First Harvest

I've reaped my first harvest, a lovely bunch of radishes. I ate them for my lunch in a mixed salad, and very nice they were too.

I'm off on my hols tomorrow. I'm going to Canada for three weeks, so I've been busy getting the allotment up to scratch before I go to give it a fighting chance of not suffering too much while I'm away.

The plot is looking pretty good at the moment. Most of the seeds I've planted are growing and I've now planted out the plants I started off on the kitchen window sill. Hopefully they will survive while I'm away. The pesky pigeons had been attacking my turnips but my son and myself made up some snazzy bird scarers to see them off and it seems to have worked.

My son wanted to grow giant sunflowers and giant pumpkins. We planted sunflower seeds and they are now sturdy seedlings and we cheated a bit and bought a couple of pumpkin plants from the allotment association. The pumpkins are doing well and if you look closely they are already starting to produce female flowers with little potential pumpkins behind them.

One of my allotment mysteries has been solved, I've met my neighbours. And no, I was wrong, they don't garden at night, just at different times to myself it seems. My mystery tree has now stared producing fruit and I'm still not sure what it is. Any ideas?

My potatoes are doing well and I'm really looking forward to eating some yummy new potatoes with butter when I get back from my holiday.

I have employed a couple of babysitters to keep an eye on things (my partners parents) and I'm sure they'll take good care of the plot for me. They have both been so helpful in getting the plot started and with their continuing support, I'm really grateful to them.

I'm sure it will be a fantastic holiday but I will miss the allotment and worry about what's happening on it.

How much will everything have grown when I get back? Will it all survive? Will my son's plan to grow the world's biggest radish come to fruition?!! Come back in three weeks to find out.......

Hard work and mystery

It's been a busy month with school holidays and sick children but although I haven't found the time to post I have been hard at work on the allotment.

It really seems to have paid off digging the plot over thoroughly and removing as much as possible of the pernicious weeds. Some are coming up, including the dreaded bindweed, But these have mostly been small weak specimens that are not too difficult to dig up and remove. Another plot holder just roughly dug his plot and covered it in straw and now there is a forest of bindweed shooting up all over it! (Thank goodness it's a few plots away from mine).

I've now finished digging over my plot and have been preparing the beds for planting next month. I've dug trenches for my french beans and planting pits for my courgettes and outdoor cucumbers, all of which are growing merrily on my kitchen windowsill. I've also covered the beds with a straw mulch to keep down weeds and retain water.

From the end of March I've been direct sowing seeds and was disappointed that nothing seemed to be growing. Last week on closer inspection I found that they have germinated, along with a good crop of annual weeds. So I've been busy weeding, thinning out seedlings and sowing more. I'm trying to sow secessionly every 2 - 3 weeks so that everything isn't ready at the same time.

I've planted a strawberry bed, thanks to my mum giving me some strawberry runners. I need to get a few more plants to fill it and think about netting. I'm told the local birds will gobble up the lot given half a chance.

I got my partner to turn the compost heap (there are advantages to being head gardener!) and was pleased to see it is breaking down well. My first load of Bokashi waste seems to have worked ok too. It was covered in the right kind of mould (white and fluffy, not green) and smelled like it was fermenting. I added it to the heap as it was being turned.

Finally we end with two mysteries.

My mystery tree is in full blossom. It's had lots of admirers but no one seems to know what it is. It's probably a crab apple, but hopefully it's something else that we can actually eat.

The other mystery are my neighbours to the left, who I've never met. I'm on my plot at different times and days of the week and in 4 months I've never seen them. Every now and then there has been signs of work being done, more so recently, but no sign of anyone doing it. I have a theory that they are gardening at night.

Spud-I-like

Today I planted some of my seed potatoes which have been chitting on my kitchen windowsill for the last month. Chitting is basically exposing them to light so that they start to develop shoots before they are planted. This gives them a head start and is said to produce a heavier crop.

In the box are Epicure, Ulster Sceptre and Salad Blue. The first two are new potatoes, known as earlies because they mature faster. The third, as the name suggests, is a salad potato which has a blue/purple flesh.

I've been working out a planting plan for my plot and realised that the crops I have already selected fill all the beds I have prepared on the left side. So although I was intending to cultivate only half the plot this year I have decided to go ahead and use some of the right side too, I hope I'm not being too ambitious! I've been able to put in a few hours over the last week and dug over a large area for the potatoes (removing loads more bindweed - grrrr!).

My plot neighbour, who is the Allotment Association secretary, recommended preparing trenches for the potatoes similar to the method for runner beans. I've been warned before that the soil dries out in warm weather and she said this helps to retain water and nutrients and gives a much better crop.

So over the last two days I have dug five trenches, lined them with newspaper, then straw (free used bedding delivered by the local stables) and piled in compost from my bin on the plot.

Trenches in progress...

And today I finally got to plant the potatoes (helped by my son).

More digging and first signs of life

The plot has been coming along nicely since my last post.

Despite not doing the traditional thing and spending Easter gardening (thanks to the weather) I have been managing to put in regular time down on the allotment.

About 3/4 of the plot has now been dug over. Last week my partner and I finished digging the left side and marked out the rest of the beds with string. I'm planning to install edging boards when time and money allows, like the ones around the tree.

The area around the tree has been compacted and weed control fabric laid down. I'm going to leave the water butt next to the centre path together with a wildlife project that I am working on with my son. On the other side of the tree there will be another double compost bin that has already been made by my Father-in-law and just needs to be installed.

My Father-in-law has also finished putting up the fence and it looks great. He has done the job pretty cheaply by using his own ingenuity and recycled materials such as the chain link fencing which came from a local park and from another plotholder, free of charge.

This is what the front "fence" used to look like

The garlic I planted previously has started growing and I have since planted shallots, onions and a couple of rows of spring onions. My potatoes are chitting nicely and I'm planning to plant them within the next week, if the weather allows. I've also started off a few seeds on the kitchen window sill.

I had read that Garlic needs a cold spell to get going but mine seems to be going for it anyway. It does better with as long a growing season as possible so I will probably get smaller bulbs this year. Next years crop can be started in the autumn and will overwinter for a longer season and fatter bulbs.

Garlic sprouting

Finally, my Bokashi bin is about 2/3 full and looks good so far. It's hard to tell what's happening beneath the top layer although as promised in the instructions it does not smell. It has made me more aware of what foods I am throwing away and I have found myself think twice about buying something that I've put in the bin. That must be an extra advantage to using it.

Better than your average composter.

While doing my shopping yesterday in Tesco I checked out their greener living promotion and saw these "Bokashi bin" type composters. They can be used to compost almost any food waste, including meat, dairy products and cooked food, that you cannot put in a normal compost bin.

The secret to how they work is Bokashi bran, which is a mix containing bran, molasses and micro organisms. When you add waste to the bin you sprinkle in a handful of Bokashi bran and this helps break it down and prevent any unpleasant smells. As the waste breaks down a liquid plant feed is produced that is drained off via a tap at the bottom of the bin.

Once the bin is full it must be left for 14 days after which time the contents can be safely added to a garden compost bin or buried in a trench to finish breaking down. It's usually better to have 2 bins so that you can start filling a new one while the previous one is working.

I have seen this type of composter before but they are usually very expensive so it was something that I had added to my mental wish list. When I saw them in Tesco they were already selling at a much reduced price of £21. But when I went back to pick them up at the end of doing my shopping they had been further reduced to the bargain price of £10.50! That was for the twin pack, they also had single bins for £6.50 and both packs included Bokashi bran.

I have already put mine to use, adding cheese, bread and leftover cooked food and will let you know how it goes in a future post.

Clearing the plot continues.....

Bringing my progress up to date - Part 2

On my very first visit to the plot I took measurements and made a sketch of the existing layout. By the time I had finished the general clearing described in my previous post I had an idea how I wanted to set out the plot and what I wanted to achieve in the first year. I decided to aim to get half the growing area cultivated this year and to roughly dig over and cover the other half.

So having mostly sorted out the Family/Work area at the back of the plot I began digging the left side ready to set out beds. I knew there was some bindweed around, I had to remove it from my mystery tree and right side fence, but I was a bit disheartened to find a mat of roots just below the soil. Bindweed is my nemesis in my home garden. Any small bits of root left behind will reshoot and form a new plant, so if you're trying to be organic (I am) the only thing to do is dig over the ground thoroughly and try to remove every piece.

I also started roughly digging over the right side of the plot, helped by my partner. This side had a fair bit of couch grass (which is why I decided to cultivate the other side first, only to find all that darn bindweed!). This is just some of the couch grass turf and bindweed we have taken out:

The other things I have been digging up all over the plot are single potatoes. I mentioned this to my neighbour and she told me that when the previous tenant was harvesting potatoes any that didn't come up to standard would get chucked over the shoulder and therefore broadcast across the plot! I've been piling them up in front of the compost bin and my son has the job of breaking them up and popping them in the bin when he is around. Gives him a job and works off some of that testosterone fueled need to smash things that boys have.

Here is the latest haul waiting for him:

As each section of the fallow side has been roughly dug over I have covered the ground with old carpet. Having planned to use carpet as a weed surpressant I have been rescuing pieces from skips and street corners. The advantage is that it is free, the disadvantages are a) you need to avoid the foam backed stuff since it breaks down quickly and crumbles into the soil, b) you get a lot of funny looks/comments from strangers and c) (if you are really unlucky like me) in your haste to avoid disadvantage ' b)' you put your foot in a pothole in the road and get a badly sprained ankle!

About half of the growing area of the plot has now been weeded and dug over (with thanks to my partner and mother-in-law for their contributions)

My father-in-law has also started putting up a new fence on the front and left sides of the plot (more about that in a future post).

Last weekend I finished digging over and compacting the soil for a new path and marked out some of the beds and paths with string (no photos yet). I also planted my first crop, some garlic. I know it's a bit late but I decided to give it a try anyway. I'm hoping that the cold frosty nights we are having this week will fool it into thinking it is still winter so that it will want to grow once the weather warms up again!

The aforementioned sprained ankle happened on Monday so I am having an enforced rest from the allotment this week. I really miss it but hopefully I'll be back by the weekend, if only for a bit of a potter.

The starting post.

Welcome to my allotment blog.

I'm a first time allotment holder and veg gardener and I'm going to be writing about my trials and errors getting my plot into shape and growing fruit & veg.

I've had my plot for 2 months and with a little help from my nearest and dearest it's starting to take shape, but this is how it all began.....

.

Progress so far - Part 1

On 21st December 2007, before starting any work, the plot looked like this:

A bit daunting but still better than most of the potential plots!

I chose it because it had good soil, a light, dark loam, unlike most of the site that has heavy clay (and by the number of nettles it seems to be quite fertile), it didn't look too badly infested with perenial weeds and it had a ready made double compost bin and a shed. The shed roof does come with a "skylight" thanks to a fallen branch but it is otherwise solid. The biggest plus is that the water supply tank is right next to the plot, some plotholders have quite a walk.

On the downside it is north east facing and has tall trees planted at the south west end that cast quite a bit of shade this time of year. But I'm told it gets plenty of sun in summer and it will be nice to have somewhere cool to rest then. I've also been told that this soil needs watering more than the clay does, but it is so much easier to work and with the water supply close I can cope with that.

I started, with the help of my partner, by clearing the rubbish and dumping it in the communal skip. The plot had been partialy and half-heartedly worked last year by the previous tenant so there were some remains of crops. I got my partner to start digging these up and I sorted out the compost bins so the vegetation could go straight in. I cleared some space in front of the double bins and emptied out the contents. They were a bit compacted and both had a mixture of made compost at the bottom and stuff still cooking on top. I discovered that the bottom 2 of the centre boards were rotten and replaced these with some from my stockpile of allotment supplies. I then put all the good compost in one bin and the half rotted stuff in the other and gave it a good water and a carpet lid. The crops we discovered were sweetcorn, some smashed squash and a very old and woody collection of turnips.

I decided to keep the mystery dwarf fruit tree but I cut down the tall spindly apple tree. I also chopped down the brambles and overgrown fruit bushes and dug out the worst offenders.

I then dug over the back of the plot, where I plan to have a family area and work space. I removed as much of the weeds as I could then leveled the ground and compacted it. I plan to cover this part with weed control fabric and bark chips which are delivered free to the site from the local council's tree pruning.

After the first month we had made good progess. Here are before and after shots taken from the same place:

Next time I will bring my progress up to date with Part 2