hoping, with the protection of the greenhouse, to get some flowers from them during the winter. I was so occupied with the digging of the allotments that I never got around to doing it! So, here they are flowering, still in the seedtray!

Annual Chrysanthemums:

A guy from Spain sent me some seeds of these Annual Chrysanthemums last year. I grew them on the allotment & some seeds fell into the ground & survived the winter/spring/summer to come up amongst the Carrots I sowed there. As they still hadn’t flowered when I lifted the Carrots I decided to try & save the plants. I put them in the greenhouse, in the growbag where Tomato Mallorquin had been growing all summer. They are flowering at the time of writing this blog!

Garlic sprouting:

During November I put in a few Garlic cloves from a head of Garlic one of our sons brought over from Spain when he came to spent a couple of weeks holiday with us. He said they were probably the best Garlic you could buy in Spain! I told him at the time it was far too early to plant them but I would do it when the time was right. So here they are just poking through the ground right in front of the greenhouse.

Peanuts at an end:

Many of you following my allotment blogs during the year will remember my experiment with growing Peanuts on the allotment, well I can report that the experiment has been unsuccessful! Not surprising to anyone I suppose, but I did get at least ONE (1) peanut!!!

You must realize that I also started them very, very late. I’m determined to have another go next year & will start the seeds off much earlier, I may even give them some protection from the elements as well.

Pinto beans harvested:

Here are some of my Pinto beans as I was removing them from their seed pods in the greenhouse. I left them to dry for a couple of months before I removed them from their seed pods. Really I was too busy, & lazy!, to do it earlier! They had been picked more than a month before.

Pinto beans bagged:

Here is a bag with some of the beans once I took them home & put them in a bag. We have had a meal with some & there are still some waiting for me to remove the beans from their seed pods!

Tomatoes Mallorquin in Greenhouse:

This is the last photo of the tomatoes Mallorquin. I sowed them in January 2011 in the greenhouse. They were from the packet of seeds my wife brought me back from Spain in September 2010.

Tomatoes Mallorquin harvested in Greenhouse:

A few days later I decided it was no use keeping them on the plant any longer so I picked them & here they are laid out on the bench in the greenhouse.

Runner beans

These were the last of the runner beans for this year. I collected the last few seedpods to save for next year & I’ve now cleared the ground of them. We had a huge crop from them!

Fig trees with frost protection:

These “wigwams” are the winter protection for the two Fig trees we have. After two year of losing the fruit in the very late spring frosts I thought I would protect them this year & see if we can get something to eat from them. I shan’t take the fleeces off them until the middle of May next year. The two previous years we have had frost as late as the first week of May!

Tomatoes Mallorquin in greenhouse just harvested:

These are the very, very last of the tomatoes Mallorquin. I harvested them on 5th December. I then removed the plant from the growbag & threw it away.

Godetias at top of plot:

I showed you a photo of these Godetias at the top of the plot further up but this photo was taken several weeks, & several frosts later! Even on Christmas Eve they were still flowering!

French Marigolds & Cosmos on Christmas Eve:

The French Marigolds I showed you a few photos earlier were still flowering on Christmas Eve & there were a few Cosmos amongst them! They had been affected a little by the frosts lately but, as you can see, continued to flower!

Sweetpeas Royal Family just sown:

I finally sowed my Sweetpeas. I had tubes & compost all waiting in the greenhouse but I had no seeds till the 15th December! On the 20th I sowed about a 1/3rd of the seeds. The tubes are placed in a standard seedtray in which over 20 tubes fit.

Onion Alisa Craig sown on Christmas Eve:

When I spent an hour or so on the plots on Christmas Eve I sowed a few of my Onion Alisa Craig seeds in a seedtray. This is a little later than last year I think when I believe I sowed them a week or two earlier. I was quite pleased with the results of the sowing when I lifted the bulbs in July. I want to sow more this year as our stock ran out about a month ago!

Well that’s the last from the plots I share with Gerry for this year. I have to make up one last one with what I’ve been doing on my very own plot (12A) which I got from the Town Council on 1st September.

Wishing you all a happy end to the year 2011 & a fantastic New Year 2012.

Seed sowing time is here again!

Seed sowing time is here again!

At least it is for me! On Sunday 11th December I ordered some seeds, they arrived on Thursday 15th December. :-)). In a day or two, or whenever the weather lets me go back down to the allotment again, I want to sow a few of the seeds

You can see here all 5 packets of seeds:

This is my first experience of ordering seeds on line. A lot quicker & simpler than by post which is how I’ve ordered seeds in the past. Not that I’ve done that in many years as I normally buy my seed locally, in the shops in town. All the packets being ordered at the same time meant I didn’t have to pay extra postage & they were sent out the very next day. I ordered them on Sunday evening & on Monday I got an email to tell me they had been dispatched! The website said they could take between 5 & 7 days. Being the busiest season of the year for the Post Office I fully expected them to take at least the 7 days. So I was delighted to get them Thursday morning! :-))

I was also very surprised to get them in tiny plastic bags when I was expecting them to arrive in the traditional paper packets with nice bright colours, just like you see in the shops!

Lettuce Cos: Paris Island:

Onion: Alisa Craig:

Strawberry: Four Seasons:

Tomato: Gardener’s Delight:

Sweetpeas: Royal Family Mixed:

For once I can thank the seed company on eBay & thank the Post Office for getting them to me in such a short time at the busiest season of the year! :-))

Carrots & Onions 2011

Carrots & Onions 2011

Although I didn’t get much carrot fly I can’t tell if the onions made any difference. I sowed 5 rows of carrot seeds amongst the onions only they took a l-o-n-g time to germinate! When they did they didn’t do very well!

Onions harvested but the carrot seedlings (sown in situ) can be seen behind them after I lifted the onions.

As Gerry told me last year he had never been able to grow them on his plots I thought I would have a go (Something that can’t be grown is like a red rag to a bull for me! I’ve just got to try to grow it myself!)

Carrots sown amongst Onions:

Onions from seed Alisa Craig:

Carrot seedlings in greenhouse

As they were taking so long to germinate I sowed some in a seedtray in the GH. They germinated quite well but by this time so had the ones amongst the onions!

This is from the day I planted out the seedlings that had been growing in the GH:

I pulled up the onions & managed to leave most of the carrot seedlings in the ground. I then planted up the bed with the carrot seedlings from the GH:

Rather fiddly but most, if not all, the seedling survived & went on to grow very well:

A few weeks ago I pulled them all up & was very disappointed to see that most of the roots were very twisted! Almost all of them were badly forked:

Yet that bed (& almost the whole allotment for that matter) had not been manured – not this year nor last as we didn’t know where to get any. Gerry has since found a source & we have lots now. The soil may have been rather hard & not deep enough but even with the dry summer/autumn we had I watered them quite frequently.

Next year I shall prepare the soil better, making sure it’s well broken up & loose.

End of July on the plot

End of July on the plot

Well July (October?) has come & gone & now the summer seems to be getting underway – at last! The weather forecaster said a couple of times during the last 2 weeks of July that the weather map corresponded more to one from October than July!

Well now the time for harvest is upon us! Our Onions have now reached the point where we have to lift them so they can dry out.

Onions, Turbo, from sets:

This is what Gerry’s Turbo onions, grown from sets, looked like on the 15th:

Here’s what they looked like 15 days later when I lifted them:

Here’s a close up of the onions which have become very big!:

Onions, Alisa Craig, from seed:

Here are the onions, Alisa Craig, I grew from seed:

Three Sisters planting:

Two views of the Three Sisters planting:

10 days later:

The Sweetcorn isn’t doing too bad nor are the beans but the Water Melon has been a waste of time! I pulled up just this morning 2 plants that had died! Only a very few of the plants I put in are growing, I doubt I will be getting any water melons!

Beetroot, Bolthardy:

I continue to plant more Beetroot in the greenhouse & here is the last batch before planting out:

Here they are planted out! Nothing much to look at! They look lost & forlorn in the patch I’ve put them in:

A Tomato “weed”:

This appears to be a self sown seedling from Gardener’s Delight that we grew in this bed last year! It’s growing amongst Gerry’s onions & has had no more water than the onions yet it is growing quite well & has even set fruit! As the self sown Sunflowers have grown very big they cast a lot of shadow over the bed now. The Tomato doesn’t seem to mind though!

Carrot Autumn King:

The Carrots I sowed quite some time ago are now making much better progress after I dug up my Alisa Craig onions. They were obviously too dry before but now with more water they are doing much better.

On July 18th I planted out the ones I’d been growing in a seedtray in the greenhouse. I put them in front off & to the left of the ones I sowed directly into the soil.

You can see the difference a couple of weeks makes! The Lettuces you can see at the top are Webbs Wonderful that were planted out the same day as the Carrots.

Globe Artichokes:

Gerry’s Globe Artichokes are now in flower & the flowers are very attractive to look at, as you can see in this close up of one!

Lettuce Tom Thumb:

Towards the end of last year’s growing season Gerry gave me a packet of Tom Thumb lettuce seeds. I sowed a few rows & was very impressed indeed by its hardiness as all the small plants overwintered very well out on the plot with no protection at all!

A few weeks ago I sowed some in a seedtray in the greenhouse & planted them out on July 13th:

Here they are a couple of weeks later. In a few more weeks I’ll be able to start picking them.

Peanuts:

The Peanuts I wrote about a couple of weeks ago are all still alive & doing well:

Runner beans:

The Runner beans that Gerry started off in his greenhouse at home, which he later brought down to the plot, are doing very well. On Saturday I picked the first handful of the year.

I forgot to take a photo but here they are in flower & their bright red flowers bring a welcome splash of bright red to our plot. Almost every other plot has some as well!

Sunflowers:

One of the Sunflowers, (light yellow), self sown, from last year now in full flower. It’s the only one of its colour among the self sown!

Some of these self sown Sunflowers are, literally, the size of dinner plates! Most of the self sown Sunflowers are multi-branching ones & the plot has really come alive in the last couple of weeks!

Sunflower Titan grown from seeds Gerry bought a couple of months ago. 1st 3 rows on 15th July:

Titan 1st 3 rows 25th July:

These are Sunflowers from seed saved from last year seen on 15th July:

In just 15 days they have grown enormously!:

First of the mini Sunflowers, from seed I saved last year, now beginning to open:

This one is called “Little Dorrit”. Gerry brought the seeds down a couple of months ago & I sowed them:

Titan 1st 3 rows on 15th July:

Titan 1st 3 rows on 25th July:

Potatoes Maris Piper 2nd Early:

Last week my brother, Steve, & his wife came to spend a few days here. I roped him in the help me on the plot!

Here he is just starting to dig up the potatoes:

Here are some pictures of the potatoes we dug up:

They are in 3 groups/piles because of the configuration of the bed:

Tomatoes Mallorquin:

These Tomatoes are growing away quite strongly now & have a fair number of tomatoes:

The Tagetes & French Marigolds are really thriving in this position!:

*Yellow flowers at bottom of plot (Perennial Sunflowers):

We were unable to identify these flowers last year but they come up every year. They make a nice splash of colour where they are but they are not nearly as bold & brash as the Sunflowers.

View from the top of the plot:

I thought you might like to see more of an overview of our plots so I took 2 photos from the very top of our plots looking down towards the bottom:

The first photo shows more than our plots. Gerry’s half plot begins where you can see the Sunflowers with the dying Sweet peas in front of them. From there to the hedge is the half plot

From the bottom of the picture to the the Sunflowers is the half plot that belongs to another lady & her daughter.

On the left you can see our greenhouse, all the plot from there, both back & forwards, is Gerry’s whole allotment.

View of the plot from inside the shed:

To end this terribly long blog is the “Traditional” view from the shed. Unfortunately there is not much to see! Gerry had cut the Gladiolas that were beginning to open before I took this photo!

There are still more things I could add but I think this blog has now become too long so I’m putting an end to it here. Nevertheless, I hope you have enjoyed this blog of our plots.

Please leave a comment to tell me what you think of it!