One year on down Our Allotment

We have been on our full sized allotment for just over a year now and our time upon it has been an interesting growing year. We grew lots of onions where we envisaged growing none, two beds of sweetcorn, one as the back up as well as the first planted but both grew. An absolute bumper crop of strawberries, a daily supply of raspberries, potatoes, potatoes, potatoes although wire worm and a pest was a slight issue. Our lasses flowers grew well, with an initial would we grow any to having various displays which have done very well and brought the colour to the allotment our lass wanted. If the rhubarb is anything like it's growth in the first year we should have a bumper harvest when we can finally pick some next year, we also have to tame the octopus of a blackberry bush and reposition the raspberries.

All in all it is as always an adventure, you travel along not knowing exactly where you will end up. Vegetables we thought we would want to grow have dropped out of favour such as carrots, we will be doing a multitude of peas and beans next year and I, with the knowledge of growing tomatoes this year will be more selective and use a slightly differing technique for growing, so as to not have such a glut but a high quality tomato for our lass.

It has taken a year but I have also got out of my system the need for telling the world "Look at what we have produced" I am sure it is some sort of allotment owners ailment. Feeling as though you were one of the first to grow or do something and get the urge to tell the world. It is why there has been such a big gap between the last posts. I have still been taking photographs so you can see the before, the during and the after, but in the future it will be a bi weekly or monthly activity on here. This is our diary to look back at what we have done.

So with that, here are some of our latest photographs

The sweetpeas as you can tell have done very well and the scent could be quite powerful en masse as they were.

Not everything has been perfect, the day our stuff got moved, but lets move along ourselves, next photograph please.

Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes.

It is not a party trick, but every time I use a fork I manage to bend one of the tines on it....

July 26th, just taking in the view down the allotment.

Isn't nature great. Must admit in this instance the bee was quite drunk on the pollen gathering so made it easier to take the photo and for once my camera took a good shot.

End of July looking back at the allotment as we are about to go home.

A tidy shed, finally made use of the work bench, so at the same time had a tidy up.

Potatoes coming out muck going in

August 11th winter spuds sown

Grape vine put into place in the green house, as you can see the end of the tomatoes for this year, such a bumper year we had to give buckets full away on freecycle.

Our first pumpkin a little early but does need at least 2 weeks to mature. Will report back to how well it stores.

Club root, not good for the cauliflower, no more of them for a while it seems.

Our lass had been looking for a deck chair for quite a while, finally got one at a great price.

The Best Exotic Marigold Greenhouse. This was our best marigold bloom at the time and it got snapped, so seemed a fitting addition to the greenhouse

Our new bug house to be completed

I think with the amount of photographs I have just put up, I really need to keep on top of this blog as we do the allotment itself.

A day for collecting our bounty down the allotment

 Quite a few times when we have been going down to the allotment our first sightings of change is the remains of a leaf stork to flowers or a sudden appearance of weeds. So yesterdays findings were a pleasant surprise, the glimmering rubies nestled in the straw under cover of emerald leaves. We did expect on closer inspection to find the signs of perfection on the outer most view and the signs of slugs when you turned them over, but there was very little slug activity.

Our lass picked the strawberries and although from the photograph below you might think a punnet not bad, this out strips our returns from the whole of last season and hopefully is a good sign of things to come considering all the nurturing our lass has given the plants. Transporting all the runners from our old plot, weeding and now straw bedding with netting protection. Our rewards will be at least many fold the effort put in.

The only thing lacking was cream and as it was shops shut Sunday, I was a heathen and had them with custard, our lass will wait for some cream that we will buy today.

New potatoes that we had for tea from the bed above, our lass has now added chicken manure dug it over and transplanted the last of the cauliflower seedlings. Photographs to come. The new potatoes should just have been ready in 60 days, these were sown back on the 14th March and so have had nearly 90 days, also a lot of the soil was still very clayey it is going to take some time to get the soil as we want it. Free of detritus would be a start as we continual keep finding bits of glass and nails. One day the soil will be just right and that shouldn't be too far away.

Our break time view of the alliums in full flower attracting more than their fair share of hover flies.

More colour and hopefully by hanging them high they will be out of the way of the slugs.

As we say good night to the allotment we take a look back at the current growth we have, our next agenda is to get more flowers in for our lass.it is all far too green we need a bit of colour in our life.

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.

Determined indetermination

 We have been up to the allotment over the past few days, our lass has been very busy moving her babies along from one tray to the next, hardening off in the cold frame, also making the cold frame as mouse proof as possible. I on the other hand have been a bit lax with posting on here and thought a slight change is in order. We can still post about our adventures down our allotment but drop the day (number) part. Almost seems like a diary from prison or in a far flung land waiting for salvation, when the allotment itself continues to be our salvation.

The title comes from not always knowing everything in life, it seems potatoes and tomatoes for that matter can be determinate (make all their tubers or fruits in one level above the originating seed tuber or all in one go in the case of tomatoes or they can be indeterminate which means they grow tubers or fruits along the main stem of the plant. With potatoes you can continually earth up and in theory get as many levels of potatoes as the stem grows up the tower you grow them in. Tomatoes will have ripened fruit at the bottom and graduations of its fruit as you work the way to the top of the plant. Didn't know this little fact and slightly annoyed when you watch most of the gardening programmes talking about earthing up and getting more from the crop. This explains when viewing neighbouring allotments and they have several buckets already full of soil with the new potato inside. You learn something new all the time so will help with formulating the growing of potatoes for next year.

Our lass spotted a green man plaque on a recent trip to the garden centre, Wiki info on Green Man all about the green man / woman, I could write waffle but why not follow the link to wiki. It looks good and hopefully bring us good fortunes for the year ahead.

Our new plaque

Our lasses full green house

We need the frosts to go, so our lass can plant.

Will it be beat it or bye bye baby for the beetroot

One potato, Two potato, Three potato, more. Well 14 rows and 4 grey buckets and a recycling bucket. Potatoes are more than sorted.

Day 61 - Ability to time travel required.

There is a saying "That a society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they will never sit under". Now we have no plans to pop our clogs anytime soon, but you do have to plan for the future. Currently our rhubarb won't be ready to harvest for another year as you can only start picking on the second year. You will see in the photograph below we have erected another archway, but the climbing rose which grows underneath will take around three years to reach full height and probably five to make the full arch. So it's all about time travel, you let yourself go into the future and envisage what will be, it certainly helps as you look at the bare ground before you. These photographs here will also help us time travel back into the past, when our efforts are rewarded when we can say "Look what it used to be like"

Our lass is forever a happy digger and the last two potato beds are being prepared, they say you should have soil like cake crumbs, ours is currently like rock cakes.

Preparing for the future

Last two potato beds being prepared

Day 57 - Allotmenteering is much like playing golf.

 Now before you get your five iron and see how far you can launch your brussels just read me out. For the past few months we have been preparing the allotment for the growing season ahead, trying our best to add goodness to the ground, setting out the beds for the crops we wish to grow, making a plan on cardboard boxes as to where things will grow. Now the time is almost upon us, we constantly have the thoughts of will everything grow, have we got too much of one produce, is another going to be ready in time, how come other allotments have this done now and how come others seem to have nothing done at all, are we too early are we too late. Questions rattling through our heads and most of all will it all work out. Now a golfer must go through the same, lots of practise before the competition, then get to the course and over four days having to play as well as possible against the conditions which will be unfamiliar to them and comparing themselves to others playing around them.

We can only affect what we can do, it is in itself enjoyable to be down the allotment, so even if nothing grew, it would be very annoying, but me and our lass would have shared sunny days. There will be miss haps, there will be golf balls in the lake moments, every grower has something which won't germinate, get eaten, or simply doesn't grow as it should, but we will have chip ins from the bunker moments as well.

You might tell that I watched the golf last night after being down the allotment with our lass.

Our Lasses greenhouse is almost full, mine is almost full as well, the next lot of potatoes are in the ground, four varieties in two more to go how will it all do, well only the future can tell. But it is a future we can look forward to.

Our lass trying to make use of every bit of shelving

Our lass who always knows better, really did need the shelving I made her.

All in place, now hope it all grows.

Two more beds of potatoes in Cara and Kestrel

The daffodils are almost in flower.

Day 56 - It is time to celebrate - Spring

Today was a day to celebrate, firstly it was our lasses birthday which was greeted by sunshine and warmth when the breeze died down. Obviously I will take credit for making sure we got some sun today. Secondly, we have crossed the threshold of longer days than nights which means the growing season will be with us before we know it with somethings already growing.

A sunny view out over the allotment

The first of many empty bottles to be found down our allotment this year.

Tomatoes are taking root, onions starting to have shoots, peas starting to grow upwards and first level of compost added to the potatoes, just awaiting pumpkin and courgette seeds to germinate

Our lasses Carol Klein impression, tidying up the pots with grit,

Year one for the Rhubarb, which is a shame as no Rhubarb crumble this year, but where we thought we may have lost one, all three are starting to grow good leaves.

Another two sets of furrows await their potatoes, it will be plan B though as the ground is still very clayey so we will be covering with homemade compost in the coming months.