Day 41 - Crates, Beds and Leaf Mouldabiles

 Okay so I stretched the heading a bit, but aren't we all allowed a bit of artistic license, as much as you are down your own allotment. One of the best things said to us on our first walk around the allotment site that we have our plot on, was "It's your plot, you can do what you like" (Well within the allotment rules). But basically don't get hung up on what other folks are doing or not doing.

Today would be the third straight day we have made a day out at our allotment, and it has felt good, even though our lass would think I had made a good job of hiding this fact. 

You will see below, we have finally found use and positioning for a large crate which was left in the plot, it now sits between the pear trees, and is two thirds filled with leaf mould so when we add the bought in compost it doesn't take a silly amount of bags, we should get away with two bags and then our lass has another bed for flowers.

We have found more trunks to line the dog roses, so that is coming together even more now and the crate which came from the same corner was going to be given away but is now lined and will store more leaves to create leaf mould, you can never have enough, compost, leaf mould or manure you will come to know.

Lastly, I nailed together four planks of the wood that we got a few weeks ago, it is to make a raised bed for the carrots, as the soil is quite clayey and is the reason why it looks like the onions have failed. but the bed frame is ready for next week when we will mix compost and grit together to put in it. It is also the right length to simply put the netting straight over to keep the carrot flies out. Considering a bag of carrots is around fifty pence, we are going for the priceless experience not a cost saving exercise.

Carpets on to stop the leaves flying off, but next step is to add compost on the top level

I know I have shown a few photographs of this corner over the past few days, but this is nearing it's ready for now stage, nothing is ever finished it can always be tinkered with.

You can never have enough leaf mould.

First use of the wood we got a few weeks ago, a bed for the carrots.

Day 40 Dig, Dog, Do.

I know a lot of the time is where I write Our allotment, but today I truly felt like it was our lasses allotment. Our lass did a lot of work today and all I did was barrow some wood chippings up the hill. Now I ain't fishing for credit, just in awe of our lass. 

The dog rose is all in place, and for an added touch our lass noticed some tree trunk/thick branch sections from a well established tree. So I brought them up with the wood chippings and our lass edged the area as you can see in the photographs below. The trench from yesterday was lined with blood fish and bone, the dog roses were then bedded in with compost mixed with grit. We also got a bonus as it seems someone from where got them from couldn't count to ten as we got eleven. Must have been a one more for luck.

Then when our lass had finished planting the dog rose, the potato bed was her next target and with the flash of a spade the lazy worms had the straw part of the manure turned over bringing it closer to them, so this will help more rot down for next month. 

I did also do a drain pipe of peas, in between the trips up and down the hill with the barrow and swept. but the star for today was our lass.

How this area used to look

And how it looks today

Our lass will be happy when the dog roses have grown up to cover the fence and block out the blue.

Can our lass dig it, yes she can.

Before

Day 39 - Tidying one of our corners.

 The freeze has ended it seems and the long term forecast hopefully will be for above zero temperatures, so with this in mind our lass led the way with a job which had been on the agenda for some time, namely sorting out one of the allotments corners. At home we have some dog roses healed in awaiting there new home. As you can see from the series of photographs below there had already been a big transformation before we had started todays work.

How this corner initially looked when we took over the allotment.

We had already tidied a lot as you can see

Surprising what you can find in a seemingly forgotten part of the allotment, our lass dug out what seemed to be the concrete block from a washing machine

Trench ready for the dog roses tomorrow. Helps to tidy a corner and turn it from dumping ground to edge of our wildlife pond area.

We have made it into the Wall Street Journal

I kid you not, we are not any kind of wolves of Wall Street more hedgehogs of the horticultural close. We answered a call from a journalist last year, who was writing an article about new allotment owners in the pandemic.

We shared our thoughts as we share our adventures here.

Link to article in the Wall Street Journal

It is behind a pay wall, so you will just see a few paragraphs if like us you are frugal, a pound for two months doesn't seem too much of an investment if you did wish to read on.

Or you can follow us here for free and get everything as we do it, hot off the press so to speak.

Our happy place

When it snows little grows

 We had a walk down to the allotment today, our lass to feed the birds me and our lass to feed our soul, I made our lass laugh to the point she dirtied her glasses, can't share the joke, but we had a great few hours. Another excuse for a cuppa, a ponder and a thoughtful talk

A layer of snow greets us

Foot prints on the pond

I liked the way our lass described the snow slipping off the greenhouse roof as tumbling sheets

Whilst having our brew the snow came back, wish my camera would take the same shots our eyes could see.

January 2021 Statistics

 A little late with the numbers but here we are, I enjoy numbers and much as we take photographs of the allotment to see where it has come from to go to, I enjoy taking a note of numbers to see the changes over time.

January for obvious reasons has been a month where we have less full periods of time down at the allotment, we have visited frequently but only 2 days recorded for jobs, jobbed.

Last month according to extreme tracking we had 486 visitors which is up from the previous month of 375, something which is a little more reliable is blogger stats and they show 511 page views last month which is down from the previous month which had been up at 628

We still have one follower of the blog

Twitter again showed an increase which helps grow the profile of the blog. with the highest numbers since starting the blog.

JAN 2021 SUMMARY

Tweets

138

Tweet impressions

120K

Profile visits

14.8K

Mentions

62

New followers

295

A week nearer to spring time

It has been a slow week down the allotment, it has been cold with occasional snow showers. There is forever an urge to get things done, but the cold is holding things back and you just need the sun to shine down and release the energy. I am guessing in the future there won't be enough time for everything, but for now we wait. 

First signs of the alliums breaking through

Our lass bought us an early Valentines present

I put our lasses present straight into use, Aubergine, Leek and Tomato seeds hopefully will germinate.

Not quite the beast from the east, we will see what we get over the next few days.

The site of our next project, clear this corner and plant some dog wood roses.

View from the allotment and the turn of the compost.

 

Whilst standing at the compost bins I turned around to get a view of the allotment from another angle which I haven't really taken in before. Loving the big skies and the ability to see further than we are probably allowed to travel.

Time of the month to turn the compost.

Looking good, needs to break down more, but it's well on its way.

All done, this time around I think I might leave it for 2 months, as February is a short month and give it good two solid months to do its thing without me disturbing it.

Chitting potatoes, un chitted potatoes and wood.

The hours of sunlight are forever getting longer, as of today we have an extra 1hour and 16 minutes compared to the shortest hours of day light back on the 21st December. But we still need more to get into the full swing of growing, you should never wish your life away, but this time of year is much like Christmas to a small child, you simply can not wait to open the presents. As adults though we learn to wait, and distract ourselves with other things, there is still jobs to do, and although we are 6 weeks away from sowing potatoes we have to prepare, and one of those jobs is chitting potatoes.

We have 6 varieties of which I will list below, 2 bags of each. Our lass bought this very useful shelving, which as per usual I found the use for it before our lass did. As you can see I have put out to chit one bag of each variety we have, whilst leaving the other bag of each type of potato in a cool dry garage. Then when planting we will do a row of chitted and non chitted and lets see what happens.

This was the selection purchased.

• Potato 'Cara' (Late maincrop) - Creamy skin and striking bright red eyes.
• Potato 'Maris Bard' (First early) - Smooth white skinned tubers with white flesh, heavy cropping variety with good drought and common scab resistant.
• Potato 'Kestrel' (Second early) - Producing tubers of consistent size and shape, with attractive, smooth skins and violet eyes.
• Potato 'Lady Christl' (First early) - Very early, smooth oval, pale yellow skinned tubers with creamy flesh that remains firm on cooking.
• Potato 'King Edward' (Late maincrop) - The creamy white flesh has a light, floury texture and rarely discolours on cooking
• Potato 'Valor' (Late maincrop) - Exceptional yields of quality general purpose potatoes for all culinary uses.

• Lady Christi has been replaced by 
• First early.Potato 'Swift' is among the fastest maturing of the first early varieties, being the quickest to produce heavy crops of round, smooth, white-fleshed baby new potatoes, and producing larger tubers than Potato 'Rocket'. Its short bushy habit makes it ideal for containers or potato bags where space is limited. Potato 'Swift also has partial double eelworm resistance.

The plan is that the whole bed will be ready for 2nd to 3rd week of March as much as any plans stay the same, split the bed into six, then sow chitted potatoes to the right unchitted to the left. Well, thats the plan, still to be done as of yet.

The potato bed, when the frosts allow, hope to dig in the last of the manure/straw so it can be ready for sowing.

And finally.....

We put out a general request if anyone had any spare scaffolding boards. The above photograph shows the haul we got. Walkways, raised beds and I even have an idea for a table. Watch this space.

Cold days and big skies

A selection of photographs from our trip to the allotment on Sunday, we pottered and had a cuppa, but most of all enjoyed the nature around us. Not everything is about doing a lot. Life is about being.

Cold and frosty morning down at the allotment yesterday

Had thought of bringing the potatoes down today to start the chitting process, but they need at least 10 degrees and although it was minus 4 degrees out side and plus 4 degrees inside as you can see, we are just going to wait a little longer.

Can never tire of the great views from our allotment, especially when you spend most of your time currently imprisoned at home.

Some more of the big skies, never has it been so true to sing don't fence me in. Yet home we have a 6ft fence all around us, here we can see the world all around.

Rain, High water and Green house roof fixed.

 

The fix seems to be doing it's job, keeping the rainwater out, but still going in the guttering to keep the barrels full.

We have seen the nearby river higher than this before, but it's not to far from completely bursting it's banks as you can see.

We are at the top of the hill, so we are okay, but some of the allotments at the bottom it might be more interesting. This is a farmers field behind our allotment which slopes down to the river.

Our first signs of spring down the allotment

 

First shoots coming through from the daffodil bulbs

I know, fake grass down an allotment, really!! But it covers the area where the pear tree roots are, and this is where the daffodils will shine shortly we hope.

Day 38 - We have a cunning plan for the greenhouse roof.

Sometimes the simplest remedies can be the best, we have over the past month or so, been trying to figure out how to sort the greenhouse roof on our lasses greenhouse. Whoever had it before had obviously broken some of the panes, left them around the back of the greenhouse and then filled the gaps with poly carbonate and lots and lots of glue, with the occasional screw thrown in for good measure.

A replacement greenhouse brand new with toughened safety glass, would be great but quite an investment to be put down the allotment. Replacing with glass, would also cost and the frame is slightly twisted. We thought of a wooden frame, but would it take off in the wind, and although I am growing in confidence in the building department, I don't think I quite have the skill set to make a good enough job.

Our lass had the final idea, and as per usual the best. We sourced a see through tarpaulin, much the same as a buggies rain cover. It has eyelets and as you will see from the photographs below, held in place with available ropes, wire and milk bottles with some spare pipe insulation to cover the sharp bits.

Fingers crossed for the first breath of wind, will report back saying it is still in place or we had to fetch it from yonder field.

This is what needed covering up

What our lass needed to do to capture all the rain which was coming through the roof.

First of all piping on the roof, so hopefully kept away from anything sharp.

Cover up those screws

Another way of recycling the milk bottles, filled with water and hopefully keeping everything in place they have been pinned as well.

Hopefully enough wire and rope to keep it all in place.

Crossing our fingers, but I am sure it will do the job.

A bit of health and safety, having cracked my head twice here, I have used some of the left over foam.

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.