My Allotment Journal - July 18th Plot

April's Allotment Garden Update

Hello stranger. It feels like a long time since I posted an update. Apart from the one I thought I'd posted weeks ago and had to post this evening. What am I like? Don't answer that. 

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So here's what I've been up to on the new garden over the last month.

 So I got the old rotavator on the job. Tilled all that manure into the soil and levelled it off ready for the paving slabs. 

Had a little friend watching me with the tiller. Helped himself to a few worms.  

Path in front of the greenhouse. Sorted :o) 

Paths two & three no problem :oP

My back was so pleased when I'd finished!

The plot as the sun goes down. No need for raised beds but I may add gravel boards at some point.

Shallots and onions from seed. Brassicas top right and top middle.

Potted on my onions that I've grown from seed. These are going in the ground in about a weeks time.

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I've made a new few videos for my youtube channel this month. I only started the channel so I could upload a few end of season slideshows. But I started to get a few subscribers so I thought I'd do a few more. Hope you like them :o)     

April 2013 Allotment Garden Update 

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Potato planting 18-04-2013

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Parsnip Seed Tape 21st of April 2013 

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Thanks for taking the time to look/watch and read.

Till the next one. 

Chris

Cya 

:o)

Raised Bed Plot Update

Oops I thought I'd posted this update weeks ago!

I need to bring some cow muck up for this rhubarb.

 Time to get the soil ready for planting. Being a fulltime Dad I use a rotavator

to speed this job up. 

My son's on half term break so he's helping his old dad on the allotment. His job is leveling the soil. And he's not doing a bad job!

It wasn't long before I got the.... 

When are we going home question! 

It was cold and my plot is quite exposed bless 

him.

Dave putting his early potatoes in .
 Before I went home I ran my rotavator round his raised beds. He grows some fantastic veg and regularly helps me.

Just waiting for some sunshine now.

Thank You For Looking! ;oD

Has spring sprung? Err No.

So the clocks have gone forward and we're now on British Summertime. Can someone tell the weather that because I've tried and it ain't listening to me. Although, the people in the know say we're stuck with this cold weather for another fortnight.  I'm taking their forecast with a pinch of salt cos to me it's just a good guess. 

Anyway, here's a bit of what I've been doing on my allotments. 

Greenhouse #2 uncovered and dug over ready for the season ahead.

I then re-covered and put all my stuff back in there until I'm ready.

The two rows of garlic that I planted last October are looking ok. 

The three rows of Japanese onions which I planted at the same time
 as the garlic are not doing as well though.

The beds are looking tired now on this plot, but seeing as I'm leaving at the end of the season I'll just patch them up as I go. I've given the bottom half of the plot up so I'm expecting to see someone working it soon. 

The next day we woke to this.

The snow is not helping as I need to get some paths down asap.

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Did a couple of videos in the snow, hope you like them.

Even more snow! March 23rd  

 The link above opens a video in another window as I couldn't get it on this page, like the others.  

In the video there's a look at what's growing in the greenhouse. 

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Hopefully by the end of this month at least I'll have my potatoes and onions in the ground.

Thanks for looking in :o)

March New Plot Update

As I sat down to type, it's starting to snow again! We had a light dusting overnight and according to my nice new thermometer (which my lovely wife bought me) it got down to - 3.9 degrees C overnight in the allotment greenhouse. I've got seedling in the greenhouse now as I was running out of space on the windowsills.  So I've put up a blow-a-way inside the GH, same as I did last year (see below - last year). I've moved my onion and shallot seedlings down there, along with the cabbage and calabrese seedlings.

On the greenhouse bench, I've got my onion sets as well as the elephant garlic I started off indoors. This year I'm trying the old candle in a plant pot trick to stop the temp from getting too low. It worked well the first night, as it fell to below 0 degrees C Saturday night, but the temp in the greenhouse only went down to 1.6 degrees C. Last night though, it was windy too. And the greenhouse door was ajar about a inch and the temp got down to -3.9c, so I've got to do something about that this afternoon. More than likely before I post this so, this could be a late edit.

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The farmer who I get my manure from, has finally been able to get onto the field where the rotted manure was kept, so I've had a load delivered.

It came on a 3 ton trailer so there must be almost 3 ton. I'm told its around 48 wheelbarrows full. I've covered the plot with half of it and the rest has filled my pallet compost bin. (which you'll see it the photos and videos).

 It took me almost the full day to move. 

Just need some dry weather now so I can get on with the rotavator. Then I can get on with path laying to mark my beds out.

This mornings snowfall has set me back a little though. But I'm sure I'll catch up.

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Finally got a screen door made up for the greenhouse. Only been going to make one for two years. One of the committee chaps must have got fed up with hearing me go on about making one because he made me the frame.

And another chap gave me the fly screen material to cover the frame. I'm pleased how its turned out. I can now leave the door open in the summer with out cats and other animals getting in.  

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A view of the allotment from the highest point.

Quick look round the new plot now the snow's gone 23-02-13

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Didn't get round to posting this what I meant to but I did nip back to the plot and fix the greenhouse door by moving the lock over a little. (see pic)

Cold night last night, got down to -3.5c in the greenhouse even with the candle going. Its a good job got everything's covered in fleece in the greenhouse.

Nice this morning though (12/03/12) Lots of sunshine.

Thanks for reading.

:oD

February Allotment Update

Well it's been a couple of weeks since my last update so I thought I'd post what I've been doing gardening wise since then. 

I've still been going to the allotments even when its been snowing (hardcore). I like to see where the fox has been, clear the snow off the greenhouse and just take a walk round while it's quiet. Anyway, I took some video footage of the plot covered in snow...

I've finally lost patience with the old suitcase type of gas burner I had in the shed. The gas pressure dropped too much after only a couple of uses of the cartridge so I dug my other camping stove out and I'm now using that on the lottie for teas and coffees and sometimes cooking my dinner on busy days down there.

Every year I say I going to grow some elephant garlic and for one reason or another I haven't gotten round to it. But this year I have managed to get some elephant garlic cloves. I ordered them from wilkos online and had them delivered at our local shop so there wasn't any P&P.

So yesterday, I potted the six elephant garlic cloves up in the greenhouse, as well as some sturon onion sets I got from a pound shop and also some silver moon onion sets, I'd pick up in town the same day. I've covered them all with garden fleece along with leeks I set going a few weeks ago.

The onions I started from seed at the same time as the leeks, are coming along nice and steady. I've took them off the heat now as I want to get cracking with some more seed sowing and I need the propagator space.  

Last Saturday was potato day. So even though there was over a foot of snow on the ground I walked into our local town to pick my seed potato order up (Charlotte  Kestrel and Saxon.) Saxon is a new one for me this year so we'll see how we go with them. I usually do alright with the others unless we get flooded out like last spring. The onion sets in the small bags are Jet Set (new for me) and good old Sturon.

My seeds from VegetableSeeds.net have finally arrived. I ordered them the same day as my other seeds but they took weeks and weeks and weeks to come. I emailed them and got a snotty email back but two days later the seeds arrived. Needless to say that's the last seed order they get from me.  

We were in B&Q the other day to get some compost for home and we spotted the Pest & Weed Expert on offer for £3:49. Its a book and I've been wanting it for a while, so couldn't miss it at that price. But the funny thing was I'd just took a photo of the book and was tweeting that I'd found this bargain, when I received a tweet from @VGD_UK  saying I'd won a copy of  Dr Hessayon's Vegetable & Herb Expert, and it will be on its way to me shortly. I sent them my addy so hopefully I should be getting that great book soon. 

Thanks as always for looking in :)

Winter has arrived!

So glad I got the plot dug over before the snow fell. We haven't had that much but it was followed by hard frosts and now the allotment looks pretty wintry.

Cold Frame came with the plot. Just need to cut some glass for the lids.

 I've only been there a couple of times since the snow fell to check things over and to install a stove with a gas bottle in the shed. I did have one of the suitcase type camping stoves but I found that when the cartridge was half used the pressure fell too much and took an age to boil the kettle.

The snow, frost and ice will help to break down the clods of soil and I can level the plot and add my paths in the spring.

I've started pricking out the onion seedlings, most seeds took 4 days to germinate and this photo was taken after 10 days, when I started to prick them out into their own little plots. No movement in the leek seeding box yet but they're in the unheated greenhouse on the allotment.

Thanks for looking in :)