Introducing.......Plot 51b

As promised a couple of weeks ago, an update on where I am with the 'new' half plot. You can see what it looked like when TK and me took it on a couple of years ago here. I guess I really started working on it last summer. I had previously tackled an area at the top end of the plot with the vague notion of having a polytunnel. One of the storms put paid to that notion when I saw another one on the site flattened for the second time....our allotment site is on the edge of town with farmland bordering on two sides so it's very open and the wind really races through when it blows!

As the plot was in quite a poor state, the worst weed to deal with has been couch grass and really the best way of dealing with this is to literally remove every root; and when every spadeful you dig up is just a mass of couch grass root system, you know it's going to take a while to make sense of a plot. Before long though I'd dug one bed which equated to about a quarter of the plot. I decided this would be a bed for currant bushes as I loved a blackcurrant cordial I'd made from the berries from my father's garden.

Blackcurrant bed

One bush was inherited on the plot but needed relocating for a second time; this time I made sure I cleared the rootball completely, When we had moved it the first time, in our innocence we just dug it up and replanted it with the result that the poor bush was being smothered by grasses.

A purchase of a proper bush, Ben Nevis, from the now defunct Edible Garden Show, a bargain buy of another variety called Ben Ojebyn and cuttings which had rooted filled the bed nicely. I just need to create some kind of fruit cage to protect them now!

Next job was to try and limit the out of control raspberries to one section, so I've made a bed in the middle of the plot so that I can contain them more. There does seem to be a rogue plant in the bed which I think is a thornless blackberry. It has flower buds forming for the first time this year so hopefully we'll know more soon!

The raspberry bed with the possible thornless blackberry in the foreground

There will be a flower bed but this area is pretty much overgrown still. I did cover it with cardboard to keep the weeds down, but many of them have grown through it as it breaks down.....

At the top of the plot is the lovely shed we inherited from another plotholder. The area next to it is where a couple of fruit trees will go together with the thornless blackberry. The plan is to train it as a cordon along wires between two fence posts. I'm in the process of creating this area at the moment. I'm also planning on erecting that short length of chestnut paling between two of the posts to act as a wind break of sorts. One of the fruit trees is a small pear tree called Little Sweetie from Blackmoor Nursery. It won't ever get bigger than 5ft odd and as it blossoms so much earlier, I figured the more protection I can give it on our open site the better. The other fruit tree is a Victoria Plum, also from Blackmoor. Thank you Santa!

So still very much a work in progress (aren't all allotments?!) but it's starting to take shape.

Plot 51b - April 2017

Famous last words.....a rebirth

So.....having said three years ago that I was going to make my life easier and merge this blog with my main one i.e. so I only had one blog to maintain and hopefully post more often to....I've decided to do a U-turn and restart this blog.

Quite a lot has changed on the allotment since the last post here, although there haven't been many blog updates on my main blog either, so no change there!

I guess the main change is that now puberty has kicked in and schoolwork become heavier as his GCSEs get closer, there is no 'TK and' anymore, just 'me' on the plot now. He has come down occasionally to help harvest potatoes and he did come to help demolish an old shed on the plot.

Goodbye old shed....

Sadly a case of preferring destruction to construction and creation!

The other big change is the other half of our plot became available. I ummed and ahhed briefly about whether to take it on as well as our existing half plot. On the plus side, it had a shed albeit a rather decrepit one, and it would give us (me) more room to grow fruit. Our existing half plot was pretty much full to bursting each year so a bit more ground would come in handy.

On the minus side, the plot hadn't really been worked much in the time we'd been there and it was pretty overgrown with out of control raspberries in the middle of it. Basically it was going to take a lot of effort to bring it under control.

I decided it was worth the extra work and effort it would take. Didn't want to kick myself and find someone else take it on and usually you can kiss goodbye to getting another plot next to you for many years. In fact, since our allotment association took on the management of the site, plots have been let on a regular basis and we are due to have a waiting list again very soon.

Two years later, the new half plot is vaguely tamed but with still a lot of work to be done. And yes I know that two years with not a lot accomplished is terrible progress but in my defence for the first year TK was 'working' the plot for his DofE skill and I wasn't allowed to do much on it until he had finished.

I think the progress on the new half plot can form the basis of the next post!

A New Year and All That..........

It dawned on me this morning that seeing as a new growing season will be upon us before we know it, we've kind of had it easy working on the allotment so far. These first six months have just been about the digging. Ok we managed a small harvest this year, hell we managed to survive on our own grown potatoes for four of those six months! But there hasn't really been any pressure to grow anything.

 

But with the new year just around the corner, we now need to plan ahead and make sure we plant things at the right time.

 

It starts getting serious from now on.....well not serious but it will be important to do things  at the right time. We sowed some spring cabbage seeds a couple of months too late in the hope of growing them over the winter, but at the moment they are still tiny seedlings. We'll plant them out on the plot but I have a feeling they won't amount to much. Time will tell I guess.

 

Father Christmas very kindly brought us a new spade and a composter. Thought he would have given us some seeds too but glad that he didn't as I really wanted to pick the varieties ourselves.

Seed potatoes will be available soon. Think we will have a couple of rows of main crop next year and just one of earlies.

 

So next plan of action will be to plant the spring cabbages out, erect the composter and prepare the bed for the potatoes.

It's been difficult finding the time to fit the allotment in the last week or so and the weather has been quite stormy too, but here's hoping we can get back into a routine in  the new year.

 

Can't wait!

Day 1

The decision was made. TK was keen to make a start. So we dashed out after the rain had stopped, garden forks in hand.......plus an umbrella....and headed for the allotment.

 

TK turned over the first sod of earth

 

We managed about 20 minutes of digging

 

before the heavens opened again..........glad we took the umbrella!

 

The weather today is much the same; heavy rain on and off so I doubt we will make it over this afternoon. Fingers crossed for drier weather over the weekend. Half term next week too so maybe just maybe we might get an area cleared..........!

 

Trying to Make a Start

Having been given the go-ahead by the council today that we could make a start on the allotment, we were eager to do so.

However, Mother Nature seems to think otherwise as the sky is rather dark out there and it's pissing it down with rain so we may have to wait until tomorrow...........garden forks are poised and ready!

(correction its hailing!)

 

The allotment association is supposed to be treating and rotavating the plot but I don't think this has happened yet but on the plus side the ground won't be too hard!

 

We are hoping to go down to the Shed on Sunday as they might have some seed potatoes left still but before then we will need to pick up rubble sacks, a water butt and probably a wheelbarrow.
I see a few trips to the tip in our future.........

Area 51 - aka The Jungle

So this is it - our new allotment. As with all allotments that have fallen into disuse, it is slightly overgrown.

 

Ok it's quite a bit overgrown.

 

The photo shows the full length of the plot. It goes back as far as a small blue water butt and that unstable looking metal frame.

 

There are some possible good bits though........

Like these fruit canes and currant bush

 

 

Shame we don't like raspberries.......

 

Plus there is some established rhubarb

 

 

Hmmmm.........

 

And some onions

 

 

But mostly it is like this

 

 

So its going to take a bit of work even before we can plant anything. The allotment association will treat and rotavate it before we officially make a start next week which will help.

 

So this blog will be a record of our progress.

 

Wish us luck.........I think we are going to need it!

 

In the Beginning......

In the beginning.............there were weeds. A lot of them.
And matting.
And all other kinds of rubbish............