The Dig Issue

Sharing the plot

2012-01-12T16:07:00.002Z

Over the past 6 years the plot has been shared by Karl, Dave and myself. It's been thoroughly enjoyable but unfortunately the last two years have been particularly difficult as Karl bought a house far away from the plot and Dave is looking to do the same this year having got married in 2010. This means that I have been struggling to manage 8 x 25 sq metres on my own and it's impossible to find the time to look after that amount of land.
So, when the renewal came through I wasn't sure what to do.

I went to the plot on Sunday to have a look around and decide the fate of my hobby. I pottered around the greenhouse sorting through tools and rubbish and nearly jumped through the roof when a rodent jumped out of a box! Whilst there I bumped into Sheila, a face everyone knows on the plot and an excellent gardener. I explained my situation and she sympathised.

"Don't leave", she said, "I would miss you terribly".
(Well that was a lump to my throat!) "Why don't you share it and cut the cost as well?"

Sound advice I thought and Sheila kindly spoke to the committee to help me find a plot sharer. I've just sent off the forms to share the plot so we will see what happens. I'm a bit nervous about having a new plot partner but hopefully it will be okay. I'll keep the front half and they can have the back half. I just can't manage both unfortunately.

Greenhouse/Shed needs clearing out to share but I can do that within a couple of hours. I just hope the mouse/rat isn't in there any more!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Slug Destruction

2011-09-15T10:16:00.000+01:00

My recent trips to the allotment have resulted in finding the biggest and slimiest slugs EVER! I think August is the time they decide to stuff their slimy faces with whatever is left on the plot. Since all the rain, they have just turned into monsters! They turned my cabbages into lace and have been climbing up my bean poles for the most tender beans, I even slid on one en route to the greenhouse! They are seriously massive now and are everywhere!!

But, despite their disgusting persona, they do make me laugh when the Guardian run stories like the one below. Very, very entertaining!

Slug brings Darlington traffic to a halt http://gu.com/p/3xq5v/t

Not only eaten but pooped all over my brassicas!

I had to use gloves, they were seriously slimy!!

Slug Fest

2011-07-30T11:37:00.000+01:00

I just wanted to write a quick post to mention Tom at http://tomskitchengarden.blogspot.com and his Rogue Gallery. He tweeted me for images of garden rogues and well..., I couldn't resist sending over some of my slimy foes! The SLUG!!

His story on my slugs can be found here: http://tomskitchengarden.blogspot.com/p/rogues-gallery.html
Just scroll down to Slug Fest

His writing had me crying with laughter this morning - his blog is a fantastic read and I thoroughly recommend giving his site a visit. I love his "weed of the day" posts. Brilliant.

He is also on Twitter @Haplessgardener

Thanks Tom! :)

Growing in small spaces

2011-06-25T13:56:00.000+01:00

Before all the recent rain came along, I was at Karl's house for a BBQ in early June. Since he bought a house it has been difficult for him to get to the allotment so he tends to grow veggies from home in his petite garden. It's actually quite an achievement considering how much space he has to work with. It is a very cute little garden and he uses every inch wherever he can. Karl used to drive me potty with his haphazard planting in the early allotment days but now he has a space that has to be meticulously planned and organised each year. It is impressive how he manages it all.

Karl's garden consists of two decent sized bricked beds, one raised smaller bricked bed and a patio floor. He experimented with square foot gardening last year where he grew something different within 1 square foot in a bed but I think this received mixed results. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_foot_gardening

This year he has mostly grown tomatoes in the larger beds and made good use of sturdy sacks and troughs for smaller plants. He is growing asparagus successfully from a large black pot (a plant that was very difficult to grow on the allotment) and he is training peas up a spiral support. The herb sack is especially well made with little pockets of thyme varieties. You can find strawberries growing in little planters alongside the bed walls and random pots of prepared seeds ready to pop up over the summer. Even the smallest corner is a home for the humble watering can.

I adore the homemade look to people's gardens. There is so much more personality in a back garden than an allotment as you can truly put your stamp on it. I love the personal touches of lanterns, baskets and tealight holders that are interspersed amongst the plants at Karl's. It is a very thoughtful and snug kitchen garden.

Potatoes in sacks

Asparagus

Courgette

Fig tree and spiral growing peas

Herb sack

Storage

BBQ

Tomatoes

Hidden watering can storage

Tomatoes and strawberries

Tomatoes

Lanterns, candles and baskets

*I'm sure Karl will correct me on some of the above information but this is just my observation.

May & June on the plot

2011-06-23T10:43:00.000+01:00

We've had a funny old spring so far. Heatwave in the week leading up to the Royal Wedding and then endless rain throughout most of May and June. It has not made planting easy at all.

The good news is that produce has been popping up although we have had some surprising failures. Such is allotment life! We had our usual lovely crop of strawberries but I made a mistake leaving them without netting and they have been nibbled by the birds. Raspberries are doing okay too. Just a few tasty ones popping up here and there. Not bad seeing as they were only transplanted at the end of last year.

The broad beans are doing very well. I have been spraying them with washing-up liquid frequently and it has helped them grow taller before pinching the tips out. Only one plant has blackly on it so far and I scrubbed it down before pinching (and squishing) all the growth and bugs out of the top. Messy but at least the plant has a chance of producing pods now. You have to be vigilant with broad beans and really look after them during flowering otherwise they get massacred by blackfly aphids. The ladybirds have also caught onto the aphids and are helping me out by munching on them too. Very handy natural predators.

Other successes are the potatoes, both varieties are doing well and the Apache have started flowering.
Our biggest disappointments have been the courgettes and runner beans which have been attacked by something being netted. The courgettes were fantastic under the cloches but once they had established, we took the covers off and something ate them! Really surprising as we usually do really well with courgettes. The runner beans have also had a very slow start. We have planted them twice and only half have come up. Again, I think something is having a nibble despite netting and slug pellets. Very strange. (rabbits???)

One of my allotment neighbours has kindly given me an assortment of climbing beans to plant as he has too many. They are a mix of french and berlotti I think? We shall see what happens. Weirdly - nothing has eaten these yet despite not being covered at all!

Just one more thing…
We have an extra recruit on the plot! My friend, Abby, has asked if she could help out on the allotment to learn about growing veggies. Not sure how much she will actually learn from us but she seems to be enjoying it so far! Together we have planted carrots, beetroot, spinach and the mange tout. It certainly makes a difference having a team on the plot working together.

(Apologies for the late posting - technical problems!)

Friend or Foe?

Broad beans flowering

Cabbages (looking a bit nibbled!)

Part of a donated bean selection (Thanks Paul!)

Courgette

Dave's potatoes

On closer inspection - VERY nibbled cabbages

Something ate our courgette plant! :(

Spuds looking luscious and green

Spuds close to flowering soon

Raspberries! (delicious)

Some runner beans have made it (but not all)

Wonderful strawberry bounty

Dave's tomatoes

Dave's tomato construction

Twitterings

2011-05-10T13:28:00.000+01:00

Just a quickie...
The Dig Issue is now on Twitter! You can follow my tweets here: www.twitter.com/thedigissue

Spring has sprung in April

2011-05-09T22:45:00.000+01:00

I always seem to think I've got loads of time before I need to start sowing anything and then panic when I realise that it's April already and I haven't planted anything! This has been another one of those years.

Our harsh winter died down pretty quickly and we have been enjoying the warmest April on record since... erm... well, a long time ago! It has been a bit of a distraction to be honest. With Dave in Thailand for 3 weeks I've been digging after work whenever I could fit it in. When the thermometer hits 23°C you do tend to favour the local pub's beer garden instead tho. Who can dig in that heat?

Distractions aside I got a couple of rows of broad beans planted and my apache spuds in the ground as planned. They've popped up nicely within the last 3 weeks so I'm rather pleased with them so far. I've strimmed the grass twice this month and decided not to wage war with the dandelions. (Although they still make me mad)

Most of the beds are ready for planting although we are losing a battle with the couch grass encroaching onto the beds as the wood is disintegrating. We may need to make some drastic decisions next year.

I had a turf war with a spider over the course of a week too. One had decided to make a ginormous web across the greenhouse door that I walked into 3 times! I tore it down every time I went into the greenhouse and by the next day there was another one! I am not kidding - this happened about 7 times. Clever yet stupid creature.

On a positive note, I've managed to get my hands on an old Nikon D40 DSLR and I've fallen in love with it. Great camera for photographing plants and bugs. Might have to invest in a new one when I'm feeling a bit more flush with cash! All the photos in this blog post have been taken with the Nikon.

Gradually digging through all the beds

Rhubarb crop

Bee on the chive flowers

Beer space ready for a BBQ

Broad Beans popping up!

Row of Broad beans

Forget-me-not (It's flipping everywhere!!)

Snoozing on a glove in the greenhouse...ahhh!

Apache spuds come to the surface

Apaches!

Raspberries in flower with ants all over them

Rosemary in flower

Worzel Scummage flopped over

Spider's web in the greenhouse doorway (a new one each day)

Strawberries in flower

Strawberry

Through the rhubarb

Unripe red currants

Growing space at the flat is limited so I've used the last small spud seeds to do spud containers on the balcony.

So that's April done. Onto May...

Rode Hall Gardens

2011-05-03T19:17:00.001+01:00

This is quite a late posting but I just have to mention this little gem of a place I visited earlier in the year.

In March I visited Rode Hall in Cheshire. It's quietly tucked away in the country but a real treat if you manage to get there early in the year for the snowdrops.

Now I have to admit that I'm not really into flowers just yet. (Apart from sunflowers) For me it's all about eating what you grow but it was a really fabulous place to visit and the kitchen garden really caught my eye. I don't know how many people look after the gardens but everything looked so neat that I'm sure there must be an army of gardeners at hand?! There were onions hanging from the previous years crop and the rhubarb was incredibly early and luminous pink. The ground was freshly turned with crumbly, chocolate-like soil and the greenhouses were full of freshly potted plants ready to go out in spring. The amount of space they had allocated for just kitchen gardening was immense. (2 Acres apparently!) There is even a tiddly little house on the site of the kitchen garden for a ~~knome~~ gardener to live in. It just oozed quintessential English kitchen gardens from the Victorian era. Lovely.

You can find out more about Rode Hall on their website. www.rodehall.co.uk

Can't wait to go back in the summer!

Rode Hall

Kitchen Garden

Kitchen Garden (So much space!!)

Italian Walled Garden

Onions

Rhubarb

Wabbit Season

2011-03-23T11:05:00.001Z

I was on the allotment over the weekend digging the back of the plot for the potatoes. Bright sun shining down, blue sky. It really felt like spring at last!

One of my neighbours started rattling an old wheelbarrow down the hill and nodded in my direction as she stopped by the compost bins.

"Hello there, heard about the rabbits yet?"

"No... what rabbits?"

"Oooh, there's a few around, big ones too, they've had the tops of my onions"

Great, just what we wanted! Rabbits!! If it wasn't bad enough with the mice, birds, slugs, snails and seasonal bugs... we now have rabbits. I could feel the blood drain from my face.

Basically, there is no solution for rabbits except for one. A large fence that runs at least 2 feet down into the soil. The Council won't deal with them as apparently "they're not a pest". I beg to differ. I would quite happily hold a banquet for all the slugs in Cardiff than deal with rabbits. They are the ultimate gardener's nightmare. They eat, literally, everything! I am officially worried.

I haven't seen a rabbit yet but I also haven't seen the fox lately which was probably eating the wild rabbits. My neighbour behind me has seen one and I think he has noticed damage to his plot as well. It's not looking particularly good and I bet they're breeding as I type!

There is one other solution but unless you're a fan of rabbit pie, I won't mention it!

Strawberries & Rhubarb

2011-02-28T19:38:00.000Z

You can tell that spring is on its way as the rhubarb crowns are ready to unfurl from their pink and yellow bulbs and little buds are on the fruit trees. It's still damn cold so any chance of getting excited about the upcoming planting season is dampened (quite literally) from the squidgy toboggan run that is our pathway to the greenhouse. It is bogging!

Couch grass has become enemy number one so far. I'm having a difficult time rummaging through dead grass leaves that have taken to throttling my lovely strawberries. Even the rhubarb is surrounded! I've been gradually picking through mud, dead foliage and slug's eggs (we'll come to them later) to dig up the new strawberry runners that sprouted last year. I've put down the new breathable fabric in the front bed and nailed it to 2 surrounding planks with tyres on top to weigh it down. It's particularly windy at the moment so I had a few stern words with the fabric before it finally laid down on the earth rather than blowing in my face. I cut out crosses along the grid marked fabric and plonked a strawberry plant in each one. I'm hoping the fabric will solve the grass issue that has ruined our previous two beds where we tried to grow strawberries before.

Strawberries are pretty tough plants and can handle a bit of neglect. When they shoot runners they're not fussy on where they grow. I've got them growing between bits of wood, soggy mulch, rain trenches, carpet, puddles etc. They are as annoying and stubborn as dandelions when it comes to casually planting themselves in awkward places but... they taste fantastic so I'll forgive their senseless wanderings.

Random Facts: The modern French word for dandelion is "pissenlit" which means 'piss on the bed' due to the strong diuretic effect the plant has. Strawberries are named so as they are berries traditionally grown on straw mulch, thus lifting them off the ground as well and away from slugs. (yeah, you probably already knew that!)

I got about 20-30 strawberries replanted before my hands went numb at dusk so I came back the next day to sort out the rhubarb. The grass here is just diabolical so I just dug and pulled up as much as I could. I'll come back to this when the weather is drier and easier to dig.
Whilst pulling up the clumps of grass I came across some rather gloopy looking eggs. Slugs eggs! Loads of them!! I managed to move a lot of them out of the ground and flung them out on the road for the birds. I fear that there will be more... a lot more! :(

A job we missed off the list was the scarecrow. Worzel Scummage is looking a bit worse for wear after enduring winter so Dave's going to give him a new post with new arms and a new can of cheap lager to complete his iconic look for 2011!

Worzel Scummage looking a bit knackered from Winter!

Strawberry patch ready for planting

Strawberries planted (3 rows done since photo taken)

Snug as a bug...

Euuuuwwwww!!!!!! (AKA slug eggs)

Plotting for 2011

2011-02-22T12:27:00.000Z

Another year over and another year arrives! Winter was spectacularly depressing but it is gradually getting lighter and I have missed the plot during those dark nights. Only 5 weeks until the clocks go forward!

Dave and I went to our lovely local ale pub (The Albany) to discuss the rotation for 2011. We are pretty much sticking to what we know and what we love to eat. We have cleared the back of the plot and we're just waiting for it to be completely turned over with a rotorvator. We are taking a slightly silly risk with having the plot dug up so much at the back. We have lots of perennial weeds and chopping them up into tiny bits could be something we regret! Nevertheless, we're going to try and keep on top of the weeding. (Hmmm....)

The same rules apply this year, only growing stuff if it's cost effective and tastes better than supermarkets whilst being fairly easy to grow. We have both bought a fair amount of seeds from Thompson & Morgan this week and I have drawn up a plan of the plot (slightly more accurate ratio!) to illustrate each plant bed.

Dave has bought in some pumpkins that are called Dill's Atlantic Giants. I suspect that they will be HUGE! Possibly more for decoration than to eat but should be fun either way. The main crop spuds are a blight-free variety again, Sarpo Mira. I have bought some Apache 2nd Early spuds to see how they get on. Despite all the snow and frost we had over winter, you can never be sure if blight has been fully killed off. We're playing it safe as we adore our potatoes!

I'm going for a new variety of broad bean. I had a good first crop and then a very squishy one last year so I'm giving Jubilee Hyser a go to see how they do. Apparently they produce 'tremendous crops' so I'm looking forward to see how they turn out.

We are also attempting a blight-free variety of tomato, a different colour of flowering runner beans, kale, spinach, and swede. Dave also wants to give the "Three Sisters" growing scheme a go. Generally this is companion planting whereby squashes, sweetcorn and beans/peas grow within the same area. The sweetcorn provides a frame for the beans/peas to climb up whilst the squashes suppress the weeds.

We are also shifting the strawberries as they have been covered by couch grass and the old plants need to be composted. Strawberries generally are at their best for the first 3 years and then need replacing. We are planting them in the front bed but inside a breathable fabric that lets in water but keeps the weeds out. Hopefully we will get to do this on Saturday morning before the rugby matches!

A new breed of snail

2011-02-21T16:23:00.001Z

I had to chuckle when I saw this image of a snail guitar. Love the headstock with the little snail feelers! Found in March's issue of Guitarist magazine. Snail-axe!

No time for weather

2011-01-13T13:49:00.001Z

I have to admit that I am incredibly envious of anyone who is now retired and enjoys gardening. My own manager retired in December and I am jealous of the amount of time he may (or may not?) spend gardening. He can pop outside whenever he likes and plan for his gardening year. Makes me greener than a courgette with envy!

However, I work full time and that means crossing your fingers for decent weather at the weekend or wait until the clocks go forward and you get your evenings back, weather permitting. I'm sure a lot of working people feel the same way and it is frustrating if you plan to get back to your plot early in the New Year.

Unfortunately the recent winter weather has been particularly unkind for allotment maintenance. I could be planting garlic or even very early broad beans but I haven't seen the plot for weeks! First we had the coldest end to November ever and a bitter December followed by days of snow and travel chaos. As of January it's been rain, rain and more rain. Even if I could get to the allotment I'm sure I would slip and land face first into a big mud bath. I wouldn't need wellies, just a wading suit would do.

When a dry day comes along, you can guarantee I'll be in work and won't be able to do anything. When the weekend comes along, it will rain. Sod's law.

You just have to do what you can when you can and hope for dry, mild weather. I hope February is at least relatively dry and the ground is not frozen to the core! Fingers crossed!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Snow on the plot!

2010-11-30T13:22:00.001Z

Well it's been colder than a penguin's privates this past week and allotment activity has ranged from zero to zilch! Not a lot you can do when everything is frozen. That includes Roath Lake and Caerphilly Castle's moat which was a sheet of white this morning after a light dusting overnight. Very pretty but the swans and ducks don't look amused!

Dave has taken a little trip around Cardiff recently and posted this photo online with the allotment behind him. It's a very white plot! Poor Worzel Scummage the scarecrow is sinking in the soil!

More allotments coming to Cardiff!

2010-11-24T10:37:00.000Z

It looks like the demand for allotments has become so intense that Cardiff Council have decided to expand!
Not quite sure how all of this is going to work in each area but for anyone looking for a plot in Cardiff then I hope this link will shed a little light on the situation. ("shed!" hehe!! oh dear!)

http://yourcardiff.walesonline.co.uk/2010/11/23/mapped-extra-allotments-planned-for-the-city/

Autumn Clearing

2010-11-08T13:30:00.001Z

After a week of endless rain we managed to grab one dry-ish day to finally get rid of all the old rotted wood, brambles, dried grass and weeds by having a bonfire. It was much needed after clearing up all the rubbish at the back of the plot so that we could get a rotavator in.

We made a day of it and had a BBQ as well. Once the fire got going we drank tea, ate burgers and got dripped on by the occasional rain cloud that drifted by. Very muddy but also fun.

Once the fire had died down we roasted marsh mallows off the embers. Lovely!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Dig Issue at The Guardian

2010-10-27T19:03:00.001+01:00

Out of complete coincidence I went to a Bloggers meet up group a couple of months ago and met with some other Bloggers in the 'Diff. (Cardiff!) Some were food enthusiasts, pub writers, fellow geeks and fashionistas. A real fun mix of people who talked about their passions and blogging techniques.

After the meeting and talks I gained the attention of a Guardian journalist and I was asked if I would like to write about my plot. To be honest, I have never really thought about my blog in an "audience-appealing" way which I know sounds daft seeing as it's open to the whole world to read! I blog about the plot because it's fun and it's a nice record to have of what you have done each year. I don't do it to gain attention. It's quite humble really!

Writing posts on The Dig Issue is easy as it just flows when you're on the plot and looking around you. Writing for The Guardian is a bit more "Ooh blimey!" Somehow though, I did manage to scramble my thoughts into a coherent fashion and wrote an article in 800 words that summed up my allotmenteer experiences. Somehow it just flowed and worked and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. (blow of a tiny trumpet!)

The link is here if you would like to read it. :)

Gourd Lanterns

2010-10-17T22:37:00.001+01:00

Halloween will be upon us soon and even though we didn't plant any squashes - we were left some Gourds in the Greenhouse from a mystery allotmenteer. I couldn't actually cut any open but Dave managed to make some lanterns which are very impressive! Just need some tealights to go inside them.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Green Fingered Family

2010-10-06T11:50:00.000+01:00

My dad has always been into gardening and I knew that his mum enjoyed growing vegetables too. In fact, she insisted that I got manure onto my plot when she found out about my new gardening hobby. "Get manure, it makes all the difference" she said.

I am very lucky that my dad has such a great interest in his family tree as I have recently just found out that my great grandfather had an allotment for over 40 years! I couldn't believe it. Even more staggering is that his father (my great, great grandfather) was the Head Gardener for Deepdene House in Dorking, Surrey. (Since demolished in the 1960's)

Very much a green fingered family!

Here is a photo of my great grandfather, James, on his plot which ran alongside the railway he worked on and the very first photo of me on the plot in 2006. A very similar pose!!

Potato Drama

2010-09-07T19:58:00.002+01:00

Unfortunately we had a potato misunderstanding on the allotment this past week. Dave noticed that one rogue tomato plant had got blight so he pulled it up... and all the potatoes. (noooooooo!)

He didn't realise that they were a disease-free variety and now we have around 20 Kg of potatoes to store! I admit that I wasn't best pleased by his actions at the time but I've calmed down and I am now rapidly trying to think of an assortment of ways to store/use the spuds. They are an impressive crop tho. Some of them are HUGE! One measured nearly 6 inches wide! (I gave it away to a mate)
Plus they taste fantastic. :)

I am definitely doing spuds again next year. So basic but so satisfying.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Crunchy carrots!

2010-09-07T19:28:00.001+01:00

Despite having a very absent August I have managed a trip up to grab some produce before the slugs take notice or the courgettes turn into marrows! (Admittedly we have thrown into the compost bin the biggest courgettes you have ever seen! I doubt they would fit in the oven!)

The carrots have been particularly good this year however. I chopped them up to have with hummus. Delicious! I am definitely going to grow more next year.

The funny thing about allotments is that it takes a few years to work out how much of everything you want to grow and even then you cannot guarantee the correct sized crop. I planted 25 sweetcorn plants this year and only 5 came up! However, I planted 12 climbing French bean plants and got waaaay too many. A ridiculous bumper crop - I couldn't get rid of them to neighbours and friends quick enough!

Can't win! :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Away from the plot

2010-08-29T10:19:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately I managed to crash my car on the 9th August and it had to be scrapped so I have not visited the allotment for nearly 3 weeks!! Dave has been busy tidying up the paths in my absence so hopefully everything is still okay up there apart from perhaps a lot of overgrown beans and courgettes!!
It has been really wet weather over the last week so it is probably rather boggy at the moment too.

Back at home, my chillies and peppers are sprouting beautifully so I will post some photos of those soon. I think a few chilli dishes will be on the menu for Autumn!

I should be getting a car this weekend so I hope to be back on the plot this week. I have lots of catching up to do!!

Raspberries

2010-08-03T21:57:00.001+01:00

The plot opposite mine is completely overgrown and I tend to use it as a parking space. However, it was recently discovered that some wild raspberries have been hiding at the back of the plot which is soon to be massacred/strimmed by the council!
With some help I managed to grab 6 plants and make some space behind the greenhouse for the plants. I'll cover these up next year with some industrial netting to keep those annoying birds off!!
Hoping to get some time this weekend to dig back a bit more and maybe plant some more round the side.
Rather excited about having some fresh raspberries next year!! Yeay!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Squishy Beans

2010-08-03T21:22:00.000+01:00

You may remember that I posted some images of some rather squishy beans last month. I have researched like crazy and I still have no clue as to why my beans went black in their pods. I can only assume that something wasn't right with the soil nutrients as I have eliminated various root diseases, blackfly, and tell-tale leaf issues and I'm still clueless! Perhaps I should ask Gardener's Question Time?
I think it is time to stop growing broad beans for a while.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Lots of produce!

2010-08-03T21:10:00.000+01:00

I have had quite a good batch of produce this year despite a couple of hiccups. I got 2 batches of broad beans before they went mysteriously squishy and a good crop of red currants after the birds did their best to destroy my plants. Evil creatures.
Here are some photos of various peas, beans, carrots and currants that I have enjoyed so far this year.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Allotment Exhibition in Cardiff

2010-08-03T10:13:00.005+01:00

Betina Skovbro is a freelance photographer who embarks on different photography projects in and around Cardiff each year. This year she focused on allotment holders and has an exhibition at St Fagans Museum until October 2010. A good way to have a sneak peak at all allotments around Cardiff!

More details can be found here: http://allotmentkeeper.wordpress.com/about-the-project/

There is also a photographic exhibition running in August at the Waterloo Tea Gardens in Pen-y-lan. (Probably the best Tearoom in Cardiff! Grab a pot and a homemade cake there - it's fab!)
http://www.waterlootea.com/category/gallery/

A new look and a new name!

2010-07-18T19:14:00.001+01:00

Welcome to "The Dig Issue"!
I quite fancied a refresh on the old blog so I've had a play around with the look and spent about a month trying to decide on a new name. Luckily I know a few people who are very good with playing with words so I did get quite a few fun suggestions! The Dig Issue was up against some absolutely brilliant puns on gardening but it was definitely the overall winner. The runners up were:

A pile of crop
Leaf it out
It's plough or never
The place of spades
The root of all leaf-all

(Groan, groan!...)

I know, but seriously, the old name of "The Allotment" had to go. So obvious!

I just need to tweak BlogPress so that I can still blog from the iPhone and we're all sorted.

I'm rather pleased with the final look. I've added in all the books I read, shops I've used, blogs I follow and updated the links. It's much, much cleaner.

I hope you enjoy it!

The life of a climbing french bean

2010-07-05T10:47:00.048+01:00

I adore beans, I grow at least one variety a year and they are usually pretty good. They are easy to plant and they grow really fast. Birds will destroy the young shots at the first chance they get so netting is pretty crucial. Once the climbing poles are in place it can be tricky to put netting over the young plants but it's worth it if you can.

I lost about 10 plants to birds this year and I just had to keep replanting. Probably a bit of a mistake to do that as I eventually had about 5 plants growing from each pole! Very heavy! I did get loads of beans this year tho - too many! I also had a healthy number of ladybirds laying their eggs and munching on blackfly which kept the infestation down without having to use soapy water on the leaves.

Once the plants have produced enough beans they die down and I tend to leave a few hardy pods to dry up and produce bean seeds for the following year. Make sure your beans are not an F1 hybrid variety though else you won't be able to plant anything!

Hoping to try bolotti beans next year.

F1 Hybrids: Crossing two genetically different plants produces a hybrid seed (plant) by means of controlled pollination. To produce consistent F1 hybrids, the original cross must be repeated each season. As in the original cross, in plants this is usually done through controlled hand-pollination, and explains why F1 seeds can often be expensive. F1 hybrids can also occur naturally, a prime example being peppermint, which is not a species evolved by cladogenesis or gradual change from a single ancestor, but a sterile stereotyped hybrid of watermint and spearmint. Unable to produce seeds, it propagates through the vining spread of its own root system. Source: Wikipedia

Flowering

2010-06-25T18:24:00.001+01:00

Produce is in full flower at the moment. Mange tout and the potatoes in particular. Everything is struggling with the dry and very hot weather. (24 degrees!) Been watering every other day to keep everything tip top. Bloody hard work with watering cans but that's allotment rules.

My broad beans are still dying rather rapidly. I haven't got the foggiest why they seem to be wilting so badly but I have managed to get a half decent crop from them. Probably the only crop I will get this year unfortunately.

The latest spell of fantastic weather also means that I can't dig any more for planting. That means no squashes this year unless the weather cools a bit. It is unbearable enough just weeding in high temperatures so I'm definitely not digging! Ugh!

I've planted some sweetcorn and some very late runner beans but hopefully they should do okay. Fingers crossed!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Funny beans

2010-06-21T12:01:00.000+01:00

I'm concerned about my broadbeans. I have pulled up 2 plants as the leaves have all died and look like they have a disease. I've gone through all my books and can't fathom out why they look burnt. There is zero blackfly on them so it can't be that. Funnily enough the pods aren't affected so I really am at a loss to figure out why they look so dead! It's a mystery!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Birds, beans and berries

2010-06-05T14:33:00.001+01:00

Well the birds have certainly taken a liking to my produce again. They are probably at the top of my enemy list along with dandelions and slugs. Although the latter are yet to make a significant impact on my crops yet. Only a hint of them on the strawberries so far.

Unfortunately I have to keep replanting my climbing French beans as they have been nibbled too much by the birds. The same with my red currants. The birds completely trampled my netting to get to the fruit! Vicious animals! They really are a nuisance.

On the positive side my potatoes just look amazing. I think the added compost really helped this year. The broad beans have no sign of blackfly which is just short of a miracle and only one mange tout plant has sufffered in our recent heatwave.

Going to try and get some space ready for the runner beans today. I'm very much behind everyone else in planting those!

I passed this cage full of brassicas on the way out of the allotment. Someone had put a tyre and a stuffed monkey hanging from the inside with a polite notice to "not feed the monkey". Allotment humour!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Started growing in 2010!

2010-05-26T17:59:00.002+01:00

So here we are in 2010 for the 5th planting season on the plot! The 6th year if we count Karl and Dave's first year.

I have gone back to growing spuds again. I have gone for a blight-free variety however from Thompson & Morgan called Cara. They seem to be growing very well so hopefully there will be some spuds come July?

I have also gone bonkers for peas this year. Dave claims he has no luck with them so I'm hoping my Mange Tout success will rub off onto the common Kelvedon Wonder. Think I might have planted too many!!

My broad beans seem to be doing okay too. I feel like the nit nurse examining the tips for black fly before pulling them out. It really works tho! They are just starting to flower.

Sage has flowered like crazy (not sure what to do about that?) and I've plonked in some coriander seeds in the herb bed to see how well they do. So far - so good.

We have already pulled up most of the rhubarb which has been amazing as usual. Splitting it up has been very beneficial. Think you have to treat it quite roughly to yield a good crop. We didn't force it but we got amazing bright red stems. Lovely.

I've just put in 3 courgette plants under cloches and I'm planning on doing a fair few sweetcorn plants either today or next week. Funnily enough - I haven't done any runner beans yet. Time is tight but I have until July to get my bum in gear and dig a patch for them. The allotment plan hasn't quite gone to er... plan! but everything seems to be going quite well.

On a technical note - I'm giving the BlogPress App a go so that I can blog from the plot. I'm just so tired from digging some days that I can't bring myself to upload photos. This is an experiment to see how well it works before I decide to move the blog to another domain/server. If it works well I will save myself the headache of transferring my blog somewhere else.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cherry Trees

2010-04-17T11:30:00.000+01:00

First of all - yes I know I haven't posted in a while. My fault entirely but I hope to eventually move this blog over to a new domain and host it from something different than Blogger so I can redesign it. The allotment IS still on the go, I just haven't documented it like I should. A new plan for 2010 and the summer photos will be uploaded as soon as pos!

The main reason for my very late but latest post is the news today about cherry trees. Apparently the Natural History Museum are looking for people to survey where local cherry trees are growing to create a map of where they thrive the most. We have a lovely cherry tree at the end of the plot so I'll probably register that. Plus our lovely local, The Albany Hotel Pub, has some rather enormous cherry trees in their beer garden so it might be worth noting them too.

If you have a cherry tree and want to register its location online for their studies, have a look at:

www.nhm.ac.uk/cherries

I still live in hope that I will get to taste a fresh red cherry from our own tree before the birds have them all...again. *sigh!*

2009 Summary

2009-09-05T15:51:00.000+01:00

Over the past 4 years we have learnt so much about growing produce and how best to organise a huge 6 perch plot. Here's a run down on what we should and shouldn't do for 2010.

Don't plant too many beans. There is always too many.
Trim the grass regularly - it takes over plotting land within days.
Squashes need a LOT of room. More than you think.
Keep the greenhouse/shed organised. We always loose the scissors.
Don't try and dig the land after a long dry/warm spell. It's like digging rock! It needs some water retention to keep it crumbly.
Pinch out broad bean tips as soon as ants start making a huge appearance on them. Ants farm the blackfly for sugary secretions. Also spray with washing up liquid and water regularly. (They need babysitting)
Comfrey is a pain in the arse and grows within 2/3 weeks to a monster size. Plant it where it won't bother other produce. Handy for fertiliser but it STINKS!
Net any fruit in a cage. Birds will stamp on your plants and rip them to shreds if they can reach any of your fruit. Also net seedlings.
You will not win the war against bind weed/mares tail, couch grass without using chemicals. You can only control it organically to a degree.
Blight will come back the following year once you've had it. Your neighbours will probably have it too. Buy disease-resistant seeds early in the year before they run out in the shops and online.
Get a mattock - it's the most awesome tool I have come across.
Shop at Wilkos, Home Bargains and Lidl for tools/seeds/pots etc. The best value around! (10p for a pot saucer in Home Bargains)
Always buy stainless steel tools. You won't regret it. (Wilkos)
Grow salads and herbs at home in boxes or tubs. Far easier to look after.
Dig the land for planting in late summer for the following year. You can guarantee it will be too wet/cold to prepare a lot of beds before April. Cover all unused beds with weed control cloth/plastic over winter.
Feed chillies/peppers/tomatoes. They need it.

What is 6 perches?

Perch: A linear or square rod, a linear measure, esp. for land, equal to 5 1/2 yards (approximately 5.029 m), (also square rod) a square measure, esp. for land, equal to 160th of an acre or 30 1/4 square yards (approximately 25.29 sq m)

Produce from 2009

2009-09-01T16:02:00.000+01:00

Despite the blight we did get some produce from 2009 but as usual it was about 20 million beans and a handful of the tasty stuff. We did plant way too many squashes as well! Not a bad year all round.

Bramley Apples

Mini Squashes

Runners

Waxy yellow beans

Mange Tout

Green Beans

Dinner!

Photos from August 2009

2009-08-30T10:20:00.000+01:00

Our little plot

Beans and carrots along the side

Evidence of BBQ activity!

Runners in flower

The precarious looking beer area!

Carrots

Mange Tout

Squashes

Blight resistant tomato house...

or not... BLIGHT!!!

Cherry Tree (getting bigger every year)

This will be a mess again come 2010!

Conjoined Cherries

2009-07-31T00:04:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately these cherries are not from the plot. Damn birds ate all of ours! These are bought ones but another example of conjoined fruit. Nature is strange.

Rain, rain and more rain.

2009-07-30T01:07:00.000+01:00

I could never ever forget for a second that I live in Wales. The rain reminds me every summer. The Met Office are rapidly eating their words over the BBQ summer they predicted and I'm worried about the onset of blight again. :(
Dave dug up a huge section of the back of the plot to try and 'dry out' the mares tail. That is probably going to be rather large puddlesome area now.

I'm sure my childhood summers were never this wet for days on end?!
Come on Sun - show us you still exist!

Love strawberry

2009-06-30T18:20:00.000+01:00

Whilst eating some of our recent produce for lunch at work I came across a beautiful strawberry that was obviously some sort of twinned seed. It isn't two strawberries that have grown close together as they shared the same inners. No obvious divide. Nature can be very weird but inventive!
It was absolutely delicious too!

Strawberries, scarecrows, foxes...must be June!!

2009-06-21T17:58:00.000+01:00

Mr Fox has been doing his rounds again but he has become more of an allotment regular recently. He tends to have a snooze in the greenhouse and potters around. Everyone knows him well now. I even got some photos of him. :) Dave built a scarecrow from a hoodie top, can of carling and some odd bits of wood. (Nicknamed 'Worzel Scummage!) We even used Coke bottle tops for his red eyes! The can has shells in it dangling to keep birds off. Dave is thinking of making a second 'lady' scarecrow to protect the crops at the back of the plot.

Mr Foxy

Mange Tout in the ground

Runners & Climbing French bean frames

Tomatoes!

Smelly comfrey fertiliser

Broad beans... flowering

Squashes

The first of the strawberries

BBQ Time!

2009-05-31T17:53:00.001+01:00

BBQ time and we had one hell of a hot afternoon sunnying ourselves and enjoying being away from the mad park crowds down the road. New table came in handy!!

Construction in May

2009-05-18T17:49:00.000+01:00

Dave has made a wonderful table out of pallets! Much bigger than the last one and more sturdy. (I think he's proud of this one!) Grand job.

Strimmer!!

2009-05-18T01:06:00.001+01:00

You cannot under appreciate what a petrol strimmer does for an allotment plot! Hopefully we have blended in some slugs with the grass cuttings!! :D

Our "slightly" raised beds! Ready for courgettes and mange tout!

All Change!!

2009-05-17T23:58:00.000+01:00

Bugger...we've had to make some plot amendments due to the weather and not being able to dig the areas we wanted to. The back of the plot has become No-Mans-Land over winter and digging backwards is a hefty job. Mare's Tail is a constant nuisance but we're getting there....slowly.
Here's an updated plot layout. (Click to enlarge)

Something is having a nibble

2009-05-17T23:47:00.000+01:00

The year has started really well. Dave bought a petrol strimmer for £35 on GumTree (Bargain!) and we have been strimming the grass paths and weeds as much as possible. We have been pretty ruthless as the grass has been waaay overdue a trim! Hopefully we will have massacred a few slugs in the process?!
More beds have been dug and raised and Dave is building a new table. It was hot enough last weekend to be wearing suncream and sunglasses but it's a different story this week. Rain, rain, miserable rain.
We also have a mystery nibbler on the plot. First of all the chilli plants in the cold frame were nibbled right down to the core. No trace of slug-slime so maybe mice?
Then at the weekend 1 out of 4 courgettes were gobbled! They were all fairly established so I wouldn't have thought that slugs would be interested? 3 of them were under plastic cloches so there was a risk of damage to 1 of the plants but we haven't had courgettes eaten before?! They're usually pretty hardy and safe as they're quite tough.
I'm making a guess that it's either rats or the scraggy fox that seems to be venturing up the allotments during the day for afternoons snoozes! It doesn't seem at all bothered by us gardeners!

We have seen all 3 of our plot neighbours this year in one weekend which is a rarity but everyone seems to be putting in a lot of effort this year. Maybe that claim by the Met Office for a hot summer is going to come true? (Although I predicted a hot one back in Feb!) We'll see...

April's Events

2009-04-19T17:41:00.000+01:00

I'm backtracking here a bit but here are the photos from April.

My attempt at controlling parsnips by growing the in toilet rolls!

Keeping the birds and fox off the parsnips...

Splitting up the rhubarb

Broad Beans!!

First 2 beds and herb patch recreated.

Pathetic asparagus plant. Can you see it? We can't!

Newspaper Pots Tutorial

2009-04-16T07:50:00.002+01:00

I have posted before about newspaper pot tutorials with a link last year but I couldn't get it to load for some odd reason. (The website has a web traffic restriction I think?)

I decided to make my own version in case the same happened again. Here's my photo newspaper pot tutorial which you should be able to click on to view it larger.

I hope it's easy enough to understand and not too complicated. If you have tried origami before then this should be fairly straight forward.

All you need is newspaper and some paperclips.

Enjoy!

1st Day of Spring!

2009-03-20T09:15:00.000Z

The first day of spring is upon us and the first batch of broad beans are in the ground. Hopefully I'll have the parsnips in this weekend as well. It's been a beautiful week with sun sun sun but I'm sure it will turn at some point to cold and rain again. I've collected several toilet rolls to plant the parsnips in and I will be putting these into a raised bed to prevent 'forking'. The ground at the lotty turns to clay not far down so it isn't ideal for root veg but not impossible. I'd like to make a fine grainy compost for them to grow in, raised up a bit to give them a couple of extra inches to grow in. It's an experiment so we'll see what happens.
I'm planting the broad beans in batches so that we have a steady crop. I've got about 10 rows in now and I'll put in another 15 the weekend after this one. They're under fleece so they should be okay. I've hammered the fleece onto the raised bed as sticks and stones don't really work from past experience. The wind just throws them around. I'll have a look this evening to make sure it's all still okay and that the fox hasn't had a go at anything.
I'm also going to try and nip out the growing tips of the broad beans to deter blackfly. We're still bound to get blackfly (we always do!) but I'm going to try and be vigilant this time. It's about time we had a decent crop!!

Time to spring...

2009-03-06T15:16:00.000Z

For the past 2 weekends I have been preparing the lotty for spring. I've dug up the parsnip patch and found a nice heap of mare's tail buried nicely below. Grr!
I have moved the cold frame to it's new home (it's a bit delicate but should be ok). Plus I have pulled up the last of the brussel sprouts and dug over this patch for some new broad beans.
This weekend we should get the herb bed finally sorted plus some planting. New raised beds are coming along nicely and I've made a valued trip to LIDL for some gardening stuff. More slug/snail traps and compost. I'm looking forward to this weekend and potentially some seeds in the ground! :)

Allotment Plan Layout 2009

2009-01-12T08:29:00.000Z

Plan for 2009

2009-01-09T17:14:00.000Z

We had an allotment meeting last night to discuss the rotation / layout for 2009. We all had our own ideas on what we wanted to grow but I think Dave has the best plan by following this simple method.

Answer the following questions on each fruit / veg:
1) Is it tastier than the supermarket equivalent?
2) Is it expensive to buy?
3) Is it easy to grow?

If you answer No to 2 or more questions then it's not going in the ground.
So therefore we are culling the following:
Potatoes: Blight
Aubergines: Pain the arse - never have a decent summer.
Garden peas: Eaten by slugs / not a good cropper.
Spinach: Doesn't get eaten.
Brussell Sprouts: One good stem out of 5. Nuff said.

We need an anti-mammal technique for sweetcorn as we had literally NONE last year due to rats and squirrels. We are ,however, giving broadbeans another shot. (I'm dubious as I know it will be infected by blackfly in seconds but hey-ho - it's a May cropper so what the heck?)

We're also going to try Jerusalem Artichokes! No idea how these will turn out and we've got to get seeds/tubers (i have no idea as of writing this!!) and put them into action for Feb/March.

We are definitely doing:
Manage Tout
Tomatoes
Squashes
Leeks
Climbing French beans and dwarf variety
Runners (cos it's an alllotment staple!)
...plus moving the herb bed as it's overgrown.

We have also played with the idea of doing chillies in the cold frame. Risky but worth a try.

So, that's the plan. Better get a final version laid out. :)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-05T20:31:00.001Z

Here's to a blight-free 2009 with more sunshine than ever before! With the economic crisis being as awful as it is - I think we deserve more sun this year.

I will be taking more boxes up the lotty this evening to be used as raised beds. It is absolutely deathly cold out there at the moment so trips to the lotty are restricted to 30 min MAX! After that my hands go numb. :(

I tried to rinse out a slug trap in the water trough but the ice in them was over 2 inches thick on Saturday! Apparently Roath Lake has frozen over as well!

Updates

2008-12-02T08:02:00.000Z

Apologies for the lack of updates. The allotment is still going but Karl has moved to Canton so we may not see him as much as we would like to. Me & Dave are still plodding on but with the wet / freezing weather we are leaving the allotment over winter to rot down until we can start again next year. :)

Back in 2009!

September Time

2008-09-20T17:07:00.002+01:00

Unfortunately we ended up being the victims of blight this year - the soggy end to summer pretty much destroyed all of the tomatoes and potatoes. Very sad and frustrating. We weren't alone tho - many of the other allotmenteers have suffered as well with most vegetables seeing a squishy end. We've lost the herb bed to couch grass which will have to be cut back vigorously and the sweetcorn has been eaten by rats. We even found a dead rodent on our brussel sprout patch! Is there no end to our battle with nature?

Strawberry patch sending out runners

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

Looking towards the back of the plot

All of our sweetcorn got nibbled!!

New tubs for compost and bins

The start of a new raised bed!!

Strawberries in pots

HUGE bean tower!

2 Compost Bins

The problem with rats and their love of our sweetcorn!! Grrr!!

Brussel Sprouts!

Blight ridden potatoes! :(

Tomatoes and potatoes ruined by blight

I do have some revenge tho! Slug Kebabs!!

August Growth

2008-08-14T18:39:00.000+01:00

I forgot to add these photos from last year so this is a delayed post (which I've dated August for blog record purposes). Nothing very exciting going on here but it's lovely and green!

Green Tomatoes

Squashes

Aubergines in the cold frame

Dave in the cold frame!!

Karl's bean structure starts to wobble, slide and fall apart (slightly).

Dr Who on the allotment?

2008-05-26T15:19:00.000+01:00

Back in November there was a notice on the allotment board about filming on the plots over a couple of days. I didn't really think about it but assumed it was Dr Who or Torchwood as they are very much Welsh based. Well, I looked at the newsletter for our allotment online today and found out that they did indeed film for Dr Who and I found the name of the episode as well.
I even found the clip!

For any allotment and Dr Who fan, here's the links:

YouTube Clip (3:30 Mins in): Click Here
Dr Who Locations: Click Here

The episode was broadcast on the 5th April 2008.

What's that smell?

2008-05-23T05:33:00.000+01:00

I forgot to mention that we have recently made some Comfrey fertiliser by hacking up half the Comfrey and bunging it in a bucket of water for a few weeks.
It STINKS! (Really Badly!)

It honks to high heaven and that can only mean that the plants will love it. Lets face it - they love poo!
It has started to rot down now so it doesn't smell quite so offensively but it's certainly up there will fresh baby poo for a real hum in the air. Eugh!!

Eggs?

2008-05-19T02:42:00.000+01:00

Remember that blue-ish egg we accidentally smashed up whilst digging. The one that was buried in the soil? Well... we found another one! But this time it's a whole egg and it's huge!
We think it's a swan's egg now as I can't see a duck passing anything quite so big and geese eggs look different. I've seen some pictures of swan eggs online so I reckon it's one of those. The lake near by has lots of swans, ducks and geese so I think Mr Foxy has been pinching them and burying them in our plot. Explains why so much has been dug up over night - including our strawberries! Grr!

Ginormous egg!

Pretty tho - but what can we do with it?

Heat Wave! (In May?)

2008-05-10T16:09:00.000+01:00

We had a mini heatwave this week which meant that we were suffering a bit trying to dig, build and plant stuff! Me and Dave managed to erect some sort of shelter but it didn't last long with the mild breeze! A gazebo would be better suited!
I did, however, get most of my plants into the ground and do a bit of digging. (Although the guys did most of this!) Fabulous weather but you can't help but think that's our summer over and done with in May??! I hope not!!

Desperate times - desperate measures. Our rubbish heat shelter!

Dave in his hijab!

Dave on the beers....alcoholic!!

Mange Tout

Karl on bean pole duty

Sugar Snaps

Strawberry flower!

More!

Handy boxes for spuds and strawberries!

Une asparagus...we thought they were dead!!

As usual, I've planted too many tomato plants so I've brought 3 into work. I can nibble on cherry tomatoes throughout the day...if they flower?

Quick trip up and another rainbow!

2008-05-02T03:34:00.000+01:00

Me and Dave had a brief trip to the plot to have a nosey around and check that nothing had been eaten or dug up by slugs or foxes. For some bizarre reason some foxes have take to digging up our strawberries in raised beds??!! Silly animals.
We had another gorgeous rainbow which made up for the crappy rain shower that took us by surprise.

Nicola New Potatoes popping up

Klevedon Wonder peas climbing up

Sitting area

Slug Slamming...

2008-04-28T04:25:00.000+01:00

Ahh, another weekend trip at the lotty. This is such a regular thing now! We're very good this year!!
Beds have been raked over, tomatoes and courgettes are in the ground, potatoes are in and raised, bed prepared for leeks, my salad is popping up and mange tout has also sprouted in the greenhouse. Whoopie!!
Our slug traps are also doing VERY well! I must have tipped out about 50+ slugs per cider pot that Dave placed in our trenches. We are getting small ones too so it's obviously getting them young!
We have also tried picking them off a pallet on the grass too and we usually get at least 20 each time so we're doing well in keeping the population down. :D
I did pick off the slugs and slam them hard with some thick wood but they just exploded and I got slug guts over my front. Yuck! I'll use some sort of plastic barrier next time as it's a bit disgusting but very effective.
I know - it's revolting but the boys won't touch them without gloves or kill them.

Mange Tout? Carrots and Courgettes in here

Spuds...

Tomatoes under plastic

Rusty bin moved away from greenhouse door. Next stop - the skip!

Leek bed

Tomato cover

Courgette

Small slugs that have drunk themselves to peril. Cider really works!!

Tidying up

2008-04-21T05:29:00.000+01:00

We finally fixed the greenhouse with extra screws to be double sure it was secure and water tight. We were going to use a sealant but decided that the polycarbonate would be secure enough as they were a fairly tight fit. It looks very good now and we're rather proud. :)
Me and Dave managed to shift the awful metal and glass frames which have littered the plot for years to the bottom of the allotments for scrap metal. There's a lot of smashed glass around unfortunately but we'll clear that eventually. We also nicked some amazing bits of wood from a skip round the corner and bought some slug pellets and poles whilst the shop was still open.
Dave planted 30 potatoes and finished off the posts for his tomato frame.
I cleared the front patch by the greenhouse for carrots and my mange tout and we cleared even more mares tail by the first potato patch to get as many spuds in as possible. We're just sticking them in and praying that the mares tail is weakened enough so that they grow okay. Fingers crossed!
In the patch that Karl was digging - he accidentally hit a rather large egg! We do have some ducks, geese and swans nearby but we couldn't tell what type it was? It looked fairly large with a blue/green ish colour. We think a fox might have stolen it and buried it to eat later. Unless birds have started laying eggs under soil???! If you know - please post!!

We have a dry greenhouse again!! Yeay!

Dave putting in the final screw

The sun setting and reflecting inside the greenhouse.

Mystery egg...duck, goose, swan, other?

The size of the egg compared to my feet. (I'm a size 3!)

Potato patch

New Potatoes in crate

Home Planting

2008-04-21T03:15:00.000+01:00

I've got tomatoes, aubergines, leeks, mange tout, mixed salad, sweet peppers, sweetcorn and (as of this week) climbing french beans planted at the house until they are transported. They're all along my windowsill in neat little containers so that they are warm and sunny plus I have more in my mini-greenhouse. :)
Tomatoes are on their second set of leaves, leeks are about 2 inches tall, mange tout has germinated (I had to dig and have a look - naughty I know!). It's all coming along nicely and we should be able to start planting out soon.

Propagators

Tomatoes (cherry)

Take-away salad boxes are great for heating up aubergines!

Newspaper pots - I find a paperclip or two helps to keep them secure until you plant out

Mini greenhouse

Must remember to sort out chives!!

le weekend!

2008-04-14T05:44:00.000+01:00

We just about managed to get a couple of sunny afternoons in at the lottie with the odd splatter of rain and hail but it was generally, very nice. :)
Both Dave and Karl got very excited over a new saw. (They were cutting up everything!!) and Dave drank wine all afternoon. We all dug the back of the plot until it got very boring but we observed our land, talked about how much we loved to grow stuff and generally felt very productive.
Or in Dave's case, tiddly!

Dave drinking wine

Dave drinking wine amongst our fabulous boxed plantations!

Never-ending digging at the back of the plot. Buckets of mares tail to contend with!

Strawbs!

Peas...

Traditional 'blog' view

Foxes and cats have destroyed the asparagus....again!
Spiked wood will hopefully stop the buggers crapping and digging there.

Apple & Rhubarb crumble...Mmmmm!

It's like a scene out of Last of the Summer Wine!

My tripod for the group shot below! 2 wheelbarrows, 2 box lids and a plank!

Group shot. (Jeez I need a hair cut!!)

Dave drinks more wine...

Dave digging with wine!!

Newspaper Pots

2008-04-14T02:46:00.000+01:00

I've been hunting for a decent newspaper pot tutorial for ages. Lots of them seem to use jars of varying sizes which to me just looks a bit fiddly. I also don't like the idea of 'crushing' the bases as this will probably make the pots a bit wonky when standing up.
I have found an excellent solution tho. I'm a bit of a fan of origami so this tutorial was just brilliant.
http://www.geocities.com/newspaperpots/
The tutorial is modified from a box-origami template so it's very well made and secure. (I've just made one tested out of A4 paper and it works well!) I think I'll be busy with old newspapers this evening!!

EDIT: (21st April 08): Have some paperclips handy to keep the flaps down on the sides until you plant out. Just a bit of extra strength on the sides!

Potato patch

2008-04-04T15:27:00.000+01:00

Karl, Dave and me went up the plot last night as the day was probably the best we've had all year so far! Possibly temperatures close to the 20's and gorgeous sun all day. It was fabulous but we were all in work until the afternoon so we had a small amount of time to sort out the potato ground.
We dug part of the back of the plot and lifted up many perennial weeds which were lurking beneath. We decided not to attempt to remove all weeds but get the ground ready for potatoes which can cope with a bit of weed better than most plants. They compete quite well.
We discussed the greenhouse and we will fix it when we know we can get hold of some plastic. It may be a cost but the greenhouse is in a bit of a poor state at the moment. :(
Dave has managed to create walls around the beds with the pallets I left on the plot so slugs have a harder job getting to the beds. I've got more to take up today. :)
The plot is looking the best ever for this time of year and it's nice to have a selection of beds to plant in!
Let's just hope we have a successful harvest!

Dave examines his onions

Dave pointing...

The sorry state of the greenhouse with 3 panes smashed.

Perennial weed hunting

Not bad for an afternoon's work!

Karl and Dave caught red-handed slacking off and drinking. :D

Borders

Sorted.

"I love digging!"

2008-03-27T15:41:00.000Z

I saw the most amazing rainbow on the allotment last week. I had only popped up to empty my compost caddy. It was pouring with rain and I just stood and stared whilst getting soaked. Video does not give it justice - it was fabulous. :)

More wind wreaks havoc!

2008-03-27T14:48:00.000Z

The weather forecast said that we would get a blustery and cold Easter...

...they weren't wrong.
Easter has been especially early as well as cold, windy and miserable. Luckily enough I was away over this weekend but Karl and Dave managed to go up the lotty and do some fantastic handiwork. The strawberries have been moved, plots dug and seeded, new compost bin. Great stuff going on.

BUT...high, fast winds have destroyed the greenhouse (again!!) and now it has no roof. 3 panes of glass smashed and now the rain is getting in. We desperately need some plastic poly sheets to fix these sections. Out with the drill....again!!

Left, middle and below sky window panes broken. :(

New onion / shallot patch

Patches and chippings sectioned off

Strawberries!

Beautiful rainbow in the pouring rain (video to follow!)

Spring Plan

2008-03-26T01:39:00.000Z

I seem to have glossed over our new plan for 2008!! Whoops!

Dave has put together a plan (which we discussed in the Albany) a few weeks ago. It includes the slug barrier - affectionately called the "Maginot Line" by Dave. Trust me, no German slugs will be storming this defense!
We also have the NEW compost bin drawn up. (We're ahead on this one as it's practically finished!)
We have established a new plan whereby everything on the East is called E1, E2 etc and the same for the West W1, W2 etc. Beer Space has been mentioned (VERY IMPORTANT!!) but this can also be called BBQ Space for summer or whatever social activity seems fit for purpose?!
Strawberries have been moved to plots W5 & W6 by Karl, Shallots and Onions are in W1 & W2.
Chips and Poo are on their way although we have a lot of chips already. Broad beans (yes, I know it says board beans on the plan) will be Karl's domain and we're giving asparagus another go in the same place.
Tomatoes, Aubergines and Leeks are in seed trays and I've also acquired some chives from dad. Thanks dad! :)
All we need now is some decent weather...!!
(Click on the plan images to see larger pics)

Spuds, Wind and Pallets

2008-03-02T02:47:00.000Z

Spuds are 'chitting' on the window sill. I've moved them into egg boxes since the photo was taken. (I know an egg-man!) and they're cosily snuggled in together. I love how 'chitting' is the gardener's term for what most of us class as "gone off spuds". Except these are seed potatoes of course...I know... :D

Due to the appalling weather, the wind has knocked off our greenhouse door and damaged a panel so now the greenhouse is not so secure any more. Back out with the drill!

I've also made my car suffer Caerphilly mountain with 5 pallets and 75 litres of compost in the boot. If my car could talk it would be swearing at me I'm sure. However, this does mean that we can start putting the second compost bin together as the other one is nearly full!

Digging is still the fashionable past time for me, Dave and Karl at the plot. We're not bored of it (honest!!). ;)
We've really put a lot of effort in so far and it's all coming together quite nicely. Wilkinson's are doing a lot of fruit trees for £2! (Yes, you heard correctly - £2!) and we have picked up some lovely potatoes to plant in a few weeks. Mainly King Edward main crops and some New Potatoes called 'Nicola?'

It's simply a race to get seedlings started and the ground sorted in time to plant out next month. Plus it'll be BST soon!! Hallelujah!!

This week I will mostly be filling my compost bin...

2008-02-29T02:46:00.000Z

I've been meaning to get one of these compost caddies for ages but living in a shared house brings issues when you tell your flat mates that you have the desire keep your peelings!

Well - bugger em. I'm keeping my crap and I'm going to make nice rotten goo-ey stuff with it!
Dave got his from Lakeland Limited (the tall green one) for £5. It comes with a filter and a very tight finger slotting system on the handle. My hands fit perfectly but my hands are pretty small tho!

The second caddy is a short, fat one that has a clip lid. It's not too exciting and it's the same type that (if you're lucky enough) your council will deliver for you. Cardiff council is not particularly good at 'environmental' issues so we get nowt. The short caddy costs £3.99 from B&Q.

By the way - many thanks for all your posts about the slug plan! We did sit down in the pub and discuss it. Dave thought that the slugs would go round it. (Are they really that clever?) Karl thought that the cider would be better off in small deep pots rather than guttering as they'll be attracted to the cider anyway and the deeper pots means that they will drown. Only time will tell...

Slug-death Plan

2008-02-18T15:32:00.000Z

Due to 2007's appalling and pretty much non-existent summer I suspect that slugs on our plot may be more of a challenge than previous years. After all - they've had lots of muddy water to writhe around on and populate like crazy so I need a plan to reduce their numbers significantly.
By the way, if you're interested in how slugs get jiggy with it then this video may be of interest. From the BBC Life in the Undergrowth documentary with David Attenborough.
Right then....this is ze plan.
We have a nice planked up area where we keep the compost bin and chippings which is raised up from the allotment ground. Over the years we have noticed that slugs tend to be the most vicious and pretty much anything planted there gets munch up and slimed over. Yuk! (They must be breeding here)
So, I'm planning on digging a trench with some guttering which I will seal at both ends. I will put some cider in here (Welsh slugs love a bit of 'Bow) but I'll go with Sainsbury's cheapo stuff. Then I'll place a path of chippings next to the first bed so that even if the cider doesn't get them - they'll have dry chippings to contend with. Ah-ha!
I'll top this off with a plank of something that will stop the rain washing away the cider.
Fingers crossed it will work!!

The greenhouse is warm?

2008-02-18T05:26:00.000Z

I decided to throw myself into the lotty again this weekend and to get it looking like a place where vegetables might in fact grow! At the moment it's trying to look like a football pitch with all the grass growing over it so I think a few hours of work should get it looking good again. I started digging a rather ridiculously grassy part where the onions were last year and got half of that bed done on Saturday. (Finished it on Sunday).
I went up on Sunday and saw Dave there, I had my drill with me so we both had a go at fixing the missing panes on the greenhouse. We had about 4 massive gaps where wind/rodents/rain etc was getting in so we patched up those areas. You can tell it's sealed as the greenhouse is....warm! It's incredible!
I'm afraid to say that we fixed most of the greenhouse with wire but it does work!! I drilled around the panes and tied them up with wire using the metal supports.
Karl dug up the weeds surrounding the pathway and dug over the runner bean patch from last year. I started on the brassica patch by the woodchips and where slugs may be nesting. I have a cider-death plan for March to kill off the blighters!
The lotty is really starting to look great and if we don't have a soggy summer, we should have a good year. I'm a tiddly bit excited!!

No holes...

Yes, I know it's wire but the greenhouse is old and we don't really know how to fix it properly. We're improvising!

You can tell it gets very windy here as one side of the greenhouse is glass and the other side is purely poly! A few smashed panes there from falling clutter!

2 dug patches

After mending the greenhouse, cleaning the greenhouse, digging 2 patches and filling 3 garden bags of weeds it was time for a rest...in the wheelbarrow!

Pleasing to see the path again!

Time to clean up the greenhouse - it's been thrown around over winter!

2008-02-14T02:15:00.000Z

Unfortunately we have a few massive panes of glass / poly missing which encourages the wind to have a mini tornado in our greenhouse / shed over the winter months. Time for a quick clean up and to brush all the tools down.
The plot is looking a bit sorry for itself and the grass has decided to creep over the edges onto our beds which is going to be annoying to remove. The second compost bin needs to be built urgently as our primary one is rather full and we cannot access the lovely rotten stuff at the bottom. The metal compost bin that blew over last year will have to be rebuilt at some point. Dave's made a cracking start on the mare's tail that has taken over the rear of the plot but hopefully that will all be sorted soon and we can possibly put some strawberries in there? Just a few days of hard work should do the trick! :)

Before

After

A bit grassy...

Grass has creeped over the trenches

Compost bin No 2 needs to be put in here somewhere.

I would like to grow...

2008-02-07T02:26:00.000Z

I've been having a think...kinda difficult as I have a miserable cold (again!!) but never-the-less a thought about veggies.
What would I like to grow?
Well...we have already discussed in the Albany over a few glasses of port what we can grow but in the back of my mind I know what I'd like to try out.
1) Mange Tout (absolutely got to try this - so long as I am ready to prevent bird-attacks!)
2) Leeks (Infected last year so I want to try again)
3) Herbs (Kitchen window or small towering pots - either will do)
4) Peppers (I have the seeds so this will be a new challenge!)
5) Aubergine (I'm determined to have more than one this year!)
6) Cherry Tomatoes (They were a disaster last year)

In fact - last year was just rubbish in general as it just rained solidly from April until September so I can't really beat myself up over a few vegetable disasters. The UK is just crap at good weather!!
Hopefully (fingers and toes crossed) we'll have a decent plot this year with lots of new veg to try.

NOTE TO SELF: We very rarely need to plant as many runner beans as we did last year. (and the year before!)

New Wellies

2008-01-01T16:17:00.000Z

I got some fabulous wellies for chrimbo! 2 pairs!! One pair from dad and one from Karl. I now have 3 pairs!!
How cool are these?

Pumpkin Head

2007-11-24T11:59:00.000Z

We pulled up the massive orange pumpkin that was nestled by the cherry tree. It was a fairly large one and Karl can't resist the scarecrow look! We also got the last marrow and pulled up the dead plants left over from the runner beans and various other decaying matter that we planted and forgot about. :(
We have made a plan for next year... we prepared it over some port in the Albany pub! :D
Garlic is the first to go in (Karl is in charge of Broad Beans as me and Dave are fed up of them). The rest are earlies and April sowing so we need to get the seeds in.
Unfortunately it has rained CONSTANTLY for the past 6 weeks and more is to come so there has been a massive gap between November and January. The weather is just pants. :(

Unfortunately, the pumpkin and marrow turned to mush in storage. They had simply been pulled up too late and I think they were rotten from the cold too. Bugger.

Something has piddled in my welly!

2007-10-14T23:35:00.000+01:00

Hmmm...when you put your foot in your welly and it goes 'crunch' you know something isn't right. In my case, something that I suspect is small and furry has been using my wellies as storage for seeds. Sunflower seeds as well - OUR sunflowers seeds!! Never ever leave seeds in a greehouse - they get nibbled on, stored and piddled over. My wellies reek of something amonia-like and it's not pretty.
Karl thought it was cute but my wellies were wet, smelly and awkward to wear. Humph!

Yes, this is the moment I found seeds in my welly!

Something took all the seeds from the sunflowers...and moved them into my wellies.

Mushroom Risotto anyone?

We pulled up the last of the sunflowers and cleaned up what we could. I've kept the seeds somewhere safer. :)

It's starting to die down now...ready for winter.

How the allotment started...

2007-09-21T03:53:00.000+01:00

Dave has just sent me this photo and I'm stunned at how much has been done over the past 2 and a half years! Photo was taken on the 26th Feb 2005. Even the neighbours have an improved plot! Brambles at the back have been cut down once since I've been working on plot 21 but they still come back thick and fast! Makes you realise how much work was put in through the bitterly cold winters digging and the blistering heat of picking produce.

Early 2005

Summer 2006

Amusing vegetable!

2007-09-16T23:09:00.000+01:00

I love funny looking vegetables. Supermarket veg is just so boring in shape, always perfectly straight and the perfect orange. Our carrots are conversation starters!! I don't know how they do it (well, no, I do actually but I'm not going to get technical!) but I love the fact that they just look odd. They seem to split into 4 and then twirl their extra carrotty bits around each other! Some of course - just look plain rude but I'll leave that your imagination!

Have a gander at these weird carrotts!
Giant sunflowers - we love em!

Turning orange, it's turning orange.....wooo-hoooo!!!

The pumpkin plant was potted about 2 metres behind the cherry tree. Funny how they nestle in odd places!

September and it's all overgrown!!

2007-09-12T01:57:00.000+01:00

Really tall sunflowers!! These are great - Some of their heads are enormous! Most have dropped their heads now so I'm collecting seeds for eating / sowing next year. :)
Pumpkins are doing well but I still fear slug damage! I've dug up the cherry tomato plants as they were in the runner bean shade and thus died. I'll remember next time where I plant things so that they are not next to giant plants!
Yellow courgettes have been lovely (especially in curries!) and the runner beans have been bonkers as usual!
I'd like to run peas up the sunflowers next year as they have grown really well and some have great supports.

This is our second largest sunflower and the bees love it!

Pumpkin turning orange!!

Yummy yellow courgettes!

Hmm...sweetcorn damage. Mice? Birds?

Bzzzzz zzzzz zzzzz

Standard courgette

Lots and lots and lots of runner beans!!

August growth

2007-08-12T15:25:00.000+01:00

Has the rain stopped? As well all know it has been the worst summer on record and the slugs have loved it. We've lost some lovely beans, the carrots have been attacked, squashes have barely grown and the tomatoes were a disaster. Could be worse tho - there are instances of blight occurring all over the country!! (Glad we didn't plant any potatoes!)
On the other hand tho - we've dug back more of the plot this year and (Disco) Dave is now helping out with the development of the plot. He's been building contraptions and helping to fix the greenhouse. :)
All the sunflowers that Karl went a bit crazy with have popped up too...

Tallest sunflower at the back of the greenhouse

Dave's "sifting soil" contraption - you plonk in the soil and shake it for weeds with a sieve.

Runner bean bush!

I spent about 30 minutes to get this stupid trapped bird out from the netting on the next door neighbour's plot. They truly are daft creatures!

Sunflowers...everywhere!!

Beer traps Welsh style - Give em a bit of 'bow (Strongbow) and they love it and die! No wasting decent beer - give em cheapo cider!

Pumpkins!!

Slug damage - aarrgghhh!!

New Talent

2007-07-19T03:44:00.000+01:00

I do not care what Delia, Ainsley, or Gordon say, I make the BEST Rhubarb and Apple crumble in the world!

I know, I know....it's hardly a challenge throwing together sugar, flour, and margarine on top of fruit but it's the way you use the cinnamon that makes it sooooo tasty!

YUM!

Summer is utterly crap!

2007-07-17T02:16:00.000+01:00

This has got to be the worst summer on record. Rain, wind and now thunderstorms!!
It's JULY Folks! HE-LLOOOOOO - Sunshine anyone? I seem to recall a heatwave around this time last year but this year - well, looks like summer has buggered off!
Utter rubbish

...and I'm on holiday next week! Ughh!

Sorry...rant over!
I'm using the BBC forecast as MetCheck seems to to have misplaced the icon for bloody scary thunderstorms - it just shows rain as the main forecast. :(

Allotment Views

2007-07-08T11:14:00.000+01:00

I just couldn't look at the compost bin anymore so I spent the best part of 4 hours on Sunday clearing the bind weed from around the compost bin and weeding some of the beds. It was a dirty job but my God it needed doing!
Looks much better now but I'm going to have to clear some more around the bottom as it's near impossible to reach some areas. (I just know there is a nest of bind weed down there plotting revenge!)
I thought that I would take some more general photos of the plot as most of my pics are close ups and it looks rather nice and green at the moment. :)
NEWSFLASH: We can't get any slug pellets as there are restrictions on buying it in bulk. (Phospahates and Nitrates restriction from recent attempted bombings in the UK) The allotment shop has none in stock until further notice. We are now using bran??!

Tidy compost bin!

Towards the back of the greenhouse

I weeded the sunflowers and courgettes as they were getting approached by mares tail!

Weeded the front beds too as this was just a bit messy. Unfortunately we lost the Kohl Rabi!

Bran?

No, we haven't started making breakfast at the plot but apparently slugs eat bran and it dries them up like a stick so we're giving it a try as there are NO slug pellets at the shop!!

I managed to make a collage of the front of the plot. Must make a panoramic view!

Produce popping up!

2007-07-07T06:21:00.000+01:00

It's all looking really, really good at the plot except that we have both neglected the weed situation so everything is growing on top of each other! Bind weed has made a come back and is suffocating the strawberries, fennel and the compost bin. The turnips have been severely nibbled which is very annoying but the fennel is doing really well. Broad beans have been massacred again and we have various squashes growing out the back that will hopefully surprise us when they grow their produce. We have pumpkins, courgettes, marrows, butternuts and Karl's favourite 'pink banana'!
Apparently the carrots are at baby stage if we want tiddly tasty ones but otherwise we can pick later on for big ones! Probably an idea to pick a few now to start thinning them out. Must make mental note to pick carrots in the evening else the carrot fly will smell them!
Onions are brilliant although I'm sure we planted more than I can see. Shallots look very tasty already! Runner beans are shooting up and seem to be clear of blackfly (Hurrah!)

Nibbled Turnips

Probably the last of the rhubarb but what is eating the poisonous leaves? Weevil?

I give up with broad beans... :(

Pumpkin? Butternut? Pink banana? Courgette? Marrow???

Strawberries are running again. Need to keep them off the path this year!

Fluffy carrot tops and marigolds!!

Fat sunflower leaves - these are (hopefully) going to be mighty tall!

Yellow Courgette!! Fabulous looking produce!

French bean

Big onions

Shallots

Sweetcorn

Runner beans running high

Fennel hearts

Fennel Tops

Bind Weed Flowers

Compost bin under attack...

Blackfly, Beans, Bottles and Booty

2007-06-22T02:52:00.000+01:00

It's all growing but being attacked at the moment! Climbing french beans aren't climbing much, blackfly has invaded the broad beans again, turnips are being nibbled by something but the carrots are doing brilliantly!
Runner beans are also getting a fair amount of blackfly but I'm getting myself up the allotment as much as I can spray the buggers off with washing up liquid mixed with water. Broad beans have been hit hard and you can see the damage they cause in a week. Hate them!!
We stuck all the beer bottles and cans from the BBQ on top of the bean frame to keep the birds off - they poop on the leaves! Onions, courgettes, sunflowers and tomatoes are also doing rather well. Will have to stake the tomatoes before they get heavy with fruit and flop over. (One thing that annoys me about tomatoes is that they are a bit flawed - top heavy with thin stalks - daft really!)
The back of the plot is gradually being dug up and progress is starting to happen. Now that I have my booties I can squelch in the muddy bits and get all that couch grass out!
Both myself and Karl have picked all the strawberries (bucket loads!) and Karl is now making Strawberry Wine in his demi-john pot thing.

Climbing french beans...errr?

Nibbled Turnips

Prize winning carrots maybe?

Ill looking broad beans

The perils of blackfly - blackened stems and leaves

Runners gradually climbing

More carrots!

Onions & Shallotts

Sunflowers!!!

Yellow fruiting courgette - should be interesting?!

Bottles and cans keeping the birds off with their 'reflecting' qualities

Cherry tomato plant

Looking green and plentiful!

Strawberries Galore!

2007-06-20T11:11:00.000+01:00

Strawberries which Karl is making wine with!

Get a welly on!

2007-06-20T04:57:00.000+01:00

I've had to take a brave step and buy some plain old green wellies. No flowers or purple stripes, just plain old wellies. With so much rain going on at the mo I need something waterproof on my feet! I'm going to have to decorate them somehow tho!
Karl and Dave are off to Glastonbury so of course they're wellied out too! :D

Allotted Time

2007-06-16T23:07:00.000+01:00

I've started reading this book called "Allotted Time" which I picked up in the Fopp DVD/CD Shop on Queen Street. It's actually a refreshing read as you can sympathise with the two guys desperately clearing land to grow veg.
They build a shed with the conditions that it cost no more than £10 and be able to house both of them to drink tea and talk bollocks. Their quest to define the difference between a shrub and a tree as well as their discovery of God who is in fact, Bob Flowerdew!
Recommended!!

Lots of space and lots of seeds!

2007-05-20T13:08:00.000+01:00

We've managed another trip up the lotty!! All is going so well that we can even pick and choose our beds this year. It's great how far we've got getting the plot ready. I assembled this 8' x 10' frame at the weekend which is quite an achievement for a 5'3" short arse! I balanced on a chair to tie the tops!
I put the runner bean plants from the seed bed into place by the frames and gave them a good watering. There's manure under all of them so they should be good. Unfortunately a couple seem to have black fly so we'll have to spray them some time this week. :(
Karl put down some paths with some pine needles which were on offer at the bottom of the hill. Nice and spongy!
I took the nets off the broad beans and also planted some sunflowers by the greenhouse. Fingers crossed we get some nice tall ones this year!!
We've also scattered some pumpkins in between the black plastic at the back of the plot and put some butternut squashes in the middle of the bean structures. We have a teepee shaped structure at the front of the plot for some climbing french beans. The slugs seem to be hot on the trail of these seedlings tho so it's a bit of a battle!

Bean poles up and ready!!

Karl laying down the path

Pre-grown seedlings of runner beansTansy popped up for a rest after her and Karl's afternoon run.

Left-hand side of plot is doing spectacularly well

Our small teepee climbing french bean at the front of the plot

Greenhouse from the side

Hidden in the plastic we have pumpkins on the go....this will be interesting!

Cherries starting to show!!

Carrotts getting a bit bigger

Uncovered broad beans

Everything is growing!!

2007-05-13T07:41:00.000+01:00

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. Having moved house and bought a new car I've been delayed on the blog front so I'm a bit behind! Luckily - Karl has been an eager beaver and has been busy tidying up the plot by digging and planting. He's done a stunning job and everything is starting to pop up! :)
The broadbeans that I planted are about a foot high already - incredible! I've plonked in a few more seeds where some failed to grow. The shallots are sprouting nicely...we had fun keeping these seeds in the ground as the birds kept pulling them up! (Mistaken identity for a worm we think!) Turnips are coming up but the moluscs are having fun snacking on these as they're right by a wooden step which I think the sluggys sleep in. They're the first thing they see when they wake up! :(
The brocolli has gone to seed with lots of small yellow flowers and the strawberries have flowered too. Even the carrots by the greenhouse are doing rather well and you can just see their tips poking through! Apples are starting to grow too....the joys of spring!

Sprouting Shallots

Turnips, Kohl Rabi & Fennel

Brocolli in flower (we'll save the seeds!)

Strawberries in bloom

Broad beans coming up

"Les carrottes"

Early Apples

Surprisingly productive

2007-04-16T00:25:00.000+01:00

Despite Karl having a nasty accident on Friday night and needing A&E treatment plus his car breaking down on the A470 we have managed to still get up the allotment!!
I decided to cycle up (which nearly killed me!) and I managed to get a decent frame of netting around the broad beans. I've also replanted where the beans didn't quite make it through.
Karl carried on digging, hoeing and planting whilst Emily joined us for the afternoon and helped water all the seeds and detangle some wire. I think we will have good broad beans this year - I can feel it!
I've also put some seeds in trays in the plastic greenhouse: Mostly Leeks, Cherry Tomatoes and Pumpkins at the moment. I plan to do some french beans, butternut squashes and some peas soon. :)

The onions are doing well despite the birds constantly popping them out thinking that they are worms!
Netting has helped quite a lot!

Against all odds

2007-04-12T09:30:00.000+01:00

Me and Karl have excelled ourselves this week. We've replanted the turnips which died, added some kohl rabbi (??) and some fennelly stuff. Don't ask- Karl planted it!!
I've replanted the parsnips where the soil had previously dried out and also put in shallots (red and white), onion (red and white), spring onion and garlic. :)
We have a few more bits of land ready too for potential sunflowers by the greehouse, plus raspberry canes and we're still thinking about where to put the Leeks.
It hasn't all been smooth running however, I'm currently looking for a new pair of wellies as my car was stolen and the wellies went with it! Left them in the boot unfortunately. :(

Soooo...need a new car and new wellies. All whilst moving house - joy!

Wind wreaks havoc

2007-03-18T09:05:00.000Z

I went up the plot on Saturday to do some digging but found to my horror that my polytunnel had vanished! My brand new lovely tunnel had been blown away. No holes in the ground from where it had been - no marks of any kind. I was furious. Apparently anything that is not pinned down with bricks is prone to disappearing as we are on a very windy part of the plot. One of the committee members said that every year he hears about poly tunnels disappearing and said that he had 37 bean plants blow away in the night. He has now resorted to cementing his posts into the ground.
I noticed that the fleecing had also shifted and had exposed the newly tipped broadbeans which were peering out. They are doing well but they were now exposed to birds so I built a frame. It was admittedly a bit tall but I made a temporary measure until the next day as I had to get back for the rugby.
By the next day the wind had snapped one of the posts and the netting was all over the place. The fleecing had moved again and I was losing my temper rapidly. Whilst I tried to put things right the weather decided to turn to the worst and rained heavily for a while before hailing a bucket load for about 20 mins. I sat in the greenhouse getting more and more annoyed.
I hate this sodding country for the damn weather at the best of times but now...now I'm MAD!!

I've decided to not bother with the frame as apparently another frost is on its way and I couldn't find the saw to make the posts shorted. I got as many stones as I could and pinned the fleece down yet again. I also put some fleece over the area where the poly tunnel was protecting the turnips. It's a last attempt in vain to try and save the little turnips. (Deep down I think they are dead but this is my last attempt at hope.)

I've also put down some long stems of holly to keep the cats off the parsnips. The little buggers have been using my freshly dug soil as a place to sit and generally annoy me. It was either holly or an air gun.

The wind damage caused in 24hrs

Poly Tunnel no more :(

Later than late brocolli

Bare plot

Rhubarb popping up

Cats can keep off my parsnips!!!!

The only good news I 'might' have is that I know someone who works on building sites and has said that he can get some: Bricks, Rubber tubing and maybe some wood for me. Now that would make me happy. :)

Mushrooms & Onions

2007-02-18T23:34:00.000Z

I forgot to mention that we bought in some onion and shallot varieties to plant as well as trying out a mushroom kit for the first time. Onions are: Setton & Red Baron. Shallots are: Red Sun & Golden Gourmet.
Looking forward to eating these! :)

First seeds

2007-02-18T22:42:00.000Z

Broad beans, Turnips and Parsnips are the first seeds to be planted out for 2007. (Well...unless Karl planted something I don't know about?) I've laid out 3 sections for broad beans where the tomatoes were last year. There's still a bit of space left for some more beans...french ones maybe? There were 2 types of bean that I put in: Bunyards Exhibition & Aquadulce Claudia.
Turnips are planned for a nice early crop. I put in some Purple Top White Globe versions and covered them with a poly tunnel to keep them warm. (Many thanks to Kay & John for the tunnel - a Christmas gift.) I've put the tunnel near the front of the plot where we had our poor sprouting runner beans and grass.
Last of all I put in some more parsnips by the greenhouse. Karl had already dug in the mustard plants so the section just needed a bit of a rake over and levelling. I put in 2 types: Giant Parsnip & Hollow Crown.
Can't wait to plant more!!

We will clear the back of the plot...eventually. (Pond put on the back burner for a bit)

I've started to dig up the weeds at the back...getting there...sort of!

This is what the winds did to one of our compost bins a few weeks ago.

Is that a...no...it can't be....a Purple Sprouting Broccoli? About time!!

Freshly dug and waiting for seeds!

Mustard popped up and ready to be mixed into the soil.

A gardener's joy...a poly tunnel!

Broad bean plantation

Nice and cosy now...

Turnips under cover

Digging the back of the plot

2007-02-03T10:10:00.000Z

Sorry I have no photos - I think my camera is completely dead and I forgot my phone! :(

We've been gradually digging through the back of the plot where we had plastic down and we've been pulling up a fair amount of Mare's Tail. It's the only weed I know that if left wet and under exposed to the sun (i.e. under plastic) it looks like a collection of really long slimy worms! YUCK!
Anyways - I started a patch and was really getting into the swing of things until I realised the 6 Nations was on and had to leg it home. (Come on...you can't blame me for that!)

The next day (Sunday) was hell as I realised I was bogged down with a heavy cold. I wasn't going anywhere which really annoyed me! I hate being ill. I was even off work for a day which isn't like me at all!
I can breathe properly now so I'm hoping to finish that patch this weekend if....

..it's not snowing!! (4 inches this morning and more to come)

Not sure if snow is a good or bad thing?

Blown down

2007-01-22T03:33:00.000Z

We ventured up the plot today to find that everything had been thrown around by the horrendous winds and storms we've had over the past week. Everything in the greenhouse was on the floor, the metal compost bin had fallen over and the broccoli fence had blown down at a funny angle. It was a relief that nothing was smashed but the day ended short with a hail shower and then heavy rain. It's almost as though the weather doesn't want us to work on the plot!
I tried to photograph the wind damage but my camera's batteries were dead and I forgot my phone!
In the evening - Karl made a plan for the 2007 rotation and layout which involves (potentially!) a pond! Although I'm in charge of sorting that out. :)

More crap weather

2007-01-11T14:39:00.000Z

What is it with this country?? Rain, rain and Oooh...I know, more rain again!

Geez.. even my car boot is leaking!
When it does stop raining it then blows 30mph gales in the freezing cold which is really annoying. I have a cold, stuffed up ears, a damp car and I haven't seen the lotty for weeks! Fed up already. I'm going on holiday in March so I can hopefully have a few days (weather permitting) to do some digging and seeding and then have a break abroad in the sun.
I can't remember the last time the sun shone...was it in July? :(