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.

You are dealing a lot with time travel when you have an allotment.

 Who is to say there is a month between posts or that I had written this a month ago and this has appeared now? Well this sort of reasoning is similar to when I say to our lass that I didn't hear her when there are two sounds at the same time as they cancel each other out.

I am sure I have written about this before, but you are forever time travelling when you have an allotment. You are either looking back and comparing with how something used to be or just how much something has grown or like now, even though we are only midway through July, we are looking forward and making plans for next year and the consideration of crop rotation, what worked or didn't and simply at its highest priority grow more of what we liked this year or was missing from this year.

Here is a quick review of the last month.

The Strawberries as you can see were plentiful, at least ten punnets or more this size, quite a few shared out and just as many enjoyed, our first year strawberries did fantastic.

Our lass found another bargain "Tenner lady" not for any other reason than she cost a tenner.

We have had some great days weather wise and the view is very muchly enjoyed considering the world we find ourselves in at the moment.

flowers

Flowers

and more flowers. Our lasses initial troubles with getting the darn things to grow have now come to fruition or should that be flowertion. Our lass will be doing things differently next year but it has all helped to learn what does or does not work or what you want to do or not do.

Just some of our onions drying, and it should not be long before the tomatoes ripen.

A woodpecker caught on the wildlife camera, wish I could just get the perfectly clear shot. Just a little too close.

and finally....

Every shed needs a little bit of lace curtain don't you think?

Straw, Slugs, Allotment, Slugs, Cauliflowers, Slugs, Potatoes, more slugs, oh and bind weed.

You may have noticed a theme to the header, the bane of every allotment holders life. Slugs! I did actually google to see what are slugs good for? (Absolutely nothing!) You may well have the song War! in your mind now. But it seems that slugs are a big part of the eco system, they make great composters, it is just a shame the stuff they want to eat is young tender leaves and not weeds. If only a slug could be encouraged to eat weeds, we would be devoted disciples of the slugs, erect monuments in their honour. They don't though so our lass sets out beer traps and the feeling is we might as well be putting party invitations out for the slugs with a header of FREE BEER!.

One thing which seems to have worked a bit is the grit around our courgette and pumpkin although one mound as you can see top right seems to have mysteriously moved all by itself. Also the leaves at the bottom are yellowing and hopefully we start getting new leaves before we lose the old ones.

Our lass has put out the barley straw, worry as always is will this just be a comfortable hiding place for the slugs. We have since netted over as well, to stop air attack from the birds, here is hoping we actually get some strawberries for ourselves.

Our lass put out a few cauliflowers yesterday and whilst doing so removed five slugs from the ground, they now have hopefully become lunch for the frog as we put them in the pond. But please give us a chance, go for the beer please leave our veg alone.

Yesterday we took our first crop of potatoes out of the ground, we had had some from a bucket, but these were our first from the soil. This whole area when we got the allotment though had bin weed, not only is it a lot tidier now we are still doing our best to get every little bit out. As you can not even leave the smallest bit of root in. Plan of action, is to cut the main leaves of the potatoes and compost them, fork out under the potatoes and put them on the sieve. Pick through and sort, potatoes, then potato roots and weeds in a bag to go for rubbish. I know they say you can compost everything, but for us weeds just have seeds and you are spreading it around the allotment and potatoes seem to like to grow anywhere from even the smallest node.

How the allotment looked on day one and the bind weed on the right.

Yesterdays new potatoes and very nice they were as well, the smell of the cooked potatoes took me right back in time, might sound like some old fart. But the potatoes we have today just don't even smell the same as they used to and was very enjoyable to eat yesterday.

and finally Carrots and Onions, no need to thin the carrots as only a few have come through from the ones which were sown a couple of months ago. Last month we sowed another row in the middle and they are just showing the first signs of germination and yesterday to the right sowed the final row of carrots in the hopes that over the coming months we will get a progression of carrots to pick, carrot fly is supposed to have gone by June, but still trying do as little as possible to disturb just in case. As for knowing your onions, well I didn't and thought they had all died in the winter but thought would just leave them to see what would happen. Which it seems was a good idea as they are starting to look a lot like onions. Now just need to know when is the right time to pick them? Answers not on a postcard but in the comment section if you know.

Day 49 - Everything is fit to burst

It seems we are now only a short time away from spring bursting out all over. We have everything just about ready, seedlings are coming along, potatoes chitting, seed packets lined up to be sown, we just need the warmer weather. At the end of today we had the glimpse of what I described to our lass as a late evening sun, it felt like eight in the evening in the summer but it was actually three thirty in the afternoon. With the clocks moving forward and the longer days coming ever closer this will remedy all our angst of lets get on with it. But you do feel as though you are awaiting the starting pistol, which won't have made a noise but instead burst open a daffodil flower or pear/apple tree blossom.

Today our lass had not only been busy mixing in compost and grit to help the soil to drain in some of the beds, our lass also removed the leaves from a bed and put them into our bench planter, forked and hoed the beds, but also came up with a great idea for the onion sets I had left over. "Why not plant them with the tomatoes?" Our lass said, A quick google search found that tomatoes and onions work well as companions with the onions odour hopefully repelling pest that like tomatoes. We will report back through the year, but it could be an interesting experiment.

Our bench planter, just needing some compost in the planting side. But looks as though it will be a good spot for the end of day sunshine.

Strawberry bed hoed and weeded

One of several beds attended to by our lass, with compost and grit to help improve drainage

Carrot bed now topped up and ready for seed.

The tomato plant will go in the middle of the four onions.

Onions the grandkids planted, now has a net over to stop the birds being confused with the shoots.

One wheel short of a wheel barrow, advice for anyone, if you choose a wheel barrow get one with a solid tyre, ours has got a puncture so having to seek a replacement wheel.

Tomatoes and aubergines coming along nicely.

Day 47 - We gotta have faith, faith, faith.

One thing our lass has been able to slowly but surely instil in me is a modicum of faith in myself. Yesterday a bench, today some planters from old tongue and groove. Before I would never have had the self belief but with the help of our lass, who knows what I could build next.

This faith, is also faith in that everything is going to grow. Our lass is currently disheartened by the performance of germinating seeds, currently around three have germinated in a whole tray, the argument seems to be, "Why not just go and buy the plants?" Which to be honest the same could be said about the fruit and vegetables we are growing. This could never be classed as a money saving exercise, but as a certain credit card would suggest "Some things are priceless".

Our lass potted on some lavender cuttings and in the Carol Klein style of gardening covered them in grit.

Three new planters for the front of the allotment, if anyone decides to nick them they are in for a surprise, as they have no bottoms....

Todays new work bench, the top of the compost bin.

Camera on a stick, see how the angle change affects the photographs

Onion bed being prepared

all the tubs ready and filled in the green house, just the buckets for the peppers.

Bench made safe by securing it to the flower bed

Happy New Year 2021 - New Years Day down the allotment.

Everyday is a learning day, today we learnt not everything can be a success, but you learn from it and go on. We also, well I learned thanks to our lass, that there is a lot more to life, just being in the game can be just as if not more rewarding than going for the win. People will normally only talk about their successes and never of the failures, but they do say you have to taste failure to make the flavour of success taste sweeter.

But first, lets start with a little bit of repurposing, our lass put up this sail boats decoration on the shed of doors. 

A not so healthy looking onion set, they have in the main part sprouted shoots, and as you can see here, have a semblance of a root system. but the onion part has gone funny. I am trying this out on one which wasn't fully rooted like the rest of them. 

I re potted the onion set from above, it now lives in the green house. I am thinking the ground has been too wet for them and although a lot of grit had been added, it may have got water logged. will keep you updated.

The tomato seeds which germinated when I tried to save them and so I tried growing them instead have as you can see succumbed to the first frost.

Next we have the aubergines, as you can see I only tired out 5 seeds have 95 more in reserve, they need a warm start, and the green house isn't quite up to temperature yet, but I have put them on the hot bed, and as always will be hoping

When on the back window of the greenhouse, the thermometer thought it was 20c

When moved to a more honest position, and the back was not touching the glass heated by the sun, but in the air of the green house, the temperature dropped down to 14c and by the time we left it was down to 8c.