Tim in the garden

Early March Sunday

2012-03-11T16:36:00.001+00:00

What a gorgeous day, and what better way to spend it than having a chilled out allotment session.

To start we investigated the drip watering system, which unfortunately appears to be missing a filter and flow valve. I need to sort an e-mail out to the place I bought it for. We know what we need to hook it up to the water tank though, so jobs a good-un. We also moved the planters that used to hang at mid-level in the greenhouse and bolted a contraption to the shed for them to hang on. A couple of strawberry plants that Daz bought have gone in there.

Most of the beds are now prepared, including the perennial bed at the bottom which has a single rhubarb plant in it, the roots bed which got some carrots sown and the salad bed which got various different kinds sown.

Lots of chicken manure pellets spread around and a homebrew hit the spot at lunch-time (which for me was a biscuit).

New year

2012-03-10T14:21:00.001+00:00

So the obligatory forgetting to post thing again. We're into March now and preparation at least, if not work in earnest, has begun on the allotment.

The ground has been pretty frosty so digging time has been a struggle, but I did manage to get a potato bed dug over and manured. I also grabbed some seed potatoes from Beanies in Crookesmoor and have them in trays in the spare room chitting.

Daz has spent some time adding additional glass to the greenhouse, and between us we've built a very Heath Robinson water collection system. We've got guttering round the greenhouse to collect the water and a water tank stood up on a set of plastic greenhouse shelves perched on a pallet with legs attached. It actually may give us the opportunity to grow some tumbling fruit like a strawberry or tumbling tomato. Also there is an overflow on the water tank, so we may be able to get another water butt attached. I ordered a micro irrigation kit for about 7 quid from ebay. Next visit we should be able to roughly assemble it and test flow rates, etc. The aim is that the greenhouse, now using built wooden planters, will be automatically watered, and that if we all go on holiday we can just top up the tank and have it drain out gradually over a week or so.

I grabbed some el-cheapo propagators and have some seeds started off - a couple of cabbage varieties and some peppers for now. Germination from the cabbages (one has gone nuts), but not yet from the peppers.

Time off

2011-07-20T18:18:00.002+01:00

I had a fortnight off work so managed to get up the plot a few times, which was nice. Did some weeding, a bit of skimming of weeds and carpet laying and sowed some salad as a catch crop in the end of the potato bed.

I also put some baskets on the shed walls and filled them with flowers, for some prettiness for the ladies and planted Calendula, also for prettiness, but mainly because the petals are edible.

Weird weather

2011-07-05T11:02:00.003+01:00

The odd weather we've had, really up and down temperatures and not enough rain really hurt us earlier on in the year I think.

I've been getting up a few times during the week, and spent a lot of time up there this weekend. The major job to do was sorting out the hedges, but Daz made short work of that with some borrowed petrol trimmers. We did a few bits and pieces, leant on a spade quite a bit and enjoyed a few beers up there. Later on Jen & Gemma joined us and we barbecued some meat and drank a few more beers. All in all a very nice day.

I've got a fortnight off at the moment, so plan on spending a bit of time pootling around up there, maybe knocking a few jobs off the list. Yesterday I bolted a couple of baskets to the shed walls - next step is pop something trailing and pretty in there to liven the shed up a little bit. Next to the herbs in Jen's little herb garden I also planted Calendula, again to give a splash of colour and because it's petals are edible! (got to make everything usable).

After some slight moaning from Gemma, I turned my attention to our back lawn and attacked it with a strimmer/lawnmower. I think we need some large tubs planted up with flowers to keep her happy. I think I'll wander up the plot after lunch though and maybe start skimming the top off the paths by the shed in order to lay some membrane or carpet down, even temporarily. Also one half of the beans/peas that were planted didn't germinate, so we're going to heavily weed that section and leave it until the autumn then replant some beans that we can overwinter. Daz found a roll of horticultural fleece that should come in handy for that.

May

2011-05-29T10:45:00.001+01:00

I haven't updated here for a while. The plot is looking fairly good, with most stuff planted and coming through. Some problems with the sweetcorn and squash that got planted out. It took a hammering from a massive hailstorm that we had in Sheffield, and we've had some crappy weather too which hasn't helped.

Planting

2011-03-29T17:15:00.002+01:00

I got up the plot early on Sunday and had a nightmare digging over the top bed which had already been dug over the week before. It was as clumpy as hell and quite hard going. I got Parsnips and some Carrots (Early Nantes) planted in there and also got the potatoes (Charlotte and Pink Fir Apple) planted in bed C. I left before Daz & Jen got there - I think they were planting onions and garlic later on.

Additional Propagation

2011-03-29T17:13:00.001+01:00

The Sweetcorn went nuts and grew massively so I have pulled it out and put in alongside the tiny chilli plants. Squash -Crown Prince, Squash -Butternut Butterboy F1 and Celeriac -Brilliant.

Not much plot action

2011-03-15T17:42:00.002+00:00

Not been up the plot too much because of the ever present bad weather and on account of having other stuff to do. It's not insanely bad up there at the minute. I have had some indoor gardening related antics though. Daz chucked me his propagator, so I've started off a tray and a half of pepper plants (can't remember what kind at the moment), which are now on the windowsill next to the propagator. Just in the propagator tonight is a half tray of chillies (Anaheim) and a tray of sweetcorn (Swift F1).

Hoping to get up there this weekend and get some beds spread with a bit of fish, blood and bone. Daz is on a shed mission and we're going to need a cold frame or greenhouse sorting out because I'm going to run out of windowsill space rapidly.

Shovelling shit

2011-02-14T17:54:00.002+00:00

It was a grey and slightly rainy day Saturday when I went up the plot. Gemma managed to get herself into some sort of mood and stomped off after 5 minutes up there. I couldn't quite work out what to do so just held on until Daz and Jen appeared, shortly followed by Daz's dad in his van. We grabbed a fork and some bags and headed off to Clough Fields stables which very kindly have a giant pile of manure for the taking. It was well rotted and not smelly so we filled the bags that we had and emptied the van. Again we cursed the positioning of our allotments - none of this driving right up to it like some people have. No, we had to manhandle the sacks down an uneven and sloping dirt track, and from there barrow them along the less sloping, but still uneven track to our allotment.

We managed it though and I spent some time breaking up the soil in one of the beds. Gemma arrived, after having rung and telling me she wasn't coming back up. When she got there she took over forking the manure through the beds, which was good, as my back was giving me a bit of pain by that point. I took over burning the very small remainder of the privet pile.

A good few hours were put in, so we retired to the pub for a pint and a chat about seeds - we've got Daz's propagator this year as they've no space for it. We also had a quick trip out Sunday morning to a garden centre to pick up some compost and some onion and garlic sets.

Allotment time again

2011-01-22T08:13:00.003+00:00

It's early on in the new year and time to start pottering about at the allotment, even if frost prevents us from doing too much digging or planting activity at the moment. Daz is on a bed extending mission and has been up a fair bit during the winter, which to my shame, I haven't. He's chopped the hedge right back on the side that borders our neighbour Margaret, such that we get a bit more sun over there.

We were up a fortnight ago and burned around 1/3 of the pile of privet that has built up. I'm off up there early this morning to begin burning again before people decide to put washing out on the line. I'm hoping that I can almost get shot of the whole pile.

Final Harvest

2010-10-25T19:32:00.002+01:00

We got a good morning on Sunday, so went up the plot. I continued the drastic hedge-trimming that Daz had begun whilst Gemma dug up some potatoes. Daz arrived and we decided to take out all the potatoes, leeks and parsnips that were remaining and half them up. Quite a bit of veg all in all and it took me ages to clean it all up later that afternoon.

Sunday's tea was a potato and leek soup and Monday's a curried parsnip soup. All very nice with potatoes and parsnips to spare. No leeks though as they were a little small. Maybe a bit of feeding next year.

Kept away from the plot

2010-10-10T16:40:00.002+01:00

Various things have kept me away from the plot recently. I've had to do a fair bit of logging into work from home out of hours to sort out various things and then the nights I haven't had to do that the weather has been shocking. Weekends have been either pretty crap, or we've had Jo and Andy down and I haven't been able t get up.

Gemma and I did get up there today though. We didn't do a great deal, harvested some potatoes, leeks and cabbage for tonight's meal and started taking the top off the area next to the asparagus -essentially mapping out what will be a perennial bed. I want to get some rhubarb in there, although I expect any that grows Daz will try and ferment!

Daz has been extending the beds, making them butt up against one another and lengthening them. I hope that we manage to get some kind of platform for weeding purposes put back in otherwise it's going to get very difficult.

Bed widening

2010-09-12T07:59:00.002+01:00

I was up the plot yesterday with Daz. It was a little too wet on the ground to do much useful work, so we chatted about what our plans are. Daz has begun widening the beds, basically keeping the front board of some for terracing but really bringing them together. We also discussed getting a ton of light excluding membrane and virtually carpeting all of the non-bed space with it.

Where do I start?

2010-09-02T14:31:00.002+01:00

Because I've managed to get a day of my holiday to myself I have done some brewing stuff and managed to get a pottering hour at the plot. What's still in is growing steadily, some cabbages look like they want harvesting and I'm scared of the parsnips. I'm sure there is a lot to do up there but I can't really work out what. The beds aren't too weedy so I'm really not sure where to start. Essentially I just pottered, watered and picked some tomatoes.

So I think the job for the weekend is to get a list together so we know what needs doing!

Back once again

2010-08-01T12:32:00.002+01:00

Because of my holiday and then other time pressures I hadn't managed to get up the plot for about a month or so. This weekend Gemma and I managed to get a couple of hours in both days, pottering and doing some little jobs. Some of the potato foliage had died off on the early varieties so we pulled them and earthed up the rest. General weeding of the beds and some hedge chopping took the rest of the time. Lot's of stuff is doing well, although I think a cat has been on the plot running about as lots of the onions were bashed down along with some beetroot leaves being squashed to the floor.

Ticking along

2010-06-24T15:47:00.002+01:00

Getting up the plot fairly regularly to do a bit of weeding and watering, everything is going quite steadily although the spat of sun-rain, sun-rain type weather has caused a lot of the salad leaves to bolt. We've had a fair bit of salad off there though, and can probably rip up and plant again when we get back from our holidays. The mooli that I planted has also bolted, which is a shame.

I'm still formulating some ideas to reduce the effort required to keep things ticking over, so I'm hoping to get some construction done over the winter, and to take a bit of a care about planting next year.

Tomato-a-go-go

2010-06-20T10:33:00.002+01:00

We have a lot of tomatoes in the greenhouse that Daz made. So many that he had to remove some (and planted in the ground by the wall) to make room for cucumbers. He's also constructed a cold frame. I'll have that for raising seedlings a bit earlier next year. The only problem with so many tomatoes is the fact that we're all off to the US in a couple of weeks time, so the watering and pinching out thing isn't going to get done regularly or possibly at all.

I did a bit of hedge trimming and bed weeding yesterday in the couple of hours I was up there and slightly enhanced the quite ramshackle pea support I'd built earlier in the week. The salad bed is tending toward bolting, including the mooli, which is a shame. I'm not too fussed though -we can pull it all up following the holiday and re-sow some more for the rest of the summer.

Shoulders ache today after the hedge trimming.

Crazy growth

2010-06-05T08:18:00.002+01:00

We have lots of steady growth now up the plot, everything is coming on quite nicely, especially the weeds, which come back as fast as I can zap them. The peas are really going good guns. The potatoes have really jumped up too.

I've been up a couple of nights in a row to water and have had salad from the allotment both nights. Very very nice, although most leaves have holes in them. I'm not sure why, but something has had a right go at the salad bed, which we didn't really see so much of last year. Perhaps the shallots that were planted alongside helped deter insects or something.

Progress

2010-05-23T15:51:00.002+01:00

Over the last week or so we've made some progress up at the allotment. Daz has finished the greenhouse and filled it with tomatoes. I got another section of the large bed planted up with potatoes -I intend to get a green manure in the rest of it.

Most things are now steadily growing with the onions, garlic and peas doing especially well.

Cabbages are in

2010-04-26T18:38:00.002+01:00

I went up the plot for an hour after work and got the young cabbage plants planted. Didn't want to stay up there too long so I didn't bother putting the potatoes in. I'll have another look up there during the week.

Very difficult Monday morning

2010-04-26T09:23:00.002+01:00

It's beautiful outside and I've had to trudge, and I stress the word trudge, to work. It's difficult for me to concentrate knowing that I've got little cabbage plants to get planted in the allotment, along with more seed spuds to get planted in the freshly dug up (thank you Daz) part of the bottom bed.

Successional Sowing

2010-04-25T15:56:00.002+01:00

Last year although we got quite a bit of salad from the bed that we planted up we made it more difficult for ourselves by using mixed packs of seeds and scatter-planting. This made it hard to determine what was desired growing and what was weeds. So this year we've gone with single rows of single seeds. I managed to get a good few hours in up the plot yesterday, getting a couple more rows of some of the lettuces in, so that we keep up a rotation of them growing and hopefully avoid the bolting problems that we had last year.

I also did the successional sowing thing with carrots and beetroot and got a half a bed of peas in the ground. At the bottom next to the globe artichokes I dug out a trench and planted some asparagus crowns -hopefully these will give us good crops for the next few years.

On Sunday we drove out with Andy, Jen and Jo to a couple of garden centres where I picked up some seed potatoes to go in the next section of the big bed and some young plants for the brassica bed -sprouts, red and white round cabbages and savoy cabbages. I'll get those in one night this week and this year will immediately net them as we had quite a bit of trouble with both pigeons and caterpillars making a meal of last years cabbages.

Potatoes

2010-04-18T11:14:00.002+01:00

The weather gods smiled this morning and we ended up with a cool but
bright morning. Gemma and I made straight for the allotment, and
attacked the first quarter of the big bed, which is the only one not
edged so far.

This year that bed is dedicated to spuds. After digging it over and
raking the worst of the weeds out we planted the seed potatoes that
Daz and I had bought a few weeks earlier at the garden centre. All
four varieties went in, a couple being first earlies (Home Guard -boil, bake, roast,
Vale's Emerald -salad, boil), a second early (Catriona -boil, bake, roast) and King Edwards -bake, roast, chip, mash as a
maincrop. Roll on June when we start getting the baby salad potatoes
out. And we still have another three quarters of the big bed to go!

We harvested some of the purple sprouting broccoli too and ate it for
lunch with dippy eggs and a little vinegar. A cheats hollandaise, from
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall I think. It was lovely.

First seeds in

2010-04-11T09:05:00.003+01:00

Yesterday was a gorgeous day. The sun was shining and the air was still so Daz and I made an early start up at the allotment. Whilst Daz constructed the frame of a greenhouse, I got on with getting some seeds in the ground. This time, given last years constant wind-based greenhouse destruction we've gone ultra sturdy. Quite a beefy wooden frame and driven into the ground by about a foot or so. This will be clad with polythene from a builders yard.

I pretty much left Daz to it and got on with the planting. Bed A is now the home of Onion tanfield), Garlic (Sultop) -probably not strictly meant to be planted straight out at this time of year, but hey-ho, and Leek (Musselburgh) -again talk of planting in a seed bed and transplanting. I've gone for planting straight out and thinning which will hopefully work OK.

Bed B was given a treatment of lime and left, it'll probably be planted up in the next week or so. Bed C got Parsnip (Cobham Improved Marrow) with all the rows planted out, a row of Beetroot (Boltardy) and a row each of Nantes and Autumn King 2 Carrots. Space was left with the Beetroot and Carrots to do successional planting.

Bed D was also left with plenty of space, but we got it planted up with salad veggies. This time I've not gone for mixed packets as I'm useless at working out what are seedlings and what are weeds coming up. So it's been planted in rows, again with space and I planted. Lettuce (Little Gem, Falbala, Bronze Arrowhead), Mustard (Giant Red, Golden Streaks, Red Frills), Mizuna (Waido) and a row of Radishes (French Breakfast 3) and Mooli.

That was as far as I got with the planting. Bed F has been sacrificed in favour of Daz' giant greenhouse construction, so fortunately we had a wildcard bed built into the rotation that will take over that function.

The sunshine brings everyone out of the woodwork

2010-03-29T17:27:00.004+01:00

Finally the weather swings itself round the right way and it rains during the week while I'm at work instead of at the weekend. Gemma and I made straight for the allotment on Saturday fairly early in the morning. I continued skimming Bed H which is going to be the uber-large home of potatoes this year, extending it down a couple of foot. Gemma attended to the hedge, as she loves a neatly trimmed bush (fnar).

The forecast had been a bit dodgy on for the Sunday, but by 12-ish it was apparent that it would stay fine. Daz came over and we shifted a car load of the Beech chipping mulch up to the plot, the pile outside the house is still looking a bit big though. After the mulch was safely ensconced we got back in the car and went to a garden centre, where we picked up some sand, some fish, blood and bone and some cheap seed potatoes. We cut the sand into some of the beds to reduce the 'clagginess' of the soil (specifically the root and alliums beds). I fear we'll need more though. I also pre-fertilised the beds with the fish, blood and bone meal which should give a nice nitrogen boost before we start planting. We also need to lime one of the beds, but Daz didn't bring his tin of lime.

On reflection it may have been a mistake to plant the raspberry bush that Daz had bought the week before. We're now due a spell of horrific weather including another couple of days of snow! It is bank holiday weekend coming up after all!