Allotments can help you grow yourself, not just fruit and veg.

There has been a few weeks since the last blog post, not because we haven't been down to the allotment but because you do discover that sometimes it is not all about look at me look at what we have done, please give me your approval by liking what I post or write about. This allotment is for me and our lass, whether or not someone else approves or not, likes or dislikes it is for us and we do what we do.

You do however have to love/like what you are doing, with the long dry spell we have had been through recently and frosts over night it became increasingly difficult to do this. Mental health is something which is mentioned a lot in regards to gardening and the ability to get out has been of a great help to me and our lass. There is however another side you have to fight with and that fight is mostly with yourself. You invest a lot of thought and emotion into what you grow, to see it wither, not germinate, bolt or basically not do what it should, can be a source of immense frustration which may lead depending on how you are yourself to a depressive thought process.

"These are easy to grow" is something you will hear or read depending on how you take in your gardening information, those words echo in the back of your mind as you look upon a bedraggled array of seedlings or a eight by four seed tray and only three seem to have germinated and you are sure after six weeks something should have come out of the other pods. It can be frustrating with all the positive vibes of getting yourself out being drowned by the negativity of what have I done wrong? You see weeds seemingly making their way through concrete but your easy to grow seeds can't make it out of the module because it is too wet, to dry, to warm, to cold, not enough light, too much light. So if it is not the seed it must be the grower, what is wrong with me? Especially if they are so easy to grow as everyone else states.

This is where you grow yourself, you learn to say "Well, we are doing our best, what will be will be" we have also said "This is our first full year on the plot so lets see what happens" both statements you repeat as a mantra but are difficult to square up with the withering or non existent seedlings you are looking over. But the past few days have improved emotionally with the improvement in the weather. Heat is slowly coming back into the days and we ain't going to shout this too loudly but we think this is the last of the frosts until winter comes around again.

A lot of what we have been doing over the past few weeks is triaging the allotment but we have as you will see from the photographs below moved forward in certain areas, but the biggest move forward is within ourselves.

The wire mesh was a free find from another allotment, bottle tops to help the birds not crash into it, now here is hoping the sweetpeas make their way upwards

The wild flowers/life area, our lass has put a seed bomb over the uncovered ground and support for the clematis all we need now is flowers.

Early purple sprouting broccoli has been a bowl of contention for our lass, when do you put it out? But the seedlings have several leaves, so our lass has put it out now, this is a slow burner and if the weather, pests or nature in general doesn't have for it, we could have some broccoli next spring.

Plenty of sunshine, plenty to report, still cold at night.

Recently there has been a lot of sunshine, it has been strong enough to bring on the sun tans but not enough to push the thermometer outside the green house above 16 degrees. Inside the greenhouse it has been able to reach 45 degrees and thanks to very good advice from our lass we have some greenhouse shading material arriving next week but it has all been contrasts as in the evening we have been greeted by frosts and minus 3 degrees. Makes for a very confusing balancing act to keep all the plants happy.

Can not sustain such high numbers.

Far too hot in the greenhouses to sustain the lettuce

Our lass is always good at finding a bargain and upcycling things around us. On a lone trip to the allotment our lass completed a project of surrounding an inconvenient tree stump with milk bottle plant pots, should look even better when the flowers grow from them.

Just like winter currently bare will look even better in summer when in flower.

Another great find from our lass on FaceAche, you can't beat free

Two iron gates, quite some weight to them, will be very useful

A little early but the runner beans have been sown

Will any of the leeks make their way out of the holes?

Slugs like rhubarb as much as we do, but this is the rhubarbs first year so needs as much chance as possible to get a foothold. So our lass has a cunning plan to help it survive, so far so good.

As we have been leaving the allotment we have been finding some great allotment giveaways, firstly a couple of tubs, mostly likely not wanted due to the half an hour plus it took us both to part them, but once done we now have one for beans and one for carrots. So we didn't fill it all with compost, we filled to the top with straw and horse muck from the pile at the bottom of the hill and watered down, then just used one bag of compost instead of five. French beans sown and as the straw/manure rots down hopefully a source of nourishment as well.

Trying to fill every bit of space.

Another find as we were leaving moment was the logs and off cuts you will see below, this is the second time a pile had been left, before we were naive enough to think they would be still there the next day, obviously they were not. This time even though it was a trek back up the hill for the barrow, back down the hill, and back up the hill with a full barrow, we now have stepping stones and seats for the grandkids.

Nice little haul

and finally 

As we were leaving the other day, to look back and see the clear blue sky and to take in all the feeling of potential

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 62 - Dealing with allotment inertia.

 This seems to be a difficult feeling to describe and all the words available seem to be negative which is the one thing I do not want to be. This is why inertia seemed to be the closest word to encapsulate the situation as I see it at the moment.

"inertia" definition in the field of physics

"A property of matter by which it continues in its existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless that state is changed by an external force."

We have seen great change in our allotment since taking over in August and it seemed with each visit this could be viewed, photographed and posted here, but over the past month or so, the changes have been far less noticeable and as with the definition of the word "inertia" above we await the external force of nature to change this state.

Our lass however is never inert and as you can see from the photographs below there is a greenhouse full of seedlings ready to make a difference to the allotment.

In my small part and having our lass as inspiration and the allotment as purpose I continue to increase my handy skills. We now have three more raised beds which can be moved around in the years to come, these will help for defined areas for our lasses flowers.

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 60 - Do two warm days make it springtime?

We have now experienced two warm days in a row, it must be spring? mustn't it? Everything is taking hold and starting to grow, especially the weeds. All seeds and young seedlings always seem moments away from an intensive care ward for plants. The few exceptions presently is one lot of potatoes in a bucket and our lasses lettuces which haven't been potted on yet. The leeks and other seedlings are doing well, but we still have to take care, although our lass takes a lot more care than I do, the leeks were going to leave the warm greenhouse and be put outside, where our lass said they should really go in the cold frame. You will see from the pictures below that our lasses patience won out which of course was the sensible action to be taken.

Yesterday also saw our lass fall into the trap of starting one thing and the job turn into another, looking to find a place to plant a plant in the wildlife area meant digging out the grass and nettles that had returned, this then turned into a bigger area, until a third of the area is now dug over. Our lass does like digging though, our lasses next plan is to put down more wildlife seeds and hopefully they will outperform the grass and the weeds.

I did sedentary jobs yesterday being full of what we believe is hayfever/tree pollen, so I put an arch together and started an obelisk but needed tools to finish. But much like starting a job and it developing into something bigger, or going to do one job and doing another, the arch was being built to go over a climbing rose and is now instead positioned over the front gate, if proof was ever needed you don't really have plans just thoughts.

the plant to the right of the end log by the pond is what started of the digging

Leeks moving on into the cold frame

Our lass will be getting a clematis to climb up the arch hopefully

Peas in a bucket in our greenhouse starting to make their way up the canes

Wish them luck but three peas have been put out by the pea sticks, the back two rows have pea seed in the ground, no disturbance but no signs of seedlings either.

Day 59 - Gone in a badgers twinkle

 Day 59, is actually 6 days after our last full day of day 58. We do go up in between watering and tinkering but we only write about the full days we spend down our allotment.

This day, was dahlia day, our lass potted up all the Dahlias which had been sourced. Now, if confirmation was needed that I mishear our lass it came when our lass talked about the names given to the Dahlias. I would have staked good money that there was Dahlia called "Beavers twinkle" it turns out that it was a Badgers twinkle, maybe it is the forever small boy which occupies a blokes mind, but I sniggered.

This was also the first exposure for the garden hose, it had been put away for the winter to save the frosts freezing the pipes also you don't get to do much more watering than a watering can during the cooler month, but it is another sign that spring has sprung.

We also sorted out the wooden fencing which we had been given, you will see from the before and after photographs below, we have managed to bring some definition to the area, even though there was fencing at the back of the wildlife garden part, it left us feeling exposed this is hopefully remedied now.

One thing we are fighting with now, is our own minds, the allotment still looks bare, what is in the greenhouse seems to always be on the edge of existence. One wrong look and it will whither whilst weeds are popping up all over the place, no matter how much you chop and hoe. Having an allotment is very much a religious experience you have to have faith.

Just a few of our lasses Dahlias which have been potted up.

Wood, lots of wood.

Before

After

After, and looking just right for a break time.

looking good in our lasses greenhouse

Busy both sides of our lasses greenhouse

Day 58 - Windy Allotment, little wind in our sails.

Of all the weather conditions we face up at the allotment, I think wind is one of the most demoralising. Rain can nourish the ground, cold can break up the soil and even a dull dank day means you just potter and await the sun. But wind always leaves you in a double job mode, it isn't just doing the work you want to do, but then you have to tie everything down you wish to use which helps with the activity. Forget, and you can be chasing down the allotment for your hat or worse still picking up a broken pot or lifting a pallet off a bed which fell over for that split second you thought "Oh it will be safe.......".

Sweetcorn needs the wind for pollination, or at least a breeze, you also need it for your metaphorical sails. But when it goes calm in your world this also can be disheartening, (take lots of photographs so you can cheer yourself up with the difference you have made) this also happened today whilst doing the day to day jobs of getting the allotment ready, our lass can see all her seedlings trying to grow, but viewing them day on day you see very little difference, the only difference really shows when one of them takes a dive. The same happens in my greenhouse, growth seems gradual, declines seems instant. (Weeds seem spontaneous) The leeks which were my second attempt have been growing slowly and have finally had to be moved to a shelf below as their tops were touching the green house roof (they were on the top shelf) So where visible growth was not seen it must have happened and did hearten me a little. This is where televisual gardeners don't help, the "here is one I made earlier" or "I had sown these three months ago, just look at them now" gives the impression of instant success, they rarely mention failures and rarely do week by week reports on growing vegetables or flowers, at most you have three or four stages. So as all we have to view is the slowly growing seedlings, if they have decided to germinate, you are holding onto a lot of hope that all will end fruitfully.

A pleasant surprise for our lass, someone on the allotment didn't need it so we are now it's proud owners.

Waiting for them to be as thick as pencils but they are getting there.

Our lasses busy green house

Courgette and pumpkin, mark2

Finally sun and no wind, just as we finished for the day.

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.