Christmas dinner went in today!

Planted:


Pumpkins (weeks too late so won't be ready for Halloween but may be able to make pumpkin pie by Thanks Giving [last Thursday in November])

Potatoes (Varieties:Kestrel; Beauty of Butte; Carlingford)

Gooseberry Bush (Variety: Blush)


Found seed potatoes advertised as 'Christmas cropping' so expecting to have have enough for Christmas dinner. Followed instructions in the book: 'The Vegetable Garden displayed' (what a lovely name). Dug a trench 9" deep, filled base with rotted manure, covered this with soil and placed the little babies on top, 12"inches apart; covered the lot with soil and left to cook for4months.

Allotment lingo: Volunteers

Volunteers are growing on our plot: these are spuds that sprout even though you haven't planted them. It's not a clandestine planter but left overs from a previous crop. Here's the hot debate: some say they should be removed and destroyed like clinical waste: to prevent potato blight infecting the site; others say they are a freebie and to leave them for this season. I am not sure but at least I know potatoes grow easily on the site.


Cropped:

3 courgettes
A million radish (daily radish consumption has escalated)
3 lettuce

We have grown more slugs than veg so far and are not in profit re: harvest as opposed to outlay.But it has been fun and some plots are truly bountiful and a credit to the holders who have only had their sites for 2-3 months and currently bound home all grins and their arms dragging on the ground by the weight of heavy bags of produce. Still enthusiasm is infectious!

Pictures next time.

Week four: The Shed has arrived!

Tension is mounting on the site - it is only four weeks until the village show and the original bunch of allotment holders vowed to put produce in the competition.

At last, a Crop!

Our radish(radishes?) are the best I have ever eaten; what a surprise. We have a bumper crop and have harvested at least twenty and even given some away. The variety is sparkler: a purplish red colour to about halfway down; very pretty.

One small courgette is hanging on for dear life on one of the seven courgette plants; will it survive: the insects, rabbits, and gales?

Planted:

Blueberry bush x 2 from Aldi (leaves have gone brownish, possibly due to wind)

Tabberry cane x1 from Aldi

Spring onions

Carrots (treated for carrot fly etc; bright blue coating). Given by neighbour and not sure these are truly organic

Alpine Strawberry x2 (variety=Alexandra)

And to make the plot look nice and encourage bees, a small hedge of:

Lavender x3 (variety=Munstead)

Lavender x5 (variety=Augutifolia Hidcote)

News

'It's my first ever Wendy House,' said an allotment holder as she skipped into her new shed. We were all the same; irascible at the sight of an 8ft by 6ft wooden box. Styles were compared, colours discussed, padlocks fitted. We opted for a Hipex, side door and window. Our teenage daughters (for a fee) painted it chestnut brown; they did a wonderful job and much praised by fellow holders. Looking forward to having my tea making facilities down at the plot soon.

We had been coveting a magical implement belonging to another holder: a hoe of sorts, with little toothed wheels, called a soil miller by Wolf, a German company. Great for weeding and leaves the soil deliciously crumbly. Thoroughly recommend it.

Lots of swallows swooping and darting over the site which I am told means rain; since the hose pipe ban we have had rain daily.

Allotment Society meeting: much concern re: non-regulation sheds and the possibility of it becoming a shanty town.

Steeping manure into liquid fertiliser as I type.

Week Three: Manure Madness

Much encouraged - stuff actually growing!

Planted
Outside:
Cabbage plants

Inside mini plastic green house:
Rhubarb seeds from Italy (rubarbaro)
Pumpkin seeds by daughter
Rosemary cuttings

Peas and dwarf bean spouting well. Strawberries have given up fruiting, now throwing out runners. Pumpkins sprouted - should be ready for christmas.

The poop hunt:
After much pestering of horsey types I secured a supply of manure. I arrived at the horse owners place expecting the manure to be bagged or at least in a pile - how naive. We spent the afternoon searching the fields for the nuggets of brown gold - a treasure hunt of a different kind. We had a good laugh and enjoyed the thrill of the hunt for; teenage daughter was very embarrassed and stayed in the car. Now have bags of it.

I had read up about organic fertilisers and so made a 'tea' by steeping some manure in a bucket of water. I watered the plants with the home brew fertiliser to good effect. I buried small plant pots beside each plant as advised by friend and now the courgettes have leaves.

News

It is rumoured that the rabbits are so clever that they are sitting on the nets to squash them down then nibbling at the plants that stick through.

P.S. The shed are coming!

Week 2

The mood on the new allotment site is still one of giggly excitment and everyone is friendly and supportive.

Planted this week:

4 Strawberry plants

Peas-Hurst Green shaft

Dwarf Beans -Ferrari

Spinach

Broccoli -Purple sprouting and calabrase

Radish-Sparkler

Activities: Netted all veg against rabbits and pigeons They have eaten all the replanted (wrong distance apart) sprouts and kale - may have rescued kale.


Weeds growing well, lots of hoeing.


Went to Allotment Society meeting - a bit boring, though I now know about: the shed and water supply situation; rabbit plague; permaculture site - still not sure what that is, etc.

Peas and beans shooting - hurray!

Weather - Rain and sun, but mainly rain.

Harvested: I strawberry



Quote of the week: 'Hey up, see whats landed!'

Said when by fellow lotti when someone else moved their own shed on to an allotment. Sheds are supposed to be of an agreed type and all the same - to save the place from looking like a shanty town; but the official sheds have not arrived yet and understandably someone has made an executive decision and planted their own shed.

News

• Have a partner on the allotment - Hubby - great digger.
• After a long search and much pestering I have been offered a continuous supply of manure, I have won the lottery!

Week One

One week ago when I was allocated one of the brand new allotments in our village, I was excited and more than a little apprehensive. Do I have enough knowledge ?- definitely not, but so far the other allotment holders (alloti) have helped out -not in a patronising way as experts can be, but gently offering their years of experience. So this morning I went down and replanted the kale and sprouts further apart, as advised.

It is late in the season now, the sensible thing would be to turn the ground over and wait until autumn to plant; spending time planning would reap success - but that is not my style, I am impatient by nature. So armed with a few plants generously given to me by neighbouring alloti and the the few dried up stragglers left at the garden centre, I have planted: lettuce; cabbage;kale;sweet corn; strawberries; sprouts;asparagus;leeks;peas; and dwarf beans.

The allotments are on the Poor Marsh, an area of land which belongs to the parish council for use by the residents of the village. Previously it was divided into about ten large allotments, requiring tractors etc, and only a few were in use.Now, it is to be made into 40 regular allotments (20 so far). There were, understandably objections to the change, from the original holders, who have been offered a new smaller one and from the people whose homes back on to the site, who feared it would look like a shanty town. Up to now it all looks respectable and there is a real sense of community on the site and mixing of generations: the age range of those involved is from 8 to 80.All three of my teenage children have done some digging on the site(though I did have to pay one minimum wage and the other two don't know!).

Question asked by teenager on the allotment today: 'Do you use this to kill vampires when they mess around on the allotment?'
He was refering to a dibber - 'Twilight' generation.

Rabbits have been eating my kale - off to buy some netting.