Our Allotment in January 2022

 They sing about don't fence me in and wanting land lots of land. There are times though when you want to know your borders. January was fence repair and replacement time

A lovely layer of manure and new posts with curbing in place to retain the soil our lass did a grand job more photos to come of completed project

On t'other side the start of the great barrier allotment

And it grows

It does look good on how the light hits the wood.

A grand view with lots of potential to come through the year

from 50 down to 37 onions how many will survive?

As we prepare for the coming seasons.

 Life all around us seems to be forever in the pursuit of looking backwards, dissecting what has happened but alternatively an allotment does help you look forward to the future. You may well look back upon successes and failures but when you are down the allotment you seem to be in a constant state of what does the future hold? 

Our future down the allotment is of hopes and ideas, the learning of what you have enjoyed growing, and growing more of this produce in the coming year and the willingness to accept that the likes of carrots are far cheaper to buy by the bag at Asda than try to spend months growing them to then be devoured by carrot fly. With encouragement from our lass I have grown within myself in regards my abilities to build what is around us at the allotment and our lass too has had the enjoyment of success. We have both enjoyed the ability of just simply being, to lose hours but gain fulfilment. 

We have done plenty, but I have lost the initial condition a lot of new allotment holders suffer which is called the Mimi syndrome. best described as look at me, yes me, look what I have done, as though no others had done the same before.

Lots of pallets and like the jobs we have in mind for when we come to the allotment it normally turns into something else getting done, then these pallets have the same fate, they were to be fencing but if you scroll down you will see some of things they have become.

First time try at growing onions from seeds.

This was taken towards the end of September and it was great to have a display of colour down the allotment.

Our lass was rightly proud of her cauliflower a very pleasant surprise as the ones which were nurtured seemed the least likely to produce but let them do their own thing and they gave you results like this.

Hopefully keep our stuff safe from the grass cutter. our lass is full of cunning plans.

Nature can be so beautiful 

Onions in their own bed and manure on , well on just about everywhere as you can see.

Our lasses idea, pallet planters

Prepared today for the raspberries to be moved. Hopefully it will help to stop them wildly spreading also help keep the neighbours fence upright.

Two pallets and a bit of loose planks of wood, we now have a potting bench with shelving... it actually is stable, maybe down to the sheer weight of it.

Day 37 - We do give a fork.

We had a nice leisurely walk to the allotment today, the snow and ice of the previous days had gone, so we could walk with the assurance of not slipping. You will see from the first Photograph it was a lovely day, so it gave us chance to sort things, the manure has been rotting down and so we added some more to it, and whilst I was going up and down the hill, our lass sorted the leaf mould and forked over the beds and did a dirty dig over on the potato bed. The days are slowly getting longer, there is prospect of more snow in the days ahead but soon it will be spring and full steam ahead.

A lovely day as you can see.

Our lass forked over the soil breaking it down the clods of earth a bit more, also started the division of the bed, eventual this will be split into four.

Another bed forked over, and starting to portion them out

To give the worms a helping hand our lass forked in some of the manure we put on, so it will be well rotted in time for the potatoes in March / April

A long term project, as it can take three years for manure to become well rotted, but we topped up the pile, as it had rotted down by a third.

Day 33 - Then there will be light, muck, onions, leaf mould and an improvised bird feeder

I am sure I have wrote this before, but the very jobs you plan to go and do are not always the ones you end up doing or if you do get them done, other jobs crop up. Today was one of those days, on going to up to our allotment, we passed a fresh delivery of leaves then on the next corner a fresh delivery of horse muck.

So three trips for the horse muck filled in the gaps where it was looking a little bare from our last muck spreading. Then two trips for the leaves, one of which I took the dalek, and being the clever so and so I am got it filled to the brim, but left the small point of how to turn it the right way from barrow to position as it has no bottom. As always our lass put us right. sending me back off with the black bin, whilst sorting the Dalek, which is king of floating at the moment.

We had a brew, then actually got on with the jobs we had gone to do. First job to bring light to the shed, the bright sunny winters day was not lost on me for the irony, but the dark dreary days will be the times when we will get the benefit. Our lass sourced the light from Wickes, our lass is good at finding the bargain buy. 

Second job, to let the onions breathe. Well, it was to stop them from getting to wet from the netting as it seemed to be holding the rain water above them and sometimes on them. I removed the netting as the shoots are showing long enough to not make the birds think they are worms. I also did a mix of compost and grit to put around the onions. I did this after watching videos of where I should have done a hole with dibber or finger but put them on top, A layer of the mixture should help nourish and weed suppress.

Last job was a do it yourself birdfeeder, we have the hanging feeders but this was birds who literally like their meal on a plate or at least a flat surface. It is now positioned in front of the wildlife camera so we will see if it attracts the attention of the birds and meets with their approval.

And then there was light

The bed is finally covered ready for next years potatoes

Bird feeder, pond, what more would the wildlife like?

Onion shoots, now free to breathe and little nourishment.

Day 22 Part 2 - Getting to know your onions.

Discussion had been, not going to grow onions, by the time you grow them they cost more than if you just bought some down the shop, to be frank (and we have a lot of carpet so we can be) everything is cheaper in the shops, you really have to factor in the exercise and enjoyment of seeing what you have planted grow. So whilst we were out shopping yesterday we saw a bag of onion bulbs for less than 4p each, so our lass said "Go on if you want" to which I replied "I had thought of doing them, and we do eat them"

So we now have Onion sets, If you read the advice you are supposed to plan a few months in advance, we sometimes only plan as we walk to where we are going, luckily we had a bed which had been covered in horse manure a month ago, also, as i thought it was space I wanted to add more, but our lass stopped us, which was just as well.

Onions need 4 to 6 weeks autumn warmth, not harsh winter, so they can set roots into the soil, so even though our packaging said you could plant up to December, in all honesty I think we have planted just about as late as you can, so they will be ready for any frosts when they go dormant. They are expected to be ready for June/July.

They need well drained soil, but also need lots of moisture, quite a contradiction. So we have dug over the manure, and put some grit on top as you will see in the photographs, we have planted two rows either side, with a row in the middle free for a companion plant, we did think carrots but onions and carrots do not get on, so it is likely to be leeks or beetroot. 

Lets see what happens.

Here is hoping we can grow something like it looks like on the packet

The bed to begin with

Dug and raked, but not as good as our lass would have done

Applying the grit

Spot the onion, all ready for next year

Day 20 - You go to do one job but end up doing another.

We had gone with every intention of doing one job, but on the way to the allotment we noticed that a local stable had just made a fresh delivery of manure. So seven trips up and down the hill later, we had manure which now covered all the potato bed, ready to be dug in January/February and also a barrow load for each compost bin we are working. That kept me busy, and our lass got busy removing even more carpet, you can see the cleared area on the last photo, and the pile on the 4th. Also our lass planted another two blueberry bushes, it seems you need differing varieties as well as ericaceous soil for blueberries, so the old raised bed works wonders to let them have their own environment. 

Then finally the stump, bit by bit it has been sawn down, our lass has the plan of putting a pot around the stump, planting some flowers and letting that rot down the stump, lot easier than trying to dig it out. The pot won't be the grey cylinder you see, but we have more hose pipe which we have found, so watch out for the creation in the future.