Allotment #146 continued

As planned today was a day of digging as Chris, Sharon and I started to prepare our allotment plot for planting season.

Here's how I left the plot last week:

Shocking isn't it! The worst thing is that, weed growth wise, this is an improvement!

Thankfully Casey the dog was onsite to lend a paw with the digging. Here he is with his bounty of weeds.

Chris, Sharon and I got stuck in with some digging too.

Here's Sharon

Here's Chris

As a result of today's hard work section 1 is completely dug over and ready for the manure to go on. Section 2 is dug over and weed free, except for 1 patch of 2009 spinach which will be cleared another day. In section 2 Chris planted some onion sets (red and white*).

Sections 3 & 4 will be revisited soon.

Here's Chris's onion patch, the long strip on the right.

All in all today was a productive today setting on the path to allotment victory.

The dug over section in this picture is section 1 before section 2 got dug over and the onions went in.

Won't make it to the allotment until Feb 6th so lets hope the snow stays away until we cover up the patch!

Chris and Sharon bought the onion sets in Mr Middleton's store on Mary Street but you can also buy from their online shop. (For €4 you get apx 100)

Allotment#146 in 2010 - The Plan

Just 7 days ago my allotment, an indeed most of the country was covered in snow.  Now that it's gone we are left with mud, flood and (thankfully) brighter days.

10/01/2010

17/01/2010 (Before I tidied up!)

I am determined to get the allotment into better shape ready for when the real good weather comes.  As I'm convinced that there is more snow and most definitely more rain to come I and my allotment friends, Sharon and Chris, will be working hard to get the weeds out, manure in and ground covered.  Here's the plan:

As you can see the plan for 2010 has ambitions of growing a wide variety of vegetables including pak choi and pumpkin; neither of which I've grown before.  Sharon and Chris hope to grow rhubarb too, although Sharon is a little dismayed that she'll have to wait until it's 2nd year before reaping her rewards.

Before we can start sowing seeds we have to do the ground work, literally!  Today I started by clearing away any rubbish, spreading manure on the designated pumpkin patch, which I started preparing in November.  I have started to dig in manure around the front left quarter of the plot, which will be lettuce and pak choi according to the plan.  Once it was dug in I covered the ground and will continue in this fashion until the whole thing is covered.  The idea is that it will A - keep down the weeds and B - keep the soil warmer.  Fingers crossed.

There is a lot more digging and weeding to be done so Chris has inlisted his brother to help us next Sunday and Sharon will be baking biscuits for us to munch as we work hard!  Sharon is designated as 'Creative Director' and will be making the allotment 'aesthetically pleasing' whilst Chris and I get on with the hard graft! We have a plan to win 'Best Allotment' this year - it's just for fun and run by the allotment managers but we're as competitive as Olympic gymnasts* and will be doing what we can to win.

I'll let you know how we get on next week.

*but not as flexible or able to do backflips.

As you can see in the photo (left)....winter has completely taken over at the allotment. In some ways this is an improvement as, pre-snow, we were awash with weeds. The snow certainly makes the plot

I had, naively, hoped that the snow would kill off the evil creeping buttercup and dock plants but it would seem that they are just waiting beneath the snow looking as lively as they ever did!

The plan is as soon as we get enough of a thaw I will start to cover the allotment with a layer of cardboard, newspaper and carpet (I should have done this pre-Christmas but as they say 'hindsight is 20:20'). The idea of covering the ground being that A: it will suffocate/weaken the weed colony and B:help the ground warm up a bit quicker...fingers crossed.

On a happier note my mini tunnel is still standing, a little battered by the snow but standing all the same. I had a peek inside and the ground is frozen solid as you'd expect and wouldn't you know there's a fresh generation of creeping buttercup looking very cosy indeed!

Well, it is most certainly weather for planning so I'm off to write up a wish list of what to grow this year.

Philosophy of a weeds

Today was my first visit to allotment #146 in over 2 months. I was expecting weeds but not the unrecognisable weed jungle that was waiting where my lovely allotment used to be. Had it not been for my trusty beanstalks waving desperately from the center of the plot I think I would have turned on my heel and run off home to hide.

I tentatively entered the plot the smell of lavender drew my attention to the two plants that I had put in months ago. I have never, until now that is, grown lavender successfully it always seems to give up on me no matter how hard I try. Maybe that was where I go wrong, maybe I try to hard. These two lavender plants were certainly proof that they are not high maintenance or indeed delicate plants, going forward I shall just leave them to it.

I waded further into the plot familiar stalks catching my eye off to the right, Leeks! I was surprised to see that the stalks were green not withered and brown with suffocation. I cleared the weeds from around them; they're small but healthy. I'll leave them to carry on for a while yet. I did vow to them (yes I talk to plants) that I would keep the weeds at bay from now on, after all they are the National Emblem of my home land.

Off to the left were the most enormous cauliflowers. It's quite a site seeing something like this growing in the plot. Sadly most of them had succumb to rot, possibly caused by recent weather conditions (and neglect). I took up all of them for the compost heap, saving the one good one to take home as my bounty and the leaves for Dorris and Daisy my pet bunnies.

Next to be checked were the beans, they looked so healthy and as they were growing up the cane frame I had put in for them they had not yet been drowned by weeds. The beans were mostly ready for harvesting and were absolutely massive. So far dinner is cauliflower and beans.

I spent 6 hours clearing weeds and eight trips to the compost heap with a wheel barrow full of dock leaves and creeping buttercup (do not be fooled by it's name this is an evil weed). All that and I've only managed to clear this much...

Before I left I spied the remains of potato plants in the debris of weeds which could mean one of two things. Either the spuds had got blight and dies a nasty death or they had done what they could and there were brand new spuds waiting to be unearthed. I was lucky, there were spuds, not many and not massive but spuds all the same. One last chore before I called it quits for the day and that was to tackle the weeds that stood tall where the tomato plants used to be. There were small yellow tomato flowers peeking out through the weeds - they were alive? Yes, there was one tomato plant strong, with fruit but sadly also with blight - it had to go. Good news though, there is still an aubergine plant that I had completely forgotten about - Happy days.

So, having come away with quite an unexpected bounty I have reached the following conclusion:

Sometimes we can't always give a garden the attention that is needed. Then when we realise that it has become neglected we sometimes choose to bury our heads in the sand and hope that it will right itself. Generally it won't. It's best to take the bull by the horns. Sure the garden will be overgrown but don't dwell on this; dig in, clear away the weeds and rubbish and take a look at what you have left. Then start again. You live and learn.

Allotment #146

I came across this allotment site a couple of weeks ago and after a little investigating decided to sign up. It's only a 10minute cycle from my house and is on the main bus route too, perfect.

Strolling around the sight I couldn't help feel a touch of 'Allotment envy' as I observed seasoned gardeners hoeing the ground like old pros. One chap was in the process of staining his brand new shed whilst others took well earned breaks to take a look at their perfectly aligned drills; most of

them had only been working on the plots a week or two! I'll have to work hard to keep up with these guys but I'm up for the challenge!

There's something quite intimidating about an empty allotment site. For a first time allotment owner for myself it was hard knowing where to start. As it turns out I needn't have worried as walking around my recently rotavated plot I noticed that I would have to start by moving out all the rocks and stones that seemed to be everywhere. Taking a look around my neighbouring allotments I could see that they too had this problem; one had started to move them to one corner, another had ignored them and planted anyway the other seemd to have cleared all his away, perhaps I had his too!

As I had planned to seperate my plot into managable sections I decided I would utilise the rocks and stones and use them as edging to mark the different sections and the main path. Not only does this get them out of the way but it also means I don't have to worry about having to buy an expensive edging of some type.

Having spent nearly two hours clearing rocks and stones and laying my mini-drystone wall I rushed to get some plants into the ground before I ran out of light. In roughly dug mini plots I put in young cauliflower (I bought these to give myself a headstart) and spring onions. The latter have been sitting around my garden at home in a seed tray for well too long. Then, on a recent trip to London I saw aome giant ones in a grocery store and figured I'd give mine a shot forat the big time too!

I plan to have elements of the allotment as just flower beds, cottage garden style. So at the entrance to the plot I have to round lavander plants and a small camomile for the soon to be created herb garden.

All in all a good first day at the allotment. Let's hope the local rabbits haven't fed themselves on my baby caulifllowers!